The Teskey Brothers
http://www.theteskeybrothers.com/?fbclid=IwAR2kEbU9AVXaN-KM7bby6dIzQA7StnsTU9FEoIEjKrGMIExmJtr5bThDWIgSam and Josh Teskey discovered American soul music of the 1960’s via their parents’ record collection and were immediately taken. As teenagers, the two brothers jammed night after night in the bungalow behind their family home on the outskirts of Melbourne, devouring the R&B songbook and absorbing the tricks of the blues trade. In their obsession, the pair became accomplished players and soon began writing originals, a process which came naturally to them both.
In 2008, they joined with Liam Gough (drums) and Brendon Love (bass) to form The Teskey Brothers. The group spent the next eight years cutting their teeth in Melbourne city-fringe pubs and backyard party jams, honing the old-school Motown soul sound and working it into something of their own. At last in 2016 the band emerged from their home studio with a self-produced debut album Half Mile Harvest.
The record was released independently in January 2017 and despite a low-key release campaign it immediately gained attention. Community radio latched onto the first single “Pain and Misery” as word quickly permeated Melbourne. Nobody could quite believe this was the work of a bunch of twenty-somethings out of the Yarra Valley and not that of Stax Records alumni in Memphis circa ’67. The sound so authentic, the songs so original.
After three sold-out shows to launch the record, it’s fair to say Melbourne has fallen hard for The Teskey Brothers. And the word is spreading further afield too with everyone from Peking Duk to Allen Stone singing the band’s praises. Surely it won’t be long before the rest of the universe catches on.
“If this isn’t album of the year I’ll buy a hat and eat it” – Warwick Brown, Greville Records
“This should’ve been on the Forrest Gump soundtrack” – Dom Alessio, JJJ