00:00:00
Speaker 1: So very rare is it that a cover of a song becomes even better than the original, But that is exactly what happened with my next guest. Let's go back forty years. Brian Cannerman, his band Pseudo Echo did just that when they released Funky Town and the rest, as they say, is history. He joins me, Brian, welcome forty years. Congratulations, thank you. How what a gift it is to have a song that's as popular today as it was four decades ago.
00:00:29
Speaker 2: I know, mental, it's just like it's like one of my children. It's just the ways.
00:00:34
Speaker 1: There and the numbers of bonkers, because you think back to nineteen eighty six, like that's when charts really matter, Like that was the definitive display of how popular you were number one in Australia for seven weeks, six weeks in you like two months of an entire year. That's yeah, that's amazing.
00:00:54
Speaker 3: I think it went over from eighty six into eighty seven it was still in the charts, so it was you know, they locked the charts up for the Christmas period and then when they resumed it was back on it was still in there, so it was it was crazy.
00:01:09
Speaker 1: Is Stephen Greenberg from lip Sync Kissing the Ground that You Walk On is he's sending you a Christmas card every year.
00:01:16
Speaker 2: He's pretty chumsy. He's pretty happy about that, Steve, because.
00:01:20
Speaker 1: You never hear their version, to be honest, on radio, you hear yours all the time.
00:01:25
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, I mean I think in the States his version still gets a good run. But you know, look, he'd done that song and he didn't have much other sort of chart success outside of that one.
00:01:38
Speaker 2: So when we covered, he was over the moon.
00:01:40
Speaker 3: And you know, he came along to one of our shows in the States and he was he was so happy, and he was he was so positive towards the song, kept saying, Oh, it's going to be huge. I can just tell you know, you guys are funny and you've got a real charm, and it was great. He was, he was really excited about it, genuinely.
00:01:58
Speaker 1: I often wonder when you strike lightning with a song, what was it about that song? Of all the songs she could have chosen six years after the original release, why was it that one you decided on.
00:02:11
Speaker 3: Well, funnily enough, there's a connection that goes back with Molly Meldrum. Molly is the DJ at a club in the Northern Suburbs back in those days, and a mutual friend introduced me to Molly because I said, always go to this club ninety DJ just to sort of check out what he played. I love he always was playing the latest thing, and I could always gauge.
00:02:34
Speaker 2: The dance floor and see how songs kicked in and.
00:02:37
Speaker 3: What the reaction was. And I remember him playing the original Funky Town. So it really had an impact on me and stuck with me. And as it was six years later, we were on the Love and Adventure tour promoting the album. Because of course Funky Tab wasn't on the original cut of the Love and Adventure album.
00:02:53
Speaker 2: Who was added later on.
00:02:55
Speaker 3: And so at the time we were doing the promo tour, I was at a like I'm just having a break and I bumped into an old friend it was a DJ, and played me that original version while we were catching up, and it really hit me. It took me back, and so the next sound check I was on during the tour, I started kind of just noodling parts of the original Funky Town and then I sort of started transcribing it into the right key for me, and you know, the guys were just sort of following along, and I said, hey, let's let's throw this in the end care tonight. And so we bravely, you know, learned what we could and put it together the way we could.
00:03:35
Speaker 2: It was pretty loose rendition and quite different, and.
00:03:39
Speaker 3: It went over so well in that encore that we decided to leave it in for the rest of the tour. But by the time the rest of the tour finished, rather there was so much talk about this cover that we were doing. It probably eclipsed the Love and Adventure album, and so we were kind of, you know, saying, let's let's record it then. And Lee Simon of Triple M at the time, who was sharing an office with our management, he bumped into me in the hallway one.
00:04:07
Speaker 2: Day and said, you know you've got to play this song. You know you got to You've got to record this song rather that you're playing.
00:04:12
Speaker 3: And I said, well, which song you're talking about, And when you said Funkytowner, I was so surprised because I didn't even know that there was any kind of consensus out there that we should be recording it other than in our own opinion. But yeah, Lee was so enthusiastic and I think it was it was Lee's enthusiasm that sort of managed to kick over the American record company over the hurdle, because they were a little concerned that, you know, disco wasn't the best way to go, you know, being that there was a disco song.
