South Coast six-piece Grapevine Jane are a groove ensemble playing covers of old-school funk and soul greats like James Brown, Aretha Franklin and Stevie Wonder.
“We play a lot of old funk, soul and a lot of the Motown music,” guitarist Josh Hamilton says. “We try to basically play an eclectic mix of songs, not your standard run-of-the-mill songs everyone hears in a venue every Friday night.
“We decided if we were going to be a cover band we were going to do it properly and play an eclectic mix of quality and highly-musical music... for a lot of us music is our life, so we make sure everything we do is of superb quality and not just your typical Friday night, hack cover band.”
With Grapevine Jane largely being a side project to their day jobs – Josh is a school music teacher – the band hasn't played live much this year, but Josh says all that is about to change. “We've actually been quite dormant these past six months,” he says.
“It is really hard to get a gig down here and here it's quite a cultural wasteland. We've done occasional gigs this year, though nothing like last year, but we do have a fair bit coming up. 2019 is going to be a fresh start; we're looking towards playing a lot more regularly and concentrating on getting out there and playing a lot more.”
Grapevine Jane kick off their 2019 campaign with a show at Dicey Riley's in early January, the first time the band has played the iconic Wollongong venue. “Because we haven't played at Dicey's before what we'll be doing is playing our standard set,” James says. “We've got a few new ones we may throw in there but we'll see on the night, just check what the crowd's like.
“Everybody loves the old-school Motown sound; even those old, punk rockers when they hear an Aretha song or a Stevie song – no one can hate Stevie or Aretha, can they?” Josh laughs.
Joining Josh in Grapevine Jane is drummer Clint Bramston, bassist Ged Brindley, vocalist Justin Stock, saxophonist Tye Langford and singer Eve Schroder, who also released her debut solo EP earlier in July.
Outside of Grapevine Jane and his job as a school teacher, Josh's other life is that of an aspiring rapper and hip hop artist who goes by the handle HMO. As well as increasing Grapevine Jane's playing exposure next year, Josh says he's also looking to launch HMO in earnest in 2019 with an EP release. “Basically, I'm trying to get my EP sorted at the moment,” Josh says.
“These holidays, over the summer, I'll be in the studio finishing off my EP, getting the video content done and I'm trying to organise a tour for next year. So: record music, get it released, then get out there on tour – that's the plan for next year.”
