Band on the rise

Ploughing their multi-instrumental trade from humble beginnings is reaping rewards for the musicians of Chocolate Boys in the Sun, with a solid playing schedule for their emerging band beckoning.

The trio regularly featured on the local winery and small restaurant-bar circuit and to expand their repertoire formed the fivepiece New SoundLand last year, offering a varied sound and different composition to a single-genre collective.

New Zealand-born Jayde Tiopira, Fred Reidy, Bob Meier and Chris Reidy, along with Perth’s Julien Price, set about crafting a signature style with broad appeal, delivering defying bass lines, strong rhythm vocals and fast heavy beats which are smoothed out with reggae twists.

“Trying to combine a metal drummer and lead guitarist, a jazz-rock bassist, hip hop vocals and soul vocals is tough, but it’s happened and worked,” Tiopira said.

The lead vocalist said it had been hectic since recording five tracks in a Yallingup studio aided by friend and local DJ Swami Adima and receiving a positive response to their social media release.

The group has vowed to bunker down in the studio during July to track their songs and escalate rehearsals before taking up a residency at Clancy’s Fish Pub, while continuing occasional Sunday appearances as Chocolate Boys in the Sun, throughout August.

New SoundLand will then embark on their first significant tour, playing 30 shows in six weeks on a return leg between Dunsborough and Kununurra and heading east for three slots in Sydney, four in Brisbane and two in Byron Bay.

Tiopira said it would be an intense period ahead but they were looking forward to reaching out. “Sounds cliché but music is very addictive,” he said.

“Being able to take an idea, memory, experience or any other influence in our lives, put it on paper and reproduce that exact feeling into a track, then being able to share it with others and see their reaction, few get to experience this.”

Chocolate Boys in the Sun next perform on Sunday at Swings and Roundabouts.