The last couple of years the band has had influences coming from amazingly talented people of so many backgrounds.

Scene Magazine | Interviews |

Q1) Born Kathmandu, now residing in Brisbane - what's the story in between?

I was born in Kathmandu, Nepal on the 11th of September 1977 (that's right, the hard-to-forget date!) In 1982, when I was 5, my parents moved to Brunei where I had my early schooling at the International School. When I turned 10, I went to a boarding school at the artistically & culturally rich region of the Himalayas - Darjeeling, India. 1n 1995 I came down to Manipal, South India and got enrolled nto an architectural school. Soon after graduation, in early 2002, I came to Brisbane to do my Masters in Digital Design. Having had spent the last 6 years in Brisbane, I now call Brisbane home.

Q2) Has music always being a part of your world?

Without a doubt, YES! No matter where I have been, fortunately I have always been surrounded by music & art around me. I have loved drawing, painting, sculpturing & singing eversince I was 5. While I was at St. Paul's School, Darjeeling, I started playing the guitar at the age of 13. This was a result of an inspiration from my cousin Naresh, an amazing classical guitarist at that time, who now doesn't seem to play guitar anymore! He was a very good teacher. I was also member of the school choir and have sung at Soprano, Tenor & Alto scales over the years of middle & high schooling. At the age of 14 me & my classmate Khanyang Imlong started an original high school band "Apocryphal Apostles" which was mainly punk & thrash metal.

During my first few years of architectural schooling in Manipal, South India, I was in an original grunge outfit called "Hazy" where I
delivered vocals & played guitar. Around 1998 I started getting into trance & electronic music as me and my mates would visit Goa
frequently for rave parties. This led me to experiment with recording guitar, vocal & drum tracks and then editing / mixing them to create
an interesting fusion between electronic, trance, ethnic & grunge genres during my home studio sessions.

Until I had arrived Brisbane, I'd always been a 'nomadic' sort of person, soaking up cultural experiences and influences derived from
various places. I have always felt a strong sense of 'world citizenship' derived from exposition to various built as well as cultural environments. However, Brisbane has slightly changed this in me as I've found it to be my favorite city by far and have hence decided to be based here. However, my ideals still involve the fact that some changes are a great benefit to an artists' creative potential and so I have tried maintaining a few travels a year in order to spread my music and at the same time learn from other musicians from different cultures. I don't think there is more an awesome experience than one where you get to jump from a city considered to be amongst the top 5 busiest musical melting pots of the world, to other places, and then bring back more influences. Such thriving and multifaceted music industries are a must to live in & experience!

Q3) ThatchWorkCity - your band - tell us more please?

In March 2007, myself and a good friend David, along with another friend & drummer then Sandra Kuzman formed 'dpeshe'. Remi Forcet
(accordionist / keyboardist) joined the group immediately in April 2007 and bassist Phillip Waller & back vocalist Samar Afuni in June &
August 2007 respectively. Kathy Baker later joined the group as a cellist / bassist in October 2007. 'dpeshe' has now been renamed and
with the inclusion of a new drummer Evan Buck & guitarist Alex Cruz, ThatchWorkCity is born.

Q4) The members of the group come from all over the globe - seems like it's a real melting pot of cultural and musical influences?

Yes, over the last couple of years we've had influences coming from amazingly talented people of so many backgrounds - France, Scotland, Egypt, England, Australia, Italy, Equador, Nepal etc. The following group members make what is ThatchWorkCity today -

Born in France, David (aka Dav) has spent the last 8 years in Brisbane, Australia. He has been playing the djembe / darbuka /
doumbek for over 10 years during which his influences were mainly reggae, ragga and rock music. Dav bought his first djembe at the age
of 18. An export agency worker by day, this "happy froggy" is now delving into the skill of re-skinning and maintaining drums. Highly
influenced and inspired by Guem, an amazing djembe player, Dav co-formed and found his place in ThatchWorkCity and has been enjoying his synergic involvement with the unique sound they have been creating together. Always ready to play in circles of drummer-friends & well-wishers at parks or on the streets, this one amazing talent's dream is to make and carve his own djembe for that very incomparable, unparalleled & custom sound which is going to be very soon, so keep your ears open!

