Interview with Nicky Bomba

Melbourne Ska Orchestra making The Echo party a blast

Here at The Echo we are celebrating our big 4-0 and to make the party bigger than Ben Hur, we have invited the ultimate fun band to help us swing the night away – the electrifying Melbourne Ska Orchestra – delivering their signature high-energy big brass band sound. They are travelling north in June, and Seven caught up with band leader Nicky Bomba in the studio prepping for their next album.

What’s new with MSO?

Well, we’re about to do a national tour. We’re playing at The Echo party on 6 June, and we’re releasing a new album. Our last album was called The Ballad Of Monte Loco, and this one is called Monty Loco Returns, which is a live recording of the tour. And we also filmed the last show, so there’s a bit of a, like a mini doco coming out. So lots of different trips and working on a short film.

There are so many people on stage – how big does MSO grow?

When we play in Melbourne, because we don’t have flight issues, it’s been up to 26 or 27 – one show we hit 31. But that was kind of, a bit of mayhem on stage. You know, people were jumping over each other. We tour overseas with about 18 or 19.

I think when we’re doing the show for The Echo, that’s kind of, like a bit of a smaller version, so it’ll be like a 15-piece – something like that, which is still great. You can imagine with 30, as much mayhem as it looks from the audience, it’s twice as much on stage, but it’s fun. The bottom line with this band is it’s fun and good energy, and that always comes through.

As the ringmaster, is there a lot of difference for you leading the small group of 10 to 15, to a group of 30?

Here’s the thing with performance –  whenever you’re performing, it doesn’t matter what capacity you have. You’re a conduit for the energy that’s happening at the time. So what happens with an orchestra that’s got 18 or 30, you just have to watch you don’t trip over everybody. But as far as the energy is concerned, what we do – which is excitement and joy and elevation – and the vibrations of the moment with the songs that we love, it doesn’t really matter how many people are on stage, because it’s a bit like a circus. Sometimes there’s 15 people in there but everyone knows what their act is.

I like it when there’s a bit more room on stage, because I get to dance around more.

Has the reality of creating the orchestra matched the vision?

It’s beyond, way beyond. I mean, our first idea of putting things together was just to celebrate the 40th anniversary of ska in 2003. So 40 years later, we did a tribute at the Gershwin Room, and we just put the word out, just to see whether anyone might come, and we were inundated with people who wanted to be involved when we started rehearsing. That’s how the kind of, band came together, and that first gig was going to be a one-off, but the energy and the vibe and what we were doing, and what we were celebrating, was so good. It was too big to just let it go.

So what in you life right now is inspiring you?

I love creating music – that’s kind of my number one. I could sit in the studio and just make music all day. I also like making things happen. You know, you can create music and everything, but unless it’s packaged, and put together, and mixed and mastered, and put out there, it kind of means nothing. It just gathers dust.

Melbourne Ska Orchestra are playing at The Echo’s 40th Birthday and Awards night, June 6 at Club Byron. Tickets from events.humanitix.com/the-echo-s-40th-anniversary-and-awards-celebration.