Cutting their teeth with prolific live appearances, including frequent busking duties, the Saskwatch unit managed to apply their razor-sharp musicianship into a deft recording session for the album. “We had been playing around Melbourne a lot, just at Cherry Bar most Thursdays, plus rehearsing,” Liam explains. “We had four days in the studio so we went in and did it all live to tape with our friend Cam. Luckily we got it all done in that time.”
It’s been a long and rewarding journey which eventually lead to Leave It All Behind, the outfit’s first full-length release. After an expansive and loose genesis, the band consolidated into the unit that is currently taking the country’s (and the world’s) stages by storm. “I guess it was pretty sort of loose organisation and no foresight as to what instruments that we wanted in the band. It started off jamming and busking with a group of up to 15 of us from uni – we all studied music together,” Liam recalls. “From there we had people coming and going when busking, then we got it down to nine when we were first asked to do gigs. It was all pretty loose and natural, I guess. It used to be a struggle in the beginning, but in the past year or two years everyone has really stepped up and now it really is easy because everyone enjoys it and makes time for the band and happy to put in the effort, which makes everything so easy – recording, touring, anything. It just makes such a difference.”
Commanding attention from centre stage with a powerhouse of a voice is Nkechi Anele, calling to mind the greats of soul with an electrifying display of showmanship. “I’m a bit hazy on the dates, but it was about a year after we started doing our thing – mostly instrumentally,” Olaf says, looking back on when Nkechi joined the Saskwatch ranks. “Back then we didn’t have our shit together, just doing ragtag gigs and playing a bunch of covers, not writing much. Just jamming out stuff and being a bit loose. It was around that time when she came and did a few gigs with us and we were just blown away. She is a bit kind of shy, but when she gets onstage she really comes out of her shell. She came along and nailed it, and from there it all got a bit more serious. We were writing more and getting some tunes together.”
Proving to be a certified highlight on any bill, Saskwatch are one of the most in-demand local acts of recent memory. “With all these festival shows it’s been weird to have all this space on the stage,” Liam laughs. “We’ve been very lucky the past year show-wise. For me the highlight has definitely been Golden Plains, just because it’s my favourite festival, and to have all your friends in the front row. It’s just the best festival. Plus there’s Meredith coming up.”
Before launching well into another summer festival season, Saskwatch will be helping kick of the massive Australasian World Music Expo festivities. “It’s opening night with The Bamboos and Electric Empire which is awesome,” Olaf beams. “It’s a really cool lineup, it’d be great to play with those guys. I don’t think we’ve played with Electric Empire before – The Bamboos we’ve done one or two shows with before. They’re both bands we look up to. It should be a good night.”
As well as choice festival slots, Saskwatch have been selected by some R&B and funk legends, including Earth Wind & Fire and Maceo Parker, to perform support duties,
“They’re all really nice guys and just really supportive and were saying stuff like ‘Keep doing what you’re doing.’ Just to see them still rocking at like 60 and 70 is inspiring, seeing them still rocking and doing what they love doing,” Liam states.
Despite Cherry Bar bearing an ostensible reputation as a pure rock‘n’roll haunt, Saskwatch became synonymously attached to the venue with their many appearances at the longstanding Soul Night. “I think there is a mixing and matching and joining together of different venues and genres and styles and as a result there are so many good bands coming out,” Liam muses. “It’s such a pleasure to be a part of the scene. I guess the thing for us is that we enjoy not just soul but everything. There are a lot of great soul bands coming out of Melbourne – Clairy Browne And The Banging Rackettes, and The Cactus Channel for example. It’s hard to say, there are great bands of all types coming out of Melbourne. I think just the scene is great at the moment.”
“There’s been a little bit of a scene here for a while, you’ve got like Soul-A-Go-Go on PBS and Soul Night at Cherry,” Olaf adds. “But it seems like the last couple of years it has sort of exploded from being just a few people into being something more mainstream, almost. It’s just good music. The thing with Cherry is just that it’s good music to listen to and it’s good music to dance to. There’s obviously a whole lot of subgenres that don’t fit into that, but playing at Cherry just worked.”
Midway through the year, the nine-piece made the journey for Edinburgh Festival Fringe for an extensive run of shows before returning home to launch their album. “It was awesome, man. Just amazing for us to go overseas for the first time and just start again in a way. Playing a lot of club shows and different atmospheres – playing shows a 3am, playing in the Spiegeltent, playing late night club shows. It was a real interesting mix of shows, but all of them had a good response.”
Present in their setlist as live favourites, two slightly oddball choices of covers made their way onto the record in Little Red’s Coca Cola and Robbie and Kylie’s Kids. And hey, they somehow pull it off. “It’s tough. With a cover you don’t want it to be a rehash of the original, because that would be boring,” Liam explains. “With ‘Kids’ I just like the song, and I grew up listening to it. It sounds kind of daggy. We tried it out at rehearsal and have been playing it ever since. With the Little Red one, we’ve been friends with those dudes for a while and just loved the songwriting of the band. We tried it out and it worked.”
With Leave It All Behind freshly released into the world, Saskwatch are already laying down the foundations for a follow-up record. “I think it’s a little but of a different direction. I’m not really great at describing it. I think it will be that great live sort of sound as well as building something new,” Liam reveals.
“The plan is to just get better, write better songs, still play regularly. What we really enjoy is just playing live. And as long as we’re doing that I’d say we’ll be happy. We’re still not making that much cash,” Olaf laughs. “Obviously we’re a big band so it’s kind of hard to make that much cash, but if we could earn a bit of a wage it would be nice.”
BY LACHLAN KANONIUK
