Join Cheryl Lee - That Radio Chick on STILL ROCKIN' IT for news, reviews, music and interviews with some of our favourite Australian musician
Melbourne Ska Orchestra electrifies with their cinematic new single "Walla of Jericho" and prepares for a mammoth global tour supporting their upcoming album "The Ballad of Monte Loco." Trombonist and tour manager Wally Maloney takes us behind the scenes of this explosive ARIA award-winning collective that has become one of Australia's most beloved musical exports.
Emerging from Melbourne's vibrant ska scene in 2003, this "super group" united the city's best ska musicians into what was initially planned as a one-off celebration. What began as an annual event gradually evolved into the powerhouse ensemble we know today. Maloney shares fascinating stories about juggling 26+ musicians across international tours and the Orchestra's remarkable journey from local favorite to global sensation.
The conversation delves into their groundbreaking "One Year of Ska" project that earned them the 2019 ARIA for Best World Music Album - an incredible feat where they released one track every week for an entire year. Using what Maloney describes as a "Motown Model," they created 52 diverse tracks spanning classic ska covers, TV/movie themes, and original compositions. Their new music takes an exciting turn, blending spaghetti western cinematic elements with their signature ska sound, while "Walls of Jericho" tackles timeless themes of conflict with an undercurrent of hope.
As Melbourne Ska Orchestra prepares to tour Australia, Japan, and Canada, they promise the same infectious energy and fluid stage presence that has made their live shows legendary.
What have MSO been up to lately? Let's find out!
Get out when you can, support local music and I'll see you down the front!!
Visit: ThatRadioChick.com.au
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Cheryl Lee (00:04):
that Radio Chick Cheryl Lee here.
Welcome to the Still Rocking itpodcast, where we'll have music
news, reviews and interviewswith some of our favourite
Australian musicians and artists.
The explosive ARIA award winningSka Juggernaut that is
Melbourne Ska Orchestra returnsarmed with a cinematic new
(00:25):
single Walls of Jerichoalongside the announcement of a
mammoth global tour headed up bythe energetic Nicky Bomba
Melbourne Ska Orchestra neverfails to deliver, and today we
are talking to Wally Maloney who, amongst many other duties,
also plays the trombone.
To catch up on podcasts fromother favourite artists, simply
(00:49):
go to thatradiochick.
com.
au.
You're with Cheryl Lee that.
Radio Chick and I'd like towelcome into the Zoom room today
Wally Maloney from.
Wally Maloney (01:01):
Melbourne's.
Cheryl Lee (01:01):
Ska Orchestra.
Wally Maloney (01:02):
Thanks for joining us, thanks for having me
.
Cheryl Lee (01:05):
Well, you've got lots of exciting things on the
horizon, but let's start at thestart.
What instrument do you play inthe orchestra, Wally?
Wally Maloney (01:13):
I play trombone in the orchestra.
I also take care of a bunch ofthe other kind of managerial
jobs as well.
I've been with the orchestrasince it started in 2003.
Wow, and it's been a journey, abig journey.
Cheryl Lee (01:26):
So you're multi-skilled, you multitask.
Wally Maloney (01:29):
Yeah, I multitask quite a lot of things I also
take care of.
I've been the tour manager forthe last 10 or more years.
Take care of getting everyoneto the right place at the right
time.
Cheryl Lee (01:40):
That would be no mean feat with, at times, up to
26 different members.
Wally Maloney (01:46):
That's right.
That's right.
Sometimes, if we're overseas,it might be dealing with more
people because we'll getadditional players in different
cities.
We always take on a few people,so yeah, jesus that is a job
and a half.
Cheryl Lee (01:57):
My next question was how long have you been with?
Wally Maloney (01:59):
them, so you've been with them since inception.
Cheryl Lee (02:02):
That's a lot longer than a lot of marriages.
Well done.
Wally Maloney (02:07):
Well, thank you.
Yeah, like I said, it's been along journey.
Nobody expected it to end upwhere it is now.
Cheryl Lee (02:13):
Tell me the story of how you got together with these
likely lads and stayed.
