After all, tensions amongst bandmates are often high enough without adding the pressure of external elements and imported players, and the old adage about too many cooks spoiling the broth does have a habit of proving prophetic. Yet if there’s one band that has managed to sidestep the awkwardness associated with creative cross-pollination it’s Cookin’ On 3 Burners.
The Melbourne soul and funk institution, a three-piece responsible for releasing a trio of celebrated albums over the space of some nine years, are well-known for the array of musical guests they have involved in their process over their career. For them, recruiting friends isn’t some dalliance or a diversion: it sits at the very root of their creative process, and they draw a great deal of strength from shaking up their sound with a little help from their revolving cast of guests.
Indeed, though best known for their repeated collaborations with Kylie Auldist of soul band The Bamboos, Cookin’ On 3 Burners have rubbed shoulders with everyone from Tex Perkins to Daniel Merriweather, amassing a legion of dedicated and adoring fans in the process. As the band’s organ player Jake Mason tells it, reaching out to other artists is often about keeping the band’s songwriting fresh, and avoiding the rut so many other groups seem to find themselves slipping into.
“It’s one of the main reasons we have other people in,” says Mason. “It mixes things up, and it gives us the inspiration to write a little bit differently for them. For our gigs we tend to [recruit] people who we’ve more than likely recorded a song with. They’re people we’ve had a good collaboration with in the past. That’s how the collaboration starts, and we go from there.”
Given Cookin’ On 3 Burners has been the main focus of Mason’s creative efforts for many, many years, one wouldn’t blame him for growing even the slightest bit sick of the outfit. But when pressed on the subject, Mason reveals the band gives him as much life now as it did when the group started out, and he still affords his bandmates, Dan West and Ivan Khatchoyan, with exactly the same respect they imbued in him back when they recorded their first outing, Baked, Broiled & Fried.
He even loves the rigors associated with touring, and no matter how draining taking to the road might occasionally be, he relishes every single show. “It’s one of those things, when you’re on the road, you get sick of touring a little bit, but when you’re off it, you miss it,” he says.
One can imagine that a lot of that enjoyment might come from the freshness the band imbues their sets with. They ensure that no two shows ever outwardly appear too similar, and believe that spontaneity holds the key to creative survival. “We’re always changing the set, changing up songs in the repertoire, or swapping things around,” Mason says. “There’s always a bit of a muck around for sure. It’s a different set for nearly every show. There’s a core bunch of songs, for sure. But you always want to tailor things for the guests we play with. There’ll be a bunch of different songs [we play] depending on the guests.”
That’s not to say there aren’t occasional hindrances along the way, of course. Making music is Mason’s job, and like all jobs, there’s a fair share of boring, logistical nonsense to power through. “When you’re working with three other musicians at the same time, it’s quite a scheduling event,” Mason deadpans. And yet the band’s love for what they do means that such scheduling nightmares often fade away when compared to the great rush they get from taking to the stage.
But aren’t they even a little bit sick of each other? Mason says no: not even slightly. No matter how much time he might have spent with West and Khatchoyan, the bandmates and friends have nothing but a deep reserve of respect for each other. “On tour, you’ve just got to make sure you find your own space,” Mason says. “It’s pretty much that. Just about respecting everybody, and being cool.”
By Joseph Earp
