Great Gable has had a pretty big 18 months. They’ve toured nationally and across the ditch, released their single Cool Mind Blue and are now the inaugural winners of the ALBY MADE community arts grant.

ALBY MADE is a community arts initiative that helps local creatives do what they do best, create! Each month a WA musician, artist, creative or community group will be awarded a one-thousand dollar grant, with funds to help make creative ideas a reality. ALBY sat down with Great Gable singer Alex Whiteman and lead guitarist Matt Preen to talk gigs, new tunes and how they ended up with cricketer Mitch Marsh’s guitar.

You guys have been real busy – how do you look back on the last year and a half?
AP: I guess we’re just taking it one-by-one… we’re just stoked that people are listening to our music and coming to the shows. It doesn’t feel like it’s changed too much. I think we’ve got so much more work to do, we’re still really young and we need to keep writing songs and gigging around.

You’ve spent a lot of time on the road, but are also writing for a new album – what’s more enjoyable, the writing and recording or touring?
MP: Both have their benefits. The writing side is a little more chilled out and you can take your time doing it. We usually go down south and hide ourselves away for a little bit and have a week where we smash out as much as we can. But when you’re touring it’s intense, you’re always on the move and shows are enjoyable but full one.

AW: They’re pretty opposite things. Recording you want to be in a dark, little room on your own and then with touring you want to be partying and having fun with everyone and playing to lots of people. But we’ve been working really hard for the album. We’re spending a lot of time doing it and we want to make sure we’re all proud of it.

MP: You only do your debut album once, and we want to make it special and as “us” as we can. We’ve got a bunch of songs that really have their own vibe. We’re keen to play some shows and see how the tunes go love. We played at Badlands for their birthday a while back and we played three new ones, they went down alright… we had some really good feedback.

You two met as a couple of kids in WA’s south-west playing cricket, who was better?
AP: Matt and I started playing cricket together when we were 12 or 13. He was the opening bowler and I opened the batting, so we were different players, we had different strengths.

It’s funny, speaking of cricket we’ve currently got Mitch Marsh’s (WA and Australia all-rounder) guitar which I used at a gig on the weekend. My brother plays for Western Australia and he lived with Mitch for ages. He lent us this guitar in September last year, and we haven’t given it back yet. So if you want your guitar back Mitch, give us a call! He’s got the best gear in town, he’s got better gear than us.

You’re the first ever winner of the ALBY MADE community arts grant,
what’s that mean to you?

AP: This is a big deal for us to get help from ALBY DRAUGHT. At the moment, there’s a lot to pay for and to know we’ve got local support from ALBY is the best part. The grant is a massive help, it definitely goes a long way.