Wally Maloney (02:19):
Well, going all the way back then, back to 2003,
in Melbourne there was a pretty, I guess, thriving ska
community.
There used to be kind ofregular ska events.
There used to be a thing calledSka Bar it was the first
Thursday of every month at a pubthat no longer exists, and so
(02:40):
there was a good group of bandsaround at that time.
There was probably, you know,10 or 15 bands circulating
around the ska around at thattime.
There was probably you know, 10or 15 bands circulating around
the the ska scene at that timein melbourne.
In 2003 they all got broughttogether to kind of form a
gigantic super group.
So they got all the hornplayers from different bands,
they got rhythm section fromdifferent bands and and nikki
came in to um to be the kind ofmaster of ceremonies and then
(03:03):
take care of, you know, makingsure that everyone's moving in
the right direction.
Great, big celebration.
Cheryl Lee (03:08):
I love that term.
I mean super group, so you'relike a super orchestra.
Wally Maloney (03:13):
I guess.
So yeah, my band at the timewas called Trojan Horns.
I know that other bands thatgot kind of combined and
amalgamated into Melbourne SkaOrchestra were I thinking back a
long time ago.
There was a band called 99% FatCommissioner, corden Boy, scar
Loin Groin, there was Bomba anda few other kind of smatterings
(03:33):
around of different bands thatall kind of combined together.
Cheryl Lee (03:36):
So you're like a big conglomeration, like a big
conglomeration.
Wally Maloney (03:40):
And then over the years kind of first 10 years we
only played like one show ayear.
And then over the years kind offirst 10 years we only played
like one show a year we did thefirst show and it was amazing.
There was, you know, queuesgoing around the block at the
Gershwin Room in St Kilda, whichwas at the time one of the
coolest venues around.
We did that first show as akind of tribute to 40 years of
Ska, because around 1963, therewas a big hit song by Millie
(04:02):
Smalls called my Boy Lollipop.
Yeah, there was a big hit songby Millie Smalls called my Boy
Lollipop yeah, which is kind ofthe first you know real big song
to make it out of Jamaica tobring that kind of sound to the
rest of the world.
Cheryl Lee (04:10):
Sort of kicked everything off, didn't it?
Wally Maloney (04:12):
Yeah, it sort of kicked everything off.
It kind of also coincided witha bunch of other kind of things
that were happening that helpedto spread that sound around the
world.
So there was a lot of Jamaicansfrom moving to the UK, bringing
the music with them, whichwould eventually lead to, down
the line, their children pickingup those songs in the late 70s,
early 80s and coming up withthat kind of two-tone second
(04:34):
wave of the star in the UK.
So like Madness and theSpecials and that kind of thing.
Cheryl Lee (04:39):
You are listening to Still Rocking it, the podcast
with Cheryl Lee.
I'm going to play you the newsongs later, but for now the one
that started it all my BoyLollipop, millie Small.
Back to speak some more toWally from Melbourne Ska
Orchestra very shortly.
.
(05:01):
Melbourne Ska Orchestra's gottwo things to celebrate Firstly,
a brand new single Walls ofJericho and then a big tour.
We're going all over the place.
Wally Maloney (05:14):
But let's talk about the single first, because
it's actually got quite apowerful message hasn't it.
Yeah, it does.
Wars of Jericho will be thesecond single that we're
releasing, ahead of a new albumthat we've got called the Ballad
of Monte Loco, which is due todrop in a couple of weeks, which
is going to be amazing.
We've been working really hardon it.
We've kind of delved into thiskind of cinematic spaghetti
(05:35):
western world where we'recombining together this guy and
Walls of Jericho is kind of abit more of one of the kind of
more contemplative songs on thealbum and, yes, the bit more of
a uh, one of the kind of morecontemplative songs on the album
.
And yes, the theme of it is isvery much, without getting too
kind of currently political.
There are themes within thissong that just, unfortunately,
(05:56):
seem to resonate over and overand over again.
There's, you know, the futilityof war and, yeah, the things
that people do to each other,but it's combined together in a
way that's kind of, you know itgives hope.
