Blakboard

A funk group from Brisbane, Australai play funky music that motivates their listeners to dance. The talented five piece creates a lush sound around a funk groove that makes you wanna party. Blakboard have a strong desire to grow their presence and following around South East Queensland and beyond. The talented songwriters in Blakboard have been producing fresh tracks since 2004 and showcasing them at weekly gigs in and around Brisbane. Blakboard have built up a large repertoire of original funk music with songs such as the inventive “Get the Funk Outta Here” and organ heavy “Funk in Wacol” which refers to the warehouse where they rehearse. The Blakboard sound is influenced by seventies funk music and they enjoy covering “Fire On the Bayou” by The Meters when playing long three and four hour slots. Paul and Hugo take turns on the skins supplying rhythms that compliment Vitamin B's funked up bass lines. Steph and Sector's vocals provides the hooks for many Blakboard tracks with all other band mates able to sing clever vocal harmonies to thicken the sound. The musicians use a variety of stomp boxes and other effects on analog synthesisers, electric bass guitar, electric six string guitars, trumpets and flute that embellish and enhance the sound. Blakboard are committed to playing funky tracks with accessible lyrics, hooks and melodies. Blakboard have a strong work ethic with constant rehearsals, gigging, writing and recording. Blakboard are currently promoting their two track demo CD which includes the tracks “Weekend Monster” and “Ice Creamery”. 2007 has been a busy year for Blakboard kicking off with a gig at the Columbian Bar with Pablo DiscoBar, Halfkast & the Cure for Everything and Hipakusha. Blakboard provided the funky soundtrack for the noi bar from March through to May with a residency inviting other bands such as The Faze to fill Brunswick street with sound and draw punters into the bar for a drink. Blakboard played the Jack Awards at uber making the semi-finals and playing with Saint Arthur who went on to win the competition. Blakboard kept the fire going during winter 2007 with outdoor gigs at the University of Queensland Staff and Graduates Club. Blakboard secured a residency from May through to August at the Stones Corner Hotel showcasing original material and promoting other local original acts such as Culture Connect and Coconut Tea.


Blakboard - Live at the Zoo, Brisbane. 2006.

History

BLAKBOARD was formed in 2004 by Sector and Paul and a succession of demos followed soon after. Paul returned from England after a stint of gigs with his band and Sector was recovering from the ashes of 'Killer Kane' which disbanded after going into liquidation.
The intention of the band was to use it as a vehicle to create a medium for some demos that had been written but had nowhere to go. It seemed destiny did have a place for these tunes as most of Brisbane's music scene was slowly being swallowed by mindless DJ's with stupid names who similarly played even sillier music. But anyway we won't go on about such creatures here as the intention is for them to have their own chapter in the 'stone throwing arena'.

Songs such as Lion Tamer, Weekend Monster, Ice Creamery and Memories of Love were belted out without even a remnant of any logical thought process. Late night recordings were fueled on a cocktail of alcohol and automatic thinking and recorded on a Zoom multi track recorder. Some of these demos will appear on this site at a later stage for your listening pleasure. We are really reluctant to put any songs on here for free because we believe you should be paying for it - scabs!.

Hugo joined BLAKBOARD after these initial demos were penned to play drums and keyboards. A few low key gigs were performed to unpacked houses and it was evident at this stage something 'special' was happening - no really, it was believe me... i can prove it because we used to look at each other after doing a song and think to ourselves.. 'that was special'.

In 2006 Vitamin B joined the ranks on bass and Paul moved to guitar giving BLAKBOARD a much more fuller sound. Just recently Steph has brought her unique sound to complete the lineup. She plays trumpet, flute, piano, kazoo and guitar in addition to vocals. Successive gigs at The ZOO, Rics Cafe, The Alley and numerous late night parties ensued. Footage of a gig at The Zoo will also soon appear on this site as soon as we get our act into first gear.

After regular rehearsals and a smattering of gigs our sound finally came to fruition. The sound focuses on primarily funk music and due to the nature of some of the lyrical content, has been coined 'Porn Funk' a label that sits well with us.

Our Vision

We are not trying to be anything that we are not - what you get is what you see so there are no surprises - there are no: gimics, emo hairdo's, adam and the ants vests, makeup (as far as I am aware), forced stage moves, windmill guitar playing, band photos where one member is looking away (check it out in any edition of Rave or Timeoff !), a flying V guitar, tattooed eyeliner, blatent music rip off's of 'Led Zep', 'The Who' or any other group that should not be touched, playing guitar with a violin bow or any other stupid implement, trashing of hotel rooms then calling our publicist to tell him, backward masking on certain tracks to say 'Paul's not dead', fake cockney accents explaining stories of street life that no one gives a monkey's about, Jeff Buckley vocal shrills, evading Women's Weekly photographers, celebrity matchups as a business investment (although that would be kinda cool), rehab/anorexia stories and definitely no adoptions from third world countries.