By Ethan Benedicto
Echoing the likeness of bands such as Kings of Leon, The War on Drugs and Catfish and the Bottlemen according to Triple J, Social on the Veranda is keen on bringing their sound back home.
Also known as SOTV, all band members are Berwick locals and they have some big things planned for 2024, with a new EP releasing in the first half of the year.
Conor Bermingham, lead singer, songwriter and guitarist said that one of their other main goals is to broaden their horizons.
“We want to play more support gigs and broaden the reach of the people who know and might listen to us.
“We’re really keen on setting up another headline show after some support gigs, but we want to find somewhere local to do it because we’ve only played one gig this side of the city,” Conor said.
Formed in 2017, the band went through some changes before settling to their current day line-up, with most members, according to Conor, meeting through mutual friends and university.
“I was reaching out to people to start something, to start a band and a mutual friend of mine knew Michael, who is now in the band but at the time wasn’t.
“I’d asked him if he wanted to be part of something, and then asked him if he wanted to play bass but he didn’t want to, but he knew Ben and Jesse from school,” Conor said.
The other members include Jesse Porter, the band’s drummer, Ben Rohy, the band’s guitarist and also songwriter, and bassist Michael Cowled who took over from Damon Brammall in 2023.
In 2018, roughly a year after the band came to life, they rubbed shoulders with some of the early 2000s best alternative rock bands after releasing their single Breathe.
Performing as the supporting band for We The Kings at Arrow on Swanston was where Conor recalled that they were being recognised.
Filling the air with the euphoric familiarity of early 2000s alt-rock, SOTV roused crowds with their anthemic yet hard-hitting melodies.
“It was definitely that gig when we felt that, you don’t tend to feel it when you’re rehearsing or writing songs.
“When we finished the gig there were people who knew our names and knew the music and that kind of caught us off guard,” Conor said.
At that point, the band hadn’t played many gigs, and after their performance with We The Kings was when it really clicked for them that their pieces had potential.
That wasn’t the end of it, however, with SOTV supporting metalcore band Make Them Suffer and British India in the same year.
At the end of the year, they were also selected to tour with British India’s east coast portion for their Nic the Poet tour, an experience which Conor recalled was exhilarating.
“2018 was a big year, we just turned 18 or 19 and were still a bit younger so there were a lot of first experiences playing at bigger venues,” he said.
While there was never any delay in immediately accepting supporting performances, the band itself retained a fluctuating process, where there would be times that no gigs were booked or no recordings were being done.
For Conor, this served as one of the reasons for having more gigs in the southeast, the other being that previous audiences often commented on the distance they had to travel for a live show.
“You know you see the occasional band gig or bigger bands that are coming through, but I think there’s a gap in the market where you could get more up-and-coming bands playing and get that infrastructure I suppose.
“I know a lot of bands that pull decent crowds, but they and we all have to play in the inner-city like in Fitzroy and stuff.
“So the main thing I tend to hear is ‘oh I’d love it if this wasn’t an hour away, if this was local it’d be great’,” Conor said.
Loud and local is Conor’s goal, while aware of the power of social media and boosting songs’ popularity, he’s still a firm believer in live performances with a real and present audience.
As for himself, Conor described being deep in a writing flow, stringing words together with hopes of recording again soon.
“When I first started playing music it was more like Guns ‘N’ Roses, Nirvana and Foo Fighters, that ’80s and ’90s rock.
“Then stuff on the radio when I was growing up, like The Kooks and Razorlight, those sort of indie rock bands was where I was in between,” he said.
While Conor acknowledged that their initial songwriting was based on UK rock bands such as Catfish and the Bottlemen, his current angle is writing without any influences.
“Whether they come out in the music or not, when I think too much and I want to write a song like this or that, I get really frustrated really quickly.
“You get a result of either nothing because you’re just like ‘it’ll never be as good as that’, or you get something that’s derived from it and it’s just another version of what already exists.
“Even though you could argue that everything’s been done, I kind of just think to myself, ‘what would I do naturally’, and then whatever comes out, if it’s familiar to something then that’s just what it is,” he said.
SOTV played their last gig on 9 December 2023, at the Worker’s Club in Fitzroy where they performed their latest single Oblivion.
Conor is deep in the music industry, having studied audio and sound production at Box Hill Institute, and in addition to the band plays solo acoustic gigs from time to time.
He is also a freelancer, working at different venues as a live sound engineer, and post-production for previous TV gigs and also works as a studio technician at Box Hill Institute.
As it stands, SOTV is set on making 2024 a big year, not just for them but for their listeners as well.
