Dakuta

It’s an all-Brisbane affair at the Zoo on Friday night, with a smorgasbord of smooth reggae, dub groove and funky beats on the menu. Eager fans and nightly revelers turn out to savor the thythmical flavrous and kickstart their weekends.
(…)
After a brief equipment shuffle, the stage is set for Dakuta to launch their new EP ‘Shock’. The first track is delivered in a somewhat mellower fashion than those on their previous albums, yet the new style adds another curious layer to the group’s live set. The tempo lifts later as ‘Pulp Funky’ and The Drum’ from their 2006 The Drum EP gets the crowd grooving once again. The group work wonders together – their rock and roots sounds, with elements of trip hop and tribal percussion is enthralling. Angela Cundell is the definite highlight, her divers vocal performance and spectactular range driving Dakuta’s unique sound. Finishing the night off with one of their oldies but goodies ‘Faded Star’, Dakuta draw an end to a fantastic night.
- Time Off Magazine Australia

Here’s a recipe for making a Dakuta song. First, take one jazz singer who does the sultry lady thing and does it rather well. Then, let her sing over some funky, laid-back, possible reggae-influenced jamming for about a minute (use your egg timer). Finally, let the whole thing collapse in a big, awesome pile of rock. It works, notably in the title track and Pulp Phunky, which is just playing tricks with spelling for the sake of being mean, really. These are definitely good songs for your tastebuds to listen to. The EP includes a clip for the Drum, which has the look of a silent film and is about the band being captured by a hotel full of ghouls and forced to entertain them with the aforementioned big pile of rocking. So if that was your brilliant idea for a flim clip, you may commence crying now. - RAVE Magazine Australia

Long hair, Metallica t-shirts and a heavily tattooed male singer. It’s hard to imagine such heavy artillery in the early formation of Brisbane band Dakuta. The guys look neat. The singer gave way to a female substitute. The heavy metal evolved into a more mellow sound, thanks to the neighbours…

It’s the late nineties. Drummer Dave and guitar players
Jon and Chris spend their high school years together in
Brisbane. The music room at school is used for a regular
jam. The term ‘Da Kuta’ also descends from this era.
“If something was really good, we’d call it da kuta.
Da as in ‘tha’ and kuta as in ‘gooda”. It was slang for
the best. Later on we merged it into one word and
transformed it to Dakuta’’, Jon explains.
The new millennium triggers fourth band member
Cliff to make a move from Bundy to Brizzie, in search
for a band. He didn’t care about the style, pop or metal,
as long as he could play it with others. Encouraged by
his mother he introduced himself to Dave, Jon and Chris.
“You bet I remember that first meeting!”, Cliff smiles.
”I was a lot younger, clean-shaven, wearing a shirt and
a pair of glasses. In an old and dingy practise room I
was looking at these guys with long hair, wearing
Metallica tees and an older singer with tattoos all over.
I was pretty scared. But they were very welcoming.” As
a wannabe drummer Cliff would be redundant, but they
could definitely use a bass player. Cliff joined the band
soon after. His hair remained short.

Along came Ang
It wasn’t Cliffs influence though, that softened the sound of the band. “In the earlier days we usually practised in the garage, favourably late at night”, says Jon. “But we couldn’t turn our amps up, as it would be too loud for the neighbours. Eventually we started using acoustic guitars and bongo drums as opposed to the full kit. That’s how our sound became more mellow.” Besides this, the importance of heavy metal stuff ‘to get loose’ changed with the boys getting older. The band members started to listen to a broader range of music, including artists like Ben Harper.
After three years the singer left the band and the remaining foursome went looking for replacement, a male singer to start with. Six guys turned up at the auditions, and Angela as a bit of a surprise to the ones present. Cliff: “Not that we were negative about a female singer. We simply couldn’t imagine a female voice to go with our music. Until Ang came along.” The band couldn’t agree on the acts of the male contestants. After Angela’s performance however, all band members simply nodded and smiled. “This could actually work!” Quite an achievement for a country girl who got rejected by the school choir when she was six. “You wait, one day I’m going to show them!”, she told her mum. “Even as a little poohbum, I knew I wanted to be a singer”, Angela adds.

Polarized
And so she did. Four years later the band members proudly own several awards for Dakuta’s second EP ‘The Drum’, among which a Q-Song Award and a LA Music Awards, weekly gigs in Brisbane and surroundings and positive reviews. The first full-length album is on its way, a piece of work with a more narrative feel to it, more of a journey. “An album where you can’t listen to that second song without hearing the first one, and can’t switch it off until you’ve hear the next one as well”, Cliff comments.
The past few years, the evolution of Dakuta’s style hasn’t had a break. The band describes it as a solid combination of acoustic and electric guitars, hip-hop style drum&bass and tribal percussion. “And all the other individual musical influences completing our style and making it sound different”, Angela adds. A bit polarized even. Jon: “You’ve got the moody kind of atmospheric tracks on one hand, and upbeat, get-up-and-dance kind of funky tracks on the other. Like a bipolar person almost.” Not surprising with the different characters within the band. Angela the mediator and the girl trying not to be the girl, Jon the respected father, Dave the analytic law student and technical brain of the bunch, Cliff the Benjamin and enthusiast for pretty much everything, and Chris the fun loving, positive entrepreneur.

Outdoor jamming
The band culture is pretty good in hometown Brisbane. Australia itself is actually a great country for musicians, as far as the band members are concerned. “Australia has a history of a very outdoors type of lifestyle. People go to the beach, go out camping. I think music accompanies that really well”, Dave explains. “On the beach, in the park, in the streets. There’s always some jamming going on, often spontaneously, by random people just having a good time together.” Angela also thinks the multicultural character of the country plays a great part. “You get exposed to a lot more musical styles. I remember growing up in this different mix of cultures in my group of friends. At birthday parties you would find yourself learning to play didgeridoo at one t - GoedeKopij