Panda

Dear Editor

It was enjoyable to read Dave Gunter's interview with PJ O'Brien in the last issue (Nov 2005) of The Blues Times and get some insight into the man after having seen him take out the society's Performer of the Year award. Personally I figure, however, that sending PJ to the USA to represent us is a bit of a 'coals to Newcastle' exercise, but I'm sure that the Americans will warm to his passion and sincerity, not to mention the classic sound he produces. All four acts in the final were certainly of a high standard and it must have been a tough call for the judges. However, for my money it was PANDA that showed us something a bit more edgy and beyond what we might expect from our array of excellent pub Blues acts. Like Ash Grunwald, for example, they have got a bit of the cool factor happening with some of their quirky songs and arrangements which held my attention with ease. The other three acts had more 'chops' but for Blues music to keep expanding into the youth market, 'chops' are not the critical ingredient. Nonetheless, let's wish PJ a successful sojourn and may he have the time of his life on the lauded grail path, Highway 61, through Memphis and Chicago.

Yours sincerely
Clayon Frick
(Bronte NSW Australia) - The Blues Times, December 2005

After playing numerous residencies around Sydney and Perisher Valley, Sydney five-piece PANDA launch their debut album, The Extended Family. PANDA's energetic funky blues exudes originality and style. - June 2004

Our birthday party this year turned out to be a real eye-opener for a lot of people. We took a Sydney blues institution, The Foreday Riders, and threw them together with a relatively new blues-based band, PANDA.

Although PANDA started off as a blues duo playing acoustic blues, some members of the now 5-piece band were not aware of The Foreday Riders and the Riders had never seen PANDA. Each band had a contingent of loyal fans present, many of who had never seen the other band. Fortunately for us, some committee members were fans of both bands, and were responsible for setting the stage for an interesting night. PANDA opened the night, and it was great to see a young band with such a large group of keen young fan. They played a couple of sets of lively bluesy/jazzy/poppy numbers that kept the fans on their feet. They 'bluesed it up' a bit for the occasion, and their version of Robert Johnson's 'Walkin' Blues' was a ripper! By the end of their bit, they had won a whole heap of new fans. - The Blues Times - Sydney Blues Society, Issue 149, August 2005

First there were two - singer Alexandra Kaye and dobro slide guitar player Aaron Houston. Then there were three, with the arrival of bass player Milica Stefanovic, and now there are five…or maybe more. Either way, there's a very good reason why PANDA named their debut album, The Extended Family.

"Alex and I formed this duo from university doing covers of Robert Johnson and that whole Mississippi Blues stuff," Houston explains, "just for the dirty love of that old Black south, and Alex just has one of those voices that fitted that style. But we decided that guitar and vocals just weren't enough and asked Milica to join us."

"We were an acoustic blues trio for about a year or so after that," Milica continues, "with Aaron singing as well and I do some backing vocals. Then we released the EP and a drummer and sax player joined and we've been a five-piece for a while now."

Listening to The Extended Family, it's obvious PANDA have moved quite a way from the Mississippi blues thing, with a pop ballad like 'Empty Street', the groove-driven 'Mr Moonshine' and 'Voodoo Daddy'. There's still something of that subversive blues humour on a track like 'Kitchenwoman', as that raw, honest sensibility, but it's obvious PANDA are utilizing a much bigger musical palette.

"Our drummer Ian Watson's a bit of a weirdo!" Houston suggests. "He's got a huge background in African music, Korean music, sot here are all those influences coming into it. He plays congas and drum kit at the same time so it's a whole new sound behind what we were doing."

"He's studied Indonesian music as well, "adds Milica, "plays the gamelan and plays in 'Anything But Roy' as well, so he has all that knowledge and percussion, so it was really strange when he came to set up his drum kit and then attached all these things to it. We call him The Octopus because that's how he plays. My own background is in funk/groove so there's that little element to it and our sax player Scott Turner and I were in a band years ago, and he's more of a blues/jazz kind of guy. And we all love pop music, so all those influences came in and we started writing a broader scope of things. We don't want to sound like a 12-bar blues band either, so we have all these other things in there."

