The Teskey Brothers Orchestra Victoria

The Australian Music Vault Liner Notes series aims to deepen the connection between artist and audience as we build an ongoing collection of exclusive stories.

Music journalist Mikey Cahill was granted special access to the live recording of our latest Vault Sessions, a collaboration between ARIA Award winners The Teskey Brothers and Orchestra Victoria, one of Australia’s specialist opera and ballet orchestras. For this performance at the iconic Hamer Hall, Orchestra Victoria was conducted by Nicholas Buc, with arrangements by Jamie Messenger.

“I've been strawing," chirps singer Josh Teskey through his Luna Park smile.

It’s an hour before The Teskey Brothers join forces with Orchestra Victoria — the first time the ever-ascending Warrandyte act has played live with a symphony. It’s also the first time the group have played live with a symphony to 2,462 empty seats out of a total of 2,466.

There’s a mixture of trepidation and school kid giddiness in the air. Will rock’n’soul gel with violins and triangles? How is this going to work without a crowd to vibe off? And wait, go back a minute, what was that straw thing?

“I’ve been blowing on my metal straw to warm up my voice,” Teskey clarifies. Josh’s raspy yet mellifluous pipes are the thing that makes The Teskey Brothers a singular act; the reason they’ve gathered a following from Bangkok to Berlin and famous fans such as Matt Damon and Chris Hemsworth.

Today, the quartet becomes a quintet with Olaf Scott on Hammond Organ and piano. The sharply dressed, lowkey rockstars start sound checking on stage and all five dart looks at each other, eyes glinting, in on the lark. I watch intently from the balcony with three others, masticating on a Pink Lady apple as quietly as possible.

“Our tuning will be filmed,” warns blonde-haired conductor Nicholas Buc. He has 45 rifle-focused musicians in front of him plus the five at his rear. Orchestra Victoria warm up by launching into rambunctiously played 'Happy Birthday' for a member of the classical clique.

The film crew have become dab hands at this. They shot Alice Skye, Ziggy Ramo and Cash Savage and The Last Drinks for the first round of Vault Sessions.

Everyone on and off stage has a spring in their step as the last members take their places. This isn’t another Zoom Meeting, it’s go time. And that’s what it was for The Teskey Brothers before a peskey (sorry) pandemic hit. They were going hard.

The Teskey Brothers were so busy touring they couldn’t even attend the Grammy Award ceremony in January where they were nominated for Best Engineered Album, Non-Classical for Run Home Slow. NB: They lost to Billie Eilish. A nomination is a very tidy result for a group that worked hard to hone their craft busking at St Andrews Market in the early 2000s.

Brothers Josh and Sam then moved across the road to St Andrews Pub and a band locked into place with Liam Gough (drums) and Brendon Love (bass). So how did they go from local secret to playing Red Rocks in Colorado to 10,000 people, #1 on the ARIA Album Chart for Live At The Forum and now the majestic environs of Hamer Hall with an orchestra of nearly 50 and arrangements done by Jamie Messenger?

Three words: Hard. Bloody. Work.

The Teskey Brothers played wherever they could: weddings, parties, street festivals, swimming pools, anything. After a solid decade of doing lively covers of Otis Redding and Sam Cooke they got enough originals together to self-record their debut album, Half Mile Harvest, in Sam’s ramshackle Warrandyte studio, produced by Brendon Love. They launched it at The Gasometer Hotel, sold out a few shows and sold out of vinyl. Things were escalating quickly.

Owner of Some Velvet Morning, Jeremy Furze, convinced the band to ply their Americana vibes at his tiny bar in Clifton Hill for a month of Sundays. By week two the place was choccers. He took it upon himself to manage the band (something he’d never done before!) and negotiated a complicated three region deal with Ivy League Records (Australia/New Zealand), Decca Records (Europe) and Glassnote Music (the rest of the world).

They did a proper tour for Half Mile Harvest, sold out a few Corner Hotel gigs, ticked Byron Bay’s Bluesfest off their bucket list then hunkered down to record their sophomore effort.

“The Difficult Second Album, blimey,” says producer Paul Butler when asked about progressing the band from their ol’ timey soul niche into the big leagues while retaining their original, gritty sonic aesthetic.

To be blunt, it was a shitshow.

In three weeks of recording, “everything that could go wrong, did go wrong,” quips Furze, wincing at the memory.

Their singer lost his voice, the tape machine broke down on the first day, bandmembers butted heads, all four members were going through tumultuous times with their other halves and Butler himself was going through a divorce back home in Los Angeles with his wife who was looking after their seven-month-old baby.

