It’s not often that an Australian artist manages to top charts overseas. Dami Im recently managed to go Number 1 all over Europe, but she had the considerable boost of competing in Eurovision.
Short of a Dami Im, or say a Kylie Minogue, it’s tough for Australians to break the European market. Especially if you happen to be a relatively little-known soul outfit from Melbourne.
But that’s Cookin’ On Three Burners, who have so far nabbed a Number 1 single in France, Number 2 in Germany, and a Number 2 in the UK, have gone and done.
As the Sydney Morning Herald notes, if you survey the European charts right now, you’ll see the name Cookin’ On Three Burners in amongst names like Adele, Drake, Sia, Justin Timberlake, and Rihanna.
“Being a Hammond organ trio we’re not in the pop mainstream, that’s for sure,” Jake Mason, organist and original member of the Melbourne group, told Fairfax.
They’ve been thrust into that world thanks to a young French EDM producer named Valentin Brunel, aka Kungs, who remixed their 2009 track ‘This Girl’ into a summer pop anthem.
“It’s been been pretty exciting for us because it’s put a little soul band from Melbourne right in the middle of the mainstream pop world,” said Mason.
The 19-year-old Brunel asked the band for permission to remix the track last year. “He sent us a mock-up of our original track and some of his ideas,” said Mason. “We thought it sounded pretty good so we took it to the next step.”
Brunel has been on the come-up for some time, but his trans-Pacific, after-the-fact collaboration with the Cookin’ on Three Burners boys (and vocalist Kylie Auldist) has significantly raised his profile. ‘This Girl’ has been viewed more than 40 million times on YouTube.
But it’s also resulted in considerable success for the band and Auldist, who’s heading to the UK for a run of club gigs ahead of the release of her new soul EP.
Cookin’ on Three Burners was first founded in 1997 and at one time counted guitarist Lance Ferguson amongst its members, though he left in 2014 to focus on The Bamboos and was replaced by Dan West.
In addition to the royalties from sales of the single, Mason told Fairfax the band have received numerous expressions of interest from other producers looking to work with them.
“We’re really open to that, and stay tuned, there should some more collaborative stuff coming up really soon, of some Cookin’ on Three Burners songs interpreted in many different ways,” he said.
