“I was in a band called the Good-Time Party Band with some guys who play in The Dotcoms [another Melbourne band] and I think it just sort of happened halfway through a show, that my voice just cracked and I found that new way to sing.” Hawkins is talking to me the next day after a ‘pretty loose’ show at Old Bar in Fitzroy, a venue which the band have frequented during their two and a half years of existence.
“It took me a while to get that gravelly voice to a point where I could sing a whole show like that, I mean it takes a bit of technique to not completely trash your vocal chords. I pretty rarely lose my voice except for last night, it’s just a matter of not drinking too much and making sure you sing from the right places,” explains a croaky Hawkins.
The Toot Toot Toots live shows are certainly something to behold with the lineup growing as large as ten people on stage including three totally babe’n dancers. The Toot Toots core is five people, Bez Berry – Lead Guitar, Stevie Gavan – Bass, Dylan Thomas – Drums, Giuliano Ferla – Percussion, Trombone, Vocals, Danny Hawkins – Vocals, Guitar, with Hawkins explaining how the beast grows. “When we play in Melbourne we can have up to ten people on stage. There’s the five core members plus a trumpet player, the dancers and a mandolin.” Hawkins’ voice is warming up as he talks, with it now regaining it’s usual warmth and losing the intense husk of a guy sang for hours only a day earlier. He continues discussing the additional musicians. “Our trumpet player always rehearses with us but doesn’t travel interstate, the other guys like the mandolin player watches us on stage on and then improvises. I guess it really comes down to the fact that the sometime-contributors are just really really good musicians.”
Hawkins now addresses the question whether The Toot Toots’ sound comes from the same place for each member or whether it is a meeting of a myriad of influences? “I think we all have a pretty similar taste in music,” he pauses. “I really like Captain Beefheart, Tom Waits, Nick Cave, The Pixies, The Drones and all the guys in the bands like that kind of stuff. There are some variances, Bez who plays lead guitar listens to a lot of classic rock and our drummer listens to a lot of punk rock and I think that shows. But Giuls, Steve and I have a pretty similar taste.”
The Toot Toot Toots popularity has benefited from, or more accurately been buoyed by, the gypsy and mariachi revival and the perennial appeal of Tom Waits. On an international level the popularity of US acts Man Man and Beirut have certainly helped cross The Toot Toot Toots sound into the mainstream. Hawkins discusses how he feels the support has been on a local level for his band’s style of music. “It feels good, not just a flash in the pan, it’s great it continues to grow in popularity. I don’t think everyone has jumped aboard yet – if you listen to triple j and those sorts of stations horns heavy country infused rock ’n’ roll is underrepresented but community radio stations like PBS and RRR are really championing it at the moment. And most rewarding for us is the amount of people coming to shows to see what we’re doing.”
BY DAN WATT