00:04:41
Speaker 2: But once they heard our version, they were.
00:04:43
Speaker 3: All on board and the rest, as they say, his history.
00:04:46
Speaker 2: So I was glad we came to that decision, and I was glad I had that.
00:04:49
Speaker 1: Meeting with Lee because you go on Countdown back in eighty three during of eighty three, like you blow up listening such a huge smash for you. Very different, I guess because Funky Town was a little bit rocky than other songs you had done at that time.
00:05:01
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, a little bit more guitar heavy, and it was a few years evolution of the band.
00:05:07
Speaker 1: I spoke to the Hooters and I said, thank you for putting the melodica in music and making it popular. I think if you guys too, with the key tar, the keyboard guitar, like it's so cool that instrument. And you for a young kid growing up in the southeast of South Australia seeing you guys on screen, just thinking that's what we want to aim for.
00:05:25
Speaker 3: Yeah, those kitos were a great introduction With Sidero, we're always predominantly a keyboard band, and you know, with keyboards are sort of standing behind this this thing between you and the audience, and it can be a bit restricting. With movement, you can only do so much. And I seem to be the only mobile guy on stage, and yet I was the singer, so I still kind of stuck to the.
00:05:49
Speaker 2: Microphone because I'm playing guitar.
00:05:51
Speaker 3: And when they reintroduced them, because they were sort of invented in the sixties and they were quite bold and you had to run a lot of cables into them and things like that.
00:06:02
Speaker 2: So this new version was just basically a right controller.
00:06:06
Speaker 3: You could plug it into any sound source and play your own sense off it.
00:06:09
Speaker 2: So we just grabbed it and ran with it. It was the best thing.
00:06:13
Speaker 1: It's like when you saw a cheap trek play the double neck guitar like you guys on the key Tart. But there are certain instruments in film clips that you grew up just loving. We always known that it's a cracking song, and we know that it's one of the great musical ear wwhems. I probably really didn't get the appreciation of how good you guys are musically until I had a school friend's band growing up and they used to play Funky Town part of their set list. Notorious they pulled the pin in the early nineties. But there when you get to hear it in rehearsals over and over and over, like the guitar solos and the drumming in that song is so great.
00:06:50
Speaker 3: Yeah, I think we sort of really approached it with a bit of avengince because there was a slight bit of stigma with suits in the early days that you know, we were just just an electronic band, and you know, I wasn't rock and all this, so and you know, ironically, you know, I cut my teeth on classic seventies rock. That's what I grew up with, learning guitar, and so so when we approached our version of it, I mean, obviously, you know, I just let loose with the guitar. You know, a few few eighties bands were starting to introduce solos into their songs at that point of the eighties, Zzy Top were having a comeback, you know Van Halen, So there was there was a real kick up in the rock, so I just you know, went for it, and you know, to put a big solo in the middle of a pop song in those days was pretty bold. And I just pulled out all tricks that I've learned as a kid and all the techniques. A bit of Jimi Hendrix in there, a bit of Jimmy Paige. You know, they're all my idols, all bundles in the one, and.
00:07:50
Speaker 1: It's like a musical conversation between the guitar and the drums like that ran like it goes back and forward.
00:07:58
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, that's right.
00:07:59
Speaker 3: So you know, the original has those components, but it's much more subdued and there was a saxon there and it was just sort of more laid back.
00:08:09
Speaker 2: So we just just took it up a notch.
00:08:11
Speaker 1: So you're a huge smash all around the world, gold platinum albums. I guess the real success though, not just that the music is at the catalog of music, but your incredible live shows. You've been doing it for so long and so love for that. We get to see you here in Adelaide four decades on from that particular song. We're giving it some love because of the anniversary, but you're here on feb six at the GOV.
