Coming To Blows

16 October 2013 | 6:00 am | Carley Hall

“There’s no one in Brisbane, and no one I really know of in Australia, that’s doing the sort of stuff we do."

More Bullhorn More Bullhorn

Brisbane horn blowers Bullhorn could clobber you to death with a range of heavy shit: trombones, trumpets, bari saxes. But the one you'd really have to look out for is Stevie Buchanan and his sousaphone, although it's an effort just for him to keep his beautiful old instrument in the air. “It gets really heavy – it's about twelve-thirteen kilos,” Buchanan informs. “And it takes a lot of air to play. I actually used to smoke [but] realised that it wasn't working with the limited lung capacity!”

The nine-piece have been drenching crowds with soulful reggae-cum-jazz-cum-hip hop since mid-2011, forming out of shared love of all things horny and windy. Buchanan stresses that his brainchild was the product of this penchant for a brass band that reflected the urban vibe of his and his fellow blowers' inner-city/outer-suburb surrounds. “We all played around the Brisbane scene for a while, and the younger guys are all fresh from the Con. The main thing was just to put together a brass band but not playing the old-school New Orleans jazz stuff or east European. We're generally modern, upbeat, we do a lot of hip hop and drum'n'bass – the stuff that's relevant now that will get the party happening.”

The pedigree Buchanan managed to wrangle together is impressive, with band members coming from Brisbane's finest jazz and urban outfits, including Dubmarine, The Upsteppers and Miguel. But the brass band isn't strongly represented in these parts, which means finding a starved audience is easy. “There's no one in Brisbane, and no one I really know of in Australia, that's doing the sort of stuff we do,” Buchanan reasons. “It's definitely a unique sound and line-up. It can be really interesting, especially with new crowds when we set up. We've seen a few people stand there quietly and treat it like a concert but we usually open our sets with pretty hard-hitting tunes [to get] people up on the dancefloor fast.

One novel aspect of Bullhorn's schtick is their “reimaginings” of tracks generally not expected for a horn makeover, such as Radiohead's Exit Music (For A Film) and Groove Armada's At The River. With album number two in the works, the boys are tuning up for their Roll Off The Top/Beach Party double single release and staging it as a double-billed show at The Zoo with up-and-coming soul sister Bec Laughton. “She's got an awesome neo-soul roots voice,” Buchanan enthuses. “She's a small girl but she's got a big voice. There's definitely going to be some more collaboration with her in the future and we're definitely going to jump on stage with her at The Zoo for a track or two.”

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