The Drones

The Drones are an Australian rock group who rose to prominence during the early 2000s. They were influenced by an eclectic bunch of bands including The Velvet Underground,

The Drones are an Australian rock group who rose to prominence during the early 2000s. They were influenced by an eclectic bunch of bands including The Velvet Underground, Bad Brains, Suicide, Green on Red, The Birthday Party, Van Morrison, Bob Dylan and Nina Simone.

Musically the band does not fit easily into conventional rock music categories. While some of their material is based on conventional rock sounds and song structures, they also venture into the noisy, atonal, blues-based music that Tom Waits brought to a wider audience. The Drones also explore the music of the Australia bush made popular in Australia by Weddings Parties Anything. Like other Australian bands such as The Triffids, The Go-Betweens, Nick Cave and The Dirty Three, The Drones left Australia in 2005 to concentrate on the European market, where a larger market would make it easier to support their unconventional sound. However they eventually returned to Australia to find a ground swell of interest in them - generated by acclaim and publicity both at home and abroad.