Soul Revival

12 April 2013 | 9:41 am | Ben Preece

“Since The Bamboos started out just over ten years ago, I guess they’ve influenced most of the bands going around Melbourne – The Cat Empire and that sort of thing."

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Amongst the many thriving pockets of talent that tend to sprout around the fruitful Melbourne music scene, exists a rather incredible soul, funk and R&B contingent. Some of it will remain underground despite its quality and some will continue to thrive and even dominate. Together with Saskwatch, acts like The Bamboos, The Putbacks and The Cactus Channel are making their mark on the Australian music scene one funky jam at a time. The trumpet-playing Liam McGorry, just one of the massive nine-piece Saskwatch, is clearly at the centre of the cyclone that is Melbourne soul and offers an insightful glance at just where it comes from.

“Since The Bamboos started out just over ten years ago, I guess they've influenced most of the bands going around Melbourne – The Cat Empire and that sort of thing,” Liam McGorry explains. “By extension, the soul thing is really huge in Melbourne across heaps of stereotypical genres; bands like Oscar + Martin, King Gizzard And The Lizard Wizard and the other heaps of soul-influenced bands that are getting around at the moment.”

With an incredible live show to claim as their asset, Saskwatch have defied the odds – a niche genre, a nine member touring party, etc – over the last 12 months or so and have experienced nothing but incline since they released their debut album, Leave It All Behind, last year. It's often frantic rhythms, stunning vocals and horn-driven sound has left many music lovers frothing for another dose. But as McGorry explains, it's been quite the journey so far.

“To start with no one really picked it up and it's taken a while to get going but since it has started, more and more are coming to the shows and remained supportive, so that's been really great,” he smiles. “But since the album came out in August, we toured it, went to Europe for the Edinburgh Fringe and a few other shows. We've just been touring hard over the summer – Meredith, Pyramid, those sorts of festivals – and we just finished up recently with a couple of sets at Bluesfest. We met Rufus Wainwright backstage – pretty great. But yeah, it's been going well and we've just released a new single and are gearing up to record a second album.”

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They have just dropped new single, I Get Lonely, picking up exactly where Leave It All Behind left off. The ambitious nine-piece, having only released their debut, are already eyeing the release of the follow-up.

“We've got fifteen or so new tunes for another album and they're all in pretty early pre-production stages,” he continues. “We'll look forward to recording it in the next few months and put it out soon after that. It's interesting with nine of us though, hectic at the best of times. But it's good, everyone is pretty like-minded which helps – everyone's really great and supportive generally. So that certainly makes it easier.”

For Saskwatch, a band existing in 2013 playing music that isn't exactly considered modern, their sound is remarkably forward thinking. But McGorry explains that their influences certainly don't stop at the soul superstars of old and continue into a world that is very much 2013.

“To be honest, I personally always listen to classic soul – you know, just that sort of music – but a lot of soul-influenced stuff too, like Alabama Shakes, Dr. Dog and The Black Keys. I guess that's sort of the crux of where we're heading at the moment.”

Saskwatch will be playing the following dates:

Friday 12 April – Alahambra Lounge, Brisbane QLD
Saturday 13 April - Solbar, Maroochydore QLD
Friday 19 April – Prince Bandroom, Melbourne VIC
Saturday 20 April – Theatre Royal, Castlemaine VIC
Wednesday 24 April  - Transit Bar, Canberra ACT
Friday 26 April – Gumball Festival, Hunter Valley NSW
Saturday 27 April – Oxford Art Factory, Sydney NSW