They released their first EP Pandamonium Live in 2002, and the Panda approach to that still addresses not only the way they ended up recording the album, but their live shows too.

"We were getting such good crowds and the atmosphere was just so great that we thought we'd set up a show and just recorded it, to capture that live vibe, and that became the first EP. It wasn't the best possible recording but it had such a great atmosphere when we went into a proper studio to record the album, we were really disappointed by the results because that live vibe just wasn't there. So we moved into a friend's log cabin up in Wollomi for a while and recorded, and everything felt and sounded so much better, that it became the album." - Drum Media 15 June 2004

If you want to make people dance, then play funk music. If you want them to reflect on the songwriter's sadness, then play the blues. And when you do both, there is the inevitable juxtaposition.

The band PANDA, which has local connections, has been successful at combining this mix of emotions.

Balgowlah resident and PANDA's slide guitarist Aaron Houston said the band played "powerful, to-the-heart stuff" but could also make people dance. "Someone came up to us after one of our gigs recently and said he'd been dancing to our music for some time," the former St. Paul's student said. "Then he worked out the lyrics and said dancing to it didn't make sense."

PANDA will be heading a line-up of great talent at the second Manly Folk Festival tomorrow at the Manly Rugby Club, 11am to midnight. The event is part of the Manly Arts Festival.

So what constitutes folk music these days?

Houston said acoustic guitars were not a prerequisite, yet admitted the acoustic generally characterised modern-day folk. "But it has broader meaning today than when it was anti-war or protest music," Houston said. "Now it covers a whole range of styles - it's the roots of things. Songs about the slaves working in the cotton fields could be considered black folk music."

That's where PANDA comes in, writing songs that represent some of life's hardships. Things like stories of people with unfortunate upbringings or those who drink too much. The songs stem from the old blues numbers.

The group has risen from the obscurity of Songwriter's Unplugged and Open Mic events on the peninsula. "Keith Armitage who runs Songwriter's heard us and kept putting us on," Houston said. "He also lined up other gigs like Doug Mulray's night at The Basement."

In the studio, this five-piece band has an EP out, Pandamonium Live, and is currently in the throes of making it's first album. So far the recording of this has been done at Wollombi in the Hunter Valley.

The other members of the band are former Narrabeen resident Ian 'Octopus' Watson on drums, Milica Stefanovic on bass, Alexandra Kaye singing and Scott Turner on saxophone.

Houston said the name of the band came downto a basic philosophy.

"It's indicative of the band and the music," he said. "We're a bunch of white guys playing black music."

By Rod Bennett - "Timeout" section, Sept 2003

There is something uplifting about a night of groovy beats and smooth tunes. Mick Stuart started the night with soulful solo performances of electric blues guitar and passionate prose, sliding gracefully from one emotive song to the next using his instrument as a guitar/bass/drum mix. Stuart expertly captivated the crowed with his version of funky rock/blues, which emulated beats from the main band to come.

Keeping in line with Stuart's cruisy session, Astro Tabasco, a Sydney-based lounge funk band featuring the brass section from The Whitlams, introduced a swinging and vivacious jazz element. They played an exciting and original mix of big band swing, blues, a little rock - all rolled into a brass acid jazz sensation.

After only a short time on the Sydney live gig scene, blues/funk band PANDA launched their new album, The Extended Family. PANDA proved amazing talent and energy that is even more noticeably reflected in the exhilarating audience participation, created from the fast-growing and equally as vibrant fan base. With energy to burn, PANDA played an amazing set that aw the second floor of the Newtown RSL shake and vibrate.

