Cammy Cautious and the Wrestlers
Interview with Em Best
Cammy Cautious and the Wrestlers make music to be young to. Composed of Sarah Rheinberger (vocals, guitar), Callum Dyer (bass) and Will Cooke (drums), the Gadigal land-based trio have transformed a high school lockdown project into something bigger, merging the melancholia of modern living with the timeless rhythms of rock and roll.
Shot by Sevin Pakbaz
First of all, how did you come up with that name? Is someone Cammy Cautious and the others are the Wrestlers?
Sarah: The name Cammy was sort of floating around for various reasons. I like alliteration, I thought the Cammy Cautious sounded pretty pimp. I think the latter half of the name stemmed from my dad and my brothers, who used to always wrestle in my house when we'd be trying to record and you could just hear like, grunting. But I love them dearly.
So how did this all form, how did it start?
Will: We all grew up in the Mountains together, but we didn't all know each other.
Sarah: Will and I, in the first lockdown in 2020, were in Year 12. We'd always been jamming together, but that's when we sort of recorded our first EP. So it was just like a cheeky little two piece at that point. And since then we've fucked around with a bunch of different arrangements.
Do you have any standout inspirations or influences?
Will: Definitely Angry Angles. That's a very huge one for Sarah and I.
Sarah: Yeah, and Ty Segall. He was probably the first artist that I started listening to that wasn’t the folk, indie sort of stuff that I'd been listening to for most of my life.
Will: All three of us in our early teenage years were listening to Ty Segall and Thee Oh Sees and Jay Reatard.
Your most popular song, according to Spotify, is "Practice". Do you have a more underrated song that you think is better?
Sarah: I think we have a bit of an interesting relationship with the songs that are on our discography so far. We're about to release a new EP, which is obviously the most accurate sort of representation of the sound and Cammy now. As far as all of our other stuff on Spotify at the moment, it's not really the sort of stuff that we're dabbling in now or will be in the future, but it's safe to say that we like it. I think what you're gonna hear in the next few weeks or months will be the most underrated shit. And the best shit.
Shot by Sevin Pakbaz
What do you think is the biggest challenge that young Sydney musicians and creatives are facing at the moment?
Sarah: I think people could get quite easily tired of playing the same five venues. Like we're eager to move up and down the coast, and interstate at some point, I don't know. I think people might start to feel a bit suffocated.
Will: Also venues just making shows ticketed, 'cause it's hard to play shows that aren't free. Venues don't like having free shows, so it seems like people always play the same ones, 'cause they wanna play free entry shows so more people gonna come and have a better time. But it's tough selling tickets, especially when people are struggling to pay rent and shit like that.
You've done a whole heap of gigs, do you have an all-time favourite Sydney venue?
Will: I like upstairs of the Landsdowne.
Sarah: The graveyard shift's cool, the midnight slot there, which we've done once. It was cool, but it was also hard to not be like way too intoxicated to play by midnight. You really gotta reign it in a bit.
Will: The Duke's always good as well, ‘cause people are just there all the time. So when we did that show, that was very, very packed, so it was really fun.
So, anything else you want to tell the masses?
Callum: Get keen. Get keen.
Top 3 Sydney venues that attract the best crowds?
1. The Lansdowne
2. Enmore Hotel
3. The Duke
Who do you think is the most exciting young & emerging creative in Sydney?
L.A.R.M
@l.a.r.mband
