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On The Record with Way Dynamic
- Jack Montague
- May 13
- 8 min read
Interview with Jack Montague
The past six months have been busy for Dylan Young, the mind at the helms of Naarm/Melbourne’s rising indie outfit Way Dynamic. This May, Dylan and his band will be responding to the warm recognition of their 2025 album Massive Shoe by commencing a tour of Europe and the UK. Keen crowds heading to Brisbane’s Against The Grain one-day festival will be welcoming the band home - a special moment for Dylan who loves playing to a home crowd.
Jack: How do you think it will feel coming back from an overseas tour and playing to Australian crowds?
Dylan: “It’s gonna be comforting. This will be the first time I have been overseas together with my current band, so it will be both shocking and exciting to tour and experience that with them. But it will definitely be comforting to be back here with the type of crowd interaction that we are used to. I think it’s also going to be great coming back for Against The Grain and be part of such a good lineup.”
Way Dynamic has been a consistent support for overseas acts touring to Australia. The folk-rockers shared stages with MJ Lenderman & The Wind back in March 2025. Later last year they toured with the southern alt-country group Waxahatchee. Then in February, they opened for Black Country New Road in Sydney, Melbourne, and Brisbane. And to pack out the touring season, in March they hit the stage with US indie chart-toppers This Is Lorelei at Sydney’s Mary’s Underground.
Their musical style is fresh and challenges conventions, yet is decidedly easy to approach. Traversing 60s revivalism and reverence to Neil Young, a current-day approach to lyricism, and the known folk sounds of Melbourne’s loved Snowy Band scene, I can see that Dylan is a technician.
Massive Shoe is an 11-track collection of hooky, lyrical soft-rock at its finest.
This is the third album Dylan has recorded with the band as
multi-instrumentalist/vocalist, and he brings values of calm and precision into
the studio. Unlike most recording bands who revise and revisit mixes, Dylan
sets up to get the work done in a first and final mix.
Jack: What does preparedness mean to you when writing songs, and how do you get ready to do that kind of work between creating and recording?
Dylan: “I will try to record a song in one day, and most times we get it mixed and everything before the end of the day. So I come into the studio quite prepared, and with a clear idea of what it is I want to do.”
Jack: What is the funnest part of that day for you?
Dylan: “I think for sure finding the song. Because we’re trying to finish the entire thing and have a mixed and finished product at the end of the day, there is so much space for chaos to unfold in the studio and for things to change and transform, none of which I can predict. I find that way of making songs exciting and refreshing.”
Jack: So there is quite a bit of collaboration in the band, on that day?
Dylan: “Yes, in the recording process. But the initial idea I come to the studio with is very ready to go, and there’s minimal tweaking required. I do have trouble relinquishing control, and end up playing most things on the records. It’s all the happy accidents that people in the studio, and in the live band, contribute, that make it special. That is where unexpected sonic elements can come into it and make things fun. Some of the songs I was playing live and where I had less control on Massive Shoe, are some of my favourites.”
Jack: For instance?
Dylan: “Well, for example, on the day that we recorded Miffed It, Snowy (multi-instrumentalist) happened to be
there with his double bass - so that ended up featuring double bass instead of
whatever else it could have been. It made the song what it is, and I love it.”
Jack: What is the most important part of the recording process for you?
Dylan: “If I sound like a broken record do take me off and put me back on the shelf. But, I think it’s so important to be open to what can happen in the studio and with everybody’s input. When I come to the studio with a song ready to go, it makes it essentially impossible to destroy. I think that in itself also lets me leave the idea at the door, and if something exciting comes along randomly I am in a position to embrace it. Just that openness. That’s when you can really start to get confident adding things and layering ideas.”
Through order comes disorder. I begin to understand Dylan’s way of working better and better as we talk. As he describes the composition of Massive Shoe, I’m seeing how his technical knacks and interests, a deep sense of familiarity with the recording studio, come together to form complete ideas. What strikes me is the abstraction that Dylan manages to derive from this process. The result of his own personal, musical sense of day-long order, produces shimmering originality.
A navigating of rhythm makes carefully constructed hooks that convey three or four genres in a single phrase. Taking a dive into his portfolio, Dylan’s calling rings forth to me as that of a musician, very much in the musical sense. He has worked as a multi-instrumentalist, vocalist and sound technician on an enormous collection of albums, a passionate and constant weigher-in on the distinct sound of Melbourne music he refers to as an iconic “jangly Australiana sound.”
Jack: That (Australiana “jangle”) is a very special sensation that perhaps is better expressed in music than with words. Is a connection to place and where you live important to you as an artist?
