Gold Coast roots ensemble Heavy Wax bring their '70s-inspired soul-funk sound to Sydney audiences later this month as part of their 'Drop The Diamond' east-coast tour.
Heavy Wax are an eight-piece featuring vocalist Quin Samin, guitarist Andrew Reid, bassist Jay Hankey (who is also top contender for 'most handsome band member of the year'), drummer Dave Amphlett, trombone player Guy Samin, saxophonist Brad Allen, trumpeter Matt Armstrong and Liam Kirk on keys."Heavy Wax make music that comes from the soul and reflects on the sounds of the past but still in touch with the present," Quin says.
"We like to bring a good energy. We're an eight piece so we've got a very natural sound and nothing over processed."
On their self-titled debut album released earlier in the year, Heavy Wax have tapped into a deep well of musical influences, none more so than the unmistakable analogue warmth of 1970s soul and funk records.
"I think what we wanted to do back when this all came together was just produce a record or a collection of songs that was a mixtape if you will of our influences," Dave says.
"We all grew up listening to awesome soul and funk records that our dads and mums used to listen to.
"We've got an awesome horn section and I think the energy of what that adds to the band allows us to explore some different sounds. It allows us to take the music to a different level, so we have a lot of fun with it."
Quin and Dave say there's few, if any, hard and fast stylistic rules when it comes to writing a Heavy Wax original, opting instead for an 'if it sounds good, play it' approach.
"The term 'roots' probably covers us for a lot of genres because we're so diverse," Quin explains. "We're not even channelling our music in any specific direction, it's literally whatever comes to us.
"It could be any genre at all, and we put our own twist on it, try not to overthink it and just let it come naturally."
Dave adds: "The record from start to finish is a mish-mash of different genres and influences but in a way, that's exactly what we set out to do.
"We had so much fun making the record; I think our producer Jared Adlam, he had his work cut out because he had to bring these sounds together to make it coherent. If you break every song down, they all sound so different."
Heavy Wax continue their east coast 'Drop The Diamond' tour in November, dropping below the border for two shows in Sydney at Lazybones and The Brass Monkey. "That tour has been going for a good-few months," Dave says.
"We've done a heap of festivals and shows up this end of the east coast and come November we're down in Sydney for a couple of big shows.
"At Lazybones, our only headline show, we're playing 9pm through to midnight; we're going to do three sets and we're going to play all of our own material."
With eight players and wielding such a broad sonic palette, the biggest challenge for Heavy Wax is making sure the songs still flow together, whether it's writing an album or preparing for a live show.
"That was part of the challenge in making the record work so that it sounded fluid, and it sounded like it worked together," Quin says.
"We have the same problem with writing setlists for live gigs because we don't want to shock people by going from one genre to another. Just trying to make it flow is really quite difficult.
"And there's two sides to look at it: you can either say we're great to listen to because we're diverse, but at the same time if you're looking for a band that plays a certain genre, we're probably not your band because you're going to get a mix of so much different stuff."
Heavy Wax play Lazybones (Sydney) 26 November and support Professor Groove and The Booty Affair at The Brass Monkey (Sydney) 27 November. The band also play Beach Hotel (Byron Bay) 9 December and Miami Marketta (Gold Coast) 21 January.
