When it comes to art, inspiration can appear from just about anywhere, and for new Dunedin band Soaked Oats it came from a roadside produce stall.
Lead singer Oscar Mein was selling cherries on the side of the road, when he started writing various songs about stone fruit.
Soaked oats, made up of four friends Oscar Mein, Henry Francis, Max Holmes and Conor Feehly, finished their first EP Stone Fruit Melodies expecting it would sit in a hard drive and never see the light of day.
Little did they know their tunes like Apricot Jam, Cherry brother, Avocado Aficionado and I’m a Peach, would be picked up and shared around student flats in Dunedin, and then around the world.
The band, having only formed in 2017, was all of a sudden, booking gigs in Australia and the US.
“We're still coming around to the fact that this is something we can do and make a livelihood out of,” Mein says.
The band essentially had to learn to be a band quickly. And it was hard getting over the nerves.
“I remember having a drink of water in between songs and just shaking the water everywhere,” Mein recalls from a gig with their idols, Tiny Ruins.
But they say their loyal university fanbase put them at ease.
“It was awesome that all our mates were there to see us. It was daunting, but all our friends were there to support us,” says Max Holmes.
The band is now preparing to perform six free shows around New Zealand for the Corona Sunsets tour.
The first show is in Auckland on March 8th.
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