Still Rockin' It - Cheryl Lee
Still Rockin' It - Cheryl Lee
What has Nicky Bomba from Melbourne Ska Orchestra been up to lately? OR A Ska Musical Voyage
Join Cheryl Lee - That Radio Chick on STILL ROCKIN' IT for news, reviews, music and interviews with some of our favourite Australian musicians.
Nicky Bomba, the vibrant lead of the Melbourne Ska Orchestra, takes us on a rhythmic journey through two decades of ska music and collective creativity.
How does one harness the energy of 32 musicians without missing a beat? Nicky reveals the passion and chemistry that propel the orchestra forward, sharing stories of their triumphant tours, ARIA wins, and the camaraderie that keeps egos in check. This episode promises a backstage pass to the orchestra's final Australian performance in Adelaide before they embark on an international adventure.
In a heartfelt exploration, Nicky opens up about the musical legacy nurtured within his Maltese family, spotlighting a journey that saw him transition from electronics enthusiast and potential park ranger to full-time musician. We trace the roots of ska music, celebrating its evolution from Jamaica’s mento and calypso origins to its worldwide acclaim through iconic tracks like "My Boy Lollipop" and "Simmer Down" by Bob Marley and the Wailers.
This episode is a vibrant celebration of ska's history and Nicky's personal story, sure to resonate with music lovers and aspiring musicians alike.
What has Nicky Bomba been up to lately? Let's find out!!
Get out when you can, support local music and I'll see you down the front!!
Visit: ThatRadioChick.com.au
That Radio Cheek Cheryl Lee here. Welcome to the Still Rocking it podcast, where we'll have music news, reviews and interviews with some of our favourite Australian musicians and artists. The Melbourne Scar Orchestra are heading our way before they take off overseas and today we catch up with Nicky Bomber, australian musician and singer, songwriter and leader of ARIA award-winning Melbourne Scar Orchestra. He's also the frontman of his band Bomber and the former drummer and percussionist of the John Butler Trio. To catch up on podcasts from other favourite artists, simply go to thatradiochickcomau. You're with Cheryl Lee and I'd like to welcome into the Zoom room today Nicholas Caruana, aka Nicky Bomber. Thanks for joining us today, nicky.
Speaker 2:Well, it's my pleasure.
Speaker 1:We are coming to our beautiful town very shortly and we'll talk about that in a little while, but maybe we just go back a little bit before we go forwards. So you founded the Melbourne Scar Orchestra back in 2003, so you guys are getting on now 21 years, yeah, totally hence the 21st anniversary tour. I think you go between maybe 27 to 32 ish musicians at any one time.
Speaker 2:It depends on what the airfares are at the time and the accommodation and who's available, but it's always kind of a minimum of like 19 to 20 and then depending on budgets and all that type of thing, yeah, but you know, it's always a circus on stage nonetheless.
Speaker 1:I bet that's a lot of artists to wrangle, so I take my hat off to you for that.
Speaker 2:No worries, you have to take on the mother duties many times.
Speaker 1:I know what happens on tour. Is supposed to stay on tour.
Speaker 2:But the saying now was whatever happens on tour ends up on Facebook, exactly On social media.
Speaker 1:It goes viral.
Speaker 2:That's right.
Speaker 1:How difficult is it? I mean, the logistics alone are obvious, but the people management? Any arguments, any biffo.
Speaker 2:Well, it's strange because the band was formed out of a love for the music in the first place. It wasn't sort of like, hey, let's get together and make this type of music and rule the world, all that type of thing. It came together simply as a tribute of the genre of music and you know and rule the world, all that type of thing. It came together simply as a tribute of the genre of ska and all things related to ska, because ska was the seed really that formed reggae and all those type of things. So because of that, there is a kind of an already a thing of like the egos are left at the door.
Speaker 2:And really there hasn't really been a situation where we've had to ask anyone to leave over. You know kind of not getting on. There's been a couple of issues. You know we've been overseas and just really from you know tiredness, but nothing, nothing like I've actually experienced in any of the other bands that have had less members.
Speaker 2:So from a people management perspective, I think this is a real beautiful understanding with the band that people get that something like this doesn't work on paper. Understanding with the band that people get that something like this doesn't work on paper. So for it to actually have had 21 years and two ARIA awards and world tours, there has to be something that's beyond that. There's a chemistry and a spirit thing that needs to be honoured, which we all do. We all get it. It's like a theatre show. Everyone has a character to play. We all synergise and come together on stage and make it really work.