00:08:33
Speaker 3: Yeah, we love doing the Gove. It's like an institution pursuits. We just always roll up to the GOV and crowd's fantastic. We have it's almost like we all know each other and we just kick it back in and the way we go and there's you know, there's always a few surprises.
00:08:48
Speaker 2: I mean, these days we have a bigger band.
00:08:50
Speaker 3: It's a six piece, there's a couple of girls in the band, and you know there's a bigger vibe and a bigger sound.
00:08:58
Speaker 1: Have you found it's a perfect recipe too. It's the same high energy, but there's a tinge of nostalgia to it because you would have generational fans.
00:09:06
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's right, Like it's a very broad audience.
00:09:09
Speaker 3: And as saying with the sound, we really it gets up real injection of steroids. We're very faithful to the original recordings that we deal with all the hits, but we like to take it up a notch, so it is sort of you get the original components and then you get another level of energy.
00:09:28
Speaker 1: Have you stayed looking so good for being a rock star forty year? What's the secret? What do we need to know?
00:09:34
Speaker 3: Brian the wonderful wife who manages our band. I guess she gives me in good shape and good spirits and my mindset. So that's probably a big, big part of it. I think when you get your life together and things are right, everything falls into place and it's.
00:09:50
Speaker 1: Still just as much fun, I imagine as ever, like that feeling would never die.
00:09:56
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's great. Look, you know, we often REGI the band.
00:09:59
Speaker 3: We changes and things to make sure there's always a real positive vibe on the road with everybody. And the band we've had for the last few years has just been the best band.
00:10:09
Speaker 2: You know.
00:10:10
Speaker 3: They are so dedicated and we're all really good friends and it's great respect amongst the band. So each show is just a big, big fun fest.
00:10:20
Speaker 1: Well, thank you for the music. Thank you for the memories too, because when you hear your songs automatically, not just you don't live it just today, but you go back to the time that you heard it, that you grew up listening to it. We get to see you Friday, the sixth of February at the Guve. Tickets are available at Pseudo Echo dot net. Brian Caannam, congratulations on the forty years. Can't wait to see you here,
Speaker 1: So very rare is it that a cover of a song becomes even better than the original, But that is exactly what happened with my next guest. Let's go back forty years. Brian Cannerman, his band Pseudo Echo did just that when they released Funky Town and the rest, as they say, is history. He joins me, Brian, welcome forty years. Congratulations, thank you. How what a gift it is to have a song that's as popular today as it was four decades ago.
00:00:29
Speaker 2: I know, mental, it's just like it's like one of my children. It's just the ways.
00:00:34
Speaker 1: There and the numbers of bonkers, because you think back to nineteen eighty six, like that's when charts really matter, Like that was the definitive display of how popular you were number one in Australia for seven weeks, six weeks in you like two months of an entire year. That's yeah, that's amazing.
00:00:54
Speaker 3: I think it went over from eighty six into eighty seven it was still in the charts, so it was you know, they locked the charts up for the Christmas period and then when they resumed it was back on it was still in there, so it was it was crazy.
00:01:09
Speaker 1: Is Stephen Greenberg from lip Sync Kissing the Ground that You Walk On is he's sending you a Christmas card every year.
00:01:16
Speaker 2: He's pretty chumsy. He's pretty happy about that, Steve, because.
00:01:20
Speaker 1: You never hear their version, to be honest, on radio, you hear yours all the time.
00:01:25
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, I mean I think in the States his version still gets a good run. But you know, look, he'd done that song and he didn't have much other sort of chart success outside of that one.
00:01:38
Speaker 2: So when we covered, he was over the moon.
00:01:40
Speaker 3: And you know, he came along to one of our shows in the States and he was he was so happy, and he was he was so positive towards the song, kept saying, Oh, it's going to be huge. I can just tell you know, you guys are funny and you've got a real charm, and it was great. He was, he was really excited about it, genuinely.
00:01:58
Speaker 1: I often wonder when you strike lightning with a song, what was it about that song? Of all the songs she could have chosen six years after the original release, why was it that one you decided on.