Cheryl Lee (06:05):
Exactly, yeah, yeah, so did Nicky write that one.
Wally Maloney (06:08):
Nicky wrote that song.
That one was one that he kindof had in his back pocket.
So when it came to us puttingtogether the songs for the album
, it was like I've got a perfectone to slot in there.
Cheryl Lee (06:17):
I think he said that it had been brewing for a while
and it sort of seems like goodtiming.
You know, wherever you live in,the world at the moment is very
uncertain and we're all a bitworried about what's going on.
Wally Maloney (06:33):
Yeah, like I said , it's unfortunate that this
theme could have easily happenedin any generation and
unfortunately it's happeningagain in our generation.
Cheryl Lee (06:38):
So it's good to have a song that recognises it, but
also has that hopeful side aswell.
Yeah, yeah, good luck with thenew single and the upcoming
release of the new album.
The album's called the Balladof.
Wally Maloney (06:51):
Monte Loco, you've got a corresponding tour.
Cheryl Lee (06:55):
And you're going to All over Australia, Japan and
Canada.
It's a biggie.
Wally Maloney (06:59):
It's a biggie.
Yeah, We'll be taking off forCanada in a couple of weeks.
Good to get back there.
That'll be our first time theresince 2015.
It's a little 10-year reunionback to Canada and we're playing
a few of our old haunts alongwith some new ones, which is
going to be great.
There's some really wonderfulshows to play in Canada.
It'll be great to be a part ofthat.
And then, when we get back,we're going to have a week off
(07:21):
and have a rehearsal and thenget back out on the road and go
all around Australia.
We'll be covering, I think,every state.
Cheryl Lee (07:28):
You're going everywhere, man.
Wally Maloney (07:30):
Going everywhere, man, that's the one.
Cheryl Lee (07:32):
So get onto the Google-o-meter.
Check out when Melbourne SkaOrchestra are coming to your
town www.
melbournescarorchestra.
com for the.
Adelaideans, Friday, Septemberthe 12th, and at the Gov have
you guys played at our Govbefore.
Wally Maloney (07:49):
We have.
We love the Gov.
We've played at the Gov anumber of times.
Well, most of the times thatwe've come to Adelaide we've
played at the Gov, which isgreat, and it's always good to
be back.
It's a great venue and a reallynice team to work with down
there, so they always take careof us, and I like how the stage
has got that kind of curve soyou're kind of completely
surrounded by the audience.
Yeah, we engulf you, yeah.
Cheryl Lee (08:13):
I think last time I saw you in Adelaide was actually
at Hindley Street Music Hall.
Wally Maloney (08:16):
That's right, yeah, yeah.
Cheryl Lee (08:18):
Still rocking that podcast with that radio chick,
cheryl Lee.
Here it is, the Walls ofJericho, the second taste of the
band's forthcoming new album,the Ballad of Monte Loco,
following on from the group's2024 upbeat track, john Wayne,
which we might listen to a bitlater.
Back with Wally Maloney afterthis Looking at the stage?
Wally Maloney (08:55):
are you in the little orchestra configuration
at?
Cheryl Lee (08:56):
the right of me, or are you on the stage, Karen?
And I'm moving around with theeffervescent Nicky Bomber.
Wally Maloney (09:02):
Well, I'd like to say a little bit of both.
We've got our stage positions,but we're also very prone to
drifting out of our sections andacross to the around the stage
and into the audience Quitefluid.
Quite fluid.
Yeah, we can definitely move inand out, in and around the
stage.
You know sometimes duck offbackstage, come out the side
(09:23):
around the top, run around thefront of the venue, run through
the crowd, pop out the back door.
Cheryl Lee (09:28):
Go to the loo get a drink.
Wally Maloney (09:29):
Yeah, I mean, sometimes, you know, we put on a
long show, yeah you do, and itis very, very energetic.
Cheryl Lee (09:35):
You've got to see it , guys.
Don't dilly-dally, get onto theGoogle-o-meter.
So you guys have had such hugesuccess over the years and but
huge success over the years, andAustralia should be very, very
proud of the Melbourne SkaOrchestra.
