The Brag

The ReChords
When The Beat Drops
By Rich Warner

One of my favourite Massachusetts bands, Piebald, once said, “All you need is drums to start a dance party.” The ReChords would probably find that amusing; they’ve been coping rather well without a drummer since getting together in 2009. The western swing/RnB/roots three-piece have amassed themselves a rather large following in their home town of Melbourne, settling in for residencies at The Gem in Collingwood for month-long stints, scoring support slots for touring acts like Justin Townes Earle and King Cannons, and turning heads with their performance at the Meredith Music Festival. And all this without a single snap of a snare.

“It’s really strange the way this band has headed,” muses vocalist and double bassist Tyron Shaw. “Originally we had the concept of being a traditional western swing-style band with drums, but it’s somehow just taken its own direction. In the biggest part of this band’s career so far it’s just been double bass, acoustic and a lead guitar, but all three of us sharing vocals and harmonies. That kind of filled out that sound.”

It’s clearly working for them. In the thriving Melbourne inner-north roots scene, they’ve become a firm fixture, clocking up around 300 shows both locally and abroad by last count. But is the band beginning to outgrow the niche they’ve carved out for themselves? As the crowds keep growing at their shows, Tyron is surprised at the diversity of punter that the band is attracting. “Our Melbourne shows had been getting such a wide audience on board that we don’t do many rockabilly gigs with other rockabilly bands [anymore]. We’ve found that the general inner-Melbourne folky-rootsy kind of following was getting all sorts of people who were really getting into the band and discovering this music for the first time.”

One such recent convert is producer Lindsay Gravina (The Living End, Faker, Kate Miller-Heidke), with whom The ReChords are now exploring their sound with in the studio. “Lindsay is interested to experiment with us and see where we can take the music to without trying to destroy the essence of the band and the three-piece,” says Shaw. “We’re going to introduce the element of drums into these recordings to kind of push it into a more radio-friendly market.”
Drums? As a band that has managed to survive this long without them, I ask Tyron if there is any apprehension in being taken somewhere musically that they may not like. “Yeah, we’re totally thinking that that scenario could happen,” says Shaw. “But we’ve decided as a band that we’re going to try this and leave it in [the producer’s] hands to see how he would treat our music. Basically, in the end it comes down to us. If we’re not happy with it, we’re not going to release it.”

In the interim, The ReChords are returning (sans drummer) to Sydney this month to play the upcoming Black Cherry event. Having played there last year, Tyron laughs that “‘loud’ would be the first word that comes to mind. But Black Cherry is perfect because it does cater for a fairly wide variety of audience. We really get into our performance. It’s quite a visual thing. It’s oldies music – well, not oldies music,” he hastens, “but it has that kind of edge about it.”

With: Bands – The Drey Rollan Band, Barbarion; Burlesque/Circus – Mali de Goey, Chelle Hafner, Frankie Faux, Lauren LaRouge; DJs Limpin’ Jimmy & The Swingin’ Kitten, DJ Jack Shit (FBi)
Where: Black Cherry @ The Factory Theatre
When: Saturday May 19, 8pm
More: blackcherrypresents.com.au