I think the year was 1987. I have this somewhat fuzzy recollection of hanging out with my high school friend Lewis, who had recently moved from Adelaide to Sydney. We had a couple of beers and he suggested we go and check out this band that some guys (also from Adelaide) were playing in. We walked along Oxford Street, Darlinghurst until we came to a doorway to what was then known as the Hip Hop Club1.
The band room was dark and packed, standing room only a sweaty dark mess of impatient audience swaying to the DJ but waiting on the main event. The stage itself was small way too small for all band instruments and equipment but as they came on stage it became apparent they knew how to make the space expand.
The band was called Swoop, a band of attitude and ferocious energy, that night they had 15 members on the stage (5 alone in the horn section). Lead singer Roland called out “Put your left hand up in the air, and your right hand down in your underwear and groove y’all” and with that there was an explosion of funk.
The sound that Swoop made in those early days was funk – think Washington Go Go, Parliament or Bootsie Collins, George Clinton, with a smattering of emerging hip hop artists like Young MC.
By the mid 1990’s Swoop had signed an album deal with Mushroom and had some success in the Australian charts (The single Apple Eyes was certified gold and made it to number 9 on the Australian Charts, it was nominated for song and video clip of the year at the 1996 Aria Awards) but Swoop were always a touring band first and they love playing live, so much so that many other musicians jumping in to jam with them on stage.
Now fast forward 27 years and I got the chance to catch up and talk to founder members of Swoop, Josh Beagley to hear about a new band ‘Cowboy Simple’ that he and fellow ‘Swoop-ster’ Roland Kapferer have formed together.
Put Your Left Hand Up In The Air and Your Right Hand Down In Your Underwear and Groove Y’all
Crispy > I can’t actually believe that you guys are still making the music, performing and going so hard at it thirty something years on…
Josh > We just love making the music, Roland and I are still having fun doing the same thing. We wanted to have a band when we were 11 years old and so it really has been our life. The two of us are still like kids you know, getting off on the excitement of doing it, staying up late, writing new music, playing in the local pub and being idiots – it’s great.
I do have a music label, producing a range of musical artists but the music I create with Roland, its great. I know that we were so lucky because we started when it was possible, it would be really hard for kids wanting to crack into the music industry now.
The two of us are still like kids you know, getting off on the excitement of doing it
Josh > When we grew up forming a band and hanging out with your friends, rehearsing in your parent’s basement or garage was the dream, that was a thing. Now its impossible and all those basement and garages are converted into a gym or its the spare room. Today if a kids says I want to be in a rock’n’roll band they have buckley’s2 mate, they have to just go get an education. So it’s a worldwide thing today’s kids don’t have the time and the space to do it. Now all new music being created is by individuals (and a few duo’s) and it feels like a lot of the magic has gone out of it.
Crispy > So are you recording again as a band?
Josh > Yeah so we went up to Byron Bay about a month ago and a few of the people live up there like Terepai who plays drums and a singer we work with lives there too, and so we went up and we hired one of the main studios and had a seven piece band like it was 30 years ago, everyone was so excited like it was just crazy being together, such a unique thing to do. Go “1, 2, 3, 4 ….” and lets go for a take.
Crispy > Brilliant, so how did it sound?
Josh > It was great, it sounded really good. We were working with a bunch of professional musicians and a great engineer. This will be our second Cowboy Simple single (following Wichita Lineman and it will be available in about a month or so.
Crispy > So how did you get from funk to country?
Josh > Well our previous reference points for Swoop were Washington Go Go and Parliament so you know we captured the iconography and sound of that. We went on a binge of listening to southern funk, The Band, Little Feat, The Meters, inevitably you get a bit country adjacent… then it was really fun to change things up a bit. All our friends are like what, what are you doing but we are having fun with it?
Crispy > So when I heard you were doing ‘country music’, it did feel a big step from the music you have been producing lately, Professor Groove and the Booty Affair, Coastal Elite and Confection there is more rare groove, funk, R&B even some pop. Going the full country seemed like a big step…
Josh > No its not full country, its just a variation on a theme, it still sounds like us. It is a bit like a midwest pop song, but we are having a lot of fun. Rolls and I are still like kids sending each other songs ‘have you heard this’ and it brings out the enthusiasm.
Crispy > You picked Wichita Lineman, its a really iconic song 3 . So what does your version sound like?
Josh > Our version sounds a bit like the classic with Dancing Queen or Staying Alive combined with it, so it is like slow disco. Roland is pretty funny he brings a lot of fun to everything, he is still bringing his old testament to the gigs, country music is all about pain and sharing the load, which is kind of funny at the gigs in our local pub in Surry Hills (The Carrington)
Crispy > So what happens to Professor Groove and what is next for Cowboy Simple?
Josh > Professor Groove is going on the back burner for a while, we have done a lot of shows recently and we have been doing it on and off for more than 20 years. But for Cowboy Simple we have at least an album worth of material and we are going to tour the band so hopefully we will see a lot of people at shows. It has really put a spring in our step.
I just went and bought a banjo and I love it. ‘da da ling ding ding ding ding da‘. We want to see where this will go, so we are right at the beginning and we want people to have a listen and see if they like it.
Crispy > I think they will love it.
For people that want to know who’s playing what, here’s the deets:
Drums: Terepai Richmond (Whitlams, John Butler, Missy Higgins, DIG, SWOOP, and SO many more)
Wurlitzer Piano: Harry Sutherland (Matt Corby, Meg Mac just for starters)
Fender Rhodes Piano: Josh Beagley
Bass: Michael di Francesco (Touch Sensitive, Genesis Owusu)
Percussion: Vincent Sebastian (Oyobi)
Guitars: Josh Beagley
Pedal Steel and Additional Solo guitar: Oliver Thorpe (Black Stump, Ian Moss for starters)
Backing Vocals: Juanita Tippins and Ricky Nifo (they literally do BV’s for everyone, from Cold Chisel to Tones and I)
Strings and additional programming: Josh Beagley
Lead Vocals: Roland Kapferer
Produced and Recorded by: Josh Beagley across various sessions in 2023 at Personal Best Studios.
Vocals mixed by: Rich Sanford
Final Mix by: Josh Beagley
Mastered at: King Willy Sound by Will Bowden.
Executive Producer: Andrew Gordon
Cowboy Simple been playing a regular gig at a local pub in Sydney (The Carrington, Surry Hills), if you get a chance head down and get involved while they play tunes from the artists that they love like The Band and Little Feat, the Rolling Stones, Billy Preston, The Meters and Dolly Parton, and also work up original tunes.
LINKS
FOOTNOTES
- The HipHop Club was later known as Freezer, Goodbar, was owned by the Sydney Nightclub impresario David Milton ↩︎
- The term ‘buckley’s’ is slang to say you no chance – the history of the expression may come from one of three origins https://www.onlymelbourne.com.au/buckleys-and-none ↩︎
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Witchita Lineman has been covered by many artists (there are about 1000 that pop up when you search on Spotify). The original is so good (Glen Campbell) but also the versions by Jimmy Webb, James Taylor, Smoky Robinson, Johnny Cash are all great. And then there are some other versions that move away from the original like Kool and the Gang, Sergio Mendes and Brasil 66, D*Note and Urge Overkill.