The Holy Rollercoasters

Inspired by the masters of rhythm and blues, the ecstasy and tragedy of love and the beauty and danger of those who first took pen to paper, The Holy Rollercoasters are soul, blues and jazz-worshipping Brisbanites. It shall be wild and you shall snap your fingers and wiggle your hips, then ye shall be healed.

Since the octet started kicking around in 2017 they’ve released two EPs, two double A-side singles, a string of digital singles as well as regularly giving the floorboards of south east Queensland venues a good workout.

Not ones to let their sounds stagnate, the collective are embracing new challenges beyond their ecstatic version of funk and soul by taking on one of the western world’s oldest recorded tales: Homer’s The Odyssey. In their modern version of the classic epic, entitled Odyssey, we’re transported into the near future where the newly named Otis (Odysseus) faces similar challenges to his prototypical counterpart in this new desolate Aussie hellscape.

With influences stretching from traditional gospel and blues to the down-home Memphis sound of Otis Redding, James Carr and anything out of Muscle Shoals to the fuzzed out psychedelia of Funkadelic and Alabama Shakes and flat-out funk of Adrian Younge and The Meters, The Holy Rollercoasters have forged a sound steeped in rhythmic bliss, sweet catchy horns and a lyrical avoirdupois that both caresses and torments the soul in equal measure.