Sydney alt-funk pioneers Skunkhour are heading our way this month, hitting The River, Margaret River, on Friday, October 21, and Freo.Social, Fremantle, on Saturday, October 22 (get more info and tickets here). The rare WA visit comes in celebration of their new EP Parts of the Sun, their first studio recording in 20 years, and first since they reunited and began playing shows again in 2009. BRAYDEN EDWARDS spoke to vocalist Del Larkin to find out the story behind the new record and how it feels to be taking it on the road.
Congrats on the release of your new EP and taking it on a national tour. How long has this been in the works for and how does it feel to finally get it out there?
Thanks, we had been talking and skirting round the edges of it for a while but really got serious about the idea towards the end of the last year. There’s a lot of things to discuss and sort out before you you can all jump back in. You’ve got to all be pulling in the same general direction to make it work.
You also want to make sure its going to live up to expectations and stack up against your back catalogue. I think we’ve done a great job all things considered. The EP feels like a mini revision of our history and evolutions as a band with a taste of something new with Blue.
You have already played a stack of shows across the east coast. How has it been getting back on the road so far?
Shows have been a lot of fun and the response has been awesome. We realise how lucky we are now to be in this position. And it’s not like the old days where we’d be on the road for weeks at a time. That can really grind you down. These days we have to fit the gigs in around our lives and responsibilities, so we tend do lots of short weekend bursts. We’re weekend road warriors! Wonderfunk powers – activate!
It’s been some time since WA fans have been able to catch Skunkhour live. What would you say is the biggest difference between a Skunkhour show now, than the last time you were over here?
Well the last time I was there with the band was around 1995 – 96! That’s like last century- shhh… But I’m sure the boys played WA after I left.
These days by all reports we are honestly a much better band. We are more dynamic and take care with the songs and the stylistic differences in our catalogue. I know I’m rhyming better than I ever was. I’m a lot more relaxed and focused.
I just think we realise how lucky we are to be still be doing this and want to give the punters the best show we can because we don’t take it for granted. That can happen to a band when they tour too much.
When you first started out, your style really stood out amongst other Aussie bands at the time. What music were you listening to then that shaped the Skunkhour sound?
We all listened to wide variety of stuff but funk, soul, 80s alt/new wave and hip-hop were all common interests. Bands like Sly Stone, Parliament Funkadelic, Rufus & Chaka Khan, De La Soul, ATCQ, Beastie Boys, Ian Dury, Talking Heads and also Aussie bands like Midnight Oil, Hunters & Collectors, The Models, INXS and The Reels.
We were riding the whole acid jazz–funk revival at the time but we also had a strong connection to the awesome 80s Australian pub rock, the live tradition of really cutting your teeth and building your rep on putting on a powerful F-off live show.
How did it feel revisiting that with this new release? Were you deliberate in how you wanted the record to sound, or does it come naturally to you all after being together for so long?
Well we started out by putting together a shared playlist of stuff that we were vibing on for one reason or another, old and new stuff to see what the similarities or common threads were. Then we fused those concepts with any parts that we had and started melding the songs from there.
We realised fairly quickly that we had the bones and/or concepts for four distinct tracks that quite by accident seemed to trace the evolution of the band’s history and development – which was cool.
That made us quite confident that we had something good happening and was worthwhile really pursuing.
And looking back at your albums now, is there one you are most proud of?
For me personally it would have to be the second album FEED as that was the album where I had figured out how and what it is I really do. The band had also honed in on a fusion of styles and a sound that was truly our own.
On the first album I had only been rhyming for about six months or so and I wasn’t all that confident in my delivery, content and accent. By the time we recorded FEED I knew who I was and what I wanted to say as an Aussie MC.
There are tracks on that album like Green Light, Up to Our Necks, Sunstone and That’s the Way that are uniquely and quintessentially Skunkhour. They just don’t sound like anyone else.
Given WA is the last stop on tour, what’s next for you guys? And ideas of playing more shows or releasing more music in the future?
For sure, it’s been fantastic but I do believe we will need to take a little R&R first!
I think we all forgot just how much it takes and what goes into writing, recording, producing, promoting and touring as a band. There’s so many moving parts.
But we definitely feel revitalised as a unit and inspired by the whole process. We now know that we still have a lot to give and are that we are very lucky to be in the position we are in. Happy Days.
