Have You Heard: The Tawny Rajah

Who are you and what are you doing here?

I'm Dylan Szymkow and I'm here to preach the word of The Tawny Rajah.

We've seen your face around before, we know you already play in a few bands around Perth (Thee Gold Blooms, Will Stoker & The Embers). So what is The Tawny Rajah and how does it differ from your other projects?

The Tawny Rajah is my own thing. It can be a bit silly at times but for each lyric about my puppy or the quest for KFC there are sincere, heartfelt feels hiding behind. Musically it's coming from a different place. There are elements of Daniel Johnston, The Clean and Jonathan Richman whereas Thee Gold Blooms is more of a classic rock homage. Each of us boys in Thee Gold Blooms have our own side-bands and we all play in each other’s bands. Jase has Whails (truly awesome early 70s epicness), Goldy has The Mackerels and I'm a mega fan of their songwriting. I Love my boys. This is a really common scenario in Perth. There are all these little hubs of the same six or seven guys and gals in each other's bands. Ain't that beautiful?!

We see you've been playing a bunch of solo shows as The Tawny Rajah lately but now you've beefed it out to a full band line-up, how is that coming along? Who's in the band now?

Playing solo is fun but I've been craving playing these songs with a full rhythm section behind me for a while. I kinda threw this line-up together really quickly for the show this Friday night. We've only had a couple of jams but the guys already knew most of the songs from the demos I've had floating around for a few years. From Thee Gold Blooms I have Jase on drums and Goldy on guitar and then I have Will Stoker playin' bass. It’s ye olde instrument switcheroo. It's coming along nicely.

Your first show with the full band is this Friday night at the Boston, what's that all about?

The show is a fundraiser for Arts Management students from WAAPA who are heading off into the big wide world to do these 10-week unpaid internship thingies. They're all poor students and some of them will need money for water, shelter, full body massages, HSPs and more. The basics.

Who is playing at the show?

It's a beautiful lineup! Will Stoker is going to open the night with an intimate solo set. You get the debut of the new and improved Tawny Rajah in full-band mode. Salary who are sounding pretty amazing right now and Air Supply..ehem High Horse which is Timothy Nelson in a leather jacket. Oh, and the Boys! Boys! Boys! DJs will be spinning tunes throughout the night too.

You have some sweet demos up on Soundcloud, any plans for more recording or an official release?

Yeah, I'm sitting on a bunch of songs. I'm addicted to songwriting and can't stop. I spend my time amassing all these songs but forget to release them. I've gotta get my butt into gear and put out an album. I'll get right on to that.

Catch The Tawny Rajah, Will Stoker, Salary, High Horse and the Boys! Boys! Boys! DJs at The Boston, Friday 17 June.

Originally published in X-Press Magazine