"Things That Make Us Feel Good": Ocean Alley on Love, Positivity, & 'Love Balloon'

Australia’s Ocean Alley open up about their fifth album ‘Love Balloon,’ a vibrant record drenched in positivity, collaboration, and the many forms of love – from the reckless thrill of youth to the peace of nature – all while reflecting on their journey as a six-piece band and the rush of playing festivals like Lollapalooza.

Stream: “Left of the Dealer” – Ocean Alley

Ocean Alley prefer to drench themselves in positivity – it’s what keeps them going.

As the group prepare to share their fifth studio album with the world, they aim to curate an uplifting environment. After all, optimism is contagious, just like Ocean Alley’s infectious authenticity.

Active since 2011, the six-piece have quite a few records under their belt, however Love Balloon (out September 19^th) feels different. Ocean Alley have continued to evolve as a collective since 2022’s Low Altitude Living, and their dedication to the craft is paying off. Encompassed by collaboration, creativity, and good vibes, Love Balloon may be their best album yet – or at least the one they are most proud of.

For the Australian-based band – comprised of Baden Donegal, Angus Goodwin, Lach Galbraith, Mitch Galbraith, Nic Blom and Tom O’Brien – what makes them smile are the things they love. It’s a quality reflected in their passionate, heartfelt, and earnest lyrics – whether it be a person, as pictured in the title track “Love Balloon,” or the beauty of the world around them, as described in “Tangerine.” This LP is all about cherishing what you have, making it a powerful reminder to remain upbeat in an often challenging world.

Nothing correlates better than new music and live shows – an idea that not only excites fans, but also electrifies Ocean Alley’s band members. While they’ve been on the road, Ocean Alley have been playing their three latest singles for audiences, including the buzzing crowd at Chicago’s Lollapalooza ‘25. At their aftershow, the band even gave fans a sneak peek into an unreleased track off the album titled “Drenched.”

Atwood Magazine recently sat down with Ocean Alley’s guitarists Angus Goodwin and Mitch Galbraith together with drummer Tom Galbraith to dive deeper into their current music and artistic mindset. Read our interview below as they open up about the high highs of making Love Balloon, their songwriting process, and what it’s like to perform at music festivals all around the world.

Ocean Alley’s Love Balloon is set to release September 19^th via Community Music.

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:: stream/purchase Love Balloon here ::

:: connect with Ocean Alley here ::

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A CONVERSATION WITH OCEAN ALLEY

Atwood Magazine: Your latest single, “Love Balloon” captures an out of this world type of love. Where did the idea of a love balloon originate? How does this analogy accurately represent the love described in the song?

Ocean Alley: The lyric “Love Balloon” is something Baden came up with. The hot air balloon imagery was something kind of cool, and it’s positive.

Have you ever been on a hot air balloon before?

Ocean Alley: No, we haven’t.

How do you think the thrill of a hot air balloon correlates to the thrill of love?

Ocean Alley: It’s about being uplifted – a positive kind of imagery. Floating in the sky, pretty peaceful, you can draw similarities to love there.

Considering “Love Balloon” is the title track off your upcoming LP, is the album centered around love?

Ocean Alley: There are certain songs on the album that are about love, but I think the general vibe was just to create an uplifting album which feels good. It kind of just felt good for us at the time doing it. That’s what we were feeling, I wouldn’t say it’s centered entirely around love, but it has touches.

“Tangerine,” the first single off the LP, is dedicated to nature, describing a place away from the worries of the world. Where do you find yourself escaping in the midst of chaos?

Ocean Alley: On the beach with my two dogs and my partner. We spend a lot of time near the beach, so I think that’s our happy place for most of us – whether it’s fishing, or surfing.

Since “Tangerine” is all about appreciating the outdoors, would you say this album isn’t just about romantic love? Why do you think it’s important to explore the different spectrums of love in your music?

Ocean Alley: It’s kind of just things that we love and make us happy regardless of what it is, whether it’s being outside, or nature, or people. I think that’s kind of what we tried to embrace, just the things that make us feel good and trying to write about them.

The second single from the album, “Left of the Dealer,” depicts youth and the recklessness that follows. What were the biggest risks you took back in the day? In your experience, do risks often lead to rewards?

Ocean Alley: Everyone did stupid things when they were younger or risky things that you might not do now that you’re older. There’s always that risk to reward thing and we sort of lived that with the band. When the band formed we kind of took a risk to go all in on that, and it’s paid off for us so far. “Left of the Dealer” was a really fun track to write and it’s really fun to play as well.

The artwork for “Tangerine” and “Left of the Dealer” include snippets that contribute to the album’s cover. Do you feel like these songs are pieces to the album’s puzzle? Was there a strategy behind this artwork placement?

Ocean Alley: Yeah, I do believe that there was some sort of strategy where it was a sort of puzzle. Our friend does the artworks, his name is Nick Curl. Originally, we wanted them all to kind of be in a similar realm to what the album art was going to be. We wanted to have a bit of fun with, you know, adding kind of like easter eggs, little cool surprises for people in the artwork. We did that before on our tour posters and we like that idea. We wanted to carry that onto the record, and make the artwork fun and interesting for people. It’s not really anything we did, it was the amazing artist that was working for us.

