Bio

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Oz music in the 1990's was suffering an identity crisis of sorts.  The golden days of pub rock were gone, the pokies were on the rise and club/rave culture had begun to takes it's first very wobbly steps.  While the world seemed to be under the spell of all things grunge and it’s dour anti-establishment ethos. Some were looking elsewhere to get their kicks. 

 

Hip Hop was in a golden age of change and so to was the English led revival of classic Soul Jazz and Funk of the late 60's and 70's.Club nights, gigs and illegal warehouse parties like Funk Inc.  began popping up around inner city Sydney where a small band of dedicated punters could be found getting down and sharing the love.  You could hear the likes of The JB's, Roy Ayers, The Meters, Betty Davis and Stevie Wonder and the new schoolfunk and hip hop of De La Soul, The Brand New Heavies, The Young Disciples and The Jungle Bros. 

 

The true believers could be found down at the Harbourside Brasserie at around 1am on a Sunday to catch the late set by the indisputable godfather of Australian soul funk - the late great Jackie Orzascky and his Godmothers. This is the scene in which the soon to be members of Skunkhour found themselves in Sydney around 1992  and began to search each other out. 

 

From the outset they set themselves a difficult task of fusing Soul, Funk, Hip Hop and Jazz with not just Rock but an unashamed love of Oz Rock.  This would prove to be their greatest asset and their biggest handicap to an industry and market not yet ready to cope with funk and real soul let alone Oz rock hip hop.

 

There were other groups on the scene but Skunkhour were relentless and unapologetic in the pursuit of defining their own brand of Australian groove music. They did not want to be seen as imitators, they wanted to be seen  as originators even if it meant they were never allowed to join the club, any club. 

 

The Band....

 

The nucleus of the band formed in late '91 and contained the brothers Mike and Dean Sutherland, and Warwick Scott. 

 

Mike had been playing drums in variety of indie, jazz, punk and rock bands around the Surry Hills and inner west circuit since the late 80's.  His style was rooted in old school RnB, rockabilly punk and jazz which helped give the rhythm section it’s crucial driving "mongrel" edge. 

 

Dean Sutherland's bass was a nugget driven, slap happy locomotive of straight up heavy funk yet he could also sit back and mellow out in the pocket.  Younger than Mike he grew up playing in a variety of bands around Byron as teenager including a group with Pat Davin from Grinspoon.  Together they were one beast of a rhythm section. 

 

Guitarist Warwick Scott was the smooth,technically brilliant yet understated lynch pin that held the whole band together.  A student of the legendary Jim Kelly at the SCU in Lismore, Warwick was a solid down the line Jazz Funk & Blues guitarist who knew how to find space and leave it too.  Quiet and confident he was the heart of the bands sound in many ways. 

 

The three mates began jamming and gigging sporadically around inner city Sydney using a variety of guest vocalists.  The first to stick was Alan (Code) Blue from the seminal Aussie hip hop act Sound Unlimited Posse.  This step established Hip Hop as a part of the bands sound but they still needed a singer that could match and mix it with the more aggressive flavour that an MC brings.  They found it in Aya Larkin. 

 

Aya sung with a striking intensity and easy intimacy,while he possessed a physical presence not seen in any other soul rock singers of the time. He was already a seasoned muso and songwriter and lyrically he bought to the group a personal and more ethereal indie rock edge. 

 

A buzz formed around the band and the gigs began to get bigger. But Alan Blue had commitments elsewhere and had to leave  "Skunk" as they were then known to record with SUP.  Upon Aya's recommendation they gave a tape of their material to Aya's brother Del who had never performed with a band but had been writing and rapping away in his room and hanging around the gigs and clubs at the time.  The Skunk boys liked what they heard and he was in.  Del was keen from the start to forge his own personal style as an Australian MC both lyrically and stylistically. He would be the first "Ozzie MC" that many Australians outside of the fledgling urban Hip Hop scene would ever hear. 

