Think of Nile Rodgers collaborating with Jamiroquai and the Hilltop Hoods, and that's basically what you get when you listen to Electrik Lemonade.
One of Brisbane's best soul-meets-disco-meets-rap groups, Electrik Lemonade are currently promoting their newest EP, 'Funklore', with a string of live shows.
On guitar and vocals is Jake Dickinson, aka Jakey D, and he says the band's intention is to get people dancing and giving out good vibes. “We're a crowd band. We're there for the crowd and the band,” Jake says, just in case it wasn't clear.
“At the end of the day, if we're only playing to 1 person we'll still give it 120 per cent, but when people are feeding that vibe to us, we'll feed it back.”
Electrik Lemonade's sound is a distinct one; merging the gliding, flowing rhythms of disco and soul music with the catchy, cutting vocals of rap – the brainchild of seven guys who met at parties and decided to start jamming. “We all listen to vastly different music, and we just bring it to the table,” Jake says. “The two frontmen, [Muffins and Barney] they've both been into soul and hip hop and the rest of us have all been in several bands each.
“I'm a blues guitarist personally, and I guess that's where the blues and soul side of things comes from. We all just bring our own little bit.”
So how did Electrik Lemonade get that name? “We were all sitting down one night, having a few drinks, having a jam, and we thought 'what sounds funky?'” Jake says.
“One of the guys said 'one of my favourite drinks at the moment is blue curacao vodka with lemonade', and someone else said 'I think that's called an 'electric lemonade', and we all pissed ourselves laughing and decided that's the name [of the band].” They even make sure the venues they're playing are selling electric lemonade's at the bar.
The band's most recent single, 'Run & Hide', is a darker song about street violence and coward punches; it's something Jake admits they feel extremely strongly about. “It's pretty heavy, it's confronting, but we've just had a gutful of it,” he says. “We don't really care what the feedback is like, this is a personal tune for us.”
The video follows the journey of a man who has just bashed someone to death, and immediately feeling the regret of his actions. “You've got to get to the bottom line of where this violence is coming from, we don't want to ruin the culture here,” Jake says.
“We just thought, let's try this one song, and it seemed to work. There's a good vibe about it live, but there's still that essential message within it.”
Speaking of live, the band is currently on their EP tour, performing new songs and selling new merchandise. “It's so good to see people walking around the festival with your merch on,” Jake says. “We've got a whole bunch of new songs, we've just flown Muffins back from the UK for this tour.”
'Funklore' is available now.
Electrik Lemonade Tour Dates
Sat 21 Nov - The Motor Room (Brisbane)Fri 27 Nov - Yamba Shores Tavern
Sat 28 Nov - Finnians Irish Hotel (Port Macquarie)
Sun 29 Nov - Hoey Moey (Coffs Harbour)
