One Time @ Bandcamp With... Surprise Chef
A few weeks ago I ran an interview with a young producer, Ezroh, who hailed from Australia. In response to my question about his soundtrack to 2020 he mentioned quite a few projects, one of which was All News Is Good News by his fellow countrymen Surprise Chef. Upon only a brief listen I knew I was interested and had the record on the way. After sitting with that album I was convinced that something is going on in that country that must be explored.
Surprise Chef lay down thick grooves for you to nod along too, daydream with, meditate, pray, read, cook or really any other activity that could have a soundtrack (what doesn’t?). The music is out of time, delivered to us by a crew who live in a 100 year old house and were inspired by diggers to grace the world with straight instrumental funk burners that will keep you coming back and relaxing to em. Whenever live music can happen again I sure hope these guys can make it out to the Pacific NW, this has to be heard in a venue, no 6 feet apart aloud - I’m trying to dance the night away.
So yeah, it’s good music. Press play. Enjoy. As the story goes with these features, I reached out and they took some time out of their creative lives to answer a few questions about said creativity and what life looks like in 2020. With a soundtrack like this boomin out the speakers things can be just a little brighter than they might appear when the news is on.
Who is Surprise Chef? How old are you guys?
Lachlan Stuckey (guitar), Jethro Curtin (keys, vibraphone), Andrew Congues (drums), Carl Lindeberg (bass). Hudson Whitlock plays percussion on all our recordings and most gigs. Henry Jenkins engineers all our recordings. Those two are basically in the band. Other great musicians that we have the privilege of playing with on record and various gigs are Greg Sher (alto saxophone), Jon DiNapoli (tenor saxophone), Max Dowling (tenor saxophone), Erica Tucceri (flute), Joe Orton (slide guitar, percussion), Lucky Pereira (percussion) and Robbin Cummins (percussion).
How did y'all come together?
Jethro and I have been making music together since 2012. We went to music school with Carl and Andrew, and played various session gigs with them, but hadn't worked on original music together until we started Surprise Chef in late 2017. Jethro and I were inspired to write instrumental music by our friends Karate Boogaloo, The Putbacks and The Cactus Channel, as well as the records by the likes of David Axelrod, Isaac Hayes, El Michels Affair and Curtis Mayfield that we were listening to at the time. I wrote two wonky deep funk instrumentals called 'Stuart Little's Car' and 'DA Stab Wound' - we had two rehearsals and recorded them at Henry Jenkins' attic studio with Max Dowling on tenor. They went onto a 7" that was the first release on College Of Knowledge Records, and Surprise Chef was born.
What influence does Melbourne have on the band's sound?
The biggest influence that 'Melbourne' has on our sound is the general support, positivity and encouragement that we enjoy from our peers. Melbourne is full of hard-working and conscientious musicians that, for the most part, place ideals like community support and creative integrity above ego. As far as actual musical influence goes, we've benefited from seeing bands like Karate Boogaloo, The Putbacks and The Pro-Teens make and release brilliant soul records over the years. We're just trying to make music that stands up with the likes of them.
Tell us about "the College of Knowledge?" What's the set up? How did the name come into being?
College Of Knowledge is the label that Jethro and I have been running for the past few years as a vehicle to support the particular flavour of soul and funk music that we felt wasn't trendy, and therefore wasn't seeing a lot of support. We wanted to put our efforts into backing weird instrumental library/cinematic soul sounds, because that's what we wanted to hear more of coming out of Melbourne.
In 2017, we moved into a 100-year-old house in Coburg that was surrounded by big bluestones. Coburg's history dates back to when the two major landmarks were Pentridge Stockade (Coburg was originally called Pentridge) and the bluestone quarry. I've been around Coburg and Brunswick my whole life, and knew the old nickname for Pentridge was 'The College Of Knowledge'. We felt this was a fitting moniker for our house, as it pays tounge-in-cheek homage to the old prison that's constructed from the same bluestones that surround our house, as well as that we saw the house as a place to learn and expand our noggins in a musical sense. When we started running the label out of our house, College Of Knowledge Records was the obvious choice.
