Papa G and The Starcats are the latest in a slew of funk, soul and big-band performance acts to hit the stage around the country, and they know how to get it on. The grooves are old school funk, things you’ll have heard in ‘70s pornos (if you’re into that kind of thing), and not too dissimilar from the tunes emanating out of Melbourne’s booming neo-soul scene.
Citing influences like The Cactus Channel, Saskwatch and The Bamboos, the sound of the nine-piece (who’re soon to expand into a ten-piece with the addition of another keyboard player) smacks of what’s next in Australian music.
“A lot of people want to come and dance,” says Papa G. “People don’t want to mosh anymore, they want to boogie. I’ve found that we’ve taken a lot of influence from The Cat Empire in the way that they do party music – they’re a party band. We’ve made it all about the performance. When we’re on stage, everyone’s having a good time. We do the James Brown dance – the one-step, two-step groove. It’s really good for interacting with the audience. I think we put on a really good show.
“We want people to come and see us and have a good time. Of course the music is important to us, but you’ve got to be able to put on a good live show. If you can’t put on a good live show, and people aren’t dancing…”
With a solid background in musical education, plus an obvious flair for theatricality, it’s easy to see why Papa G and The Starcats are wowing punters and causing panties to drop on the Melbourne club circuit.
“All ten of us – or all nine of us – are studying music at Monash,” Papa G says. “We’re all studying jazz, most of us have grown up playing types of jazz or some kind of classical music.”
Given their extensive personnel, organising band practise isn’t the easiest thing in the world. “Rehearsing is an incredibly difficult task,” Papa G says. “It’s so hard to get everyone in the same room to rehearse at any given time, at any one point, we’ve only had the whole band there for half the rehearsals we’ve had over the past two years.”
Nevertheless, when it comes to stylistic direction, they’re a united force. “I grew up with a lot of rock’n’roll influences and then slowly moved into soul and James Brown kind of stuff,” Papa G says. “A lot of the other guys didn’t get into that – into the soul and the jazz and the funk. I introduced it to a lot of people.”
With their debut music video on the way for debatably the band’s sexiest song, Smooth Lovin’, Papa G is thankful for the help they’ve had around the traps. “The director, Logan Davies and his incredible team from Swinburne, I just want to say thank you to those guys. The music video’s turned out really great.”
They’re also looking forward to a second release; a live album. “We’re really hoping this live album catches how we are. Studio albums, they’re great, and we loved going into the studio and recording, but we think the live album is really going to capture what we are as a band right now.”
BY NAVARONE FARRELL
