Interview: Outback
I was just after a new set of drums and saw one going locally for a really good price. Then I contacted the seller…. and found out it was Mark Greening.
In the “box of chocolates” that is the world of metal, I appreciate the variety of flavours available to taste. Which got me thinking about precisely which chocolate would match which metal sub-genre. Yes, I may well need to Get Out More. “But I want to be the Strawberry Crème!” “No, true kvlt black metal…. you’re a dark chocolate-covered Brazil nut….and That’s Final!”). I’m still not sure which chocolate most appropriately represents DOOM but I reckon it would have to be understated, yet with a rich, satisfying aftertaste. Doom doesn’t hit you with the sledgehammer force of a Slayer riff or assault your eardrums and IMMEDIATELY!!!! demand your attention like grindcore. Doom creeps. Doom crawls. Doom. Is. Subtle.
Because of doom’s subtlety, I didn’t “get it” at first. I was several years into my life as a metal fan before I took the first, tentative steps down this “new road”. My gateway drug was actually a stoner album: Blues For The Red Sun by Kyuss which, if memory serves, was the recipient of an extremely enthusiastic review in a print magazine by Phil Alexander, former editor of Kerrang! magazine and one of those reliable voices of the journalistic profession whose positive words were a virtual guarantor of quality. Blues For The Red Sun was – and remains – worthy of every superlative heaped upon it.
Perhaps because of my own gradual initiation into the “Cult of Doom”, I was fascinated to learn the story of Brighton band Outback. I only discovered this trio earlier in 2025, via the connection of their South coast roots and their name popping up in Instagram posts of bands who hail from that region of the country.
It got me wondering just what “special something” there is in that Southern English water? I’ve pondered this phenomenon in relation to Louisiana and its sludge metal fecundity: Eyehategod, Crowbar, Soilent Green, Buzzoven, Acid Bath, Down. So many great bands. Such a restricted geographical spread.
Here in the UK, Dorset gave us the ground-breaking Electric Wizard; those drug-fuelled manglers of the Sabbath template. That torch has been kept burning: by Wizard themselves, albeit departing from the original trio of members, and in Mark Greening’s other bands: Ramesses, Dead Witches, With The Dead. Countless other UK doom outfits help maintain the torch aflame. But doom metal seems to live and breathe in the south of this Sceptred Isle like nowhere else.
I was particularly intrigued by the story of Outback. There are plenty doom bands whose members bear more than the odd grey hair, facial line or grizzled, world-weary demeanour. Outback bear none of these hallmarks. Outback’s members are young.
Now, I have no intention of taking this piece down the “hey -decent band – for a bunch of youngsters” road. That reductive nonsense is as insulting as invoking some condescending talk like “Wow….a band with a WOMAN (heaven or, preferably, HELL, forfend) in it!!”. (Question: “What’s it like being a WOMAN in a metal band? Answer: “Er, maybe it’s much like being a bloke in a metal band….or a little green space lizard in a metal band….except every now and again some moron asks you “What’s It Like Being A Woman In A Metal Band??”).
Anyway. Outback. Young. It doesn’t matter exactly how young. Whatsoever. Because: Outback are really good. Outback music speaks for itself. If you aren’t familiar with it? Do yourself a favour and listen. Now.
But, if you are still intrigued by how Outback ended up playing “stoner-doom” (their own description, per their Bandcamp page) like they do, then read on.
I sat down with the three members of the group: vocalist/bassist Will Graves, guitarist Jet Mosseri and drummer Archie Lea, just after their performance at Sheffield’s Cosmic Vibration Festival in late August. Their set was my second live encounter with the band, having seen them in The Black Heart on day 3 of Desertfest London in May.
E&D: So, you formed in 2021. Were you playing this style of music from day one….and, if so….just HOW did that come about?!
Will: Ha! When we started playing it was Alice In Chains and Pearl Jam that we were obsessed by. We used to be a four piece….and then a member left, I moved to combine bass and vocals….and that’s where we’ve stayed. In terms of influence: one day, Jet played an Electric Wizard record that his dad had…
At this recollection – Jet smiles….and all three nod (cue visions of the start of the Simpsons….as the clouds part and a “revelation” moment arrives). And what a moment. Doom. When it hits… it hits hard.
This leads to my enquiry about “other” influences. I mention Cough – and, in particular, their Ritual Abuse album.
Will: Yeah, we get that comparison a lot. I’ve never listened to Cough. But I did take vocal influence from Windhand.
So, there’s a link, of sorts, in that Cough and Windhand were collaborators on a 2013 Relapse Records release Reflection Of The Negative. Perhaps there’s a simple case of universal connectivity, forged in the bosom of the riff. At the core, there’s Sabbath, of course. Then, Trouble, Saint Vitus, Electric Wizard and on and on, through countless hundreds of bands influenced by such progenitors.
We progress to discussion of being a small but ambitious metal band in today’s incredibly crowded scene. As an “old school” metalhead, I never cease to be amazed by: the incredible number of metal bands who beaver away, unheralded, occasionally breaking out of bedrooms and rehearsal spaces to play tiny, local gigs; and, more importantly; the real quality that exists within local scenes, in groups of friends who hold down day jobs and get together to share the joy and passion of the creation of loud, down-tuned, heavily distorted cacophonies of JOY. Getting your music heard outwith the confining circles of your own environs, though, is tough.