But there's one thing that youguys did that absolutely blows
my mind.
Just one, yeah, and obviouslyit blew other people's minds as
(10:01):
well, because it won the BestWorld Music Album in 2019.
But the compilation album OneYear of Ska, which saw you guys
release a song every single weekfor a year Like that is 52
tracks.
How did you manage to pull that?
Wally Maloney (10:19):
off.
I remember it well becauseevery Friday morning I'd be
frantically putting the vinyltouches on everything, getting
up at 5 o'clock in the morningso I can just put the little
bits and pieces on the trackbefore it releases at 9 o'clock
in the morning.
It was great.
It was a great experience.
You know, we kind of went intoit.
We had a game plan when we wentin, so we cut it up into kind of
(10:41):
sections for like, okay, well,let's do four albums of 13
tracks each album, which if youtotal all that up it comes to 52
.
So that's clear for the year.
And from there we kind of justbroke it off into chunks.
We started off doing like skaclassics, kind of like the book
of covers that we would like toshow people to introduce them to
(11:01):
ska just lots of songs that welove and know.
And then we went in and did analbum of TV and movie themes,
which is also part of the genre.
So you know, it was big back inthe day that ska bands in
Jamaica would do renditions ofthe latest you know TV and movie
themes of the movies that werearound at the time.
So there was like versions ofJames Bond, guns of Navarone,
(11:21):
bonanza, magnificent Seven.
Those were songs they did atthe time and we did our kind of
updated 2018, 2019 versions ofthat.
So we've got like Game ofThrones, star Wars, Curb Your
enthusiasm, narcos a whole bunchof our ska versions of a bunch
of you know, beloved TV andmovie themes.
(11:42):
And then we got into originalstown.
So the last two albums wereoriginals and that's where it
got really kind of fun andinteresting.
So you know, once you've doneabout 20 original songs, at that
pace we kind of used up all ofour usual fallback things that
we'd go to.
So we were just stretching outand going all different kind of
directions and working out whatwe could do musically and we got
(12:03):
a lot of great tunes out of itit what we could do musically
and we got a lot of great tunesout of it.
Cheryl Lee (12:06):
It was a great experience of working.
That is no mean feat.
Wally Maloney (12:08):
Towards the end.
It was definitely a very Iguess kind of like Motown model.
We had set up a studio andNicky was basically living at
the studio.
We'd have people trackingrhythm section in one room,
people in another room writinglyrics for a different song,
people recording in horns for adifferent song in a different
room just doing this kind ofrevolving door of getting all
(12:29):
the bits and pieces we neededtogether to make it work.
Cheryl Lee (12:33):
You are listening to Still Rocking it, the podcast
with Cheryl Lee.
What an amazing achievement.
Here is one of those TV andmovie themes now it's the Pink
Panther theme and then we'll beback to say farewell to Wally
Maloney from Melbourne ScarOrchestra.
Are those albums available?
(13:04):
Individually or do they need tobe bought as a quartet of
albums?
Wally Maloney (13:10):
Those are available, of course, on all the
streaming services as eithertheir albums or as individual
songs or as the wholecompilation together.
Or we will be travelling around.
We still have someold-fashioned CDs, which is a
box set that we'll still carryaround with us because, I mean,
it was quite a big thing andeven though not many people use
(13:30):
CDs anymore, this is a box setof four CDs.
You can whack it in the car.
We've got days of listening,yay.
Cheryl Lee (13:36):
Congratulations on that.
We wish you all the best withthe new single, the new album,
the tour.
We look forward to seeing youdown the front at our town very
soon.
Wally Maloney (13:47):
Great, great, looking forward to it.
It's going to be great to getto Adelaide again.
Adelaide is such a great cityfor us, always so good whenever
we go to Adelaide.
We've been to Adelaide enoughtimes that we've got our own
little special routine.
We know which places to goBefore the show.
We're going to go down to thisplace and have a little
something to eat.
It's really nice to be inadelaide I agree with you, but
(14:07):
I'm biased.
Cheryl Lee (14:09):
Safe travels until then and we shall see you friday
, the 12th of september we'll bethere and it'll.
