Define your genre in five words or less:
Melbourne R&B/soul singer-songwriter.
Bearing the terrible clichéd nature of this question, what do you reckon people will say you sound like?
A modern day soul singer who takes his cues from old doo-wop groups (The Temptations), ‘80s funk-pop (Prince, Michael Jackson) and modern visionaries (Kimbra, Miguel).
What can a punter expect from your live show?
A 21st century high-energy funk show complete with raging guitar solos, beatboxing, on-the-fly vocal sampling, sharp horns, soul-sangin’ backgrounds, and a tight rhythm section.
When are you doing your thing next?
I am launching Intentions EP on Sunday May 26 at The Toff in Town with supporting acts The Bon Scotts and Al Parkinson. This show kicks off my east coast Australian tour that will take me to Sydney, Brisbane, Gold Coast, Maroochydore, Byron Bay and Aireys Inlet. Intentions EP is available now on druchen.net, iTunes, and bandcamp.
Describe the best gig you have ever played.
On the previous tour (Singapore/Malaysia), we performed at Mosaic Music Festival and the audience participation was mind blowing. Everyone was with me and I felt the music connecting on another level, like the Parliament-Funkadelic song One Nation Under A Groove. It was incredible.
Tell us about the last song you wrote.
Turnaround shows my experimental hip hop side as I deliberately performed the parts so far behind the beat, it’s almost off, creating a staggering “drunk on your love” groove. Beginning with a bitter break-up lyric asking ‘Will you find peace of mind after all we’ve been through?’ the dark tune makes an optimistic turn in the chorus beckoning the ex-lover to ‘turn around.’ I opened my voice up completely on this track, stretching three octaves from an earthy tenor to a stratospheric falsetto in the final chorus.
What’s your favourite song, and why?
Intentions EP‘s lead single You Bring Out The Best In Me is my favourite because of its duality: what music and a woman can bring out in me. The music video is a Melburnian homage to James Brown, Motown and Soul Train directed by Edwin Tejoz. We shot it in Northcote and it contains some supremely funky choreography by Aisha Kuryana (Kimbra, All The Colours, Guy Sebastian). I am very lucky to see it getting picked up by radio internationally (Triple R, PBS106.7FM, 4ZZZ, Northern, Southern FM Australia, 93.8fm Singapore, WKCR89.9 New York) and the music video garnering over 15,000 views in one month.
If you could go on tour with any musician or band, who would it be?
I would love to tour with The Bamboos. Their drummer Graeme Pogson actually performed all over Intentions EP.
Anything else to add?
After my East Coast Australian Tour, I will be working on the music video for Turnaround, which will be the second single off Intentions EP. I will then be heading over to Asia to tour for the rest of 2013, before returning to Australia for the summer festivals in 2014!
