Earth Tongue - Interview
Interview & foreword by Beau Croxton
Earth Tongue by Nicola Sandford— (left to right,) Gussie Larkin and Ezra Simons
Earth Tongue is a psych-rock duo from New Zealand that has been making some serious noise for about a decade– and in recent years, it’s ascended into a glorious, deafening roar.
Their signature sound is a doomy and riff-centric one that is reminiscent of Sabbath-esque psych-rock and stoner rock material from bands like Fuzz, Sleep, Uncle Acid and The Deadbeats or Murder Of The Universe-era King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard. But their sound also explores the many different corners of garage rock, fuzz-rock, and other proggy psych that has gained popularity over the past two decades, ever since West Coast fuzz rockers like Ty Segall and John Dwyer led the charge.
This Friday, Earth Tongue’s new album Dungeon Vision enters the frame via In The Red Records, and it was produced by garage rock hero himself, Ty Segall. Earth Tongue has been supporting Ty on tour in recent years, and they developed a fruitful relationship that led to Ty producing their LP together in Los Angeles. Dungeon Vision was recorded all live and direct to tape over 10 days, essentially bottling up all of the primal magic of a rowdy Earth Tongue live show all on wax.
Dungeon Vision is a total barnburner that retains all of Earth Tongue’s incredibly satisfying trademark riffs, scorching fuzz tones, odd meters, and stacked harmonies– but the album also ushers in a new era by expanding the band’s range. They confidently lean into English-psych-folk and acoustics on “Body of Water” while stamping their sludgy trademark on grand choruses, and they even go full synth instrumental mode on “Symmetry Dripper”. “Ritual” double-sizes their vocal ambitions with a spectacular wall of harmonies that sound equally angelic and haunting– it serves as a theatrical spectacle to end the record on a mighty high note.
Recently, I caught up with Gussie Larkin (guitar/vocals) and Ezra Simons (drums/vocals) to chat about many things including: the origins of Earth Tongue, Dungeon Vision, working with Ty Segall, and playing King Gizzard’s “Field Of Vision” festival in August ‘26.
Check it out below!
INTERVIEW
BEAU CROXTON: Hello– awesome to talk to you today! How’s it going?
EZRA SIMONS: Very well how are you!
GUSSIE LARKIN: Hello! Nice to meet you.
BEAU: So– I just got very into Earth Tongue over the past year. I’d love to hear the story of starting the band, and how you met and how it was coming in your music scene.
GUSSIE LARKIN: We've been a band for ten years now. We were both in bands in Wellington– where I’m from. I was kind of a fan of Ezra's band, Red Sky Blues- which was an interesting stoner-rock adjacent band.
I had a band myself called “Mermaidens”, which is also still active. We got together as a couple first, and then a couple years later. We had been traveling overseas and went to a bunch of festivals in Portugal that really inspired us. We had this idea to make a two-piece band, because we really liked the idea of touring overseas and having a very portable setup. That was one of the motivations.
Ezra didn't really play drums– he was a guitarist. So at the start, we were really just figuring it out. This kind of genre felt pretty new to me, in terms of the guitar playing style. So we just played around and found our sound eventually. In Wellington, we were just playing house parties at the start. It always felt like a side project in the early years, but it gradually became the main focus– particularly from touring Europe and now being based over there.
EZRA SIMONS: Being from New Zealand, you're at such a disadvantage if you have aspirations to tour internationally, obviously just with the location. Figuring out how to do the two-piece band well was a limitation that we brought on ourselves to tour easily. Then it became the sound, the limitations of the songwriting and how we could do it live. It was definitely an important part of where we landed.
BEAU: For two people, it’s a lot of sound– really explosive!
Speaking of which, your new LP Dungeon Vision is fantastic. You must be so excited to put that out soon. I saw that you were releasing a new song tomorrow– “Silver Eye” which is actually my favorite track.
What can you tell me about making “Silver Eye”?
