Experimentation, Scientists and an Earthless existence: Five minutes with Mario Rubalcaba of psych-prog project, Earthless.

The drummer of the San Diego instrumental outfit offers a glimpse into their relationship with Australia ahead of their upcoming shows.

Earthless have settled back on Australian soil yet again, Victorian bound tomorrow after playing Sydney’s Crowbar this evening. Their hot 2025 tour sees them dip into Corner Hotel tomorrow, Friday 12 September, Theatre Royal in Castlemaine on Saturday 13 September, down to Geelong’s Barwon Club Hotel on Sunday 14 September and back to Melbourne for a newly added show at The Tote on Tuesday 16 September.

Across 25 years, Australia has been a regular on the bands touring circuit, with our audiences claiming the band as our own. The love is mutual from Rubalcaba and co, who are just as eager to entertain our dedicated fanbase.

Ahead of their Victorian leg, we had a chat to Rubalcaba about their relationship with our country, their mind-fuzzing flavour of music-making, and their plans for live shows and new material.

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5 Minutes with Mario Rubalcaba of Earthless

Australia is a home away from home for Earthless. What makes Australia so appealing on your touring circuit?

We feel that we’ve connected with something special here, people here aren’t afraid to rock out and also take the ride with music. We have also made some amazing friendships here over the years. There’s also some really great bands here- past and present. I have a deep appreciation for Australian music so it’s very special for me to come here and get close to the source!

 

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You’ve made some pretty spectacular milestones in Australia including recording Live At Tym Guitars in Brisbane, and having one of your most recognised songs named after our landmark. What is your favourite tour memory from Australia?

Ahh yes, that is def one that stands out, more so how that even happened – I was taking a wazzz and the guys were waiting for me on stage at Tym’s and Izzy just started improvising that opening riff for what is know known as “Uluru Rock”, I sat down on me drums and we just went with it. That’s a special one for sure.

My own personal fave is the first time we came here, we were playing the Tote on NYE w/ Kim Salmon. I’m a huge Scientists fan. The drummer for his band had to split at their soundcheck to pick up his wife , so just the two of them (Kim and bassist) were cheering, I asked if I could sit in and they said. Sure!
We counted off a straight forward 1234 beat and off we went into a perfect 3/4 minute song that could have been on a Scientists 7”. It was so great. It felt great and afterwards we all looked at each other and laughed.

Your sound is very much all-encompassing and made to take you on a sonic journey. How difficult is it to capture meaning in songs when they are instrumental?

Well, if it’s not coming naturally for us then we tend to know sooner than later and we will not force it. This is different than finding something that sparks and you play over and over and build as you go or find happy accidents along the way. But yeah, it can be difficult at times.

Experimentation is at the core of Earthless. How has that experimentation changed throughout the last nearly 25 years of jamming and playing together?

I honestly wouldn’t say too much really. I think we know what makes us work together well and what doesn’t. That’s not to say that we don’t try different things, it’s just not that we are going to some extremes maybe other bands have done. Maybe that’s part of the recipe for doing this for so long now?

What is next on the new music front? Are you working on new material?

After this years touring stuff we will begin to really buckle down and work on new stuff. We are all excited to get to it.

Having toured in Australia so frequently, how are you shaking up the setlist for these upcoming shows?

Well we just celebrated the 20th anniversary of our first LP Sonic Prayer, so we’ve been occasionally playing stuff off that, which was never really a part of our live show ever, but it’s been fun to mix it in with some of the other jams from other eras of the band.

We truly look forward to playing down under once again!

Final tickets are available for their Melbourne, Castlemaine and Geelong shows. Collect tickets here.