Like their namesake, Perth band Butter is silky smooth and best served chilled.
Butter are a six-piece ensemble that play their own, creamy concoction of soul, jazz and '90s hip hop blended to create what they have dubbed 'alt hop/ neo soul'.
Vocalist Lachy and keys player Nick say the band draws a lot of inspiration from the neo soul explosion in the UK and artists such as Yussef Kamaal. “There's so much hectic, experimental, jazz-influenced stuff flying around right now that we don't even begin to understand, but we take what we can from it and try to create something really unique,” Nick explains.
When it comes to balancing the diverse influences all the members bring to the group, Lachy says they try not to restrict themselves to one style or another. “We're all big on not putting our sound into a category and trying not to do one thing,” he says.
“Instead we focus on just writing a song whether it be a chilled hip hop song or if it has a more rocky sound.”
Nick adds: “We're not going into the writing process with the goal of having a song sounding like something. It's about whatever the idea is, it doesn't matter where it comes from.”
Butter have been working tirelessly since coming together in the middle of last year. In that short time they've already starting making a name for themselves. In February this year, the band released their own self-produced debut single 'Hocus Pocus'.
Both Lachy and Nick agree the response to 'Hocus Pocus', after having worked on it so long, has far exceeded their expectations. “When you hear a song so much over and over when you're mixing it, you become numb to it and don't know how it's going to be received,” Lachy says.
Nick adds: “You forget what it's like to hear it for the first time. You hear it in its most primitive form but everyone else in the world will hear it as a finished, polished thing and that's a totally different experience to what we've had.”
After a series of smaller live performances, Butter play their first major festival slot in April at the Fairbridge Festival in Pinjarra.
With a handful of worthy achievements to their name, Butter are keen to keep moving forward and already have plans for their next release and what will come after that. “We've finished recording another single and we're in the process of mixing and producing it ourselves; that will be out I think in early May,” Lachy says.
“Then we're doing some more stuff; we're not sure yet but we've got ideas for producing a collection of music whether it be an EP or an album. That's high on our priority list.”
As a Perth band finding their way out of the local scene with their sights set on greater glory, Nick and Lachy both give a lot of credit to the WA musical community that have fostered their growth. “We've had a lot of support in the early days from bands we're mates with like Superego [FKA POW Negro] and Spacey Jane,” Nick says.
“People who we've known for a while who seem to be pretty excited about the project we've started up. It comes back to the whole thing of the WA scene being pretty supportive and communal and helpful, because that's what really got us going.”
