The first thing you might notice while listening to The Soul Movers is that they’re a little more rock-focused than their name might suggest.
“It started with a passion for deep soul and the sound of Stax and Motown and everything,” admits vocalist Lizzie March. “But it came from the rock and roll brain of Detroit, The Stooges; all that sort of stuff was in our collective musical DNA.”
This family tree of rock is easy to trace back, too. Initially formed by Mack in 2008, The Soul Movers consisted of her and partner Deniz Tek – the American-born rocker best known for founding Radio Birdman. This iteration of the group would issue a debut album in 2009, but it was close to a decade before a new album arrived. In that time, the lineup would expand to feature a new member, The Wiggles’ founding member Murray Cook.
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Having run into Mack at shows in Sydney due to their tall statures (and shared sight-lines), Cook was “blown away with her voice” after seeing Mack perform live, and approached her in hopes of getting a gig. “I just contacted her and said, ‘do you want a guitar player at a loose end?’” Cook recalls.
“At the time I was actually playing in about eight bands, but I was looking for something that I could really sink my teeth into.”
Thus the rock and roll revival of The Soul Movers took place with Cook on board, with four new albums arriving between 2017 and 2023. Dumb Luck (Cheersquad Record and Tapes/ Melbourne) was released last year on September 1st. “We’re coming to the end of the national tour now with last trips down to Melbourne and Sydney – it has actually been a string of 40 dates in the last six months,” Mack explains.
According to Mack, the endless energy and determination of Cook has seen the group reach new heights. However, even while the band bills themselves as ‘Murray Cook’s Soul Movers’, it’s still a creative partnership, and one they don’t see ending any time soon.
“We had a chat about Murray’s retirement and I thought, ‘I wonder if this is going to be our last album’,” Mack remembers, recalling a long-awaited trip Cook took last year. Using the trip for some time to think, he returned with surprising news.
“He says, ‘I’ve decided… that I’m never going to retire’,” she recalls. “He said, ‘Why would you stop doing something that makes you that happy?’”
It’s this desire to follow their passion that has led to their latest effort, the new track ‘You-Turn’. Featuring a passion for the “groovy late ’70s vibes”, and showing influence from bands like The Runaways and other iconic bands of the era, ‘You-Turn’ comes complete with approval from both Radio Birdman (co-founder Tek’s bandmate Rob Younger co-produced the track) and The Chats.
Having met The Chats side-stage at Splendour In The Grass, they struck up a friendship with guitarist Josh Hardy, who “dragged his Marshall stack in and cranked it right up for us”.
“A lot of the reviews are saying, ‘There’s no way that’s the Soul Movers’,” says Mack. “Well, did you feel moved? Then it’s the Soul Movers.
“That’s what we love to do and that’s where the band started,” she adds. “So I think it’s totally appropriate that ten years down the track we should pull over and think of our forefathers.”
Indeed, it’s a punch track that sees the group following their hard-rock, proto-punk genes and delivering something as relevant and timely as it is powerful.
“The words were actually written in lockdown, ’cause I was crossing the street and people were just so paranoid of getting sneezed on or breathed on,” recalls Mack. And I was just like, ‘this is war’.
‘It was a very Radio Birdman attitude, and it’s quite angry with its MC5 mentality,” she adds. “Don’t try to control us. Do not try to control music. Do not try to control our freedom as musicians to communicate.”
With the new track out in the world, The Soul Movers have been playing shows around the country, with gigs at Cherry Bar and Lulie Tavern booked for April 6th and 7th, ahead of their trip to Canada in June. For The Soul Movers, the live stage is where they come to shine.
“If you see us live, we are pretty gnarly,” admits Mack. “We can rock out. We can do a Blondie cover and then slam down ‘You-Turn’ and the crowd’s shocked while we just leave a smoking barrel there as we walk away.”
“I always said with The Wiggles that what we did was spread joy,” adds Cook. “And I think we try to do that with The Soul Movers too. It’s nice to leave an audience feeling good.”
Check out The Soul Movers’ latest releases and tour dates here.
This article was made in partnership with The Soul Movers.