Be great thanks once again foruh doing this interview and and
uh helping spread the word no,thank you, and it's lovely to
meet you and I look forward toseeing you when you come to town
.
Wally Maloney (14:26):
Excellent.
Cheryl Lee (14:26):
Enjoy the rest of your day.
Wally Maloney (14:28):
Thank you, you too Bye-bye.
Cheryl Lee (14:29):
Still rocking the podcast with that radio chick,
cheryl Lee.
Let's go out with the firstsingle from the album Ballad of
Monte Loco from last year, theupbeat track John Wayne.
you're with Cheryl Lee, thatradio chick.
(14:52):
Thank you so much for joiningme on the Still Rocking it
podcast.
Hope to catch you again nexttime.
Get out when you can supportAussie music and I'll see you
down the front.
that Radio Chick Cheryl Lee here.
Welcome to the Still Rocking itpodcast, where we'll have music
news, reviews and interviewswith some of our favourite
Australian musicians and artists.
The explosive ARIA award winningSka Juggernaut that is
Melbourne Ska Orchestra returnsarmed with a cinematic new
(00:25):
single Walls of Jerichoalongside the announcement of a
mammoth global tour headed up bythe energetic Nicky Bomba
Melbourne Ska Orchestra neverfails to deliver, and today we
are talking to Wally Maloney who, amongst many other duties,
also plays the trombone.
To catch up on podcasts fromother favourite artists, simply
(00:49):
go to thatradiochick.
com.
au.
You're with Cheryl Lee that.
Radio Chick and I'd like towelcome into the Zoom room today
Wally Maloney from.
Wally Maloney (01:01):
Melbourne's.
Cheryl Lee (01:01):
Ska Orchestra.
Wally Maloney (01:02):
Thanks for joining us, thanks for having me
.
Cheryl Lee (01:05):
Well, you've got lots of exciting things on the
horizon, but let's start at thestart.
What instrument do you play inthe orchestra, Wally?
Wally Maloney (01:13):
I play trombone in the orchestra.
I also take care of a bunch ofthe other kind of managerial
jobs as well.
I've been with the orchestrasince it started in 2003.
Wow, and it's been a journey, abig journey.
Cheryl Lee (01:26):
So you're multi-skilled, you multitask.
Wally Maloney (01:29):
Yeah, I multitask quite a lot of things I also
take care of.
I've been the tour manager forthe last 10 or more years.
Take care of getting everyoneto the right place at the right
time.
Cheryl Lee (01:40):
That would be no mean feat with, at times, up to
26 different members.
Wally Maloney (01:46):
That's right.
That's right.
Sometimes, if we're overseas,it might be dealing with more
people because we'll getadditional players in different
cities.
We always take on a few people,so yeah, jesus that is a job
and a half.
Cheryl Lee (01:57):
My next question was how long have you been with?
Wally Maloney (01:59):
them, so you've been with them since inception.
Cheryl Lee (02:02):
That's a lot longer than a lot of marriages.
Well done.
Wally Maloney (02:07):
Well, thank you.
Yeah, like I said, it's been along journey.
Nobody expected it to end upwhere it is now.
Cheryl Lee (02:13):
Tell me the story of how you got together with these
likely lads and stayed.
Wally Maloney (02:19):
Well, going all the way back then, back to 2003,
in Melbourne there was a pretty, I guess, thriving ska
community.
There used to be kind ofregular ska events.
There used to be a thing calledSka Bar it was the first
Thursday of every month at a pubthat no longer exists, and so
(02:40):
there was a good group of bandsaround at that time.
There was probably, you know,10 or 15 bands circulating
around the ska around at thattime.
There was probably you know, 10or 15 bands circulating around
the the ska scene at that timein melbourne.
In 2003 they all got broughttogether to kind of form a
gigantic super group.
So they got all the hornplayers from different bands,
they got rhythm section fromdifferent bands and and nikki
came in to um to be the kind ofmaster of ceremonies and then
(03:03):
take care of, you know, makingsure that everyone's moving in
the right direction.
Great, big celebration.
