City Sounds is one of Australia’s largest, free live-music programmes, and joining them early next year will be The Scrimshaw Four.
The Melbourne jazz-bluegrass band are a high-energy act featuring banjo, guitar, violin and double bass. “We’re like a fun, up-beat bluegrass doof-doof band… We’ve got influences from a bit of hip hop and pop stuff … but mostly we’re just fun and fast and good for people to dance to,” the group's violinist/ vocalist Matt Sheers says.
For City Sounds, The Scrimshaw Four will play two sets. “We’re going to have some of our original songs because I think we’re doing two sets, so to fill it out a bit we’ve got some old covers of gypsy-jazz songs, old-folk songs, some songs from the '50s and also a little bit of bluegrass/ hip hop. We might do some more modern pop song covers [as well]; a bit of Lady Gaga and Kylie Minogue or something like that,” Matt says.
With two albums to their name, The Scrimshaw Four are looking forward to recording again. “Next year we’ll definitely start recording a new album as well because we’ve got two at the moment, but they’re kind of just more EPs. So we’d like to record a full-length album probably starting as soon as we get back to Melbourne after our gig in Brisbane.”
The Scrimshaw Four, driven by their thirst to travel, are looking forward to seeing more of Brisbane next month. “We’ll be there to have some fun and hopefully people listen,” Matt says.
“If music can provide some travel for us around the world or around Australia, that would be the main thing for us to just pay our way [by] doing gigs and busking on the street.”
The Scrimshaw Four Tour Dates
Sat 26 Dec to Fri 1 Jan - Woodford Folk Festival (Sunshine Coast)Sat 2 Jan - Falls Festival (Byron Bay)
Fri 8 Jan - City Sounds (Queen St Mall)
Sat 9 Jan - Treehouse On Belongil (Byron Bay)
