DAVE'S DIARY - 20 APRIL 2020 - TESKEY BROTHERS INTERVIEW
TESKEY BROTHERS BANK ON DARLINGS IN MURRAY AND YARRA
“You're the storm and I'm the Murray darling/ you keep me going/ every time I'm dry/ but if you leave me/ I'll be moving on/ but have a hard time running when the weather is gone.” - Hold Me - Josh and Sam Teskey-Liam Gough-Brendan Love.
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Teskey Brothers Josh and Sam and band-mates Liam Gough and Brendan Love grew up near the Yarra River at Warrandyte but use Murray Darling metaphors to fuel two songs from their second album Run Home Slow.
The quartet met on a school bus more than 15 years ago as high school students in Warrandyte and a neighbouring eastern Melbourne suburb.
“Growing up in Warrandyte the Yarra River flows through there before it gets to the city, the river is the heart of the town essentially,” drummer Liam Gough told Nu Country TV.
“The Grand Hotel is just across the road. It's just an essential part of our lives. We would go down there and swim in summer and do rope swings so we could jump into the water. We had so much time around there the river was a big part of our lives. A couple of the boys have a tattoo of the river at Warrandyte on their bodies. That's how much it means to us. The album is called Run Home Slow and it's very much about touring and wanting to get home but there's no quick way to get home. We often feel we're running towards home but moving so slow. But it's also about the river in Warrandyte that also flows so slow.”
Teskey Brothers perform a soulful country hybrid and ascended from busking at St Andrews market in the Yarra Valley to major venues.
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They played concerts at Melbourne zoo where their Black Kites peer and singer-songwriter Ange Foresio works as zoo-keeper when not singing for his supper at Yering Farmers market - also in the Yarra Valley They also graced famed international festivals diverse as Bonnaroo, Bottlerock and South By South West in Austin , Texas , and Aussie BBQ showcase in New York City 's Central Park. “It's a South By South West party they throw every year in Austin, Texas, but Sounds Australia decided to put on a bigger version in Central Park at a new stage they built,” Gough revealed on the eve of a previous international tour to promote Run Home Slow. |
“We were very lucky we were able to be there at the right time. It was an amazing day.”
High profile actors Chris Hemsworth and Matt Damon are among their celebrity fans.
“We hung out with Chris and Matt Damon about a year and a half ago at Byron Bay blues fest that was a lot of fun,” Gough explained.
“But they weren't in New York at that time unfortunately.”
But Teskey Brothers scored the soundtrack for new Rachel Ward directed movie Palm Beach starring Bryan Brown, Sam Neill, Richard E Grant, Aaron Jeffrey, Greta Scacchi, Jacqueline McKenzie and Frances Berry.
The soundtrack features Teskey Brothers performing Pain and Misery, Those Were the Days, Gardiner's Lament, The Albatross, Loomings and Fedallah's Prophecy.
TESKEY BROTHERS MEN OF THE UNIVERSE
“Well, I've been running since I was a child/ running like a river after the rains have died/ ain't never had one place to call my home/ lay my head in a different place unknown/ I wake up early and I wake up late/ but I never had time to hesitate/ I pick up my paper and I pick up my bread/ there's room on the road ahead/ I don't want no country to call my own/ I don't need one place to call my home/ there ain't no one place or people that are better or worse/ I'm a man of the universe, yeah.” - Man Of The Universe - Josh and Sam Teskey-Liam Gough-Brendan Love.
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Their CBS-TV morning show trilogy in the Saturday Sessions ignited American exposure and prompted more international touring.
They performed Man Of The Universe, Pain & Misery and So Caught Up.
“It was early on a Saturday morning and we had been out the night before and we arrived and were a little bit nervous,” Liam revealed.
“It ended up being a really great experience. Apparently, it did very well on television when it was aired and pumped our first album up into the charts.”
It's a far cry from singer Josh's previous trade as a plumber, Gough's industrial design work, bassist Brendan's landscaping and guitarist Sam's carpentry that inspired him to build their Warrandyte studio.
That was where they recorded both albums - the latest produced by Isle Of Wight born musician Paul Butler.
“We just seemed to really resonate with Paul,” Liam explained.
“He did Michael Kiwanuka's second album that was a favourite with all of us. The sound on that really won us over. He also worked with the Broken Bones . It was really inspiring to work with him.”
But there was a fiery fiasco with a tape machine the band procured long ago from Jimmy Barnes.
“Funnily enough it's a late seventies machine and the first day that Paul arrived we were setting up and getting into it and smoke started coming out of it,” Gough recalled.
“We started pulling it apart, we pulled out this component, some sort of resistor or capacitor and it really cooked it. The whole studio filled with smoke and we were trying to research where we could get this part as we only had Paul for 23 days to do a whole album. We ended up calling a technician and he said pull it out and turn the machine on. The part wasn't necessary, so we did the album without it”.
The quartet collaborate on writing all songs including So Caught Up that features on Nu Country TV on Saturday May 16 .
“It was about realising you have fallen in love with someone and there's nothing you can really do about it,” Liam explained.
“You are caught up and have no control over it.”
Gough elaborated on So Caught Up.
“I guess we were a bit worried about it being too much of a pop song and wanted to make sure that it didn't sound like a huge departure from our previous stuff,” Liam says. “It was a bit different to what we'd normally play.
Most of the songs are essentially love songs as well, which is something that all cultures share and can relate to. That's what most of soul music is, really - it's just heartbreak and love.
The band also filmed a video for Man Of The Universe.
“Man Of The Universe follows a band that is not us around on tour and So Caught Up we filmed in Nashville . It's a mixture of studio footage and being on the road between Nashville and Atlanta . It's insight into what tour life looks like to be on the road from our perspective.”
That road takes them back to Grand Ole Opry birthplace - Ryman Auditorium - and other major venues after COVID-19.
Meanwhile they're live streaming their planned Australian April concerts on their Run Home Slow tour.