Speaker 2:As far as like day-to-day logistics, thankfully we have a tour manager now that has been in the band for quite a number of years. He's also a member of the band, so he understands the intricacies of all the different members who flies from where A lot of us are still teaching and working other occupations. So all those things. There's flights, there's ground transport, there's accommodation, there's dietary requirements. You know who has to bring certain instruments and everything, and it has taken a number of years to get it right. But now we've got a really good team a good agent, a good tour manager, a good publicist and as a band leader, you know you have to kind of keep things you know fresh, to be on top of the game. So it's a well-oiled machine.
Speaker 1:now that is no mean feat, as we say Over 20 years performing together. It's great to hear that. You know you guys are there for the love and the passion of the music.
Speaker 2:Therefore, get along so beautifully. It's certainly not a financial venture. When you've got that many people in the band. You're not going to be paying off your mortgage playing in this band. Yeah, you are listening to Still Rocking it. The podcast with Cheryl Lee.
Speaker 1:Well, here's something I didn't know. Nicky Bomber did an album in 2005 with show favourite Joe Camilleri called Limestone, and here's a great track from it Hypocrite. Back to speak more to Nicky. After this, hypocrite, where will you run now? Hypocrite, you are finishing up a really, really extensive tour and you saved the best till last.
Speaker 2:Yes, we have.
Speaker 1:You're coming to Adelaide the Outlaws and Off Beats tour. I think it's your very last date.
Speaker 2:As far as the tour is concerned. After that we're going straight to Mexico and then, you know, doing a lot of gigs overseas and bits and pieces. So as far as the Australian leg is concerned, yes, adelaide is the last date of that tour and it's been an amazingly successful tour. It's been great. Adelaide is a little slow in ticket sales, I have to say, so we need a bit of a kick up the bum there for that. But I'm sure you'll come through.
Speaker 1:Adelaide is famous for being late with their ticket sales and buying them all at the last minute. We're very naughty, we're very late, but we always get there in the end. So, adelaideans, get onto the website. We are Saturday, the 19th, at our Hindley Street Musical Great venue. Have you played there before?
Speaker 2:Never First time for me. We always. You know the Gov, or I mean. Adelaide was the first time I ever toured interstate when I was like 14 years old and then when I had a bank with the Truth, it was the first place that we ever played, at the Cargo Club years ago. It is a special place to get to and a lot of friends there longtime friends and one of the singers is from Adelaide as well originally, so she's hoping to get a hometown crowd in, but never played that venue before, so looking forward to that.
Speaker 1:It is played that venue before, so looking forward to that. It is a little bit new, it's been renovated and given a bit of a facelift and now it is beautiful. I think you will love it here. I am thinking you're going to get a rest but no rest for the wicked. When you finished here, you're off overseas for a while yep, we're going to go to mexico.
Speaker 2:we played there last year and didn't realize how popular we were there and they invited us back this year to do a whole run of gigs. One particular gig there's like 10,000, 15,000 people and we're going to be playing it, so it's great. You know, it's a privilege to be asked.
Speaker 1:Do you guys ever sleep?
Speaker 2:If you see the performance, there's two hours of non-stop activity. So we've been doing this a long time and you know that you have to get your sleep in and good food and everything. I mean I think we're all probably past the young date where you could stay up till you know five o'clock in the morning and have two hours sleep and be up and at it. So it's actually quite funny. Before the gig sometimes we're doing yoga, sipping cups of tea and everything. It's like free rock and roll, isn't it?
Speaker 1:So no fireballs and Jager bombs on your rider, Ben.
Speaker 2:No, I'd say what the rider is. It's coconut water, a couple of bottles of wine, a minimal amount of beer. You know, just pretend, Not a big idea. Orange juice, cranberry juice, ginger beer, Red Bull, and we've just introduced a juicer so we can get some fresh juices and have that type of thing. Yeah, it's not that rock and roll. We did that in the early days. You know, We've got stories to tell, don't worry Exactly.
Speaker 1:And I was going to congratulate you. You mentioned your second album, sierra Kilo Alpha, and you did a national tour to support it won the Ari Award that year for the best world music album. Congratulations, that's correct, your follow-up. I find this really interesting album, saturn Returns, you released on a rocket-shaped USB drive.
Speaker 2:I'll get one for you to show you what it looks like Wow, that's awesome.
Speaker 1:No record. Did you have it on vinyl or CD?
Speaker 2:What happened? We recorded Sierra, kilo, alpha and we were so prolific that we actually wrote enough songs for two albums and it was a great, great time to kind of get together. And we're a very creative band. There are amazing musicians within the band. We're very lucky to have the caliber of musicians that we have. Just for something different, you know, like instead of just doing another album straight away, because there's a lot of cost involved in putting vinyl and all the artwork and everything. So we thought, well, we'll just do something like this. You know, and people still buy it, which is, you know, it's a cool little thing.