Their music is fun and lively, with a wide range of instruments that felt like they were having the jam of their life, oblivious to the people building on the dance floor. Starting off with more relaxed blues structure, and moving ever more into new instruments and further around the globe, with influences like funk, blues, groove, Motown, rock and reggae, as well as world-music traditions like Afro-Cuban/Salsa and Batucuda. With some excellent young talent - Alexandra Kaye-vocals, Aaron Houston-dobro slide guitar/vocals, Milica Stefanovic-bass guitar/vocals, Ian Watson-drums/percussion and Scott Turner-saxophone/clarinet, PANDA has developed from a two piece playing Mississippi Delta blues into an original and exciting five-piece band. Or maybe six-piece? The life-sized Panda in the audience acted as the team mascot to rev up the already vigorously moving crowd, while PANDA tapped into the most colourful portions of jazz, rock and blues to develop an orchestra of fusion funk. - Drum Media, 13 July 2004

With a drummer nicknamed Octopus, a bass player with unique hip movements and named after a pet skunk, Glebe band PANDA has set itself apart from the rest.

The five-piece band - Aaron Houston, Alexandra Kaye, Milica Stefanovic, Ian Watson and Scott Turner - will release its debut album The Extended Family tomorrow night in Newtown.

"We're pretty excited, there was so much work involved with completing the CD and launching it," Stefanovic said. "It's an independent release, we don't have a manager or publicist. We do it all together."

PANDA has been together for two years, and met while studying contemporary music at university. "It's going really well, we've got quite a large fan base in Sydney," Stefanovic said.

They write songs, plan gigs and rehears at a unit in Glebe and are regulars at The Excelsior Hotel and The Roxbury Hotel.

"it's all original music, a combination of blues, funk and roots," Stefanovic said. "We're inspired by artists like Jamiroquai, James Brown, Red Hot Chilli Peppers, Ben Harper and Aretha Franklin."

PANDA has headlined events including the Surry Hills Festival and Manly Folk Festival.

"We just love playing at festivals and watching a crowd of people dance to our music," Stefanovic said.

Houston said the band's "down to earth humour and candid actions on stage;' set them apart from the rest.
- Glebe and Inner West Weekly, June 2004

PANDA
The Extended Family
(Independent)
9 tracks plus 1; playing time 64 mins

This young Sydney band were the surprise of our birthday party last month. Well, a surprise to those of us who hadn't heard them before. Several committee members were already fans, and suggested asking them to help us celebrate. By the end of the night, even The Foreday Rider's King brothers went home with a PANDA CD!

What sort of music do PANDA play? I don't know what you call it but it's very entertaining. A lot of it is blues-based, due to the fact that they started off as a blues duo playing acoustic blues. Guitarist Aaron Houston, who plays a resonator, actually learned slide guitar from Damon Davies.

Okay, here goes; they play a mix of blues grunt and super smooth new age alt pop, with jazzy, Latin, African, Celtic and Middle Eastern rhythms and sounds, a social conscience and a sense of humour. How's that?

Aaron's resonator is very bluesy, and his vocals raw and full of attitude. On the other hand, Alexandra Kay's vocals are sweet and oh so smooth, and her delivery very atmospheric. Milica Stefanovic and Ian Watson drive the whole thing along with energetic and creative bass/vocals and drums/percussion (Ian playing half drum kit and half hand drums). Scott Turner's sax adds attitude or fun depending on the song, and he uses sax, clarinet or harmonica to bring a variety of sounds and feels to the music.

All in all, this is a very interesting and entertaining album. I gave up trying to label the music, and stuck to enjoying it. The titles might give you some idea of the range of topics covered in the songs. Mr Moonshine, Voodoo Daddy, rollercoaster, Empty Street, Ugliest Sound, Blindman, Kitchenwoman, When I Was Born and War.

Let the CD run after the last track, and after about 7 minutes of silence you'll come to the 'hidden track', which is actually the title song. It sounds like a band romp, complete with clanking bottles, at the end of a long day recording. Lots of giggling, laughing and a few false starts, but it's actually a nice quiet acoustic number with sweet harmonies that I reckon deserved a proper treatment and place on the CD.

If you are a 'blues policeman' you might not like this CD, but if you are a fan of music who's prepared to consider alternative paths for the future of blues, you really should have a listen. - The Blues Times, Sydney Blues Society, Issue 149, August 2005