Added to successful tours of both the South and North Islands, Coast Arcade have in recent months played two showcases at Brisbane’s BIGSOUND industry event, along with headline shows in Melbourne and Sydney – building to the October release of their debut album ‘Coast Arcade’. Odessa Neilands talked mid-tour with the Auckland rock band’s songwriters, Bella Bavin and Leo Spykerman.

Coast Arcade’s debut album is sensibly self-titled. The straight rock grooves from drummer Thom Boynton, the nostalgic guitar melodies of guitarist Arlo Birss, driving bass from Leo Spykerman and the confident yet vulnerable sweetness echoed in a soft angelic tone by lead singer/guitarist, and the band’s driving force, Bella Bavin reveal a polished 10 track rock album.

The band has come into their sound, and their debut album reflects how they got there, covering the last four years of growth, change and reflection. It’s a coming-of-age collection.

OG members Bella and Leo were writing songs for Rockquest, back in their high school days as rock band Ragaire, showing enough promise to lift themselves into the national finals. The experience put the pulse at the forefront of Bella’s sights with a ‘No plan B’ mantra consolidating after a short stint as a uni student.

Leo had left the band and immersed himself in the metal genre after the Ragaire era ended, Bella renaming the rejigged band Coast Arcade, and it’s stuck. Apparently missing the band life, Leo rejoined in 2023, and the current indie rock four-piece was subsequently settled.

Bella: “Once Leo had joined the band the first single we released was Baited. That’s a five-minute song that I had written the majority of on my own, but I was kind of like, ‘Oh, it’s a bit heavy for Coast Arcade’, or a bit long.

“Leo came along and kind of was like, ‘Why does it matter?’ You know, if that’s what you’re writing and that’s where your heart is, go for it. So we went for it, and people loved it, and they loved it way more than the stuff we were releasing before!

“So Leo kind of pushed me into, actually, where my comfort space is, but where I felt uncomfortable going.

“I feel like I bring a more pop sensibility to Leo’s writing. I love a really catchy hooky chorus, which doesn’t necessarily fit with the genre he writes in, but that’s cool, because it makes it our own thing. And you can hear that in all of our songs and all of the comments we get about our music. It’s like it’s so heavy, but so catchy and very melodic.”

Pretty much all of their singles have gone into the Hot 20 Aotearoa singles chart, culminating with their debut album making #21 on the Official Top 40 Album on release. It’s a seal of approval for their new NZ sound, coast rock is on the horizon.

Bella: “When I started Coast Arcade I really liked the word ‘arcade’. I just thought it was like kind of cool, kind of different. Had a lot of kind of cool iconography that you could put with it.

But originally it was going to be like an indie surf band, so we tried to find to fit that.

“We settled on ‘coast’ because obviously Aotearoa, NZ has the best coastline, yeah? And I think that was where calling the album ‘Coast Arcade’ came in, because it was like that, it just felt right.

“To get to the point where you’re releasing an album as a band, you’ve kind of gone through a lot, and for us using the band the name just made sense. And also, any of the other ideas we came up with kind of sucked.”

Who else was involved in the recording process?

Bella: “Leo and I produce the music, just because we feel like we know the sound, and we know how we want it to come across. We work with an audio engineer called Tyler, who’s awesome, and that was at Big Fan Studios in Morningside. And then Clint Murphy mixes everything. He’s a weapon, man, so awesome, he makes us sound huge. Then it goes across to Nashville for mastering.”

The band has been touring the new album over October and November, starting with a local Tāmaki Makaurau show at The Tuning Fork.

Leo: The audience were like, buzzing about it. And it was so much fun. You know, we really wanted to make that one a special show. That’s our hometown. There was one point in the set where I got one of my mates from uni, a tall guy, to carry me around the crowd. So, I, like, hopped onto his shoulders, during one of our songs, and he walked around the crowd, and they loved it. And then, you know, Bella was practising her flying kicks quite a bit.”

Bella: “I can just do them! It just comes over me, taekwondo, black belt. It comes naturally! Yeah, I have 11 years background in taekwondo, and when I was doing that, I was the most unathletic, un-aerodynamic person ever.

“But for some reason now that I have a guitar strapped to me, it makes me think I can do it, so I do it. But to be fair, the shoulders thing, Leo on someone’s shoulders. That was my idea. I’d seen an Australian or an American band do it. And I was like, sick, but I didn’t want to be the one. Yeah, fair enough try. He’s the guinea pig!”

The Coast Arcade sound has been described as having punchy old rock hooks with grungy introspective lyrics. So, who’s the alt rocker of the band, and who’s the introspective grunger?

Bella: “I was always the main songwriter for Coast Arcade, until Leo joined, just because I was the only one that enjoyed doing it, whereas the others just wanted to play the songs.

“Leo and I have always been a bit of a force with writing when we’ve combined, because I think we know each other really well. What’s the word? Like, kindred spirits, right? Like, we’re very different, but we have, like, deeper level of understanding with each.

“I think we are able to push each other outside of our comfort zones with our writing without it becoming a point of conflict. Leo and I have never argued over songwriting – we’ve never even disagreed. I think we’ve had different stylistic opinions, but it’s never resulted in anything more than, ‘Ahh, yeah, let’s try it’, and I think that’s cool, because you can hear it in the writing.”

Leo: “I feel like we have this cool dynamic with writing where we bounce ideas off each other. You’d think that it would be a source of conflict, having one person bring, a softer side to it, and then one person bringing a heavier aspect. But I feel like it helps quite a lot, because I find myself in writer’s blocks all the time.

“It happens with both lyrics and just writing like the instrumentals for song, or a vocal melody. I’d come to Bella with these heavy riffs, and these five minute-long songs, and then she’d help me to condense it, or bring ideas to it that I wouldn’t have thought of myself because sometimes I get stuck in my own little bubble of what I listen to and what I’m inspired by. We listen to quite a lot of similar stuff, but she has her own repertoire of inspirations that she draws from. I think it helps keep things fresh.”

Was anyone singing the lyrics to your new songs at your show?

Bella: “I was just about to say that! So many of the songs, people were just yelling the lyrics. I was like, ‘How are your memories that good?’ Like, listening, it was awesome.

“I truly believe that we’ve got some of the best music listeners out there. I mean our fans are so dedicated to us and what we do, and so encouraging, and they learn all the words, and they support us. They ask how they can support us, and they, you know, buy the merch if they can, or get the vinyl and CD.

“But most importantly, they comment on everything. They send us these messages or write us letters about how much the music kind of means to them, or the day it’s helped them get through, or what it reminds them of. Sweet!

“It’s so awesome, because I don’t think a lot of artists, they have that connection, but it runs deep with the people that we’ve got. And we’re growing that so rapidly, and finding such a cool community of people. At our shows you can see that it’s not a demographic of people, it’s just people who have heard it somewhere and like it. I’ve seen, I reckon, like 60-something year old dudes alone in the crowd jamming! And I‘ve seen them and 13-year olds co-exist in the crowd together, respecting each other’s space and sharing the love for our music. So, it’s pretty awesome, and we’re excited to keep kind of growing that and seeing who wants to jump on the Coast Arcade train.”