 

This make up left the band with the advantage of having two sets of brothers in the crucial roles of rhythm section and vocals, and left Warwick in the middle wondering when they would shut up.  In these early days the band also contained a full time brass section which consisted of Daniel Barnett on Trombone and Andrew Watson on sax and an array of percussionists and backing vocalists.  Around this time the band were informed that the name Skunk had been registered by another band so they had to find themselves a new name.  Mike, who was studying literature at the time,suggested they use the name "Skunk Hour", which was the title of a well known poem by American poet Robert Lowell.

 

With a new name and their line up set they started work on writing  and rehearsing the material that would go on to form their first album. 

 

Debut Album....

 

The band recorded their first self titled, self funded album in 1992 over 10 short days. 

 

The album was rooted in straight up soul funk combining the sleek, mellow feel of tracks like "Back To Basics", "Free Man" and "Pullatickin’", with the party starting "Bootyful"  l and the instant underground funk classic and live favourite, "Do You Like It"?

 

It also contained some frenetic mongrel funk work outs such as "Horse", "A Cow and a Pig" and the live monsters

"Echidna" and "The Sheep of Sam Clam's Disco".

 

Not only was the playing and song structure a cut above for such a young band, but so too were the lyrical themes and personal observations of the two vocalists.  With no permanent keyboard player for the session they enlisted the help of the incomparable Chris Abrahams who nailed all his tracks in a single afternoon. 

 

The album was an audacious and confident debut and was picked up instantly by JJJ which gave the band some much needed national exposure and opened doors for the band to start touring the country more regularly.

 

At this stage they filled in the last remaining piece of the puzzle with the addition of Paul Searles on keyboards. Originally from Newcastle and a fellow student of the SCU Jazz course Paul brought a raft influences; jazz funk, electro and pop combined with a brilliant ability to create his own synth effects and sounds.  He was to become a big part of the sound going forward.

 

Feed....

 

During recording of their 2nd album "Feed" the band signed to Sony on the Columbia label and kicked into a new gear.  Feed, released in April '95 signalled a change in direction.  They dropped the horn section and headed into a slightly darker and atmospheric style of funk rock.  Tracks like the big marching grooves of "McSkunk", "Treacherous Head" and "State" were mixed in with the cascading funk break beats of "Greenlight" and the dark and frenetic "Skeleton".

 

They also came out with the seminal, melancholic smooth groove classic "Up to Our Necks in it", a track that truly set them apart from all other Oz rock bands at the time and made it to JJJ’s hottest 100.  Del's non conventional rhyme was stark,hypnotic and riveting, while Warwick sliced through the middle of the song with a tear you heart out solo of astounding feel and gravity. 

 

They toured the album extensively and became a fixture on the touring circuit and the revived festival scene including memorable gigs headlining the Byron Bay Music Fest and slots at Big Day Out, Livid and Alternative Nation to name just a few. 

 

Playing the strange and uncompromising mongrel Soul Rock Hip Hop that they did, the band began to realise they were reaching the limits of their support in the Oz music scene and began to look OS for their next move. 

 

With the help of their manager Paul Cussens (and Groove Terminator's remix of "Do you like it?" passed on by the JJJ DJ Andy Glitre to label head Eddie Piller) they secured a deal with the legendary underground English label Acid Jazz, birthplace of The Brand New Heavies and Jamiroquai.  The band hated the term "acid jazz" partly because it did no favours in hard rockin' Australia and also because they never saw themselves as a pure smooth jazz funk group. But they would not let the chance go begging. 

 

They toured England and the continent with label mates Mother Earth and made inroads all over Europe.  On their second (solo) tour the band drew crowds of a thousand people per show in France, Italy and Switzerland.  They kept up the pace into '96 playing at home and built a reputation as one of the most formidable and loved live bands in Australia.

 

Upon the rights for their next album reverting to Sony, the band were dismayed to find that the multi national label would not support their further push into these territories, and all the good work in Europe appeared to be for nought. Astoundingly, the large crowds and healthy sales achieved there up to that point weren't enough to warrant a release.

 

At this stage the constant touring and lifestyle had begun to wear thin with MC Del Larkin and he left in late '96. The band had to find themselves a new direction once more. Realising that it's impossible to have an MC rap another MCs rhymes they dropped the hip hop and pushed further down the path they set with Feed and started work on their third full length album "Chin Chin". 