Speaker 1:I love that it's not available on CD or vinyl. So cool yeah, you're ahead of your time. Still rocking that podcast with that radio chick, cheryl Lee, special thing from the Sierra Kilo Alpha album. And then back to speak some more to founding member, drummer and band leader of the Melbourne Scar Orchestra.
Speaker 2:You know you've got that special thing.
Speaker 1:I really, really love this concept as well. You announced in 2018 that you would release one song every week, every Friday, so it was called 52 Fridays for a whole year.
Speaker 2:One year of a scar, that's right. That was madness, honestly Like it started off really good. It started off like yeah, we can do this. You know, head of the game, and at the time we kind of had a budget Six months in we'd blown the budget. So time we kind of had a budget six months in, we'd blow the budget, so we had kind of had to go what are we going to do now? And so I set up a little studio in Collingwood specifically to do this. The rest of the album at the start we had a bit of catering is involved. You know it was a bit like oh, this will be fine. By the end of it it was like you know, three o'clock in the morning, one dollar coffees from 7-eleven, you, you know, late night, souvlakis and everything, kebabs. But we did it. Of course we won an ARIA for that as well too.
Speaker 1:Congratulations. It was for the Best World Music Album in 2019. What a concept, what a thing to take on, and congratulations for making it.
Speaker 2:It was a military operation, but it was actually when we finished as much hard work as it was, we all kind of went back and go. Can we do something like that again? It was a really beautiful dedication to creativity. Any ideas were welcome. I was very proud of that, you know, and I still am. It still sells very well, that CD.
Speaker 1:It's a beautiful thing. You should be very proud of it, and everybody involved as well. It's fabulous. Yeah, do it again.
Speaker 2:Once a month or something about that. It really is crazy. But I mean I think it should be some kind of achievement, guinness book of records or something that must be some sort of triumphant record.
Speaker 1:I reckon you are from a very talented musical bunch of siblings. Where did you guys get all this talent from? Were your parents musical?
Speaker 2:I think I mean you're gonna have a natural kind of connection to it. I think you know my father was. He wasn't a musician as such but he loved music and he encouraged music in the household. We used to have like a little family dance band, bit like the jackson five of the maltese community or you know, the partridge family. So we were always kind of, most weekends we were playing it was a maltese engagement or wedding or a ball or something and we didn't think anything of it.
Speaker 2:At the age of 10 or 11, I was doing a little floor show singing, even though I was playing drums. I had to get out and do a little floor show singing my Ding-a-ling by Chuck Berry, which was very cute I mean, you probably wouldn't get away with it these days and he didn't think anything of it, he just did it. Dad was kind of the manager. He used to sing all the Maltese songs as well and when he was 70, I recorded all of the traditional Maltese songs. So I would have a legacy for him in the past. So I think you know the encouragement of dad, the love for the music. It was an environment that welcomed.
Speaker 2:I mean I pinpoint, I was born in Malta, but the Maltese community in Australia was very active in celebrating whatever you did, whether it was, you know, good at sports or good at you know. And obviously with the music thing it was encouraged, you know, and we had a lot of guidance and good energy around us, you know so. But for us it was kind of second nature, it's kind of what we did, you know, yeah. And then when we got older, it was like, I mean, at 16, I remember thinking, am I going to do this for my living now? Or, you know, I was into electronics at the time, I was going to get an electronics engineer and no, it was like, well, let's try it. And then ended up at 16, I left school and did year 11 by correspondence, and did my first tour. And you haven't looked back since.
Speaker 1:It really was a family affair, Although you had an interest in electronics. Really, there was never any other plan B. This is what you were going to do. This is your passion.
Speaker 2:It was either this electronics or a park ranger. As a result, I live in the country now. I live in the hills of Victoria. I have a recording studio, so you have to kind of be electronically minded to run these things. Anyway, you are listening to Still Rocking it, the podcast with Cheryl Lee.
Speaker 1:Instead of my Ding-a-ling by Chuck Berry, let's have a little bit of Johnny Be Good by Chuck Berry, and then back to speak some more to Nicky, deep down in Louisiana, close to New Orleans, way back up in the woods among the evergreens For the uninitiated. Perhaps you could just quickly wrap up what ska music is Sure, sure.