Cheryl Lee (03:08):
I love that term.
I mean super group, so you'relike a super orchestra.
Wally Maloney (03:13):
I guess.
So yeah, my band at the timewas called Trojan Horns.
I know that other bands thatgot kind of combined and
amalgamated into Melbourne SkaOrchestra were I thinking back a
long time ago.
There was a band called 99% FatCommissioner, corden Boy, scar
Loin Groin, there was Bomba anda few other kind of smatterings
(03:33):
around of different bands thatall kind of combined together.
Cheryl Lee (03:36):
So you're like a big conglomeration, like a big
conglomeration.
Wally Maloney (03:40):
And then over the years kind of first 10 years we
only played like one show ayear.
And then over the years kind offirst 10 years we only played
like one show a year we did thefirst show and it was amazing.
There was, you know, queuesgoing around the block at the
Gershwin Room in St Kilda, whichwas at the time one of the
coolest venues around.
We did that first show as akind of tribute to 40 years of
Ska, because around 1963, therewas a big hit song by Millie
(04:02):
Smalls called my Boy Lollipop.
Yeah, there was a big hit songby Millie Smalls called my Boy
Lollipop yeah, which is kind ofthe first you know real big song
to make it out of Jamaica tobring that kind of sound to the
rest of the world.
Cheryl Lee (04:10):
Sort of kicked everything off, didn't it?
Wally Maloney (04:12):
Yeah, it sort of kicked everything off.
It kind of also coincided witha bunch of other kind of things
that were happening that helpedto spread that sound around the
world.
So there was a lot of Jamaicansfrom moving to the UK, bringing
the music with them, whichwould eventually lead to, down
the line, their children pickingup those songs in the late 70s,
early 80s and coming up withthat kind of two-tone second
(04:34):
wave of the star in the UK.
So like Madness and theSpecials and that kind of thing.
Cheryl Lee (04:39):
You are listening to Still Rocking it, the podcast
with Cheryl Lee.
I'm going to play you the newsongs later, but for now the one
that started it all my BoyLollipop, millie Small.
Back to speak some more toWally from Melbourne Ska
Orchestra very shortly.
.
(05:01):
Melbourne Ska Orchestra's gottwo things to celebrate Firstly,
a brand new single Walls ofJericho and then a big tour.
We're going all over the place.
Wally Maloney (05:14):
But let's talk about the single first, because
it's actually got quite apowerful message hasn't it.
Yeah, it does.
Wars of Jericho will be thesecond single that we're
releasing, ahead of a new albumthat we've got called the Ballad
of Monte Loco, which is due todrop in a couple of weeks, which
is going to be amazing.
We've been working really hardon it.
We've kind of delved into thiskind of cinematic spaghetti
(05:35):
western world where we'recombining together this guy and
Walls of Jericho is kind of abit more of one of the kind of
more contemplative songs on thealbum and, yes, the bit more of
a uh, one of the kind of morecontemplative songs on the album
.
And yes, the theme of it is isvery much, without getting too
kind of currently political.
There are themes within thissong that just, unfortunately,
(05:56):
seem to resonate over and overand over again.
There's, you know, the futilityof war and, yeah, the things
that people do to each other,but it's combined together in a
way that's kind of, you know itgives hope.
Cheryl Lee (06:05):
Exactly, yeah, yeah, so did Nicky write that one.
Wally Maloney (06:08):
Nicky wrote that song.
That one was one that he kindof had in his back pocket.
So when it came to us puttingtogether the songs for the album
, it was like I've got a perfectone to slot in there.
Cheryl Lee (06:17):
I think he said that it had been brewing for a while
and it sort of seems like goodtiming.
You know, wherever you live in,the world at the moment is very
uncertain and we're all a bitworried about what's going on.
Wally Maloney (06:33):
Yeah, like I said , it's unfortunate that this
theme could have easily happenedin any generation and
unfortunately it's happeningagain in our generation.
Cheryl Lee (06:38):
So it's good to have a song that recognises it, but
also has that hopeful side aswell.
Yeah, yeah, good luck with thenew single and the upcoming
release of the new album.