GUSSIE: It came after we had finished the recording with Ty (Segall), and we got back to Berlin. We thought the record was done, but then we just felt like we didn't have a song that was kind of on that slightly more…metal side of us.
I think we were also talking about how we just loved playing another song of our “Bodies Dissolve Tonight”. We really loved playing it live– it's just so propulsive. It has less power chords– it has more single string notes in the guitar playing. We wanted another song like that. That was the starting point. We wrote it really fast.
EZRA: With a lot of our songs, we have this very off-time 7…5 feel, and a lot of them are a lot slower. The amount of live playing we do, we know we need songs that get people going and that are a bit more forward moving. This was something we felt the album needed, and that's where “Silver Eye” came from.
BEAU: I love all the odd meters in the music– “Silver Eye” is also amazing and propulsive, as you said.
So how are you feeling about releasing Dungeon Vision as a whole?
GUSSIE: I'm really looking forward to people hearing it as a whole, because there's a few songs in there that are a little more left field for us. There's a song called “Body of Water” that has acoustic guitar and it kind of has this like… psych-folk thing going on. I think it just shows a new side of us.
EZRA: It definitely opens up from our sound of power chords and fifth harmonies in unison, into some really strong songs that Gussie sings. I'm excited for people to hear that.
GUSSIE: And I'm honestly really excited for people to see the whole packaging with the vinyl– because it's kind of unexpected for music in this genre. You know, it's quite colorful and more psychedelic.
BEAU: Absolutely– the colorful wax and packaging looks fantastic.
Yes– “Body of Water” is a big stand out to me as well. The melodies have this folky-y familiarity, where they feel like they've been around for 100 years.
I would love to hear how “Body of Water” came together.
GUSSIE: I think I had a vision for the song and I had to convince (Ezra) of that. It definitely just started as this guitar line with the melody, the melody really being the focus and I knew that I wanted to have a song with Mellotron. And I had just been playing around with a demo myself. So I made a demo sort of as a “proof of concept" with the guitar and just like a mellotron like from Pro Tools and then I got Ezra to drum along to it as a demo. And yeah, then we sort of saw how it could be.
EZRA: Yeah, we're all listening to a lot of King Crimson, Music Emporium, like…early 70s kind of UK, proggy, folky stuff.
GUSSIE: Yeah, I was listening to this band called Trees a lot– they were definitely a big inspo in terms of the singing. It's really like a sweet, old-timey, very kind of clean vocal.
EZRA: And then working with Ty, he also nerds out about that kind of stuff. So he may have pushed us even further in that direction.
BEAU: I love Ty Segall , I've been a fan of his for a long time. I think the first Ty show I saw was in 2011— I've been seeing him for ages.
So- you've had a great relationship with Ty over the years— from the tours to him producing the record. I'd love to know how it's been like working with him and being on the road with him– and what he brought to Dungeon Vision.
EZRA: Yeah, we've been big fans of Ty (and all those adjacent bands) since Earth Tongue started. A New Zealand promoter brought him to New Zealand for the first time in 2023 so he hadn't actually played as Ty here yet, and we got put on as support.
So the first time we saw him live was when we were playing together and it was at this really small but oversold venue in a surf-town called Raglan, New Zealand. So it was all pretty surreal, and getting to just meet them after the show and everything, and learning that they're huge New Zealand music nerds, So we just had a lot to shoot the shit about. We became quick friends. Then we played a few shows together there and then kept in touch and we were moving to Berlin soon after that. We just let him know that we're going to be there when he was playing a show, and he was like, “Why don't you join the whole tour?” and then it all snowballed from there. It's been a very helpful force for us.
GUSSIE: Yeah– his way of working is super old-school. And that was amazing to be a part of. I think we learned so much because it was all analog– all recorded to tape including the mixing– which is really challenging when you're used to being able to go in and take out little breaths, or correct little words.
We had to let go of a lot of “ego baggage”— I guess and just be like,” Look…that take was not the most “perfect” to my ear…but it had the vibe” and that's where he could hear things that had had a really strong feeling, that maybe we couldn't hear ourselves.
