Large Mirage Set Sights On Homecoming Mountains Show.

After recently joining the roster of booking agency New World Artists, home to the likes of iconic Aussie 90s acts such as Silverchair, Spiderbait and Grinspoon and modern trailblazers such as King Parrot, Nat’s What I Reckon, Mallrat and Wombat, retro psych-pop-rock quartet Large Mirage have been kicking some damn fine goals of late. Under the watchful eye of the Gold Coast based group, Large Mirage members Malia Hoffman, Kolya Chan, Blake Rochester and Daniel Croft have been busy releasing music, touring and playing festivals, and they’re looking forward to releasing more new music soon. Since 2022, they’ve released two singles, ‘Dream Machine’ and ‘When The Morning Shines’, one double single, ‘Be My Guide/Be My Friend’, along with an EP, A Side To Blame.

First forming as a trio, the group arose from the Blue Mountains and Hawkesbury areas around five years ago to make a statement in late 2020 with the DIY music video for their first single, ‘Going Insane’. Shot on Super 8 film by Katoomba cameraman and drummer Doran Brewer, its weathered rural look offered reminiscence of Victorian festival Sunbury – for those old enough to remember – a 1972 happening dubbed ‘the Aussie Woodstock’. Despite their youthful ages, a solid diet of acts such as The Beatles, The Who, Led Zeppelin, Santana and Ten Years After soundtracked the upbringings of the future members of Large Mirage, instilling their original tunes with the gritty authenticity of a distant decade in rock.

When I last talked to their co-founding member and former lead singer, virtuoso rock guitarist Kolya Chan, it was for a one-page interview for the December 2023 issue of a former publication of mine, Australian Guitar Magazine, which landed Large Mirage in print alongside my interviews with members of Foo Fighters, The Gaslight Anthem, Cosmic Psychos and The Screaming Jets. After we talked about A Side To Blame, which was recorded by Jackson Sharp at DeadWater Studios in the Hawkesbury, Kolya closed our interview by saying that Large Mirage’s plans for the future included mention of “an exciting new concept” and “a slightly different direction”, which was heralded by the joining of Malia Hoffman, their badass female lead singer who has now been in the band for one year. Reflecting on the recording experience of the EP, Chan stated, “it’s in the middle of nowhere and you can make a lot of noise there…we recorded all the instruments live in two days”.

“Why Large Mirage?”, a journalist asks the group. “What was the inspiration behind that name?”

“Well, we started with Mirage,” says Blake. “But we couldn’t just be called that, so a few variations were cycled through.”

“We had Sargeant Mirage,” Kolya pipes up. But Large Mirage is memorable because it sort of rhymes “in an Aussie accent”.

Dan shares his Band Name Golden Rule: “if you say your name to someone and they say: “Huh?” more than once, he says, then it’s not a good name. Large Mirage usually passes that test.”

Large Mirage rock the Velvet Fog