00:02:11
Speaker 3: Well, funnily enough, there's a connection that goes back with Molly Meldrum. Molly is the DJ at a club in the Northern Suburbs back in those days, and a mutual friend introduced me to Molly because I said, always go to this club ninety DJ just to sort of check out what he played. I love he always was playing the latest thing, and I could always gauge.
00:02:34
Speaker 2: The dance floor and see how songs kicked in and.
00:02:37
Speaker 3: What the reaction was. And I remember him playing the original Funky Town. So it really had an impact on me and stuck with me. And as it was six years later, we were on the Love and Adventure tour promoting the album. Because of course Funky Tab wasn't on the original cut of the Love and Adventure album.
00:02:53
Speaker 2: Who was added later on.
00:02:55
Speaker 3: And so at the time we were doing the promo tour, I was at a like I'm just having a break and I bumped into an old friend it was a DJ, and played me that original version while we were catching up, and it really hit me. It took me back, and so the next sound check I was on during the tour, I started kind of just noodling parts of the original Funky Town and then I sort of started transcribing it into the right key for me, and you know, the guys were just sort of following along, and I said, hey, let's let's throw this in the end care tonight. And so we bravely, you know, learned what we could and put it together the way we could.
00:03:35
Speaker 2: It was pretty loose rendition and quite different, and.
00:03:39
Speaker 3: It went over so well in that encore that we decided to leave it in for the rest of the tour. But by the time the rest of the tour finished, rather there was so much talk about this cover that we were doing. It probably eclipsed the Love and Adventure album, and so we were kind of, you know, saying, let's let's record it then. And Lee Simon of Triple M at the time, who was sharing an office with our management, he bumped into me in the hallway one.
00:04:07
Speaker 2: Day and said, you know you've got to play this song. You know you got to You've got to record this song rather that you're playing.
00:04:12
Speaker 3: And I said, well, which song you're talking about, And when you said Funkytowner, I was so surprised because I didn't even know that there was any kind of consensus out there that we should be recording it other than in our own opinion. But yeah, Lee was so enthusiastic and I think it was it was Lee's enthusiasm that sort of managed to kick over the American record company over the hurdle, because they were a little concerned that, you know, disco wasn't the best way to go, you know, being that there was a disco song.
00:04:41
Speaker 2: But once they heard our version, they were.
00:04:43
Speaker 3: All on board and the rest, as they say, his history.
00:04:46
Speaker 2: So I was glad we came to that decision, and I was glad I had that.
00:04:49
Speaker 1: Meeting with Lee because you go on Countdown back in eighty three during of eighty three, like you blow up listening such a huge smash for you. Very different, I guess because Funky Town was a little bit rocky than other songs you had done at that time.
00:05:01
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, a little bit more guitar heavy, and it was a few years evolution of the band.
00:05:07
Speaker 1: I spoke to the Hooters and I said, thank you for putting the melodica in music and making it popular. I think if you guys too, with the key tar, the keyboard guitar, like it's so cool that instrument. And you for a young kid growing up in the southeast of South Australia seeing you guys on screen, just thinking that's what we want to aim for.
00:05:25
Speaker 3: Yeah, those kitos were a great introduction With Sidero, we're always predominantly a keyboard band, and you know, with keyboards are sort of standing behind this this thing between you and the audience, and it can be a bit restricting. With movement, you can only do so much. And I seem to be the only mobile guy on stage, and yet I was the singer, so I still kind of stuck to the.
00:05:49
Speaker 2: Microphone because I'm playing guitar.
00:05:51
Speaker 3: And when they reintroduced them, because they were sort of invented in the sixties and they were quite bold and you had to run a lot of cables into them and things like that.
00:06:02
Speaker 2: So this new version was just basically a right controller.
00:06:06
Speaker 3: You could plug it into any sound source and play your own sense off it.
00:06:09
Speaker 2: So we just grabbed it and ran with it. It was the best thing.