What kind of relationship do you all have with the classic soul and funk sounds of the 60s/70s?
Those records have long been music touchpoints for us. We've all found that those kinds of records stimulate us in a way that modern music in the jazz, soul and funk realms rarely do (with a few notable exceptions). No disrespect to modern artists and production techniques, but when we started making our own music on the instrumental soul / deep funk kinda tip, the records we were listening to and that were informing our creative decisions were those made in the 60s and 70s.
Does hiphop play a role in your sonic architecture?
Big time; I think it's fair to say that we were all really into funk and soul sounds through sample culture in hiphop before we really knew what soul and funk was about. The first LP I ever bought was Mix Master Mike Bangzilla. It's also no secret that El Michels Affair's legendary Enter The 37th Chamber record that flips Wu-Tang beats in an instrumental soul framework has been one of the number one influences of our music output.
Walk us through the creative process? Is it totally collaborative? Does someone show up with an idea and you all build on it?
The first few releases were written entirely by Jethro and I, and arranged to some extent with the band. Our next record Daylight Savings was a much more collaborative effort, as now we've had a couple of years to work out how to write together and gel in that context. That's come from a natural progression of us moving from being a group of musicians that plays stuff that one or two of us has conceived, towards being a functioning creative band that realises a creative vision together.
Do you anticipate either featuring vocalists or working with vocalists in the future? Anyone in particular on the dream list?
Possibly - we've got a few favourite MCs in Australia that we'll no doubt work with in some capacity in the future... People like Nelson Dialect and Cazeaux OSLO. Also up-and-coming musicians like Izy and Broden Tyrell are doing great great stuff in the vocal soul thing, we'd love to work with cats like them. With that said, Surprise Chef will always be an instrumental project first and foremost; there's tons of people making music that centres around a vocalist, so we're happy to keep plodding along in our own lane without a singer.
When y'all aren't making music what's a typical day in the life look like?
Black coffee and hangs with our cat The Fabulous Baby Huey in the morning, working on the day to day of College Of Knowledge during business hours, and intense Fortnite sessions between the hours of 7pm-4am. Rinse and repeat.
Has COVID & quarantine been a detriment or boon to creativity for you guys?
I'd have to say neither - it's been a bummer not being able to play together, but three of us live in the same house so we've been writing a lot anyway. Thankfully our next record was well and truly finished before COVID kicked off in Australia, so we've been able to work on releasing that through College Of Knowledge and Mr. Bongo. We've all enjoyed a much-needed change of pace in our lives, and thankfully we've been dealt a pretty good hand throughout all of this. That's a blessing and a privilege, and the same cannot be said for everyone.
I'm in Tacoma, WA - and I feel like I've been hearing more and more names bubbling in Australia across genres. I know it's a massive country, is there some camaraderie and community amongst the different scenes, be it just in your city of Melbourne or throughout the country?
That's a good question - to be honest, the specific flavour of music that really turns me on isn't being made broadly in Australia as far as I'm aware. I personally dig artists from other states like Alnitak Kid and Hugh B, but heaps of great musicians from other states seem to end up in Melbourne (Tiana Khasi, Laneous and Laik to name a few).
Are y'all record collectors?
We are... Sometimes I wish we weren't. Jethro and I have gone pretty deep down the rabbit hole of collecting rare soul, reggae, jazz and hiphop in the past few years. It leaves our hearts and heads pretty full but the wallets empty.
Soundtrack to 2020?
Karate Boogaloo Carn The Boogers and Snooch Dodd & The Pro-Teens I Flip My Life Every Time I Fly are both some of the best instrumental albums ever made in Melbourne, and they're both out in 2020. If you don't know and you like that flavour, you gotta hear those records.
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