We Say Bamboulée say many things, Bamboulée being one of them, obviously, but other things as well. Doug says things like this:
“Our major influences come from the bands we listen to who produce and/or use instruments in innovative ways – to give some names, things like Caribou, Xiu Xiu, Battles, Klaxons, Mu, m83, The Knife, High Places, and Miracle Fortress. That being said, we listen to a lot of different stuff, and some other notable names are The Shins, Bread, Ben Folds, Joanna Newsom, and The National.”
That’s a hefty swag of musical influences. We Say Bamboulée began in the womb of Pete and Russell’s mother. Doug met the brothers through some mutual friends and over a period of about a year their discussions about cool bands slowly evolved into writing music together. The parents are still in the picture, according to the band they turn up to all of their shows. For those not so close as parents however, Doug can tell you exactly how to pronounce Bamboulée.
“It is Bomb-buh-lay. But we’ve also heard some great interpretations: Bam-boolie, Boom-baa-lay, etcetera.” If you didn’t know that, don’t worry. Nor did I. Doug interprets the sound of Bamboulée as “a T-shirt bought from St Vincent De Paul, subsequently tie-dyed, and then acid washed.” Which probably makes sense to somebody.
Aside from making far-out music, the boys are involved in a range of extracurricular activities, such as fishing. “Pete has been filling our Myspace with slanderous comments about Russell’s abilities. You haven’t seen that man with a rod! Don’t doubt his skill, Russ could look at a river, judge its flow, know exactly where to cast a line, and pull out a bass in the space of about 10 minutes. No jokes. He’s the true Huckleberry Finn of the Bamboulée team.”
Every band needs a Huckleberry Finn and many could do with a Nigger Jim. We Say Bamboulée do without centuries old Negro stylings but say they couldn’t do without their piano.
“We unanimously agree on the piano. It’s much easier for us to put pen to paper sitting in front of a piano than on a sequencing program on the computer. Though my friend is building me this crazy device called a Monome (www.monome.org) and I’m pretty sure that it’s going to be my favourite once I get my head around how to play it.”
Upcoming performances should be grand. Doug promises us some specialist dance moves from each of the members: Pete has his Pitch Stick Hand Waggle, Russell blasts us with the Drum Automaton and Doug’s fatality move is the Ghetto Shuffle. Dancing is good for keeping the blood warm and pumping, a necessary move in the cold air of the Blue Mountains.
“To keep warm we eat hearty soups and huddle around tube amps. We think the entire continent of Australia should be concerned about Peter’s nocturnal bacon consumption.” That’s nothing to worry about. I eat bacon in my sleep too and it does wonders for the skin.
The boys are cautiously optimistic about the future. “Zillion dollar record deals, Jacuzzis, and Condos everywhere! Before that, we’re going to take some time out during our Uni holidays to finish recording our debut EP. Keep your ears out for the launch tour!”
