Josh Gambles sheds some light on their eclectic backstory for Emergenza. These guys are a set of international ramblers. You better not miss the opportunity to come check ‘em out while they’re based in the Brisbane area. Hailing originally from South Africa, these guys have a unique sound that can’t be put into question. All they need is a venue to share it with you, and the rest is in the bag. Well, now they have it. The 13th of May at X&Y in Brisbane.

CAN YOU TELL US A BIT ABOUT YOUR FORMATION AND YOUR JOURNEY AS A BAND SO FAR? WHAT BRINGS YOU ALL THE WAY FROM SOUTH AFRICA?
The formation of the band is as follows: 
All the original band members originated from Pretoria South Africa, and only actively started playing together at the start of 2012. The band's guitarist (Jonathan) has been part of a few different bands through his musical life. One amongst which won a national battle of the bands in South Africa (KFC sessions - The Gunshells). The band's drummer (Tiaan, Jonathan's brother) started playing drums with Jonathan about 9 years ago and has been on-off again part of bands with him throughout. Tiaan and Jonathan moved to Australia in 2008 and started fresh in a completely unfamiliar environment. They formed their first band The IRF, (later changed to Skunk Stomp) after acquiring an Australian Bassist. It was a great start to a new musical experience playing around the Brisbane scene from X and Y Bar in the Valley to a National Battle of the Bands in Toowoomba. From 2009 to 2011 Tiaan and Jonathan pushed hard to get a break. However, at the end of 2011 turbulent times with the bassist caused the band to split up and Skunk Stomp were no more. Time passed as Tiaan and Jonathan eventually pulled themselves together and starting making music again. This time, taking on board everything they've learnt from the past. With no Bassist, no real progress was made at the start of 2012. Eventually, by chance, a family friend and bass player (Marnus) moved over from South Africa to Brisbane Australia. Marnus played in South African based rock band The Shamrocks where he developed most of his arsenal. From there Josh Gambles wrote new material, more of an African Funk/Rock/Rhythm, unlike the more Rock/Bluesy music they had before. That day Kwaito-Rock was born. They played several gigs at the Music Kafe and Tempo Hotel, becoming somewhat of a local band at the Music Kafe playing almost every week. Things were looking up for the trio, but when Bassist Marnus decided to leave Australia and return to South Africa in the start of 2013. Jonathan and Tiaan then decided to do some recording before Marnus left and laid down 8 new tracks. Not long after editing, Marnus left and the brothers were once again where they started 4 years ago. Many auditions were held in search for a new player in the band who had the same feel and taste for music as the two South African brothers. Then along came experienced bass player Dave Hagger from the UK for a littte jam session, immediately energy was restored and injected back into the band with a couple of funky bass lines, a slap and a pluck. The new band began practicing together early march 2013 and are now ready to hit the stage once again in search for bigger and better things. Who knows what the future holds for this Kwaito-Rock band...

YOU MAY BE THE BAND WITH THE MOST ECLECTIC SOUND OUT OF THE BRISBANE SET. CAN YOU LET US IN ON WHAT YOUR INFLUENCES ARE? SPECIFICALLY, WHAT ELEMENTS OF YOUR SOUND WOULD YOU CATEGORIZE AS ‘TRIBAL’ OR ‘AFRICAN’?
Eclectic sound maybe, we can't wait too see what other sounds are being created by local bands. The African Tribal sounds came from a song Jonathan wrote when his girlfriend had left on University exchange to the UK, hence the title “Come Together” (not a Beatles cover, surprisingly). Coming from the continent helped with the African/Reggae feel to the song, but also the fact that she is a fool for tribal and reggae music. The song was his way of emotionally keeping in touch, and from that one song many more followed with the same African jive. “Hold My Hand” another Kwaito – Rock song written during this period. We enjoy listening and dancing to music of this style as such we play the style we live and hope the people sitting in the bars will jump up and jive and dance along with us.

WHAT ABOUT YOUR MUSICAL APPROACH ALLOWS YOU TO 'GEL' AS MUSICIANS? HOW DID YOU KNOW YOU FINALLY FOUND THE RIGHT BASSIST?
With the bassist, auditions were held at our place. It was mostly a jam session running through most of the songs we like to cover and also one or two of the songs we had on Soundcloud. When Dave Hagger Bassist Extraordinaire jammed with us it felt right, his energy while playing is a perfect match for what we were looking for, his willingness to learn the songs and even put his own spin on it was magical. To be able to gel as well as we do probably comes from the fact we are all foreigners in this Beautiful Land, and music is one way to meet people, bond and communicate our stories.

WHAT MADE YOU DECIDE TO SIGN UP FOR EMERGENZA?
A friend had mentioned it in passing, as he was off to go see Soula play at the HIFI during an Emergenza round. We had a look around and saw that it provided an opportunity to reach new audiences and meet new bands who were from our area. Which could lead to possible jam sessions or even gigs, all the while sharing and increasing the band’s audience.

WHAT ARE YOU LOOKING FORWARD TO THE MOST ABOUT THE FESTIVAL EXPERIENCE?
With playing a festival it would be the greatest accomplishment for the band thus far. The festival experience we are looking forward to is a chance to see, hear and talk with working musicians and performers from all over the globe. It would give us the chance to showcase our style to people who may have never seen or heard much of what we do. We look forward to playing on foreign soil and possibly one day playing to an excited crowd at Oppikoppi in South Africa, which was the first festival we went to as young gents (Jonathan and Tiaan).

YOU MENTION THAT YOU BRING ‘MORE THAN MUSIC’ TO YOUR LIVE SHOWS. WHAT EXACTLY IS IN STORE FOR YOUR AUDIENCE MAY 13TH?
As with the "more than music" statement we refer to this as a Club Sandwich, there are all these important layers which make up the high energy performance you will experience while we are on stage. These layers are as follows: music is the bread and butter, dancing is the salad, the crowd interaction is the meat and the energy is the sauce which brings everything together to make a crisp and full flavoured sandwich of sound. The words Shakespeare and Bacon get thrown around more often than we care to admit.

HOW CAN WE KEEP UP TO DATE ON YOU GUYS?
We are rather active on our Facebook page and Website www.joshgambles.com, with promotion of events and competitions as well as gig photos and videos being posted online, through our YouTube account. We post any new recordings of songs onto Soundcloud