Cookin' On 3 Burners are bringing their blend of funk and soul to the masses, and have invited a few friends along for the ride.
After nearly 20 years together, organist Jake Morgan explains how the trio keep the excitement flowing from record to record. “We do have a lot of singing guests. Cookin' On 3 Burners is essentially an instrumental, hammond trio and we add different flavours to get inspiration.
“The last record we did we had a horn section, a string section and half a dozen different vocalists to give us a different perspective on the traditional organ trio. That's what keeps us fresh and keeps us inspired and obviously we write most of our own music, so playing our own material and continuing to write more songs keeps it fresh for us as well.”
Last year the band drafted Australian living legend Tex Perkins as a guest on tour; and this year Tex will join Melburnian soul singer Stella Angelico when Cookin' On 3 Burners play Blues On Broadbeach.
Jake shares the story of how the collaboration with both these artists began. “We started working with Tex on our last record ['Blind Bet']. We like to juxtapose different things together to create music. For example, we're a soulful Hammond trio, and we've mixed in the gravely voice of Tex Perkins to produce something that you would never expect to work. We worked together on a new single ['Writing On The Wall'] and that's how last year's tour with us and Tex took off.
“There's a sweet-soul element in some of the Cookin' On 3 Burners repertoire, so that's how we started working with Stella Angelico. We've seen her play, and heard her records and managed to line it all up.”
Cookin' On 3 Burners have been releasing records via the UK-based label Freestyle Records since 2007. And Jake emphasises the importance of being with a label that understands their musical direction. “Finding a record label that understands your band genre-wise, and has a bit of a flavour of that genre, is really important.
"There's no point in releasing your music on say a metal label if you're a soul band. So I think Freestyle Records was a good decision for us. Working with them has been great, and has given us an opportunity to collaborate with other artists on their label.”
The future looks busy for the band as they find themselves in the recording studio, getting stuck into what will be their fourth album for Freestyle Records. “We're right in the middle of recording another album. That will hopefully come out mid-year and it will have a bunch of guests on it, but we are focusing more on the trio with this record.”
Written by Liam Steers
Cookin' On 3 Burners Tour Dates
Sat 12 Mar - Motor City Music Festival (Geelong)Sun 13 Mar - Oakleigh Music Festival (Melbourne)
Fri 20 May - Blues On Broadbeach (Gold Coast)
Sat 21 May - Woolly Mammoth (Brisbane)
