Wellington-based psych duo Earth Tongue are certainly a force to be reckoned with, releasing their debut album 'Floating Being' earlier this year alongside a string of shows across Australia. 

We caught up with them ahead of their upcoming Australian tour. Check out the full interview below.

Let's dive straight into your sound. I find it super unique and really love the way you are able to seamlessly blend powerful vocals with loud off-kilter riffs. Where do you draw your main inspiration from?

We draw lots of inspiration from other New Zealand bands. There are some really interesting, hard-working acts here that we've been going to see live for years. A few of them have really left their mark on us like The All Seeing Hand and Beastwars. Wellington is a tiny city and there isn't a huge scene here for heavy music, so all the bands from different genres play together and it keeps things fresh and interesting.

What are ten songs or acts you're loving right now?

Here are ten New Zealand bands you should check out: Ounce, Wax Chattels, The All Seeing Hand, Spectre Collective, Hans Pucket, Onono, Koizilla, Night Lunch, Unsanitary Napkin. That'll keep ya busy.

You're both quite active in the Wellington music scene. How would you describe the local scene?

The scene here is really small, and bands often end up playing to a room full of other musicians, so I think it's a great place to be while you're honing your craft. There's a really active scene of musicians that all help each other out, whether they're into similar music or not. We have a really nice circle of friends who are ridiculously supportive - whether it's lending backline, recording demos or giving us rides to the airport, it's really cool. There are only four or five venues and a handful of people bringing international acts through - but sometimes a few hardworking people are all you need!

Congratulations on releasing your album 'Floating Being' earlier this year! Was it a long process from the initial idea to finished product?

Cheers, we're really stoked to finally have done and dusted. The recording process was a bit of a mission because we decided to record in different sessions while on tour - we did the drums and guitar in Melbourne, Synth in Berlin, one song in The Netherlands and the rest in Wellington. We worked with some really cool engineers, and we're really happy with how it sounds. While on tour in Germany last year we met Alex from Stolen Body Records who ended up releasing the record for us - he's been working really hard behind the scenes and we couldn't have done it without him.

I'm a big fan of your latest video clip 'Probing the New Reality'! How did the concept for the video come about?

We were on a train ride from Spain to France and were trying to come up with a concept. We had some budget, but we knew that we wanted to shoot on 16mm film, and we knew that the film and processing cost was going to take up most of the budget so we didn't have any money for studio hire or other production costs. Then we came up with the 'lost aliens' concept because we knew we'd be able to shoot it all outside around the city, so we went from there. It was a really fun two days shooting, running around Berlin on a really hot day in the middle of summer. We had our friend Alan Waddingham behind the camera and added some animations from another Berlin-based pal Neirin Best.

You're making your way to Australia next week to celebrate the launch of your album. Is this the first time visiting?

This is our fourth time playing in Australia actually. We've played a few shows over the years with Melbourne bands Holy Serpent and Buried Feather, among others. This will be our second time playing in Sydney and Adelaide, I'm expecting good things! The scene seems to be really strong over there at the moment.

Can you walk us through your pre-show ritual?

Gussie does these really funny vocal warm-ups that she learned at high school choir. Ezra sits there drinking beer and worrying that no one will turn up to the show.

Catch the Psychadelic Fuzz duo Earth Tongue at The Vanguard in Newtown, Sydney on Sunday 1 December.