GET IN THE VAN: TURNOVER // A World Turned Upside Down

Turnover are chilled. That’s probably unsurprising to fans of their laidback vibes. Frontman Austin Getz has even sprung for sandals and socks due to the harsh winds that Melbourne throws at us during the course of our afternoon together.

His brother/drummer Casey Getz and guitarist Danny Dempsey are both unassuming too. Their time out on the road weathering storms together means there’s ease between them; no wonder there’s a distinct lack of bad blood.

“I think we’ve just kind of become a well oiled machine at this point,” says Austin. “We’ve been doing it for so long we know when to keep to ourselves… we’re pretty good at feeling the vibe out for each other. If something feels weird we try to just be open and talk about it. I don’t think there is anything really too deliberate that we do [that annoys the others]. We give each other enough space that we need to, but not too much to where we become strangers to one another you know?” The singer’s brother Casey picks up, “I feel like we try to do normal things too. Like when we do have time, like a day off, we don’t just drive all day. We try to take the time to do anything that [makes us] feel like a normal person, we’re not just like in this crazy routine. And we try to go see a lot of places that we don’t know if we will get the chance to see again. And then even if we do go, if we like it we go back. We’ve been to the Grand Canyon in America several times and things like that make you feel like you’re at home even though you’re not… It’s like the coolest job you can have.”

It’s a strange concept that ‘feeling like home’ attempt. On the one hand it can stave off the looming fear that home is moving on just fine without you. But on the other, it’s never really the same. Austin feels much the same saying, “There’s really nothing that makes me feel too at home on tour. I think I’ve kind of abandoned that in my head because I think trying to feel home on tour always makes me feel further from it, because it’s just not the same… Being able to eat the way that I want eat, you know, we all have very intense dietary restrictions – we’re all vegetarian – and try to do other things as well. You have to abandon that to a degree on tour. So trying to cling to those things always made me more frustrated.”

You definitely start forgetting what day of the week it actually is. It feels weird when you talk to your girlfriend at home who’s actually working a normal 9-5 job and then you’re just like ‘damn, my life is so different from yours’…
[AUSTIN]

We probe further, asking what the band have learnt during their time on the road that they may not have known at the beginning. The balance between giving into temptation and a strong work ethic was (and still sometimes is) the hardest says Austin. “There’s definitely a period of time touring where I would party too hard or drink too much. Then I would fight against it and I remember tours where I would exclude myself from everything and I would just be drawing. I would get to the venue and I would just start drawing to keep my mind busy so I wouldn’t think about something else and then people would be say ‘you seem out of it’. So then I’d flip back to the other side and I’ve been slowly finding the balance… it doesn’t have to be black or white, you just to do what feels right? And it is hard to find that balance, you know. I think that in a lot of way especially growing up like ‘ugh Monday through Friday you’re doing this kind of thing, you’re crazy on the weekend’ style life. Then tour is so different. There’s no structure… every night is like a Friday night for us because we’re at a show and there’s bands you’re with that say ‘lets go to the bar’ or ‘let’s go do this’. And you’re like ‘I don’t know if I want to do that, it’s been like this for the last three weeks. I’m kind of a little tired.’ You definitely start forgetting what day of the week it actually is. It feels weird when you talk to your girlfriend at home who’s actually working a normal 9-5 job and then you’re just like ‘damn, my life is so different from yours’…”

It’s a genuine issue for musicians that find it hard to keep their head above water, but heading out and experiencing a country’s unique offerings is apparently what’s kept Turnover grounded all these years. The positivity that emerges from a ‘different city every night’ lifestyle is what Dempsey has come to appreciate most. It hasn’t come so easily though. Asked whether they’ve accomplished any of their bucket list items in Australia this trip, he begins, “That question in itself is one of the things I think I used to be [unhappy about]… if we were in an area and I felt like we missed out on something, it bummed me out for days. And that’s one of those things that have got to just be okay. Like last time we came to Bryon we had a day off and this time we had to just drive and it was kind of rainy for 10 hours. It’s not as ideal but there’s stuff like that all the time. Like if we’re in Paris, we don’t get to see the Louvre. So that kind of stuff happens all the time. I think you just got to be okay with whatever may happen you don’t have control over it”

Turnover (a Corner) // Photo: Daniel Anderson

The entirety of our conversation isn’t introspective about the trials and tribulations of touring though. The band really has managed to stack up amazing memories during their time over in Australia.  “Byron Bay was really cool last time,” says Austin. “We were at the bay and this dude took us to a waterfall jump near that area too that was really sick. We had a really good night out in Melbourne too. We played a crazy show at Bang. And it was hella bonkers: we’ve never done anything like an after show like that and it just got a little wild. So it was cool last time for sure. That tour was really trippy just because Basement was on some crazy trip. They were just blowing up and I feel like that was the [vibe of the] tour. There was a different energy on that tour than any tour we’ve been on because we kind of just kind of felt the overflow of Basement’s… (Dempsey chimes in: “Rockstardom!”) Yeah, and it was cool because they’re our homies so that was a cool tour for sure. And that’s on top of just being here for the first time and making all the new friends. We got along super well with everybody on that tour. I think that’s another big thing when touring internationally, seeing how populations are different. Like in Australia people are generally pretty nice. It could just be my way and maybe just people involved in the [music] community are really nice but our experience was that everybody is really nice.”

Steering back to our topic of lessons learned, Austin concludes. “I think that’s what touring has taught me… To just take what’s at hand and do the best that you can with it because a lot of things are out of your control a lot more than in other lifestyles. You’re on other people’s schedule, you’re not really in control of where you are, when you’re there or who is there. So you have to just take a lot of stuff as it comes…”

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