Travalley film sights and sounds of Horsham for new video

Horsham-raised indie rock duo Travalley are back with a new EP exploring their childhood in the Wimmera and returning to the place they once called home.

After enjoying a successful past three years in Melbourne, which saw their music get Triple J play time, the pair have become introspective.

The group's latest single, Home, is the first song on the EP which shares the same name and looks at the memories they made during their adolescence in Horsham.

Travalley consists of two brothers from the region - Levi and Sam Mellington, who formed the band in Ballarat in 2019.

Home saw the brothers return to Horsham, to shoot a music video in and around the town, stopping off at places of special significance to them.

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Levi said the song came from a realisation of what they missed about living in remote Horsham.

"The song in itself is just about growing up in Horsham, and since moving away, it has been the biggest influence on our songwriting," he said.

"For a lot of people who grew up in a regional town, when they are there they think it is boring, but when they move away they remember all of the best things about the town."

The Mellington brothers moved to Melbourne in 2019, where they played shows almost every weekend until the pandemic started.

Levi said the inspiration for writing the song came about during a six-month trip to East Arnhemland, where he worked as a teacher in the remote indigenous community of Gapuwiyak.

While there, Levi lived with a family who taught him about the local culture, particularly the concept of Moiety - a kinship philosophy of the Yolngu people which divides society and the natural world into two interconnected systems, or Moieties - Yirrtja and Dhuwa.

Levi wrote the song while living in Arnhemland and said the philosophy had a profound impact on the way he saw the world and his place in it.

"Going up there reminded me of what we used to do at home. I was 700km from Darwin, and as a kid being 400km from Melbourne, you feel so isolated from the big cities," he said.

"Everything is part of their family. Going up there and having them explain Moiety to you, you get a greater appreciation of where you grew up.

"We don't do that, we use up everything that is around us, but they don't - they won't go out of their way to destroy where they live. Everything is part of your family. As soon as you get up there you start to form that connection with where you grew up as well."

The music video takes the audience around Horsham and its surrounds, starting in Quantong, at the brother's father's home.

Two Horsham children, Finn and and Riley O'Loughlin, portray the two brothers as children, and go about town doing what they did at that age - jumping in the river, playing cricket and exploring around.

Melbourne-based OneHouse Productions filmed the video, and said Levi and Sam's input added personal touches to the story.

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"After discussions with both Levi and Sam, we knew that it was only right that we'd shoot the music video in the boys' hometown since the song itself is an ode to their childhood. Being able to shoot in Horsham for a weekend was some of the most fun we've had together as a production team," a spokesperson said.

"Since we weren't familiar with Horsham, we were heavily guided by the boys to point us in the right direction of where the best spots were to capture the nostalgic tonality the video encompasses, which was great because we learnt about Horsham's history as we were going."

The track features layered references to growing up in Horsham, which will be immediately recognisable to any who shared that experience, such as a hot summer's day in 2010 which saw thongs melting on the road.

"When you move to Melbourne you realise that there are no traffic jams in Horsham, no chance of the bitumen melting your shoes. People here would have never had that experience," he said.

The song also features a tribute to the brothers' grandfather, who passed away during the writing of the song.

Travalley will be performing at Horsham's Exchange Hotel on Saturday, July 23, as part of their first national tour, off the back of the release of their EP.

Home is available to listen to on Spotify.

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