The Buoys are an Australian all female alternative rock band formed in 2016. Since May 2019 the line-up has been Courtney Cunningham on bass guitar, Hilary Geddes on lead guitar, Tess Wilkin on drums and founding mainstay, Zoe Catterall on rhythm guitar and lead vocals. They released their first extended play, Soft Boy, in 2017. They have issued several singles and toured nationally.
History
The Buoys were formed in 2016, initially as a three-piece, by Zoe Catterall on rhythm guitar and lead vocals, Sophie Moroney on drums and Emily Jane on bass guitar hoping for more female musicians in their hometown, Cronulla, New South Wales. They played their first show with Ruby Fields. Their five-track debut extended play, Soft Boy appeared in November 2017. It was described by Dave McCarthy of Laundry Echo as a "furious debut five track from our new favourite queens of four to the floor punk songs." McCarthy felt their debut single, "Liar Liar", displayed "an unrelenting onslaught of fuzzy guitars and bouncing drums that build a platform for nonchalant vocals to sound fed-up and fierce in equal measure upon." Come Here Floydstaff writer observed, "a fast paced dictation for love's complications and weird underpinnings. The ladies in the 3 piece band calmly fixates the right calculations towards why the complexity between one and his/her significant other. It's a challenge for sure." During 2017 Emily Jane was replaced by Elle Moroney on bass guitar, who was replaced in turn by Roslyn Helper in 2018 and then by Courtney Cunningham later that year. Anthea Compton joined on lead guitar during 2018 and Tess Wilkin replaced Sophie Moroney on drums. The Buoys released a single, "Blues Point Road", in May 2018, which Catterall described as about "being left completely in the dark about someone’s intentions." Their following singles, "Arm Wrestle" and "Make It Clear" were stand-alone singles. The Buoys had intended to release a second EP, Split Lip, but had a change of musical direction. The group released two singles in 2019, "Inside Outside" and "Gold". The line-up of Catterall, Cunningham, and Wilkin were joined by Hilary Geddes on lead guitar in May 2019. During that year the Buoys embarked on their first national tour, supporting DZ Deathrays, Polish Club and VOIID. They have played at Australian festivals. In February 2020 the Buoys played at the last ever Party in the Paddock festival. They performed a sole show to support Violent Soho at The Lansdowne Hotel. They were described by NMEs David James Young as "a band that has been asserting themselves as one of Sydney's great indie-rock hopes." The group were signed to Spunk! Records and issued their seventh single, "Wah", in April. Young observed, " is one of the shortest and fastest songs the band has ever released – a throwback to mid-90s riot-grrrl and 80s punk." While Hayden Davies of Pilerats felt, " is a perfect example of their brilliance and the exact type of work they're putting out to ensure their space in tomorrow's music world."
