For the Love of Rock and Roll

Do you remember what you were doing when you were 18? Like most of us, it probably wasn’t jet-setting around the country playing in a rock band. Although many of us have that dream, few get to live it.

But then again, some do.

Such is the case for Maleny-based Oskar Campbell who, along with his two mates Rory Stirton (drums) and Noah Webbe (bass), formed Dosed in 2016 after jamming together and being asked to play Woodstock at Witta in March that year.

“We were offered this spot as ‘the band with no name’ and from that day forward, I guess we were a band,” Oskar says. “We never really set out to form one, so it was strange trying to come up with a name after we did. Someone suggested naming ourselves after a Red Hot Chili Peppers’ song. We are all diehard fans, so I guess the rest is history,” he says.

The group have played in some of the top music venues across the Sunshine Coast, at a range of festivals and are regulars in the Brisbane music scene.

“Possibly the most surreal experience we’ve had to date was our support slot for Thirsty Merc,” Oskar says. “We all grew up listening to their music so to share a stage with them was pretty incredible, not to mention they were all super-friendly guys.”

It’s funny, when you sit and talk to Oskar it is easy to forget he is only 18. His passion for music is obvious and you get the sense that he will be one of the few that make it to the top.

“For me, the goal was always to try and make a living from something I love doing and I guess music just happened to be that thing,” he says. “Music is now a full-time thing for me and ultimately we would love to be working on the band full time in the near future.”

And in five years’ time? “Well, ideally we’d be selling out stadiums,” he laughs. “But in saying that, we play music because we love it and that will always be our number one priority. We enjoy performing and sharing the art that we create together with our fans, and if we can make the world a little bit of a better place through music, I think we’ve succeeded.”

And you can tell he means it. The way he breaks out in song at any chance, or sits and plucks at his guitar strings, a beautiful habit formed by the idea that practice makes perfect.

His head and heart are in the music and it’s an experience in itself just to watch him put lyrics to paper, or compose music with the slide of his hand or the movement of his fingers across guitar frets, ready to fill the notes with words.

According to him, there is never just one process for writing the songs.

“It’s always different depending on what has inspired the song. Sometimes I might start with lyrics, and sometimes there has been a whole song composed before lyrics are even considered,” Oskar says. “With the Dosed stuff it generally stems from me pitching a song to the boys and then we just pretty much jam on it until we are all feeling good about what we’ve come up with.

“As for the lyrics, I mean, there are a variety of themes throughout our music and every song speaks for itself, but that underlying theme is always there – those daily pleasures and struggles of being alive.

“When we started out writing music, I think we all agreed that it was less natural and there was definitely a large element of imitating other artists that influenced us. After speaking with other artists this seemed to be a pretty common occurrence. As time has progressed though, we have really come closer to finding our unique sound and something that represents who we are as people and players purely.

“We are excited to see where it takes us,” he says, a gleam in his eye.

WORDS LAHNEE PAVLOVICH

PHOTOS PABLO PAVLOVICH