 

All in all a very challenging time for the band. 

 

Chin Chin....

 

"Chin Chin" was released in '97 and was their most uncompromising and bravest work to date, with Aya in the role of sole vocalist.  They hooked up with in demand producer Magoo added Adelaide percussionist Chris Simms and created a visceral soundscape that saw a lot of the straight up funk fused with Drum n' Bass style breaks, Dub, Ska and the emerging 80's electro sound. 

 

Opening with the fat funk rock breaks of "Breathing Through my Eyes", and continuing the feel with "Chew", "Morning Rolls" and the tripped out harmonic slap bass space adventure of "Foam".

 

They also went deeper into the trip hop vibe on tracks such as "Tomorrow's Too Soon", "Unison", "Pulse" and their first dub number - "Old Shoe Horn".  The good time groove track - "Weightlessness" let the punters know that they hadn't forsaken the funk and was picked up for the  soundtrack to Aussie art house gangster flick "Two Hands".

 

By far their most personal, underrated and experimental album it had little backing from Sony, a label that had struggled to find a home for them at the best of times.  They parted ways with Sony and took stock of their next move.

 

The Go....

 

In 1999 Skunkhour rebounded in a big way with an infectious out of the blue radio hit, "Home".  Exuberant pop funk for the new millennium. It kick started a renewed interest in the band and by 2000 they had their fourth album "The Go" and a new label in Universal, in the process becoming one of the few Australian bands to release albums with more than one major label.  They hooked up with producer Steve James who was finally able to give the band sound they had always deserved - big warm and funky with space to move. 

 

"The Go" released in 2001 saw them refine their pop skills and focus their sound into their most successful and mature album yet.

 

Picking up where "Chin Chin" left off with tracks like "Gold Radiation", "Sunny Side up", and "Easy Pieces".  Then delivering the sticky fat stripped back disco funk of "Stadium" and "Kick in the door" - one of the bands finest moments and most enduring tracks.

 

The album also contained some of their finest and superbly handled mellow grooves with the sublime "Anywhere" and "Something Between Us". 

 

The album was well received on all fronts getting regular music video play and commercial radio, something that had remarkably evaded them so far.  But yet again the band found themselves all dressed up with no place to go as far as their record label imploded at the time of release and many of the members had enough of the frustration.  

 

They hooked up with Del for a farewell tour finishing up with a memorable final gig at Homebake in 2001. 

 

Skunkhour were ahead of their time in many ways.  They were a seminal band on the Oz music landscape and helped open up the nations ears to Funk, Soul, Hip hop and dance music at time when Indie Rock and FM MOR pop still dominated the Australian music scene.  They refused to compromise even when their fans or critics "wanted the horns back", "liked the old funk stuff", "hated Aussie rap" or "needed more hits". 

 

They were a rare thing in this country, a uniquely Australian soul funk band that rocked and wrote personal and sincere songs.  Grooves AND lyrics.  They didn't shout at you to "get down all night and party" or "say ho!".  Neither did they hide behind sarcasm,and parody or change their vision to please a niche.   They just made sure that their was no confusing who they were and what they wanted you to hear them play.  They demanded your full attention and then asked you to go nuts. 

 

Their fans come in all shapes, colours, sizes, ages and dress codes.  From wax heads to home boys, fashonistas to coal miners and hippies to bankers.  They all came and sweated it out on the dancefloor together to the mighty Skunkhour. 

 

Time Travellers....

 

Now from the far corners of the earth they rise again to roll out the funk. From woe to go, they hear the clarion call and say "hell yes".

 

Past lives will merge with the now and form a stylish rip in the curtains of space and time.  Old friends will see themselves and dance together again for the first time, like it should have once was.  All original line up (minus Paul Searles on keys who's still getting over it) and featuring the mighty Al Goodman on keyboards.  Also featuring Del, and other band members on the decks with assorted guest Djs spinning you off in time to our very own "back to mine session".  A great time will be had, a very fine hour (or two) to savour.