“I got back to my car with my colleague from work and we saw a big plume of smoke coming from the street parallel,” he says. “We drove ‘round to the front of it and ran up to the front of the house to see if anyone was inside. A neighbour said they saw someone running out of the house into the alleyway next to the house. So I sprinted into the alleyway and saw this old bloke who said, ‘That’s him in the distance’. So I took off after him… a woman in a car literally cut him off and half ran into him. I ran up and grabbed him and we restrained him until the cops came. It was fuckin’ full on for a Wednesday afternoon.”
You can say that again. Such a malicious scene is a far cry from the progressive funk rock that Jarrad’s band are responsible for. Nevertheless, he’s pleased to have done his bit for the safety of the community. “It turns out he’d had priors for arson,” Jarrad says. “That house had been burned down before. So I think we got him.”
Above Kings create a wide fusion of sounds, from funky pop to big heavy rock. The Melbourne quintet’s adventurous spirit is partially due to the separate upbringings of Jarrad and his brother, rhythm guitarist Dan Solomon.
“We grew up playing different instruments and had completely different writing styles,” Jarrad says. “About three years ago I moved in to really get to know him, and we decided to form a band – and that started everything.
“He had a funky kind of pop element,” he continues. “I was more heavy and dark. We put them together and came up with a really cool sound.”
The band name is actually inspired by a deck of cards. “In poker in the 1600s, apparently the ace could never be higher than the king. So because of that they relegated it to being the one as well, so you couldn’t be above kings.”
The band have a huge gig this Friday night at Yah Yah’s, and Jarrad is adamant that the Above Kings stage show completely measures up to their varied and eclectic sound.
“We try to make our sound incredibly progressive – funky verses, big, rocky, huge choruses,” he says. “We like to rock the shit out of the stage and we pull the crowd into our party. We have elements of emotive instrumental and vocal stuff, but we can also have really heavy and funky elements and really ridiculous aspects to it as well.”
Above Kings recently released a brand new single, a typically smooth but rocking track called The Fall. Jarrad confirms the single is lifted from a forthcoming album. During the album writing process, the band have worked hard to flesh out their instrumental and songwriting chops and show off some unique elements.
“We’re very, very excited for [the album],” Jarrad says. “We’ve got about six or seven songs that we’ve been holding onto intentionally that we’re going to record around September. We are so excited to get them out, because I think we really don’t sound like anything else out there at the moment. I trawl through Unearthed every week, and I listen to a lot of music, and I’m excited to say that I think we’re onto something new. I think the songs that we’re going to release after September are going to knock people’s socks off.”
BY ROD WHITFIELD