Dylan: “I feel very settled in Melbourne. I think us being so geographically far from other major music cities makes a special musical ecosystem. It’s like a petri dish of musical bacteria growing and encouraging one another to be as creative and interesting and as fun as we can be. There is definitely a distinct sound that comes out of this community, that I relate to and influences me creatively, and I think a lot of it comes from the geographical position of where we are.”
This intangible ‘Australiana’ effect of music is conveyed in separate niches across Way Dynamic’s three albums, making the discography a cohesive yet varied listen through, with plenty of twists and turns. The sonic elements of Massive Shoe seem to perfectly merge the opposite ends of a spectrum drawn by the
band’s first two albums, So Familiar and Duck.
Between where So Familiar is a louder, more heavily produced revival piece, and Duck is a rawer lo-fi rock product, Massive Shoe slips discreetly into balance. For Dylan, this makes his latest album a personal success.
Jack: There’s clear creative and sonic differences between your first two albums and this one. I wanted to ask how your songcraft and creative energy has evolved as you’ve moved between these three albums.
Dylan: “I think that’s true. On my first record maybe I was throwing everything at the wall trying to be a maximalist. And then I got disgusted by that, so on my second record I tried to pare everything back on the recording and be a minimalist. And then on the third I’ve found a middle ground that I’m quite happy with. I’m always trying to find some sort of a new angle to take when I make a new record, and so it makes sense that each record is differing from the last. But at the same time I will use the songs I have at the time. I just take a step back and let the record be what it will be - which will be a reflection of what I’ve been up to over the course of making it.”
I can hear the honesty of this method in the production style of Dylan’s work. At any point, sounds seem to be perfectly enhanced or held back to capture their meaning and origin. Dylan’s lyrics resonated with me greatly when listening to Massive Shoe. A favourite track of mine, Evening Star, reads like a piece of well-wishing. Through a pop ballad, threads of twisted messaging coolly satirise aspects of modern, ordinary Australian life. Removing the sense of attack from the criticism, Dylan takes a folk approach to traditionally punk methods of calling out current-day society. This aspect of the record is just as cutting as its composition and sound.
Jack: Amid this passion you’ve got for technical aspects of making music, you’re also a fantastic lyricist. How do you like to come up with lyrical ideas and arrangements?
Dylan: “Thanks for saying that, I really appreciate it. Yeah, there is definitely a common thread across all the records I’ve made of cynicism. I would say that I feel healthily cynical of societal norms and what families and relationships look like, and Evening Star is a great example of that. That song is about what advice and societal pressures there are, and compiling them into a song like a set of instructions is sort of me coming to terms with them.”
Jack: So is writing more of a time you spend looking inward, rather than like recording where you’re open to everything around you?
Dylan: “Yeah, I think so. When I’m writing lyrics I need a space that is very stable and safe and I can’t be in a setting where I feel judged. I suppose it’s more vulnerable in that sense, songwriting. Whereas when I hit the recording studio I love the input and the voices that gather around what we’re doing.”
Jack: You seem like someone who is always creating a lot, and I feel that in those heavy periods of producing work, there’s so many ways to get inspired or witness a change of direction. Do you have anything that you count on to give you a burst of spirit during these times of high output?
Dylan: “I try to listen to a lot of stuff. As much as I can. My friends Snowy and Dainis in the band Cool Sounds, and Stephan in the band Good Morning – their type of songwriting is always informing mine and the way that I write. It’s really great to have people I make music with around me all the time to help with the creative flow. They certainly encourage me to try new things. It’s important to be a bit silly as well and Dainis definitely encourages me to do that. Also the bands you mentioned before. International acts like This Is Lorelei and Black Country New Road.”
Jack: Does the overseas indie scene excite you, musically? And how do you think Australia fits into this movement?
Dylan: “I’m not sure what it is, but definitely something to do with a kind of appreciation of the folk tradition of songwriting that underpins a lot of indie music. I find the indie sound at the moment very reflective and appreciative of those underpinning frameworks, especially in the sense of being very lyrically forward, and also instrumentally inventive. And I think Australia brings it’s own geographically inspired place into that sound, too. That’s what I hope to do with my work.”
Dylan will be commencing his tour to Europe and UK with Way Dynamic on May 12th before returning to Brisbane to play the Against The Grain 5-stage mini festival on June 20th. It will be exciting to have the band come home and celebrate a successful tour with the affection of a Brisbane crowd. I can’t wait to catch them live!
Way Dynamic will be playing Brisbane's Against The Grain Festival on June 20.