Messy.

But out of literal blood, sweat and tears was born Run Home Slow, a record that peaked at #2 on the ARIA charts on the back of smoking hot singles ‘Carry You’, ‘Hold Me’ and ‘Rain’ and a live show everyone was gushing about. Big international tours followed, then they came home for a victory lap and sold out four Forum Theatres (capacity 2,000).

It was under that starry ceiling they asked the whole room to turn around and sing 'Happy Birthday' to the Teskey matriarch, Jennie, beaming from the balcony with a glass of bubbles in her hand.

It’s no fluke the band are able to captivate an audience. Rob Teskey, father of Josh and Sam and an accomplished musician, recalls a tip he gave his kids early on: “It’s called ‘duende’ (pronounced: doo-wen-day). It’s a Latin term used when the musicians play so well, they have the crowd mesmerized, almost hypnotised. I’d always encourage the boys to try and create ‘duende’ at their live shows.”

How does a band conjure duende in an empty concert hall? With the help of an arranger.

Enter Jamie Messenger (the birthday boy earlier), a man who’s arranging resume spans Hilltop Hoods to The Angels. “It took me a while to form a plan of attack,” he begins, almost sheepishly, before flexing, “There’s a lot of sparseness, which is great for me. I had a few listens then I started to hear little moments where I can feature a woodwind section or a string line.”

For example, on ‘Let Me Let You Down’, Messenger “gave the brass a more orchestral flavour and fleshed it out with French horns and bass trombones.”

His story checks out.

The Teskey Brothers open the Vault Sessions show with ‘Let Me Let You Down’ and many of the 45-strong orchestra mouth the words when they’re not called upon to play; fluttering their eyelids, creasing their foreheads, losing themselves in the moment.

‘Say You’ll Do’ is lifted with string cameos that steal the scene then retreat back. Sam Teskey’s guitar gives an economical reverse dunk as he juts his head like a funky chicken that then gives way to a huge splashy, crash cymbal hit.

"You know you've made it when you get crash cymbals,” whisper-shouts their assistant manager Al Parkinson.

Josh is the one to lose himself in the moment during ‘San Francisco’s’ first recording. “I got carried away there,” he shrugs. “Forgot some of the words!”

Cue: an amicable discussion between Buc and Josh about when to come in on the lyric “regret”. The lead violinist heckles: “Let’s do it again.”

I myself get so mesmerized in the chat I hold the shift key down until it makes a loud "bowleeeep" sound asking if I’d like to turn sticky keys on. Gulp. First the apple, now this. They start again, the second take goes off without a hitch. Buc and Josh give each other a knowing nod and Furze quips: “Pretty cool to get Sammy J as the conductor.”

Now the conglomerate is playing the two new Yuletide bangers. ‘Dreaming of a Christmas With You’ is augmented with gorgeous triangle tinkles and jingly high hats. ‘Highway Home For Christmas’ follows, and Josh's right-hand claw is working overtime as he picks away at the air, drawing all the emotion out, as purple and blue lights swoop across his face. Sam sweeps us off our feet with a guitar line that seems to say, “Strum right this way.” Josh gets a bit saucy, singing “I will be your little drummer boy.”

You can feel Bing Crosby and David Bowie looking down on the scene, grinning with appreciation in sensible cardigans, marvelling at the duende.

Vault Sessions featuring The Teskey Brothers and Orchestra Victoria will be available for free from Tuesday 22 December, 10am (AEDT)
Streaming until Tuesday 5 January, 10am on Facebook and YouTube

As part of the Australian Music Vault’s commitment to celebrating the stories of Australian contemporary music, the Australian Music Vault Liner Notes series is a way for audiences to gain a more insightful understanding of the artists programmed on Arts Centre Melbourne stages. The meaningful relationship we have with these artists allows our commissioned music journalists to delve into their musical legacy and go beyond what is presented on stage. These long-form, exclusive stories will deepen the connection between artist and audience as we build an ongoing collection.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Mikey Cahill

Mikey Cahill is a Culture Consultant. He has been a journalist and video content provider for 24 years contributing to News Corp, The Age/Sydney Morning Herald, NME, The Saturday Paper, themusic.com.au, Resident Advisor, Time Out, Beat, DJ Mag, Mixmag, Stack Magazine and more. Currently, Cahill freelances for The Age, NME and The Saturday Paper. He is the new host of the Tune Ups videos produced by Support Act supporting mental health in the entertainment industry. Cahill moonlights as a DJ at venues across Melbourne and regional Victoria as Joey Lightbulb and the rumour is he’s also a certain brown and gold football mascot.