Family Trees

The West End music scene sure is incestuous and that's not a bad thing. Like all musical melting pots, individuals are more likely than not to have their thumbs in several pies - just take world music act Kooii for example.

“I personally go back a fair way with those fellas [Kingfisha], we are pretty inter-related band-wise, I play with a couple of those guys in another band called Ruby Blue and one of the members of Kingfisha is in Kooii as well. The lead singer of Kingfisha actually started Kooii with me. So I guess it's a bit like a web or a tree or something …that’s one way of putting it.”

The connections don't stop there either, with drummer Dom Hede and saxophonist Darcy McNaulty sharing their time between Kooii and local jazz exponents Kafka. “Yeah Dom and Darcy actually live down in Melbourne now so it kind of makes it a bit harder for Kooii gigs to happen… but the guys are up here now.”
It's this tyranny of distance that explains, in part at least, the long wait for the bands next release.

“We started recording our next album in April last year at the back of a small instrument shop in Castlemaine down in Melbourne, we got about six tracks down … and I guess having some of the guys down there makes it harder to get together… but then again sometimes I just think we should just start again on it as well.”

While there are quite a few members of Kooii, just like the Hydra of Greek mythology, there is only one true eternal head. “I create most of the seeds for the songs that we create and the band all sort of work on it from there.”

The songs that Kooii create are indicative of the West End scene. A scene which incorporates many different elements of world music - hip hop, jazz, afro beat, dub, and reggae. They just put their own, organic, Kooii bent on things. “Yeah, it’s definitely a scene which is based around West End, we played the West End Carnivale recently which was great … we hadn't played since Island Vibe, so people were really into us and there was a really great interaction between us and the crowd.”

And that, in a nutshell, is what Kooii are all about.

Catch Kooii when they support Kingfisha at The Zoo, June 6.