Sam Teskey, guitarist for The Teskey Brothers is fully aware that he has been “passed the baton”.
The Teskey Brothers sound reaches back far to the Memphis Soul of the 60s and 70s, the acts like Wilson Pickett, Otis Redding and the sounds created for them by Steve Cropper and Donald ‘Duck’ Dunn.
Sam and Josh Teskey grew up in the Melbourne suburb of Warrandyte. “There were some huge influences in our schooling,” Sam Teskey tells Noise11.com. “There were teachers who were right into the blues, teaching Josh the harmonica. It kind of lead us into this avenue of that’s how things are done. We kind of had this old school approach to recording in every sort of way”.
That foundation set them on a path that is more aligned with Memphis than Melbourne. “As we grew and learned how to play we just did it that way,” Sa says. “It wasn’t only until recently did we realize that things were done differently. We’ve just always stuck to our guns and done it old school. Live on stage we always have monitors, no in-ears. You’ve got to feel the room. It is an important thing”.
The Teskey Brothers never set out to mimic Atlantic soul. “I would have to say it’s a subconscious thing,” Sam says. “Subconsciously we picked up what those guys were doing. Josh sung that way. Otis Redding is a huge influence of his. He has naturally sung that way. It almost feels that we were influenced by the people who were influenced by those people. Once removed. The Stones, The Beatles, that era, the 60s, the 70s was what we grew up listening to and that was a collection of what they were dragging from back in the 50s. And now we are dragging the stuff from the 60s and 70s to now”.
The Teskey Brothers will perform at Good Day Sunshine in Western Australia in September and the Queenscliff Music Festival in November.
Sam Teskey also has his own solo dates in August.
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