Earth Tongue by Sarah Burton
BEAU: What of pieces of gear were essential to the sound of the record? Was there any fuzz boxes that Ty whipped out from years ago?
GUSSIE: I actually mostly used my Hot Cake pedal– that's my main fuzz that I always use. So I stayed pretty true to my guitar tone, for the foundational fuzz over the record. But then he let me use his SG-1. Which is so beautiful (and has some sort of magical powers) to double track the entire record. So that just added another dimension. It makes the whole record sound cohesive as well. What about drums?
EZRA: With drums– we were flying from Germany to LA to do the sessions and we had limited baggage. So the day before, I messaged him and I was like, “Hey, cool if I use all your stuff?” And he was like, “I would much prefer that you do”. So it was his cracked symbols and his beaten to death 1950s (or early 60s) Ludwig Kitt with no new heads or anything. It was just like…very Ty's vibe, you know? Great sounding, but rough around the edges.
BEAU: Are there any influences on the record that people might not expect?
GUSSIE: I can't remember any music…I'm just looking at my playlist of things I was listening to…Yeah, definitely that English psych-folk stuff.
EZRA: Captain Beyond– we were referring to a lot.
GUSSIE: Captain Beyond– and the Flower Traveling Band’s Satori record, we were definitely listening to that a lot…for those really sort of needle-y fuzz tones that are right in your ear.
EZRA: I think we align with Ty a lot in that we didn't want it to sound overly produced because there's just too many of those records that sound like that these days. So, we did want to keep it as 70s sounding as possible. Aphrodite’s Child– we were listening to that.
GUSSIE: Oh, there's a song sort of halfway through the record that's a fully synth and drums track. Yeah, that's definitely influenced by the band Goblin, who we're big fans of.
BEAU: What about current bands that are playing nowadays? Is there anybody out there you want to give a shout out to?
GUSSIE: Last year I really loved the new Unknown Mortal Orchestra record. It's totally kind of unexpected for him having put out all these sort of like… cafe friendly..kind of bright, sparkly little songs. And then he just came out with this record that's like…Sabbath-y and the production is definitely like the kind of thing that we were going for. I really enjoyed that album.
We're big fans of ORB, from Melbourne. And their new record.
BEAU: I love ORB!
EZRA: We're about to tour Europe with this Swedish band called Hallas, who we really like. Kind of…”80s throwback adventure rock”, they call it. We're really excited about that tour. Something a little different.
Earth Tongue is kind of walking some tightrope between Stoner Rock World and Garage Psych World. Yeah. And it's cool to be dipping into the Scandinavian sort of fantasy stuff with that. Also, I’ll just shout out not just a fellow New Zealander, but someone from my hometown. There's a guy called Troy Kingi– and I was part of one of his many records a few years ago.
GUSSIE: He’s like a household name in New Zealand. And he had this goal to record 10 albums in 10 different genres over 10 years. And he's done like he's done soul, funk, dub, folk. He's done this like… Desert Rock album. He's got this amazing soulful voice.
EZRA: He needs to be heard outside of New Zealand. Yeah. It's called Leather Man and the Mojave Green– but all of his records are amazing. Shoutout to Shake That Skinny Ass All the Way to Zygotron, one of his albums. It's incredible.
BEAU: I'm sold already on the album names. I’m stoked to check it out.
Do you have any personal favorite tracks on your new record?
GUSSIE: Yeah, I really like this song called “Watch Tower”. It's simple. It's just like a riff that we wanted to play again and again. The lyrics are a bit silly, a little juvenile. “Everyone I know is up there in the Watch Tower. I am all alone sitting in my cellar”.
BEAU: It's a little bit of an introverted track– When I heard that lyric, it was relatable on many levels.
GUSSIE: Yeah– It's about FOMO.
BEAU: Yeah- it follows the themes of your music, but it's also a perfect allegory.
EZRA: I will shout out “1000 Curses” because it's a very drum-forward track- super fun to play.
