Surf punk meets mariachi on Brunswick stage

SKEGSS shared the stage with a mariachi band during their recent show at Hotel Brunswick, blending surf rock with Mexican folk music in an unexpected collaboration.

For an Australian surf-punk group, incorporating Mexican folk music is an adventurous and slightly unexpected move into new territory, reflecting Skegss’ ongoing refusal to take themselves too seriously.

With a history of high-charting releases and an extensive international touring record, the band could be forgiven if they did, but they continue to maintain the quirky persona, strong DIY ethic and openness to adventure that has always defined them.

Drummer Jonny Lani has met no shortage of colourful characters while touring with Skegss, but one encounter involving a “Brazilian Jonah Hill” still lingers in his memory.

“We were playing a gig in Brazil and there was this guy, and he looked like Jonah Hill,” Lani said.

“He stood out because he had a blonde afro.”

“Prior to our gig he was telling us about how excited he was to see us play, and that he was obsessed with Australian music, and that his favourite band was Powderfinger.”

But what initially began as a friendly encounter quickly shifted to a humorous disaster, with the Powderfinger fan effectively “brought to tears” by the band’s subsequent performance.

“We were pretty tired during this gig, I mean we are normally pretty loose anyway,” Lani said.

“But this guy was uncontrollably crying while we were playing because he thought we were so bad.”

“He was just so disgraced by our performance that it was kinda awesome.”

The man approached the band at the end of their performance and passionately expressed his disappointment, to which the members of Skegss responded in their classic low-key style, shrugging their shoulders and saying, “sorry mate.”

Comprising Ben Reed on vocals and guitar, Kelton Lee on bass and Lani on drums, Skegss is a Byron-based surf rock outfit known worldwide for their anthemic coastal sounds which combine a celebratory tone with lyrics that describe the everyday aspects of a young larrikin’s life spent on the Australian coast.

But their recent show at Hotel Brunswick featured a different sort of spectacle, as the band shared melodies with a mariachi band.

Their newfound relationship with this style of trumpet-heavy Mexican folk music comes off the back of the band’s recent trip to Mexico City, where they collaborated with a local mariachi group during a series of studio recordings for their new EP.

“We just went in and played a few of our old songs and the mariachi band just played over the top.”

“We also made one new song together with them.”

Skegss plan to release the new EP later this year which Lani says will be a hybrid mix of their classic surf punk sounds and the traditional mariachi folk style.

“After doing it I thought it was going to be super cheesy, but it came out well, and it’s something completely different,” Lani said.

After several days recording with the local band in Mexico City, the two bands collaborated on a live performance, an experience Lani described as “wild”.

“The mariachis came dressed in the full outfits, and it was just crazy.”

“They went off when they came out.”

Lani said he was quite surprised by the level of local recognition that Skegss received during the gig in Mexico City.

“It’s funny, you’d think no one would know about us in these kinds of places,” he laughed.

“I guess we’re just lucky that there’s always a lot of people with a bad taste in music around us.”

The band’s connection to mariachi music did not start in Mexico City, with vocalist Ben Reed described as a long-time fan of the genre.

“Benny has always been a big fan of that style,” Lani said.

“He actually owns a mariachi outfit that he just wears around the house and stuff.”

There are growing suspicions that it has become a bit of an alter-ego for the vocalist.

“He comes out every now and again, normally after he’s had a few beers,” Lani said.