Bobby is on tour throughout the rest of February and into March, on the back of the second single lifted from his latest album, the aptly titled Take it Slow. The single is called Skippin’ Stones, and he was happy to take the description of his sound and he and his band’s live show a step further.
“Man, it’s a lot of fun,” he states. “You’ll be smiling, it’s all good, cruisy vibes, but it can get pretty upbeat at times as well. It gets a bit quicker for some songs and a bit slower for others. It’s all about good vibes, good times, and just enjoying hanging with each other. It’s no real struggle to listen to the music, and it’s great to dance to too.”
He is very happy with the way the single has been received since it came out in mid to late January, and the fact that it has had a very special means of release. “It’s been getting a lot of love, people seem to be really enjoying it,” he enthuses. “When we toured last year, it was one of the songs that people were happy and ‘up’ about. And we’ve put it on vinyl as well, just for a bit of extra ‘jazz’.”
The tour takes him to most mainland states, and includes pub and club shows as well as several outdoor summer festivals. One of the feature dates is an appearance at the world famous Port Fairy Folk Festival in early March. “Yeah, that’s right,” he confirms. “We love the festivals; we seem to go down well there. As much as it is pretty cruisey, we also have a lot of island/Polynesian percussion, a lot of drums involved in the set. It really does range from nice and cruisey to a percussion frenzy, to wake people up a bit!” he laughs again. “But yeah, the festivals have been going really great for us, it’s been a great response,” he continues. “This year, it’s great to do a couple in Victoria, Sweet Valley Sounds, and the big one is the Port Fairy Folk Festival in March. Can’t wait, I’m looking forward to it all!”
Bobby also happens to play drums in Torquay-based folk singer Xavier Rudd’s touring band, and so the rest of the year after his own tour is looking to be extreme busy for him. “We’ve got a couple more small festivals in April,” he says, “and then in May I’m back on the drums, playing for Xav, and we’re going to Japan together. And then onto the States for a big tour, so there’s a lot of big stuff in the pipeline, I just want to go nuts, and play every week, head overseas, and then when summer hits again I’ll hit the festival scene again!”
Longer term, Bobby is very keen to get his own project abroad, although not at the expense of his fans at home. “Lots of stuff happening here at the moment,” he says, “but eventually I’d like to get more overseas shows, get around and get to a whole heap of new parts of the world. At this stage we’re just really into putting out records and travelling around, that’s the main thing that’s happening right now. Ultimately we want to get out to some overseas territories and see more of Australia as well.”
Any parting words for Beat readers at this stage? “No, I think we’ve pretty much covered it all I reckon, we just love hang in the hammocks man, it’s all about the hammocks!”
BY ROD WHITFIELD