BEAU: I love that one– “Dungeon Vision”, “Silver Eye” and “1000 Curses” were some favorites– and “Orbit of a Witch” also gave me a permanent stank-face too.
(Everyone laughs)
BEAU: And hey, that’s the highest compliment you can give anybody who's playing anything doom-adjacent.
EZRA: Yeah– I'm a fan of that one, too. We've had the problem with this record of like which ones do we put forward as singles …because there's a lot of potential singles. For us, it's a problem that we often have.
BEAU: Well, that’s a good measure of quality– It's a great record if there's too many to choose from.
Do you have any favorite recent live shows that are coming to mind?
EZRA: Recently, we did our first US tour and the highlight of that was playing with Acid King at the Great American Music Hall in San Francisco. It just felt different having a big, successful, packed out show in a country that was very new to us. You know, that was like, I think a highlight of recent times.
GUSSIE: That venue is just so beautiful. It has so much history and you get a really distinct feeling standing up there, looking out. That one was really cool. We played this festival in Seattle called Freakout and had a really good, enthusiastic crowd on a Sunday night. That was a highlight, too.
We have this tour coming up, and were playing in Ezra’s hometown, which is a really small town. So I'm looking forward to that– Lots of familiar faces.
BEAU: Fantastic. Well, speaking of a US tour, amI going to get to see any time soon in New York in the next year or so?
EZRA: We're working on some last minute dates for May on the East Coast. It's still a bit up in the air, but if it's not in May, it'll just be a few months later. One thing we're really looking forward to is coming back to the US in August for Field of Vision, the King Gizzard Festival in Colorado.
BEAU: Oh yes of course! How could I forget– I'm a huge King Gizzard fan, actually.
EZRA: Us too– actually coming to the US…King Gizzard is big everywhere. But in the US, they're like gods. It's crazy!
BEAU: For sure- I catch them every year. We've gotten lucky because they just keep coming to NYC every year. The only date in the USA outside of the Field of Vision festival this year is in NYC at Forest Hills Stadium, which is literally a 20 minute Uber from my house.
EZRA: Oh yeah. We were really stoked to get on the Field of Vision lineup.
BEAU: Absolutely– that should be fantastic. I saw the stream last year with King Gizz, Babe Rainbow and many other bands – And it looked like an amazing time – absolutely beautiful there.
EZRA: Yeah, yeah. Hopefully that goes well and we can keep coming back to the US because it's super fun!.....We love thrifting in the US!
GUSSIE: Yes, we do.
(everyone laughs)
BEAU: I Hope you have a great time at Field of Vision. I would come, but King Gizzard is playing practically in my backyard again and I’m too broke to fly to Colorado (laughs)
EZRA:....But you would get to see Blood Incantation as well!
(everyone laughs)
BEAU: I know…..it’s so nuts. They need to make a bus from Forest Hills to Field of Vision to back to Forest Hills.. (laughs)
Is there anything else you're looking forward to this year ?
EZRA: Yeah, we're just about to tour Australia with Ty (Segall). That tour I mentioned with Hallas in Europe. So we've got some good stuff happening for the album release. But apart from that, it's all unplanned territory.
GUSSIE: Looking forward to coming back to the States! Yeah.
BEAU: Awesome. Well, Dungeon Vision is an absolute banger - I love it. I've really been enjoying it and will continue to do so.
EZRA: Aw thanks! Hell yeah.
BEAU: Best of luck on tour. Thank you so much for the chat!
EZRA & GUSSIE. It’s been awesome. You too, Take care!
Dungeon Vision by Earth Tongue is out everywhere Friday February 13th, via In the Red Records.
Earth Tongue plays at King Gizzard’s “Field Of Vision” festival in Colorado in August 2026— get your tickets here.
& keep up with all their tour dates on bandcamp.
You can buy the Dungeon Vision vinyl on bandcamp here, or through In the Red Records here.
You can check out all of their music videos here.
And you can listen directly below!