Fraud Millionaires

Featuring a hybrid of reggae, dub and rock, Fraud Millionaires are a five-piece band out of Adelaide's western suburbs that fit in with such other Adelaide groups as Poetikool Justice and A Tribe Is Forming. Once known as Seeds Of Babylon, the group picked up a SAMI award in 2005 for Best World Music Group and have their latest album 'Speak Easy' dropping on the 6th of this month. After a stint without a permanent bass player and subsequently giving almost every bassist in Adelaide a shot, they finally settled on Tim Foster and now everything's rosy.

"We started writing and recording the album over a year ago now. During that time we went through," John Roast, the group's vocalist, counts under his breath, "three bass players. So three bass players in a few months."

You'd think that having the efforts of several different people filling a role instead of a core group would cause some difficulties in the construction of a record. Roast, however, says that it was actually beneficial for the group.

"It actually wasn't too bad. A new bass player actually brought a new song to the band and a new style, which helped us write different kinds of songs all together. It worked out really well, there weren't any bridges burnt."

One of the temporary bass players was Dylan Ferguson, from Poetikool Justice, and another was Mike Feetham of Seeds Of Babylon and later A Tribe Is Forming. The similarities between the groups are noticable, particularly their cruisy combinations of Jamaican styles, funk rhythms and rock. Roast explains that the reason for this is simply that they all live near each other.

"I think the love of the ocean and the vibe that everyone from the western suburbs puts out helps, the real friendly community. I feel that these bands just welcome you. It wouldn't matter who you are, if there was a party you'd have members from each band there. Sometimes someone would just start up a jam on acoustic guitar and the djembe, and there are people singing and laughing. It's a surfing thing as well, a lot of guys from Tribe surf, Poetikool surf, I surf, yeah I guess it's just a combination of vibe and location."

Co-founder and drummer Tom Victory also produces the music for the group. Obviously this allows a great deal of control over how their records sound, and the group attributes some of their success to their own hands-on approach in that department.

"I'm really proud of the diversity in this album. We were able to take a whole bunch of different styles and put them together however we wanted with them. The freedom was great. I think one of the other things is that this really feels like an album, not just one song, then another song, then another song. I really love that it's not just one person writing the album, everyone's put their own touch on the album."

Roast thinks that the accessibility of quality recording techniques is important for other groups as well, though, and cites it as one of the main reasons that there's so much good Australian music going at the moment.

"There's a lot of hot stuff coming out now. Everyone's able to produce their own music in the shed or whatever, and still get professional quality music. Having that advantage, a lot of Australian bands have started to really succeed. I think Adelaide is such a well-kept secret for Australian bands. It seems there's a lot of diversity, people don't enjoy just one style."

The band has played around Adelaide for a few years now, and 'Speak Easy' is being released at the Crown & Sceptre on the 5th. Now on their second album, Roast mentions a real desire to start pushing their music interstate, and while the Adelaide music scene is great, Melbourne and Sydney offer lots of opportunities for a young band.

"We'd really like to promote this album and tour. Adelaide people know that once you've played here a bit you feel like you've played everywhere in Adelaide. We just want change of scenery, kind of. I feel that the album needs to be taken to the other states, especially the eastern coast. I think our music really suits the coast there," Roast pauses for a second before continuing. "Our other goal is to keep our bass player. They always have other goals! The lineup we've got now is all focused on making this band happen."

Ben Ford-Smith

'Speak Easy' is launched at The Crown & Sceptre on Sat 5 Apr and will be out independently.