Cuca Shop
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Cuca Shop

South Brisbane, Queensland, Australia

South Brisbane, Queensland, Australia
Band Pop Funk

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"Fuscia (Cuca Shop) interview with Rave Magazine"

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Fuscia PDF Print E-mail
Tuesday, 10 April 2007

ImagePETA WILSON – keyboardist and composer for local Brisbane acid-funkers FUSCIA – steps out of the sauna long enough to spin some tales about their upcoming EP release, Things.

Who are Fuscia? You have all been involved on some level in Brisbane music, but how did you all come to play music together now?

Fusica is a dried up residue filtered from the live Brisbane music scene. More specifically, we were the rhythm section in a band called Gorgonzola. It was doing really well until someone threw a huge bag of manure into an industrial fan. So the surviving members sourced a singer and formed Fuscia. Since then the four of us have been stored in a petri dish, festering and expanding in different musical directions. And for some bizarre reason, we are named after a café at Enoggera.

Do you think Brisbane’s liquid humidity is a key ingredient in the smooth funk and acid jazz that fuels Fuscia? Or do you believe it us more need to chill out?

Well, we do frequent the sauna for brainstorming sessions. Sweat is the key to glistening funk, it is sound you can smell. Regardless of the weather, I think everyone needs to chill out, or at least wear dog muzzles so they don’t attack others. Our tunes won’t prevent global warming but they will leave your undies feeling icy for the day. Yeah.

Where do you get your soul from?

The ‘soul’ in our music really comes down to the absence of ego. Ego doesn’t belong in music, or any creative process, really. Ego in music is like men in bike pants.

So we’re not trying to prove ourselves to anyone, we are just inviting people into our musical conversations. Hello.

Who did you record your EP with, and how long did it all take? How did you find recording with this group of players…

Although we each have individual musical styles, we have been playing together since the late ‘80s, so we lock in well and naturally ooze into the Fuscia sound. Soul vocals, funk bass, rock drums and jazz keys seem to work.

We recorded in random Brisbane houses some time after the late ‘80s, initially with sound engineer, Heath Storrie. Tom’s [Penrose] lungs collapsed so we had no bass tracks for a while.

With the tracks in our possession at Sam’s [producer] house, we kept adding layer upon layer, as if a frenzied, anti-age obsessed mistress would apply potions to her face. We have finally decided to set the EP free into the wilderness.

Did the songs benefit from live performance before recording, or where they taken straight to the studio?

Since half of the venues we played at were so average we really got a chance to workshop and improvise over our grooves. Most venues also gave us bar tabs and they really allowed us to ‘go-to-town’ on our song arrangements. Once the tracks were recorded they then evolved in the production process.

Fuscia launch their new EP, Things, @ The Press Club on Sunday April 22



Comments (2)

RSS comments
1. Written by Ben, on 10-04-2007 11:22
Hot Hot Hot! Fuscia are hot! I've seen them at the Press Club and last week at Uber. Can't wait to get the ep.
2. Written by nic, on 28-04-2007 04:12
love it - Rave Magazine


Discography

EP Release 'Things' (under previous band name of Fuscia) - 2007.

Track Listing:
Headphones
Things
Where Did Your Groove Go?
Easy To Survive
Get Back

Produced by Sam Mitchell and Fuscia
Recorded in Brisbane by Heath Storrie and Sam Mitchell
Mastered at The Tanuki Lounge in West End

New Ep Release 'Stranger' for late 2010

Photos

Bio

Think of the hottest, sweatiest day, you and all of your friends in a hidden deserted shack. Icy miss-matched glasses of the coldest drinks, shining flushed faces, dirty shoes on a dusty dancefloor, mixed with old school glamour and retro stylings. The music keeps you going from dusk through till the late hours - this is Cuca Shop.

After 5 years performing their original pop/funk styles as fuscia, and a successful ep release "Things"; the band has now been reborn as Cuca Shop. The last 12 months have been dedicated to recording new material for a release later in 2010, and performing in their fortnightly residency at Gertie’s in New Farm. Previous years saw the band regularly gigging at venues such as The Press Club, Lock N Load, The Zoo, Uber, The Joynt, The Pavillion (now Hi-Fi), The bowery, The Globe and also Valley Fiesta.

With years of performance, recording and touring experience around Australia, Cuca Shop have had members in musical acts such as Gorgonzola, The Rooftops, Re-enactment, and Alex Lloyd, contribuiting to numerous ep/album releases and performing at festivals such as Woodford Folk Festival, Norfolk Island Jazz Festival, Island Vibe, and the Brisbane Festival (Spiegeltent) to name a few.

Kate Mackie (vocals), Peta Wilson (keyboards/synths), Tom Penrose (bass), Sam Mitchell (drums) and Tanja Hafenstein (percussion) have collectively known each other for the last 12 years, they seemingly communicate on stage without words, yet when words are spoken it is clear Cuca Shop are a band of friends, enjoying themselves and inviting the crowd to enjoy them in their party.

This is a band with a sound that is hard to fit into one box. Not just pop, definitely not rock, not strictly funk, but with twists and touches of jazz and nu-soul, they have been likened to the sounds of Sia, Jill Scott, and the Brand New Heavies. Cuca Shop will take you from moments of chilled laid back grooves, through moments of soaring ecstasy and land you right back on the dance floor to shake that thing.