Psychedelic rock band Fungas looking to 'break the mould' as they grow in Newcastle's music ecosystem

Three-piece psychedelic rock band Fungas – originally forming as a less stylised ‘Fungus’ – is made up of Charlie Ross on vocals and lead guitar, Kevin Flegg playing bass guitar and Frazer McDonald on the drums.

Originally a staple of the all-age music events hosted at The Commons on Beaumont Street, and The Dungeon in Adamstown, McDonald explained the band has had a chance recently to move into over 18 events and more gigs.

“We’ve just kind of started playing these over 18 events, and not really just sticking to all-age stuff at the moment,” he said. “It’s really cool to get up on stage in The Cambridge and venues like that and play music for new crowds of people.”

While the change of crowds are “exciting” for the still-growing three-piece, Flegg admitted they are just happy with anything they are doing at the moment.

“If we are getting up on stage and getting people to move their bodies and have a good time, we’re having a good time with that,” he said. “I think we all just really enjoy bringing our music to people and having them enjoy it.”

While Fungas are just “happy playing music”, they also are looking to the future, and an eight-track EP that’s just waiting to be released in the coming weeks.

“We recorded in the studio back in January and we’ve been waiting to get back from [the Bible Basher tour] before we started getting ready to get it out there,” vocalist Ross said. “We wanted to make sure it was the right time to get it out.”

Titled Crocodila Bonepipe, the EP promises more of Fungas’ “whacky tunes”, and alongside the interesting name the band promises a raft of “eye-catching and ear-catching tracks”.

“We wanted to move away from regular names for things cause we just feel like that is a bit more ‘us’,” McDonald explained. “There’s a lot of ‘stranger’ names for the tracks, and we kind of go with names that feel good to us rather than make a whole lot of sense.”

“A bit like the EP title,” Flegg added with a laugh.

Alongside the upcoming release of Crocodila Bonepipe, Fungas has confirmed they will be looking to more live sets and gigs in the coming months, especially since their tour of Newcastle, Sydney and Wollongong has finished.

"We just want to get on stage and play some of the next tunes for everyone, we think people will really dig them,” Ross said.

For more news on the EP release, follow Fungas on social media: facebook.com/FungasOfficialPage.