Ocean Alley "Left of the Dealer" single art © Nick Curl — Ocean Alley “Left of the Dealer” single art © Nick Curl

Ocean Alley "Tangerine" single art © Nick Curl — Ocean Alley “Tangerine” single art © Nick Curl

As a six-piece, what does the collaboration process look like when you create or perform music? How are each of you represented throughout the music you release?

Ocean Alley: I think we all bring a lot of different things to the table, like influences and whatever we’re into at the time. We sort of just stick ourselves in a room or an Airbnb and start writing. We bring ideas to the table, and then we jam on it for hours or sometimes not that long. It depends. Some things take longer than others, some things just come together.

So do you guys just sit down and say, “Let’s write a song today,” and then do it?

Ocean Alley: Yeah, pretty much. It’s pretty democratic, so we’ll just get in the room. We’re all pretty good mates so we tell each other when it sounds shit, and when it sounds good, and then just go from there and just try to make it sound cool.

Is there someone in the group that leads when it comes to songwriting?

Ocean Alley: I wouldn’t say so, really everyone sort of brings their own parts and their own ideas to the room. Sometimes, Baden will come with a mostly finished song with lyrics on the acoustic guitar. Or Nick will just come with a bass riff, and we just go from there. Each song sort of starts a little differently, but the process of writing and recording is pretty much the same.

Did you start as songwriters, or is that a skill that has grown over time?

Ocean Alley: I think anyone that plays their instrument feels some sort of creative urge. Even from a young age, you’re kind of making things up to a degree. I think it becomes more sophisticated when you’re in a band and you kind of slowly craft that and you get better at it over the years. It’s something you kind of learn on the fly and learn altogether. Especially when you’re working with the same six people, you kind of all together can learn and create that sound together.

Ocean Alley 'Love Balloon' © Kane Lehanneur — Ocean Alley ‘Love Balloon’ © Kane Lehanneur

Since surfing is such an integral part of your lives, what do you find yourselves doing when touring? Do you have any pre-show traditions or hobbies you’ve adopted while on the road?

Ocean Alley: We try and find a wave anywhere if there’s a wave near us, anywhere we are in the world, but it’s not always easy to do that. I don’t know, probably just look forward to getting back home and getting back to nature when we get back home. Golf, we’ve started playing some golf on our days off so we can get a walk in and some outside time. We don’t really have any pre-show rituals really. There’s no huddles, or hugs, or high fives, not into that.

You’re about to release your fifth studio album, Love Balloon. Does this album feel different than past releases? What have you learned about yourselves as you continue to create collectively?

Ocean Alley: It definitely feels different than our last releases, and we went out of our way to try and make it so this time around. We’re probably most proud of this upcoming record. We’re normally, you know, most keen to play our most recent music. Like we were saying before in that other question, you get better at songwriting every time you do it. I think this one definitely stands out, we’re really, really happy with it.

You’ve played plenty of festivals as a band, but this is your first time performing at Lollapalooza. After getting a glimpse of the crowd at last night’s aftershow, how are you feeling about your set today?

Ocean Alley: We’re definitely excited about playing this festival. We haven’t played many festivals in the States, and definitely none of this size. It’s exciting, it’s an iconic festival and we’re just stoked to be a part of it.

You guys played “Drenched” last night, it’s an unreleased song from the upcoming album. Why did you choose to play that song from the album and why is it special to you?

Ocean Alley: I think we all sort of fell in love with that song, as soon as it came together. That was one of those ones we were working on for hours and hours, and it wasn’t going anywhere. Then, eventually it sort of just fell together, and then I don’t know, we all sort of just fell in love with it. We get over playing old songs all the time, so it’s nice to put a new song that we haven’t played before. It keeps it exciting for us.

Do festivals feel different than the average show? What are you looking forward to about your Lollapalooza set today?

Ocean Alley: They definitely feel different, we’ve played a bunch of festivals back home in Australia. I think the festival vibe is pretty similar all over the world too. It’s just, you know, a massive collection of people out to enjoy the day and have a great time. The spectacle and the sort of vibe of a festival is way different to your own show. You get to meet heaps of other artists and hang out. It’s really cool looking out in the sea of people, if they show up to watch your set. It’s so beautiful here, the weather’s amazing. We’re looking forward to being on stage and staring out to all the people in the skyline of Chicago. It’s something that’s been on our bucket list for a while to play this festival, we’re stoked it’s happening.

Ocean Alley Are Touching Back Down in Your City

:: INTERVIEW ::

Do you guys think a regular concert is more personal than a festival set?

Ocean Alley: It can be, the sideshow last night was quite personal. It was a smaller venue than we’re normally playing right now. It can be, because you can see people, you can see everyone’s faces, they’re right there in front of you on the stage. I think it’s just really special to be a part of such a big lineup of people. It’s a completely different thing, and it’s really cool.

What are the names on the lineup that you’re really excited about?

Ocean Alley: Definitely going to try to see Korn tonight. We had our buddies from Australia, Old Mervs, playing earlier today. We didn’t get to watch them, but that was cool that they were on the lineup. Yeah, we’ll be watching Korn and Olivia Rodrigo tonight.

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