Doing the DIY at Stone & Wood
Bobby Conn, Roy Parsons, Rhys Mcilwaine and Molly O’Neil are the key members of Drover, a folk-rock band based between Byron Bay and Melbourne. The group regularly collaborate with other close friends while performing live. Notion was released in 2025, and the group is well on the way to a new album release later this year.
Seven spoke to Bobby Conn ahead of the band’s appearance at the Festival of the Stone on Saturday, 20 June.
I’m a Melbourne girl, what’s that connection for you?
Roy (Parsons) lives in Melbourne – I grew up in Melbourne. Roy and I have known each other forever. I played music with him down there. I wanted to start a band up here. Molly and I started playing a few tunes, and then we had a rider drummer and then I needed a bass player, so I just got Roy from Melbourne to come up – over time, Roy and I have, kind of written most of the songs. We all share the lead singing – then Molly has a song, it kind of spices it up a bit.
Has the reality of Drover matched the vision?
Yeah! I never really envisioned to be, like a rock star or anything. I just wanted, to like go to the pub and play a gig and have a few beers with friends.
Do you have a current earworm?
This morning, when I woke up, I was thinking about my friend Archie, I made this song called Lara, I was just, kind of like, humming that.
What’s in your life right now that’s really inspiring you with your music?
I’m kind of inspired by DIY collaborations. Collaborations and just little interesting musical talents. I don’t know if that makes sense. Does that make sense? Collaborations with interesting people – at the moment, musically, I guess. I’m into like DIY unpolished music that is made with soul. That’s kind of where I’m at. I’m not huge on the polished stuff.
What’s going to be exciting about the Stone & Wood gig?
I’m excited that I’m getting free tickets – haha! I’m excited because every time I play a gig, my best friend comes up and I get to hang out with him. We all kind of come together and rehearse at my farm, and, you know, most of the time it’s a little bit of a shit fest, because we don’t have that much time to rehearse – we play a lot of our gigs and rehearse just the day before.
I’m excited, you know, to have my little moment of fame…
It’s mostly about friendship for me. It’s all tied together with friendship and love. And DIY. Rough around the edges.
And the future?
We’re keen to build the local community music scene – see the scene as a whole, have more music. Maybe inspiring people to play music. I’m keen to, like see other people play music, because then I can go watch their shows.
You can see Drover and other great bands at the Festival of The Stone on Saturday, 20 June from 3pm. Information and tickets can be found at: stoneandwood.com.au.
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