Katherine Baker, a psychology student and part-time receptionist, spent most of her childhood in sunny Brisbane, living with her parents
& younger brother and attending a small state school. It was in Year 3 that her interest in music was first sparked, when she discovered the joys of learning the cello. She loved its warm and mournful sound, which, much to her wide-eyed delight was capable of making grown-ups cry! Since then, she has joined every orchestra, string quartet, choir and chamber ensemble she could find at school or university, reveling in the beauty of works by baroque, classical and romantic composers. During this time, she spent a year living in not-so-sunny England, which saw her travel around Europe with a youth orchestra, and nearly have her cello dropped in a Venetian canal! Today, Kathy continues her enjoyment of orchestral works through her involvement as a cellist in the Brisbane Philharmonic Orchestra.

As for her connection with ThatchWorkCity, this is a tale of luck and coincidence, in which her mother and my father happened to be
acquainted when trekking through Nepal over 26 years ago! But no matter what strange force brought them together, Kathy is very glad to
have become part of this dynamic ensemble, which has allowed her to extend her musical background in a new direction as a cellist and bass guitar player.

Born down south at Geelong, Victoria and growing up tasting all kinds of raw punk sounds to chilled funky grooves, for drummer Evan Buck, trying to choose a band that can mix a bit of both was hard, but nevertheless interesting. Despite having only jammed with fellow musos in garages and lounge rooms, it was still a considerable growth in his own musical talent. Evan likes to pursue other musicians that are passionate about playing music to the next level. He has found this in ThatchWorkCity. Evan also plays the djembe and his interests extend highly to surfing & snowboarding. Some days if the surf is good, Evan can find it a bit difficult to choose whether to play music or catch some waves! That's when I try my best to convince him music is better!

Alexander Cruz is a Pisces and he loves the ocean. He has been playing guitar on and off for 15 years, with musical influences being
predominantly Ecuadorian folk, salsa, Spanish flamenco, funk reggae, electronica and trance. Alex has played a few gigs around including those at the Woodford Folk Festival 2005 and 2006 as part of a Polish folk band called Kappela. An excellent songwriter and vocalist too, Alex has written songs that are remarkably captivating. He is a very recent addition to the band, replacing dpeshe's co-founder & instrumentalist Remi Forcet.


Q5) Brisbane as a city, how inspiring is it to live here as a musician?

Answer to Question 2 answers this I guess!
Anyway, in a nutshell -
Music has been a part of my world. My world at present is Brisbane.


Q6) So Thatchworkcity live - are you guys a bristling beast of sonic bombs and sizzling guitar riffs?

Not just that....... we have a wide variety of sonic works, ranging from slow, retrograde downbeat tracks to thrusting rock riffs mixed
with folk, electronic, grunge, latin, ethnic indian / middle eastern, funk & pop genres. We aim to be broad & flexible in using our palette
styles thereby creating never-before attempted fusion of styles. To get an immaculate answer to this question you'd be better off  checking us out live.


Q7) You've played a number of shows of late, with quite a few more upcoming - how's the band evolving?

The last two years have been an incredible experience, especially with the experiments we were able to carry out between various genres. We have had a number of people come and share their wealth of talent which has helped the group develop the overall creative skill of inducing sonic synergy. We first started playing out at open-mic venues, charity shows, self-help asylums, house & birthday parties etc. By the second year, we started performing at small bars, cafes & restaurants where we didn't really belt out much heavy stuff but did more of the chilled, mellow and down-tempo stuff. During the last six months we have been dvelving more into bigger sounds at slightly bigger venues. ThatchWorkCIty is now ready to obtain a position in the music industry that will fully utilize our songwriting, performance & presentation skills, and offer opportunities for further promoting our works to the broader audience.


Q8) Does the group have plans for interstate trips at this point of your career?

Absolutely, we have made an independent interstate tour to Melbourne and that was an amazing experience. Likewise, our music has reached as far as Seoul, Istanbul, Budapest, Prague, Warsaw & Berlin (recent independent part-band tour). There was so much we got to learn during these trips and met so many wonderful musicians that had helped us along the way. It makes you feel how small the world really is and that the goodness in it is always waiting for you on each trip you make.


Q9) Is there talk amongst the group of heading into the studio to record a EP/album?

Yes! Owing to the last album recording that I - (a non-formally-educated-sound-person) had done in my garage, which comprised of some musicians that are not in the group anymore, we ought to do another one with the present members! There are now a few students of audio engineering that will be helping in making this possible. We intend on recording a new album by October 2008.


Q10) The rest of 2008 - what's in the works?

Work..... Play..... Work..... Play..... and on and on.............