The Cosmic Vibration Festival show was part of Outback’s largest tour to date: an initially planned six (six!! SIX!!!) date jaunt through Southampton, Bristol, Birmingham, London, and Sheffield before culminating in a homecoming gig in Brighton. London constituted a late addition to the itinerary as they were invited by Matt of Human Disease Promo to join an all-day lineup, headlined by Slabdragger [fun fact: Slabdragger guitarist, Sam Thedder mixed and mastered Outback’s Wytch EP] at the Black Heart in Camden the night before their Sheffield show.
Will: Thanks to Slabdragger and especially to Matt for adding us… and also, on that bill, were our good friends from Believe In Nothing – an Eastbourne band who are really fantastic – check them out if you don’t know them.
Hey – guess what? I indeed did check out Believe In Nothing who, it turns out, are an absolutely splendid sludge-noise outfit. Purchases have duly been added to my Bandcamp collection!
Will also credited Oliver Hill, aka Oliver Irongiant, riff-purveyor extraordinaire in not one, not two but three fine doom bands: Grave Lines, Sea Bastard and the aforementioned Dead Witches, as having been of particular help in the band’s progress. “Oliver Irongiant has been great. He has really been hugely supportive”. That sort of support is invaluable. Because it’s small intangibles which can make the difference between growth….and obscurity. Band friend Mel sits in our conversational group. They’re driving the hire van on the current tour; the sort of assistance which makes the touring load that bit lighter.
Jet: Last year we toured in my old Volkswagen Golf Mark IV Estate. It was cramped; it was awful. That thing died just after we completed the tour, fortunately!
A collective chuckle ensues at the memory of this vehicle and the previous year’s struggles. Obstacles have also been overcome in the health department: illness necessitated playing without vocals in 2024 while the recent tour included an interruption:
Archie: We had to cancel our show in Birmingham during the current tour due to my long-term health issues having a bad flare up while we were in Bristol, which meant we had to drive home after we played there with Acid Mammoth so I could get a check-up and new medication.
But the show has been kept on the road. “No Guts, No Glory” as Exhumed wrote.
Will: The van for this tour wasn’t cheap but it has made a big difference. Thanks to Mel for doing the driving.
Mel has also been down the front at gigs, with none in the audience banging their head more enthusiastically. You need that sort of help. You need that sort of support. Outback don’t undervalue or underestimate those who are helping them along their Path of Doom.
Regarding reception on the recent tour, the guys are in unison in appreciating the enthusiasm with which they have been greeted. “You notice the reaction is more outgoing when you play further north, where audiences perhaps aren’t so spoiled for choice. On any given night in Brighton, there could be several gig options available. That doesn’t happen elsewhere and you feel the gratitude.”
I like Outback’s awareness; this keen sense of “paying dues” and giving thanks to those from the metal scene who are helping them along their way. We have a scene that lives or dies by virtue of reciprocity of support and it’s a blessing that so many individuals, up and down the country, are doing their part to keep the metal music scene vibrant and inclusive. Cosmic Vibration Festival organisers Daniel and Chris are others to whom Outback generously pay thanks.
I had read, on the band’s Instagram page that, earlier this year, Archie had bought Mark Greening’s old drum kit. A kit which had some of doom’s most iconic percussive underpinnings beaten upon its skins. This, like many facets of the Outback story, fascinated me. Were we dealing with some metaphoric “passing of the doom baton” here. The answer is more prosaic, yet no less interesting:
Archie: Ha ha, no. We hadn’t even played on a bill with Dead Witches at the time I bought the kit. I was just after a new set of drums and saw one going locally for a really good price. Then I contacted the seller…. and found out it was Mark. I think he just wanted to sell it to someone who would actually play it. When we went to pick up the kit, he showed us around his house and shared loads of incredible Electric Wizard stories.
To have been a fly on the wall to THOSE exchanges?! Because, from everything I’ve read about Electric Wizard – going all the way back to chaotic tales of on-tour meltdown in the United States in Terrorizer magazine through to myriad crazy occult and narcotic-fuelled shenanigans chronicled in Dan Franklin’s book Come My Fanatics, it’s the stuff of Doom Lore writ large.
That drum kit? If IT could talk… hey, it would entertain for days. It’s in safe hands now, following its sale. I like to think of it as a case of the Gods Of Doom… taking care of LEGACY. Because that stuff matters.
Through two releases, Outback’s recorded output to date amounts to a mere eight numbers. But those tracks hit with a resonance and a depth which stands comparison to well established – and much higher profile – bands of the genre.
There’s a hiccup on the horizon as Jet will take a leave of absence to pursue other life ventures but a stand-in is arranged and the Outback story will continue to be written.
When I pose a question about ambition and just what this band aspire to, there is initial hesitancy. It’s the youngest of the three, drummer Archie, who states, with a palpable sense of determination – and no lack of confidence – “as far as we possibly can”. A simple statement perhaps. Six words. But those six (six, six once more!) words burned with passion.
That’s what you need in order to achieve anything in this life where creativity is at the root. Passion. True, burning passion. Will had said earlier “If we couldn’t do this? We couldn’t live”.
Outback have the talent, in abundance. They have the passion.
In combination? They may be unstoppable.
Since this article was first written, Outback announced the addition of Jake Packham, guitarist with South coast doom / sludge outfit Black Groove – another band who graced the recent Cosmic Vibration Festival in powerful fashion – as Jet’s replacement.
“We’ve known Jake for a while and met through the doom scene, since Black Groove are one of the main doom bands on the south coast. We were all big fans of Black Groove and of Jake’s guitar playing so he just seemed an obvious choice”.
Jake arrives from a band who describe themselves as “Chaos Sludge”. What’s not to like?! An exciting new chapter in the Outback story awaits….