The album's called the Balladof.
Wally Maloney (06:51):
Monte Loco, you've got a corresponding tour.
Cheryl Lee (06:55):
And you're going to All over Australia, Japan and
Canada.
It's a biggie.
Wally Maloney (06:59):
It's a biggie.
Yeah, We'll be taking off forCanada in a couple of weeks.
Good to get back there.
That'll be our first time theresince 2015.
It's a little 10-year reunionback to Canada and we're playing
a few of our old haunts alongwith some new ones, which is
going to be great.
There's some really wonderfulshows to play in Canada.
It'll be great to be a part ofthat.
And then, when we get back,we're going to have a week off
(07:21):
and have a rehearsal and thenget back out on the road and go
all around Australia.
We'll be covering, I think,every state.
Cheryl Lee (07:28):
You're going everywhere, man.
Wally Maloney (07:30):
Going everywhere, man, that's the one.
Cheryl Lee (07:32):
So get onto the Google-o-meter.
Check out when Melbourne SkaOrchestra are coming to your
town www.
melbournescarorchestra.
com for the.
Adelaideans, Friday, Septemberthe 12th, and at the Gov have
you guys played at our Govbefore.
Wally Maloney (07:49):
We have.
We love the Gov.
We've played at the Gov anumber of times.
Well, most of the times thatwe've come to Adelaide we've
played at the Gov, which isgreat, and it's always good to
be back.
It's a great venue and a reallynice team to work with down
there, so they always take careof us, and I like how the stage
has got that kind of curve soyou're kind of completely
surrounded by the audience.
Yeah, we engulf you, yeah.
Cheryl Lee (08:13):
I think last time I saw you in Adelaide was actually
at Hindley Street Music Hall.
Wally Maloney (08:16):
That's right, yeah, yeah.
Cheryl Lee (08:18):
Still rocking that podcast with that radio chick,
cheryl Lee.
Here it is, the Walls ofJericho, the second taste of the
band's forthcoming new album,the Ballad of Monte Loco,
following on from the group's2024 upbeat track, john Wayne,
which we might listen to a bitlater.
Back with Wally Maloney afterthis Looking at the stage?
Wally Maloney (08:55):
are you in the little orchestra configuration
at?
Cheryl Lee (08:56):
the right of me, or are you on the stage, Karen?
And I'm moving around with theeffervescent Nicky Bomber.
Wally Maloney (09:02):
Well, I'd like to say a little bit of both.
We've got our stage positions,but we're also very prone to
drifting out of our sections andacross to the around the stage
and into the audience Quitefluid.
Quite fluid.
Yeah, we can definitely move inand out, in and around the
stage.
You know sometimes duck offbackstage, come out the side
(09:23):
around the top, run around thefront of the venue, run through
the crowd, pop out the back door.
Cheryl Lee (09:28):
Go to the loo get a drink.
Wally Maloney (09:29):
Yeah, I mean, sometimes, you know, we put on a
long show, yeah you do, and itis very, very energetic.
Cheryl Lee (09:35):
You've got to see it , guys.
Don't dilly-dally, get onto theGoogle-o-meter.
So you guys have had such hugesuccess over the years and but
huge success over the years, andAustralia should be very, very
proud of the Melbourne SkaOrchestra.
But there's one thing that youguys did that absolutely blows
my mind.
Just one, yeah, and obviouslyit blew other people's minds as
(10:01):
well, because it won the BestWorld Music Album in 2019.
But the compilation album OneYear of Ska, which saw you guys
release a song every single weekfor a year Like that is 52
tracks.
How did you manage to pull that?
Wally Maloney (10:19):
off.
I remember it well becauseevery Friday morning I'd be
frantically putting the vinyltouches on everything, getting
up at 5 o'clock in the morningso I can just put the little
bits and pieces on the trackbefore it releases at 9 o'clock
in the morning.
It was great.
It was a great experience.
You know, we kind of went intoit.
We had a game plan when we wentin, so we cut it up into kind of
(10:41):
sections for like, okay, well,let's do four albums of 13
tracks each album, which if youtotal all that up it comes to 52
.
