Mermaid Avenue

Mermaid Avenue are an independent band out of Brisbane, Australia. They were formed in 2015 around the songwriting of vocalist Peter Clarke and band members Casey Lee Chadwick (keys), Mike Kearey (guitars and lap steel), Mark Egan (bass) and Nathan Poetschka (drums and percussion).

Whilst their independently released debut album ‘Temptation and Half the Truth’ (2018) did not garner much commercial success, the quality of the songs and their execution were highly regarded by music reviewers and bloggers alike. The second single from the album, ‘Rise’, was a finalist in Blues and Roots Radio’s International Song of the Year 2019.

Fast forward through some group membership changes and a significant global pandemic, the band reentered the studios over 2020 and 2021 to record their sophomore album, ‘Sugartown’. Electing to release every song as a single prior to the album’s release, each song has once again been well reported by critics. Two of the songs have been finalists in global songwriting competitions (‘Philosophy’ was a semifinalist in Unsigned Only’s 2020 global songwriting competition and ‘Turn the Page’ placed in the Top 10 finalists in Blues and Roots Radio’s International Song of the Year 2020).
Mermaid Avenue’s style is hard to define. Eschewing writing for a style or genre, the band allow the songs to grow and evolve in the studio until they are where they need to be. The songs have been compared to artists as varied as Neil Young, Tom Petty, The War on Drugs, REM, Powderfinger, Wilco, Drive-By Truckers and even ‘the Rolling Stones when they wanted to be Gram Parsons’. This band examines the human condition and does it with truth and honesty, ‘looking at relationships from all the angles, good and bad’.

“Brisbane’s Mermaid Avenue have been releasing music for a number of years now, and in that time they’ve developed an incredibly endearing sound that few bands can pull off.”
— Happy Mag

"I hear that there is a new album coming out...I've got a feeling you are going to love it. By then perhaps Mermaid Avenue will be poised to claim their place next to their incredible Aussie predecessors" Joe Kidd, Clouzine

“Merging the sounds of each distinct era of alternative, some country and a certain melancholy in their delivery Mermaid Avenue has created a sound that will appeal to listeners for being both familiar and fresh.”
— Divide & Conquer Music

"The possible breadth of this song’s appeal is immense. Listeners old and young alike will find some basis to relate to the lyrics or else understand the enormity of the experience" Gary Williams, The National Post UK

"..reminds me of the Rolling Stones when they wanted to be Gram Parsons; it has all the reaching for the sky trying to shake hands with God quality: The kind of song Primal Scream have attempted many times but not quite got there." Brian Shea, Monolith Cocktail Music Blog