A fitting curtain call for our final instore at our 95 Blackall Tce location, one of our favourite bands Old Home will perform live at the shop this Sunday 4 December with Wifecult, Naaki Soul and Of Lion. Known for their haunting and lyrical take on post-hardcore, Old Home are winning hearts as they meander the back streets of the post-pandemic music landscape.

We asked vocalist Dylan Sparks a few burning questions to bring us up to speed on the story so far.

(PS don't worry, we aren't going anywhere, just re-jigging the shop space and moving gigs to other venues around Nambour).

BAD HABIT: Hello Dylan, how are you? I wanted to start off with a bit of your background. How did you end up in Cooran? What was your childhood like? Do you think any events in the past really pushed you in the direction you are going now? What were those events? How did you end up with the project Old Home?

DYLAN: I mostly had a nice childhood. I grew up on a bush block in an outer suburb of brisbane - had pets - went to a good school - had a vege garden and mango trees - shared a bedroom with my older brother - had tony hawks pro skater 2 and age of empires on the family computer - normal shit.

Probably the one thing worth noting there is that when i was 7 or 8 my family moved from brisbane to the noosa hinterland and i had quite a hard time adjusting to a new life away from the people and places i felt comfortable with - struggled to form connections and make friends in a new place. so i kinda escaped into books -  heaps of fantasy novels and stuff. and that has been a coping mechanism for me for most of my life. and at some point that turned into writing. creating fictional places and connections that i wanted for myself i guess.

old home was initially the name of a poetry zine that i made in my bedroom. some friends of mine owned a cafe in eumundi and they let me do a launch party for the zine at the shop and i was gonna read some of the poems. i had booked a couple of bands to play and one of them was mark and rohan's band. they offered to play some songs while i read the poems and it ended up sounding pretty cool so we kept doing it.

BH: Old Home. It's a pretty oddball project that in many ways seems really at odds with your surroundings and even any reference points I personally really have (admittedly my pool of reference can be shallow at times for things out side of punk/hardcore/metal). Yet it really resonates with people. Why do you think that is? It probably feels a little awkward to explain/ponder why people enjoy creative endeavours you are involved in, but I'm curious about your answers.

D: I think old home is strange because we didnt mean to start a band. we never sat down and said hey we're interested in the same thing so maybe we should start a band. our music tastes were very different. i was listening to a lot of post hardcore bands like mewithoutyou, la dispute, touche amore etc - bands where the frontman would just fuckin yell into a microphone and i desperately wanted to give it a try. and the other guys were listening to like neil young and the cure and the dirty 3.

there are crossover bands for us like fugazi and AFI but musically our worlds are very different. and those guys are a little older than me too so that is probably a factor. what im getting at is that it's a strange combination of influences and i think that is really apparent in how the music sounds. it's got the manic chaos of post hardcore but with the tact and musical prowess of bands like fugazi and the cure.

I decided quite early on that i would never filter my lyrics so there's also a kind of morbid and brutal honesty there that i think might draw people in. thats always a hard question. hope that sheds some light.

BH: I understand you are studying creative writing at university. How do you find it? Where do you think that will lead? At the risk of sounding like a pressuring family member, what are your thoughts on balancing the tension between a life spent pursuing creative projects and the harsh financial reality of living.

D: i am studying a diploma of creative industries at USC and some of the classes i have chosen are creative writing classes. i like it. it is difficult to juggle full time study and working enough to pay rent and still have time for music and to nurture relationships with my friends and family. I don't really expect it to lead anywhere, i mainly just wanted to get better at my craft.

BH: Ok I've grilled you enough. Let's wind this down.  What's next for Old Home, any tours planned? Releases, merch, etc? Do you believe in Aliens?

we would love to tour but nothing planned yet. we've started writing music for the next thing so we'll chip away at that and keep trying to play as many shows as we can in the meantime. we're gonna do some stuff with kitty records. i have a very crude screen printing set up at my house that i use to make all our tshirts and stuff so when i have the spare time i'll definitely get onto some more merch.

we do believe in aliens. old home headquarters is a front for a top secret laboratory that uses alien technology to craft the most mind bending guitar tones to ever breach the gates of human ears. old home world domination cometh 2023 - rip shane warne - fuck cops - celebrate love - protect our community - dont panic - be brave - love u. this was really fun, thank u!

Old Home perform live at Bad Habit Records to celebrate the launch of their new digital album on Sunday 4 December from 3pm with Wifecult , Naaki Soul and Of Lion. Tickets are $5 on the door.

This will be the final in store at Bad Habit Records, as we will soon expand the shop fitout and will host future gigs at venues in Nambour CBD.

You can also catch Old Home supporting Salt Money along with Slowcut at the Nambour gig on the 'Love of my life' LP launch tour, Sunday 8 January 2023 from 1pm. Tickets are on sale now click here to book.

Image: Dylan Sparks of Old Home
Photo by Peter Boyd Clark. Instagram: @__p_c_p__