“Yeah that was like a rare kind of planetary alignment I think!” laughs The Bamboos’ bandleader, songwriter, producer and all round visionary Lance Ferguson. “We managed to get everyone. Everyone came except Aloe Blacc as he’s based in the US of course, but yeah we had everyone there. That was a rare thing. The Medicine Man album is so guest heavy. I guess I tend to kind of go nuts in the studio and have wild ideas and want to work with everyone and then there’s that challenge of then presenting it live.”
Although challenging, this ambitious approach has paid off for Lance and The Bamboos. This year the band have been nominated for no less than three ARIA awards, Best Independent Album, Best Live Act, (voted for by the public) and Best Urban Album as well as the much coveted Australian Music Prize. Lance certainly has the right to feel proud of what The Bamboos have achieved this year.
“We’re really over the moon that that happened. After the band has been round for a while and made a bunch of records, to get that kind of recognition from the industry and our peers, to get three ARIA nominations is huge. I feel like creatively [Medicine Man] is the best album we’ve done and I feel like the tour that we did around it was definitely the biggest and best and strongest yet musically that we’ve ever done as well, so yeah, I’ve been really happy with what’s been happening this year.”
Eager to keep the forward momentum going, The Bamboos are refusing to sit back and rest on the laurels of the recognition they’ve already gained. Ever the workaholic it would seem that it’s actually impossible for Lance Furguson even consider taking a break. The band will be keeping very busy over the coming months, opening the AWME conference at The Hi-Fi next Thursday alongside their peers Saskwatch and Electric Empire, as well as playing a string of festival dates including Homebake and the enigmatically named Trevor – A Music Festival.
Although it might take an incidence of planetary alignment for the band to bring all their special guests along to their live shows, fans needn’t worry as the vocals will still be more than adequately attended to by their stunningly talented vocalists Kylie Auldist and Ella Thompson. Lance assures me that they are more than capable of doing the job. “Kylie and Ella do such fantastic jobs of owning these songs that perhaps other people have recorded but they really put their own stamp on them and in some cases I kind of prefer the way they do it.”
Speaking of Kylie Auldist, if it wasn’t enough work for Lance Ferguson to lead a ten-piece band of his own, he’s also been working with her, producing and co-writing her solo album Still Life. In fact he was just finishing up a live to air radio session with her for the ABC when I spoke to him on the phone. It certainly seems that when it comes to any kind of soul music in Melbourne, there is a chance that somehow Lance Ferguson is involved in some way or other. In fact, he recently put together a compilation album entitled The Soul of Melbourne, which featured a whole host of Melbourne bands who are involved in the recent soul revival. I enquire as to what he attributes to the fact that the classic soul sound is so popular once again.
“I think that because it is such a classic sound it’s kind of timeless and it speaks to all age groups and demographics. It certainly would seem that with people like Amy Winehouse and other acts of that ilk blew up into the mainstream and that certainly opened doors for bands like The Bamboos. But I think there is also a new generation of bands coming up who I guess have grown up listening to that music and it’s become a part of them and a part of their generation. There’s a whole range of bands even around Australia that are playing, obviously putting their own twist on things but definitely coming out of that classic soul sound.
The Soul Of Melbourne features 18 tracks in total from the likes of the aforementioned Saskwatch, Kylie Auldist and Electric Empire, as well as Cactus Channel and The Bombay Royale to name a few. “It’s been incredible” enthuses Lance. “To see the wealth of talent and also the versatility. There’s sort of neo-soul going on, some old school stuff and jazz influenced stuff and then straight up funk. It’s difficult to capture a whole scene on one album but we’ve done our best.”
BY ADAM ROBERTSHAW
