Swazi Gold

Swazi Gold is Melbourne's freshest new drum machine driven 3-piece formed by the chief songwriters from local staples Crepes, Dreamin' Wild and Sagamore. Made up of country and coastal boys Chris Jennings, Sam Cooper and Tim Karmouche, this avant-pop supergroup have taken cues from prime 80's new-wave / indie rockers like Stereolab and John Cale. Stomping bass lines collide with funk fuelled, blues tinged guitar and keys, brought together beautifully with soft but gritty vocals.

The first single from the album is “Disco”, written by Jennings. He says the song is about, “moving to Melbourne and seeing how we’ve all changed. We’ve all come from these bands that were heavily influenced by the coast and were our hometowns. They’ve changed a lot. We’ve kind of stopped being from the coast,” he says.

Driven by a sassy disco beat, the song name-checks towns dotted along Victoria’s western coastline. These places, like Leopold, Portarlington, Bellbrae and Torquay, are the former homes of Swazi Gold. The final places, and indeed the final words uttered in the song, are better known international hubs—like Barcelona, London and Berlin—suggesting the mainstreaming of worlds in moving to the big smoke.

On “Disco” and Jehovah’s Whispers, Swazi Gold draw on their collective love of African music, American funk, and quirky, melody-driven pop music to explore the spaces between conventional genres.

Debut long player 'Jehovah's Whispers' coming early 2019.