So that's clear for the year.
And from there we kind of justbroke it off into chunks.
We started off doing like skaclassics, kind of like the book
of covers that we would like toshow people to introduce them to
(11:01):
ska just lots of songs that welove and know.
And then we went in and did analbum of TV and movie themes,
which is also part of the genre.
So you know, it was big back inthe day that ska bands in
Jamaica would do renditions ofthe latest you know TV and movie
themes of the movies that werearound at the time.
So there was like versions ofJames Bond, guns of Navarone,
(11:21):
bonanza, magnificent Seven.
Those were songs they did atthe time and we did our kind of
updated 2018, 2019 versions ofthat.
So we've got like Game ofThrones, star Wars, Curb Your
enthusiasm, narcos a whole bunchof our ska versions of a bunch
of you know, beloved TV andmovie themes.
(11:42):
And then we got into originalstown.
So the last two albums wereoriginals and that's where it
got really kind of fun andinteresting.
So you know, once you've doneabout 20 original songs, at that
pace we kind of used up all ofour usual fallback things that
we'd go to.
So we were just stretching outand going all different kind of
directions and working out whatwe could do musically and we got
(12:03):
a lot of great tunes out of itit what we could do musically
and we got a lot of great tunesout of it.
Cheryl Lee (12:06):
It was a great experience of working.
That is no mean feat.
Wally Maloney (12:08):
Towards the end.
It was definitely a very Iguess kind of like Motown model.
We had set up a studio andNicky was basically living at
the studio.
We'd have people trackingrhythm section in one room,
people in another room writinglyrics for a different song,
people recording in horns for adifferent song in a different
room just doing this kind ofrevolving door of getting all
(12:29):
the bits and pieces we neededtogether to make it work.
Cheryl Lee (12:33):
You are listening to Still Rocking it, the podcast
with Cheryl Lee.
What an amazing achievement.
Here is one of those TV andmovie themes now it's the Pink
Panther theme and then we'll beback to say farewell to Wally
Maloney from Melbourne ScarOrchestra.
Are those albums available?
(13:04):
Individually or do they need tobe bought as a quartet of
albums?
Wally Maloney (13:10):
Those are available, of course, on all the
streaming services as eithertheir albums or as individual
songs or as the wholecompilation together.
Or we will be travelling around.
We still have someold-fashioned CDs, which is a
box set that we'll still carryaround with us because, I mean,
it was quite a big thing andeven though not many people use
(13:30):
CDs anymore, this is a box setof four CDs.
You can whack it in the car.
We've got days of listening,yay.
Cheryl Lee (13:36):
Congratulations on that.
We wish you all the best withthe new single, the new album,
the tour.
We look forward to seeing youdown the front at our town very
soon.
Wally Maloney (13:47):
Great, great, looking forward to it.
It's going to be great to getto Adelaide again.
Adelaide is such a great cityfor us, always so good whenever
we go to Adelaide.
We've been to Adelaide enoughtimes that we've got our own
little special routine.
We know which places to goBefore the show.
We're going to go down to thisplace and have a little
something to eat.
It's really nice to be inadelaide I agree with you, but
(14:07):
I'm biased.
Cheryl Lee (14:09):
Safe travels until then and we shall see you friday
, the 12th of september we'll bethere and it'll.
Be great thanks once again foruh doing this interview and and
uh helping spread the word no,thank you, and it's lovely to
meet you and I look forward toseeing you when you come to town
.
Wally Maloney (14:26):
Excellent.
Cheryl Lee (14:26):
Enjoy the rest of your day.
Wally Maloney (14:28):
Thank you, you too Bye-bye.
Cheryl Lee (14:29):
Still rocking the podcast with that radio chick,
cheryl Lee.
Let's go out with the firstsingle from the album Ballad of
Monte Loco from last year, theupbeat track John Wayne.
you're with Cheryl Lee, thatradio chick.
(14:52):
Thank you so much for joiningme on the Still Rocking it
podcast.
Hope to catch you again nexttime.
Get out when you can supportAussie music and I'll see you
down the front.
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