Nine-piece reggae/ soul/ dub band Kooyeh are making waves with the recent release of their album, Soul Cleansing. Compelling and full of feeling, it's a wonderful piece of work — particularly when you consider it's their debut effort.
After embarking on their 'Mountain Top' tour of the East Coast to promote the album release in September, they've been drawing some influence from the diverse audiences they played to. “You got to use it all to your advantage,” says drummer Louie 'Jolly' Michael.
“Don't take it negatively and definitely make it help develop your music over time. So there's definitely influence from audiences that we play to, either we've changed the sort of feel or we think of different ideas. Basically we work around what we got but we embellish the small things that people seem to crave.”
More and more often, Kooyah are presented with opportunities to have their music heard in an industry that, until now, didn't have time for it. With Snoop Dogg becoming a Lion and Major Lazer standing front and centre when it comes to filling dancefloors, Louie has a clear idea of why the reggae sound is coming back to prominence.
“The way I look at reggae music is, it was people speaking about their freedom, it was words of the people, music of the people, and I feel in this day and age everything is flipping back around and more people want to try to have a say again. I believe it's music of the people. I think it really promotes freedom and that's what a lot of people are sort of trying to express again these days.”
Praised for their high energy and intriguing live performance, Kooyeh are acutely aware that as a band that aren't considered to make 'mainstream' music, their live performances are the way to make an impact on listeners.
“I think if you're going to record something and that's what people are going to hear,” Louie explains, “you have to double it live. People are there to see you, they want to get the energy and they want to feel it and they want to sing along. You can sell all your records but I definitely think a performance is just as important. You can sell your band in one performance to a person.”
Kooyeh plays the following dates
Fri Oct 18 – The Night Cat (Fitzroy)Fri Oct 25 – The Night Cat (Fitzroy)
Sat Oct 26 – The Central Club (Richmond)
Sat Nov 2 — Northcote Social Club (supporting Dubmarine)
Sun Nov 3 — The Central Club (Richmond)
Sun Nov 10 — The Central Club (Richmond)
Sun Nov 17 — The Central Club (Richmond)
Sun Nov 24 — The Central Club (Richmond)
