Sydney’s Hot Potato Band is a serious vibe
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Sydney’s Hot Potato Band is a serious vibe

Starting out as a wandering musicians from Sydney and turning into one of the regions hottest brass-pop bands, the Hot Potato Band are the next discovery for fans of Fat Freddy’s Drop and Snarky Puppy.

Recently releasing their newest single, ‘Ritual’, Simon Ghali, the band’s leader says that ‘Ritual’ was an effort “to demonstrate the energy and power behind the band and its instruments.”

“The song is actually about coffee,” laughs Ghali. “Coffee is a big part of everyone in the band’s lives. The first thing we do if we are touring, or even getting together to work, coffee is always involved, which means by this point a fair few of us are quite fussy about the coffee that we drink.

“Now we all spend a lot of time researching before tours to find out what coffee shops to check out while we are in town,” he continues. “It’s the same for everyone who starts off their day with a cup of coffee, but it is a necessity so we thought we would write a song about it.”

‘Ritual’ is the second single off the groups sophomore release Stitch-Up, however, it’s one of the few songs online off the previously released album. But, that’s intentional.

“We are trying a little something different and trying to keep a bit of value in the albums,” reflects Ghali. “This has been a bit of an experiment for us, but we realised that as music streaming has become more and more popular, we started to notice the value of music is slightly lost, mainly because of how accessible it is. It is fantastic that anyone over the world can listen to our music, but it is all tying in with the mentality that people shouldn’t pay for music.

“What we are trying to do is to only release a song at a time so that fans can really listen and appreciate those songs and then go out and buy the full length album if they want to listen to it. It’s a good reminder that music is still art. It’s very easy to discard music into playlists, but it is an art form that has a lot of thought and effort put into each release.”

Showcasing the album on their current tour of Australia, the 10-piece act will be making their way to Geelong in April.

“We have played Queenscliff Music Festival a couple of years ago so we are looking forward to actually playing in Geelong.”

And we are bloody excited to have them. I mean, how common is it that we get to see a band with three drummers?

“The drums are a bit different to your regular kit style,” laughs Ghali, “It’s basically a de-constructed drum kit. It’s taken from the idea of the traditional New marching drummers.

“We have used the same kind of idea but instead we have modernised it a bit by using second lined grooves and a lot more of a funk-rock/skaa kind of sound. Listening to the songs you may not realise that it has three drummers but seeing them before it is incredible to watch the synchronicity between them.”

Check it out for yourself on Saturday April 13 at The Workers Club, Geelong.

Written by Alex Callan