Northern beaches, live music: Loretta's star is rising and rising

Loretta is Ellis Hoare (vocals), Max Jacobs (guitar) and Nico Scali (keys and guitar), and they've already got a fan base that follows them from gig to gig. Drummer Daryl Chin lends his talents to Loretta along with a few other bands.

So far, the group has released 10 singles, with their debut single, Come Over, racking up more than 1.4 million downloads. Their debut EP is due out later this year.

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Another single, All I Know, was filmed in Manly - along Marine Parade and Fairy Bower - and it's got the critics talking.

"Loretta has found their sound that's light on the ears and heavy on the feelings," triple j Unearthed music director Dave Ruby Howe said.

"Far from being soft that it's confined to a diary entry in a lonely bedroom, this feels destined to be sung back at the band in an arena lit by phone screens."

While triple J and Double J producer/presenter, Pip Rasmussen, said "I'm already a fan. Loretta's pop is uplifting and could light up a whole room [or] a stadium".

The northern beaches is a well-known breeding ground of some of Australia's, and indeed the world's, biggest music acts. This patch of Sydney has already produced the likes of: INXS, Midnight Oil, Angus and Julia Stone, Lime Cordiale, Icehouse, The Rions and Ray Thistlethwayte (lead singer of Thirsty Merc), just to name a few.

Loretta formed when the guys were studying at The Australian Institute of Music, and Hoare said it's progressed from being that "weird little band" that at first just played covers.

"We did a lot of Faith by George Michael, we'd mash it up with the Footloose song," Jacobs said.

They also did quite a few Smash Mouth songs, but that was until Hoare wrote Come Over.

"I showed Max the song and he goes, 'this is a great song. Let me take the song [to Scali] and if you don't like what we do with it don't put it out, but if you do like what we do with it then let's talk' and I was like alright, sweet," he said.

"Nico and Max created what you know the song to be now, and it just sounded a million times better than what it was. So we decided to go gung-ho with the whole band thing and here we are."

Initially they called themselves The Faces, but after realising that name was already taken by an English rock band that formed in the 1960s, they put pen to paper to come up with a new one.

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"Everyone came up with a list, with as many things as we can think of, and Loretta was the one that just stuck out the most," Hoare said.

"The reason why I chose that name was I was in Byron on holidays with my best mate and there was a song called Oh Loretta! by Sex on Toast. The song just made me really happy and reminded me of good times and I want to have that, and give that to other people when they hear Loretta."

Loretta started playing together in early 2019. Their first gig was opening for Jacob's old band, The Hideaways, at Factory Theatre in Marrickville. Since then, they've been criss-crossing Australia playing shows, and they're already attracting fans who are travelling to see them.

Hoare admits, however, it's a surreal feeling to have crowds sing their own lyrics back at them during concerts.

"It's a really strange feeling having the song lyrics that we wrote, having a crowd sing them back to you," he said. "It's probably the coolest feeling, it's amazing."

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Loretta's style is classic indie-pop, with an easy vibe and an irresistible groove. They write songs as a group, and inspiration comes from everywhere.

"Sometimes we'll chuck on videos from The 1975 [English pop rock band] or just live concerts to kind of just show us where we want to be, or where the vibe is, and then we'll just write some really cool music afterwards," Hoare said.

Scali, who comes from a rock background, admits his music influences are pretty random.

"It's kind of like an identity crisis for me," he said. "I find something that I like and I listen to it intensely for three days and then I have no idea what I like anymore."

Just which songs will be on their debut EP is something they're still working out, Jacobs said.

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"The process of this is much more chasing a consistent feeling throughout the EP," he said. "We wrote out a mood board of what emotions we want the EP to carry, and we're writing heaps of songs and the ones that most align with that we're going to pull together."

When it comes to scouting locations to film their videos, Loretta almost always stay local, Scali said. "The furthest we've gone from the beaches is the North Shore, but everything else has been roughly around Ellis' house or my place," he said.

For a band that started not long before the COVID-19 pandemic begun, Jacobs said it's been challenging to grow through endless cancelled gigs, and venues struggling to keep their doors open amid government restrictions.

They were booked to play at Narrabeen RSL, but it closed down a few weeks before their gig. "It's a great spot, so that was such a bummer to have that show canned," Jacobs said.

Decades ago, the northern beaches, like many other areas in Sydney, had countless live music venues for up-and-coming bands to hone their skills, but these days bands like Loretta are struggling.

Since they formed, they've played many gigs in Sydney's inner city, but that's all changing.

Their first headline gig was at Freda's, in Chippendale, but in November 2020 the venue's owner David Abram announced it was closing due to the effects of COVID and inner city real estate development "that is likely to envelop Chippendale".

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Last month legendary live music venue The Lansdowne Hotel, also in Chippendale, announced it would turn the pub's gig room into more accommodation.

"There's been so many iconic music venues shut," Jacobs said. "We're missing a few of those sort of venues at the moment, but it is sort of starting to heal now that the government has got rid of gig restrictions, we're starting to see some excitement.

"There's a lot of promotion that needs to go into giving the public confidence that events are still actually going to go ahead. I think that's the case with any local live gig as well, because you can still book tickets for a gig and then it gets cancelled."

Jacobs said COVID has also changed people's behaviour when it comes to how they consume music.

"People have just got really used to not going out," he said. The default for many people has been to stay in amid health concerns and lockdowns, but he's hoping that will change back to people thinking "let's go to find some music to watch for the weekend".

Loretta is urging music festival lovers from the northern beaches to jump in their car for a road trip to Forbes next month. The Central West town is hosting Vanfest on April 9, and it will be the band's debut festival.

Vanfest is the brainchild of Manly business owner Matt Clifton, who grew up in the country town before moving to the northern beaches. The festival debuted at his parents' pub in Forbes, the Vandenberg Hotel, in 2014 with just 400 people watching. These days thousands flock to the regional festival that has "all the trimmings you'd expect of any metro festival", Clifton said.

"I always try and support as many local people as I can," Clifton said of the inclusion of Loretta and Julia Stone (formerly of the northern beaches) in this year's line up.

Also on the Vanfest lineup are headliners Holy Holy, along with Jarryd James, Eves Karydas, Rum Jungle and Cloe Terare.

"It's going to be really cool to be around people who have just done so well for themselves," Hoare said.

"It's really inspiring to be able to play among some incredibly talented musicians, and I know we're all really keen to see Holy Holy play."

Clifton is a big supporter of live music and two of his Manly venues, Donny's Bar and InSitu, are where Hoare first started playing solo gigs when he was 18 years old. As a nod to where he got his start, the photo shoot for this interview was conducted at Donny's.

Tickets to Vanfest are on now sale.

As they continue writing songs, putting together their debut EP and getting ready to play Vanfest, Loretta know the hard work will all pay off.

"We're working as hard as we can at the moment, we put in a lot of really long hours in the studio just making sure we have the best product," Hoare said.

"We all believe that this is something special and I think that working together and working as hard as we are it'll eventually pay off. You've just got to do your 10,000 hours of work really before you can reap the results of what you're trying to get."

For Scali, he said he'll know he's made it when "I don't have to wake up in the morning and worry about where I'm going to make my money from and just do what I love doing".

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