The three core members of Melbourne’s globally recognised, funk outfit Vaudeville Smash, the Lucchesi brothers, were born in Adelaide.
Marc Lucchesi believes the tough Adelaide market served as a crucible that helped bring future success. “We grew up playing in Adelaide; we were very, very young when we developed that band. We developed a crazy stage persona because getting a stage reaction [in Adelaide] was tougher.”
Having developed mechanisms to get even the toughest audiences to react, their live act wows crowds around the world. “We played the Woodford Folk Festival just gone and you could just wave your hands, the crowd does it, you clap your hands, the crowd does it; it was really beautiful.”
The band is renowned in traditionally impenetrable markets for Australian acts; they sell out in both Japan and Europe, while also receiving plaudits from the taste makers that attend South By Southwest Festival.
Vaudeville Smash makes music inspired by an era that, until recently, was viewed as being the nadir of modern music history: the '80s. While this time was unfashionable in some places, it never went out of vogue in Europe.
Marc isn’t sure why there is such divergence within global music markets. “I think that in Australia, more so than in other countries, because Australia’s such a small scene and the bands rely so much on a station like Triple J or your smaller cliques in certain states, it’s a bit of a fashion thing.
“So if you’re not playing things that are hip, you can be touted as a dag whereas in Europe, I’ve been to gigs in Europe and we played South By Southwest a couple of times and we’ve played in Japan and it doesn’t seem to be that way. I don’t know whether it’s because the population is so much bigger and there isn’t the room for that sort of shit."
The song that opened these stubborn doors was the viral sensation ‘Zinedine Zidane’, featuring the voice of Australian soccer, Les Murray. This success was born from a leap of faith, with the independent artists borrowing $20,000 to record the song and the production of the immensely popular film clip, which has gained 4.6 million views on YouTube at last count.
Marc explains the band’s creative process for devising the film clip. “When we decided we were going to go for it [the song], we really sat down to nut the clip out because I knew that it would be really important. We had all these ideas; when we come up with a clip, we think of the best clip we could make if we had all the money in the world. Usually it’s some amazing thing. Then we think, 'ok we don’t have all the money in the world, how can we make this work?'
“What we would have loved would have been to actually get Zidane, like he’s playing a soccer match, he gets the ball on his chest and then dribbles passed everyone, all in slow motion. But that wouldn’t happen, right?
“Then for some reason I was thinking about the film 'Point Break', where they put on those presidents of the United States masks and rob a bank. How about we do that but with Zidane masks. But we would never be able to get a bank, so we thought ‘what about the convenience store around the corner?' Done.”
After Les Murray tasted rock superstardom, he set his sights for a bigger stage. If the Hungarian immigrant with impeccable diction had his way, he would become the next Guy Sebastian or Dami Im. “When they said that Australia was going to be in Eurovision, we jokingly chucked this Facebook thing on that said we should be in it, and then SBS took the story up, Les Murray was on the phone to me trying to get it in.”
Eurovision acts are traditionally over the top. Vaudeville Smash are forever mindful of the risk of veering into parody; while they may accentuate some of the stereotypes associated with funk music, they are genuine connoisseurs of the genre and are driven by an intent to craft substantial new iterations of the music that they love.
On a seriousness scale ranging from Radiohead to Steel Panther, they aim to position themselves somewhere in the middle. “We tread this fine line between some people thinking we are a comedy act; some people think we are taking the piss out of the music but we’re not," Marc says.
"While we are having a lot of fun on stage and some of the lyrics are lighthearted, the sort of music we write we really believe in and enjoy. Even the guys in Steel Panther probably started off in cover bands playing that sort of shit, which is pretty much what we did. Some of our songs are pretty lighthearted, but then again a lot of the songs written in that era [that we are inspired by] were as well.”
Eurovision dreams have been stashed away in the back closet for the moment. An Australian tour beckons in support of new single 'Laura', which is a song detailing the perils of falling in love with a man-eater.
'Laura' has already been given the seal of approval by Melbourne punters. “I said to the crowd, we were playing a gig at The John Curtin, and I said we’re thinking that this is going to be the next single, we’ve never played it before, and at the end of it I want a thumbs up or a thumbs down and at the end of the song, it was all thumbs up from our fans, and to me that is the best indication that we made the right decision.
“'Laura' starts off with some flute and percussion; it’s audacious and I like it, man.”
Their sophomore album, 'The Gift', has a unifying and homogenous sound that channels the sounds of important influences. “We set out to make an album that had a very similar sound about it; the last album we did was more hodge-podge. We’d just written a whole heap of songs that we liked and chucked it all on, who gives a shit?
“This one here, we really set out to make a sound that was a more contemporary version of bands like Cameo and Midnight Star and that early-'80s funk boogie. We wanted the audience to be able to listen to any song on the album and think ‘yeah, that’s what Vaudeville Smash are sounding like at the moment'.”
With the album dropping in August, a national tour will follow with the five band members bedecked in colourful outfits in the style of “nouveau yacht rock”. The road is Marc's' favourite thing about being a musician. “It’s the kick, it’s the live show, it’s connecting with people.”
'The Gift' is released 26 August.
Vaudeville Smash Tour Dates
19-21 Aug - Townsville Cultural FestivalFri 26 Aug - The Boundary Hotel (Brisbane)
Sat 27 Aug - Junction Alley (Sunshine Coast)
Sun 28 Aug - Hotel Brunswick (Brunswick Heads)
Sat 10 Sep - Jive (Adelaide)
Sat 24 Sep - The Gasometer Hotel (Melbourne)
Sat 1 Oct - Oxford Circus (Sydney)
