The Appointments: Newy band making music for love of it

He recalls his mum recently telling him that from when he was old enough to be on his own two feet, his parents remember him waddling over to the family's stereo system speakers and bopping just inches away from them when his dad put on Bob Marley and the Wailers' Legend album.

Fast forward to last year, and Love was in the recovery room of a local hospital after having surgery.

"When I came to [consciousness] I noticed they were playing Bob Marley," Love says. "The nurse goes 'you've been coming in and out of consciousness and singing it so loudly across the whole area, we thought we'd just put it on'."

Now, 31, he continues to follow that passion for music, as front man and songwriter for The Appointments, a reggae-tinged five-piece Newcastle band making inroads on the east coast through constant touring and the steady flow of new music.

In May the band released a five-song EP, Microcosm Side A, featuring two of its most popular live songs, Light Me Up, and Outlaw. It also includes Hair Trigger, one of the band's favourite jam songs.

With funky rhythms and catchy hooks, it's a relaxing, almost retro-surf vibe, sharpened by guitar solos and prominent percussion beats. Great groovin' party music.

Rhys and his brother Eli have been making music since they were teenagers. Eli plays drums in The Appointments, which includes Kurt Spiers on bass, Aidan Liddle on guitar and Duncan Brown on percussion.

Rhys got his first guitar, with nylon strings, at age 5, then got a little more into it at age 10 when the family moved to Newcastle, then attended his first serious lessons (with Eli, two years younger) at age 14.

"It was after a couple of months of lessons, and then decided, 'all right, we can listen to CDs and try to work it out'.

Eli realised his passion was drumming, and eventually they began to play together as Rhys dived into the garage-band scene. One of their first projects was Model Youth, with a "post punk heavy Foo Fighters vibe".

Rhys recalls his brother's big leap as a drummer: "I remember one Christmas holiday, there was a band that I liked, like a pop-punk band. The drumming was really quite complex. Eli - I don't think he left the garage - he just learned these couple of albums back to front. He went from being a standard, couple-of-months-in drummer to being very proficient in a couple of months. Whoa, where did that come from?"

It's been a journey to the present day, with Rhys growing into his own musical skin.

"Even when I wasn't writing for a band I would always write down lyrics or song ideas or little voice notes in my phone," he says. "My phone has literally hundreds, if not thousands, of voice memos. 752 at the moment. Most of it is unintelligible humming at like 2 in the morning. But every now and then, there's something cool, and all of our jams are recorded on there.

"Even when I wasn't in a project, I was always writing. I think it's an innate thing. It's cool to say it gets your feelings out and expresses them. But it's beyond that. It's like a pure expression when you are making sound... it feels like it comes from a completely different part of me that's subconscious. So that's what I love about music."

Chasing music has always been part of Rhys's lifestyle, spending every last spare dollar on concert tickets, and then some.

But making his own music takes him to another place.

"I never particularly enjoyed playing other people's music," Rhys says. "There are some songs that are really fun to cover if I have emotional connection to it, but I feel like there is such a drastic difference in the type of performer I am, if I'm connected to the music as opposed to something that doesn't feel like it's coming from my soul, from deep within me."

He's humbled by hearing fans sing along to his songs.

In October they play shows in Vanuatu. Microcosm Side B is due out later this year.