Melbourne Ska Orchestra

Many may recognise Nicky Bomba as the ex-drummer for high energy roots band John Butler Trio, but since then he’s stepped out into a solo career, formed a duo called Bustamento and conducts the Melbourne Ska Orchestra.
“The brilliant thing about the band is it doesn’t matter where you go it’s always an excuse to party, because you know the band rule, whenever there’s more than 25 people in a room it’s going to be a party,” he says.
“Everyone really gives with the band on stage, it’s a really positive force, so it’s just beautiful to be associated with that and kind of beautiful that it’s getting the accolades and the awards that it’s receiving because it’s a real indication of when something is directed with a lot of energy and love things really come back, and it’s certainly not a financial endeavour.”
One such accolade is the ARIA Best Australian Live Act Award as voted, and nominated, by the public.
“It’s fantastic. I think it’s been about three years running now that we’ve been nominated for the ARIAs which is great. We’ve been lucky and obviously we’re doing something right,” Nicky says.
With the atmosphere created by over 20 lively musicians on stage it’s of no surprise the band has been nominated for the third time this year. While the award is a no-brainer, transferring this live energy to an album is a much more challenging feat – one that the band succeeds in, and also deserves an award for doing it.
“We captured the energy and a lot of people say that about the album, that in a lot instances, you hear a band and you go to see them live and it’s chalk and cheese, but with the orchestra you can really get a feel of the whole room,” Nicky says. “It’s easy to spend a lot of time in the studio and over-approach it and get too pristine with it but there’s a rawness that needs to be captured and that was really the main goal in recording it.”
For Nicky it’s so much more than just producing a good album – which he does while juggling numerous other commitments – it is the challenge. With each album that’s completed, he makes sure that the next one is that little bit better.
“I just like utilising my time in the best way that I can and I think if you can be organised you can actually get a lot of stuff done without losing quality,” he says.
“In perspective, you can always write that better song or do that better performance and I think that keeps the whole thing exciting … you’re doing good work now but you know there’s something more exciting around the corner.”
After travelling most of the world there’s no question as to how the band will improve both live and in their albums, and it’s definitely worth seeing at this year’s Australasian World Music Expo.
When&Where: AWME – November 13-16
By Amanda Sherring, Photo by Kane Hibberd