This is probably the first time I’ll try to name drop, and PEPA KNIGHT probably doesn’t remember who I am anyway. But, when I was a teenager growing up on the beautiful Central Coast of NSW, my band used to play alongside his pop punk outfit by the name of Stuck On Ellie and then later on down the track when he played in a pop four-piece Modern Joy. I say this not to name drop (although like it or not that’s really what it is), but to say how amazing it is to see a Coastie really nailing it with the debut track from his solo project. It makes everything way cooler to listen to, to appreciate how far he’s come and how good he really is to make it from where he started.
Getting side-tracked from his primary band, the successful ethnic-pop collaboration that is Jinja Safari, he’s striking hard on his own with the film clip from his first single Rahh! released just 6 days ago. It’s built in a similar vein to Jinja Safari’s stuff and from a wider perspective, there’s something very Gotye-esque about it, with much catchier undertones and use of the signature sitar and thumping drums.
It would seem an injustice for me to talk about this in terms of the music. PEPA KNIGHT is pretty much a fucking talented virtuoso way outside of my ability to describe. It’s much easier to listen to this song and just get happy about life. Rahh! feels like an incoherent and passionate scream at the world. It’s an uplifting, life-affirming collage of travel, freedom, love and loss. A cacophony of every feeling you’ve ever felt meshed into one. I suggest you just put your ear-buds in, close your eyes and listen. You’ll fast find that you love wherever you are, whatever you’re doing.