Speaker 2:Early Jamaica and the West Indian, the Caribbean especially. There was a type of music called mento and calypso. In Jamaica specifically, mento was the folk music Around the late 50s, early 60s. What was huge in Jamaica for most of the common people you can say most of the folk that couldn't go into the highfalutin clubs in Kingston like the Hilton and everything which had musicians playing for the tourists. They had this thing called a sound system. Now a sound system is basically a massive stereo system. At first it started off in the backyards, then it became into the lawns and then it became into the dance halls and everything, and pretty much on any weekend. Sometimes they were so close you could actually hear the sound systems with each other. But the goal was to have the loudest, cleanest sound system and they also sold alcohol and food and they had tickets to get in. It was quite a lucrative affair for people that ran the sound systems.
Speaker 2:The sound systems used to play music from the States mainly, and usually it was like ex-servicemen that would be or tourists that would bring records. After a while this type of music in the States dried up. You know people didn't want that type of music so you couldn't get those records anymore and it was around the time of Jamaican Independence, 1962. So they said, look, you know we love this type of music but we can't get it anymore, why don't we just make it ourselves? But they wanted to make something different. A classic R&B tune at the time would be, like you know, very simple 12-bar blue vibe. You know it used to swing. So the Jamaicans had their mento music which was heavy on the back beat of the four. So you have one, two, three, four. One, two, three, four, which was in relation to their sugar cane One, two, three, four. One, two, three, four when they used to be on the boats One, two, three, he, one, two. So it was all connected to that big upbeat when they had.
Speaker 2:They added this, this upbeat, and that's basically how Ska started and it was played primarily, or sorry, initially, by the horns. There was a band called the Scatterlights and so that backbeat would have been on the horn section. Some of the first songs that were ever recorded of Jamaican singers playing on an R&B rhythm with that backbeat, and the classic song is my Boy Lollipop, yes, my boy lollipop. That is a classic Jamaican swing ska. Yeah, and that was 1963.
Speaker 2:Also, the next song that was big was a band called Bob Marley and the Whalers and they had a song called Simmer Down and that was ska. It band called Bob Marley and the Whalers and they had a song called Simmer Down and that was Scar. It straightened out, it slowed down, it slowed down even more and it became rock steady, became reggae, became dancehall All of that. Then the bands like Madness and the Specials in the two-tone era of the 80s reinvigorated that as well with their own twists. So Scar is a lot of music that we love and that's really why we did the tribute in the first place, because we played on 2003, which was the 40th anniversary of 1963 when my Boy, lollipop, was released. So that's why the band was formed.
Speaker 1:Still rocking that podcast with that radio chick, cheryl Lee. Let's have it, shall we? Millie Small, my Boy Lollipop. And then back to say see you to Nicky Bomba from the Melbourne Scar Orchestra. My boy lollipop, you make my heart go giddy up. So when you come to Adelaide we will hear some covers, some originals.
Speaker 2:Yep, mainly originals that reflect that sound and rhythm. But towards the end we always pay respect to the songs that move us on. So the people that want to hear the classic message, we'll play those, usually on the encore, so to really kind of say, well, you're stuck with us so long you love the music.
Speaker 1:You deserve this one.
Speaker 2:Exactly exactly.
Speaker 1:I'm going to ask you one more last quick question. So, when you're in the shower or driving in your car, or whenever you get to listen to whatever you want to listen to, what's on your playlist at the moment?
Speaker 2:It's funny I get asked that question a lot. When I'm at home I have different CDs. It's the same five CDs for different moods. I mean it's either dinner or waking up in the morning or getting activated, or when I come home. When I come home I have a come home CD, but most of the time I'm listening to songs that I'm writing or recording. So I have so many different ideas that I'm constantly kind of working on stuff, because this new single has just come out for the orchestra called John Wayne.
Speaker 2:We're in the process now of recording our new album. So I'm in that world of, yeah, and so I'm constantly writing. So I'm usually on my voice memo on my phone listening and thinking, okay, we can adapt that, what's some lyrics for that and everything. But when I do listen to music outside of that, it's usually world music. It's usually music from other cultures, like Ethiopian music or Nigerian music or music from the Congo as well, or even Gambia or Senegalese, a lot of African music. It's really quite inspiring and has the essence of so many things that I love, ethiopian especially. That for me covers so many different genres with all the different melodies they have, and I've been there a couple of times and love it.
Speaker 1:Awesome. Thank you so much for sharing a little bit of your life and times with us today, and we're really looking forward to catching up with you when your band hits Adelaide.
Speaker 2:Yes, looking forward to it. See you down the front. Yay, okay, on the dance floor. Awesome. Thank you so much. I'll let you go for now and I'll see you when you hit our town.
Speaker 1:Bye, Nikki, Bye, You're with Cheryl Lee, that radio chick. Thank you so much for joining me on the Still Rocking it podcast. Hope to catch you again next time. Get out when you can support Aussie music and I'll see you down the front.