00:06:13
Speaker 1: It's like when you saw a cheap trek play the double neck guitar like you guys on the key Tart. But there are certain instruments in film clips that you grew up just loving. We always known that it's a cracking song, and we know that it's one of the great musical ear wwhems. I probably really didn't get the appreciation of how good you guys are musically until I had a school friend's band growing up and they used to play Funky Town part of their set list. Notorious they pulled the pin in the early nineties. But there when you get to hear it in rehearsals over and over and over, like the guitar solos and the drumming in that song is so great.
00:06:50
Speaker 3: Yeah, I think we sort of really approached it with a bit of avengince because there was a slight bit of stigma with suits in the early days that you know, we were just just an electronic band, and you know, I wasn't rock and all this, so and you know, ironically, you know, I cut my teeth on classic seventies rock. That's what I grew up with, learning guitar, and so so when we approached our version of it, I mean, obviously, you know, I just let loose with the guitar. You know, a few few eighties bands were starting to introduce solos into their songs at that point of the eighties, Zzy Top were having a comeback, you know Van Halen, So there was there was a real kick up in the rock, so I just you know, went for it, and you know, to put a big solo in the middle of a pop song in those days was pretty bold. And I just pulled out all tricks that I've learned as a kid and all the techniques. A bit of Jimi Hendrix in there, a bit of Jimmy Paige. You know, they're all my idols, all bundles in the one, and.
00:07:50
Speaker 1: It's like a musical conversation between the guitar and the drums like that ran like it goes back and forward.
00:07:58
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, that's right.
00:07:59
Speaker 3: So you know, the original has those components, but it's much more subdued and there was a saxon there and it was just sort of more laid back.
00:08:09
Speaker 2: So we just just took it up a notch.
00:08:11
Speaker 1: So you're a huge smash all around the world, gold platinum albums. I guess the real success though, not just that the music is at the catalog of music, but your incredible live shows. You've been doing it for so long and so love for that. We get to see you here in Adelaide four decades on from that particular song. We're giving it some love because of the anniversary, but you're here on feb six at the GOV.
00:08:33
Speaker 3: Yeah, we love doing the Gove. It's like an institution pursuits. We just always roll up to the GOV and crowd's fantastic. We have it's almost like we all know each other and we just kick it back in and the way we go and there's you know, there's always a few surprises.
00:08:48
Speaker 2: I mean, these days we have a bigger band.
00:08:50
Speaker 3: It's a six piece, there's a couple of girls in the band, and you know there's a bigger vibe and a bigger sound.
00:08:58
Speaker 1: Have you found it's a perfect recipe too. It's the same high energy, but there's a tinge of nostalgia to it because you would have generational fans.
00:09:06
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's right, Like it's a very broad audience.
00:09:09
Speaker 3: And as saying with the sound, we really it gets up real injection of steroids. We're very faithful to the original recordings that we deal with all the hits, but we like to take it up a notch, so it is sort of you get the original components and then you get another level of energy.
00:09:28
Speaker 1: Have you stayed looking so good for being a rock star forty year? What's the secret? What do we need to know?
00:09:34
Speaker 3: Brian the wonderful wife who manages our band. I guess she gives me in good shape and good spirits and my mindset. So that's probably a big, big part of it. I think when you get your life together and things are right, everything falls into place and it's.
00:09:50
Speaker 1: Still just as much fun, I imagine as ever, like that feeling would never die.
00:09:56
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's great. Look, you know, we often REGI the band.
00:09:59
Speaker 3: We changes and things to make sure there's always a real positive vibe on the road with everybody. And the band we've had for the last few years has just been the best band.
00:10:09
Speaker 2: You know.
00:10:10
Speaker 3: They are so dedicated and we're all really good friends and it's great respect amongst the band. So each show is just a big, big fun fest.
00:10:20
Speaker 1: Well, thank you for the music. Thank you for the memories too, because when you hear your songs automatically, not just you don't live it just today, but you go back to the time that you heard it, that you grew up listening to it. We get to see you Friday, the sixth of February at the Guve. Tickets are available at Pseudo Echo dot net. Brian Caannam, congratulations on the forty years. Can't wait to see you here,
