The
band has been together for about five years. They took a break for a year
when the band changed drummers and one of their original trumpet players
left. After that “it took a year of song writing to readjust to the new
line-up,” recalls Andy. The band is currently recording their second album.
“We are three quarters of the way through our second album, which should be
out by the end of the year. So we are very, very excited about that. We’ve
been plugging away.”
Astro Tabasco does not have a lead singer and is only instrumental. “We are
an interesting band in that we write all of our own stuff and we have a long
history of playing in lots of different pub and rock bands in Sydney, but we
don’t have a vocalist. It’s all instrumental stuff so you know, obviously, we
have to look for ways to get our slightly non-traditional music across
to the people. Some of our music was played last year on 'The Dream' with
the
'Roy and H.G. Show' covering the Olympic Games in
Athens last year (2004).
Our music was also used as background to some of the equestrian events and
stuff like that because it’s a little bit kind of crazy, and Latin
sounding," Andy explained.
"We
are hoping that some TV producer will hear one of our songs and back it as a
theme song for their new hit TV show. That’s our kind of aim,” Andy laughs.
“We are going strong, we’re writing new material even as we are recording
this album. It’s all very exciting.”
Astro Tabasco is also known to have guest artists performing with them.
“Because of our history in the music industry in Sydney, we get a lot of
guest singers up to have a sing with us. Christa Hughes and Pinky Beecroft
from Machine Gun Fellatio, Ian Moss from Cold Chisel, Brendan
(‘Boom-Boom’) Gallagher from Karma Country, Dave McCormack (from the band
Custard and currently performing with the Polaroids), so we’ve had a whole
bunch of people. We love doing that and getting those people up to sing
their songs with us and we do it in our style. So that’s something we do as
well.”
Astro Tabasco was one of the acts for 'The Last Weekend' event, organised by
Unions NSW in Sydney on August 7, 2005. This event was organised to
promote and protect Workers Rights. Andy
Kell is very passionate about Australian politics and how it can influence
the Music Industry: He remembers the 1980’s and the influence the
recession on the Australian Music scene. “Suddenly the live music scene in
Sydney collapsed because of the recession.” Andy continued, “We are
constantly trying to think about ways to increase our profiles, that’s part
of what you do as a band. It becomes difficult for us if the venues
are put under pressure to cut the amount of music they have. This will
happen again if audiences don't have the time or the money to buy the
tickets like they used to do."
The
band has performed at different Labour Organisations events in the past,
either individually or as part of the band. The band also supports various
charities, performing at different gigs on a case by case basis and “loves to support different
organisations”. Astro Tabasco performed at a recent charity event for Cystic Fibrosis. “One of the children
present at that gig would be
benefiting from the funds raised there, so it was really exciting playing for him,”
Andy recalls.
Article and
photo by Chrissy Layton - AusNotebook Music & Creative (26/9/05)
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