Five Mile Sniper are a Melbourne rock band featuring John Baxter, Doug Lee Robertson, Matt Balfe, Geoff Barnes, Paul Inglis and Julian Acquisto. In 2015 prominent music journalist Jeff Jenkins coined the band “Australia's indie pop super-group” due to the bands collective history. 

 

Founding members Baxter, Robertson and Barnes draw from a music career that spans over 25 years and played in renowned Australian pop bands Holocene, Icecream Hands and P76 respectively. Baxter and Inglis also played in Melbourne band Prettymess and  power pop trio Alcotomic with the Living End drummer Andy Strachan. Matt Balfe was in Melbourne chart topping band Motor Ace.

 

Can’t Go On and Gone were the bands first two singles with video’s shot in Poland released August and November 2014. With proceeds going towards the Reach Out Foundation, both singles were warmly received by street press and community radio alike. December 15, the band performed Evolve live on Channel 31’s television show Melbourne 22 and Robertson made a studio appearance on SYN 1700 TV in January to discuss the bands national tour.

 

Their debut album The Sound of Trees was released February 6, 2015. Featuring the single Amazing with video shot in London, which was added to Triple M national playlist and Coles Radio network across Australia including many regional and community stations. It also went on to chart at number #4 on the ReverbNation top 20. To coincide with the release, John, Paul and Doug played a live acoustic set January 8 on ABC radio 774 before heading out on a national tour.

 

May 7 2015, John and Paul performed single Amazing live to air on the Marngrook Footy Show before a estimated viewing audience of 58,000 people and returned to the studio to begin recording their follow up EP. Live favourite Silver Sun was released August 2015 as a bridging single.

 

October 2016 saw the release of their follow up five track EP called Slow Moving Traffic. My Broken Heart and Slow Moving Traffic were the singles lifted from the EP that received glowing reviews and additional airplay. With a modified lineup including Pete McDonald on drums and Todd Gack on bass, the band performed a run of shows through Victoria in including a launch at Brunswick’s Retreat Hotel February 4.

 

December 8, 2017 the remix EP Intersect was released. Featuring British remixer Furry Friend. It is a mixture of electronic, dub step and break beat vibes on five tracks lifted from both The Sound of Trees and Slow Moving Traffic. 

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