We’re counting down the days till the 2011 Ska Weekender Festival and so are Melbourne natives, Ménage-a-Ska. The 10-piece band are in the business of keeping Australian pub ska alive and with their tongue firmly planted in their cheek they are doing a great job of it. The band will be joining the Ska Weekender on the Melbourne leg of the festival and there has already been offers of free hugs for all.
We spoke to Sammy El Mariachi from the “Ménage” about being in a band with nine others, writing songs about curries, recording plans and their future plans including a European tour and their love for Germany. Check out the full interview here.
To top it all off we are also streaming their only recorded track “Don’t Go” and you can check that out here.
If you want in on some of the Ménage action at the Ska Weekender then head here for all the info and let us know you’re in on Facebook here.
[Audio: 01-Dont-Go-mastered.mp3|titles=Don’t Go|artists=Menage-a-Ska]
Tell us a little bit about how Menage-a-Ska came to life.
Menage a Ska got together for the love of playing Ska music and recognising the need to keep original Aussie Ska alive at any cost!
So channelling the spirit of great Melbourne bands like Commissioner Gordon and Loin Groin we decided to give it a good go and play music specifically designed for real people who like to go out have a great time, maybe get drunk, get loose and dance.
We really found that Melbourne was lacking a band with that kind of fun approach, not taking ourselves too seriously, like some others around us seemed to be.
Menage-a-Ska describes their sounds as “Australian Ska, Beers, Curries, Balls-Out Horns, Razor Sharp Guitars, Toe Tapping Drumming, Blistering Keyboards and the hard-earned vocals of resident wise man Gary Skaman.” Exactly how does Menage-a-Ska sound like curries?
Well that answer can only really be answered by the Ska man Gary himself, his dedication to curry is legendary. He has eaten at least one curry a week at a local Greensborough Curry house for over 15 years. The tradition has been passed on proudly to all members of the band, who take their fiery hot, masochistic curries very seriously!
Many a Menage-a-Ska song was penned over a curry and a bottle of red wine. So we feel that the curry must be an integral part of the creative process.
Being a 10-piece band, how do you manage to consolidate differing opinions when writing new songs?
Like any 10 way marriage we do have our lover’s tiffs now and then, but there is a lot of love and patience in the band. We have been very careful in the way we’ve put together the band, making sure we try to choose people who will fit in with our ‘happy go lucky’ personality.
So the writing process has always been a fun event, allowing for each player to find their own place and exercise their eccentricities.
Can you tell us how you came up with the name Menage-a-Ska? It’s probably one of the best band names circulating Australia right now.
Thankyou! We think so too. We did flirt with the name ‘Ska Monkey’s’ for a few months, but the wisdom that came up with that name was a drunken word game at the bottom of a bottle of Old Rosie Cloudy Scrumpy Cider, like many of our peers, we enjoy a good Ska pun word game. So like any Ska geek would know they are all hilarious. One had to out do the other and the epiphany came out and all beheld the name with reverence!
We were henceforth ‘Menage a Ska’!
There was word that you were planning a European tour. Is this still in the works?
There is nothing more we’d like to do as a band than to tour Europe, especially Germany. Gary Skaman was fortunate enough to have the opportunity to record some backup vocals for a song he wrote for fantastic German band ‘Bluekilla’. The album has had quite a bit of play over there, so we’d love to play our Aussie Ska style for the fun loving, beer loving folks over there on the other side of the planet.
From all my research, I can’t seem to find any releases by the Menage. Do you plan to record in the future? If so, can you tell us little more about your plans?
We have a number of live videos on YouTube that we’ve put up and at present we’ve recorded only the one track ‘Don’t Go’ professionally. We worked with the guys from Jets Studios in Bundoora, We had ex. ‘Backdoor Stomp (QLD)’ drummer and producer Angus Woodhead work on it, and then sent it to the capable hands of Studio 301 in Sydney to make it sound great on radio, and it does!
We have plans later on in the year to record a completely live to tape album at Jets Studio with Josh Kane and some great volunteers from the Banyule City Council helping out.
Menage-a-Ska definitely has the Australia Pub Ska vibe to it, especially when singing about the Belanglo Forest. Where else do you draw influences from when putting songs together?
A lot of our songs are firmly tongue in cheek and we aren’t afraid to take the piss out of ourselves and of others. Just like anyone encountering the Australian rules of engagement in any suburban pub, we’re out there to have a laugh. Nothing is sacred and that’s the bloody way it should be. We try to make everything we sing relevant in some way and are not afraid to mix fun with our politics, which hang a little to the left.
We seem to have an affinity for singing about Warrnambool for some reason, it’s just such a well of inspiration for us, although none of us actually live or have reason for going there. We have a great song about seeing a goth there.
What should punters expect from the Menage-a-Ska set at the Ska Weekender Festival?
Free hugs from Jason and the possibility of a ménage afterwards. We hope the punters turn up wanting to have a good time. Ska folks are good like that. So we are the kind of band you are allowed to act like a big smiling dick head with flailing limbs and we’ll still love you.
We are also very excited with our ballsy horn section! Good Aussie Ska!
Who are you looking forward to seeing at the Ska Weekender Festival and why?
A big crowd of Ska enthusiasts having a skank (we’ll be up there dancing with you too) Any event with 7 Ska bands playing under the one roof is an exciting thing. We don’t really have any favourites, we’re just happy that people are playing and enjoying Ska music.
Any final words to the readers of Dying Scene?
We’d love to see you guys at our shows, keep an eye out for Menage-a-Ska on the street, it’s always a good time! Keep up the good work Dying Scene, keep the scene alive.
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