Singer, songwriter, and self-taught rhythm guitarist, Stan Woodhouse is troubadour rocker Skyscraper Stan.
A native of Auckland, Skyscraper Stan moved to Melbourne where he founded his band, Skyscraper Stan And The Commission Flats. Earlier this year they released their debut album, 'Last Year's Tune', and hit the road to promote it. “Australia is a difficult place to tour because it is huge, but it is great fun because you have to break up the touring in all these little towns where everyone is always very welcoming and you meet all sorts of mad people.”
For Skyscraper Stan, performing live is a full-time career. “The next tour is a solo tour, so I am bringing a fair few more ballads and things like that, and a few more of the heartfelt songs – trying to veer away from the country bent because I have been stuck into country music for a while. It has been very enjoyable – singing other people’s country songs, but I am trying to make sure I don’t write too many country songs myself.
“I will still be playing some rock & roll songs; it is not going to be all sappy sentimental bullshit, it is going to be hopefully a nice mix of tunes.”
An electric guitar has been introduced to his solo set to keep things fresh. “You need to mix the three sets up, otherwise you are subjecting people to three hours of country, or three hours of folk, and you don’t really want to do that.”
Part of Skyscraper Stan’s musical education came from when he toured New Orleans, inspiring much of the album. “[I] was travelling as a tourist with a friend of mine, checking out all of this different music ... I had heard New Orleans horns music like that Dixie-style jazz and all that.
"[But] I had never really paid it a huge amount of attention for some reason; then it blew my mind when I got over there and I saw these amazing street-funk bands, and I wanted to do that. So I came back and sort of did a haphazard sort of slap-dash Australian version.”
Skyscraper Stan plays The Bearded Lady 22 July. Click here for a swag of other, solo dates Stan has upcoming starting 9 July in Sydney.
