SKUNKHOUR ANNOUNCE ‘UP TO OUR NECKS IN IT’ 30 YEAR ANNIVERSARY TOUR FOR OCTOBER + NOVEMBER
Commemorating 30 years since the release of one of the Aussie music industry’s most iconic singles, this October and November will see Australian funk rock heroes Skunkhour perform nationally for their Up To Our Necks In It (For 30 Years) tour. A celebration of the 1995 smash hit of the same name that cemented the cult sonic alchemy that catapulted Skunkhour from the local scene into international infamy, the upcoming tour will showcase the track Up To Our Necks In It alongside some extra surprises. 30 years on, Skunkhour remain one of the country’s most enduring acts, and 2025 is primed to celebrate the past, present and future of this influential genre-bending collective.
Kicking off on NSW Centra Coast on Friday 24 October, Skunkhour’s Up To Our Necks In It (For 30 Years) tour will head to Newcastle, Byron Bay, the Gold Coast, Brisbane, Frankston and Melbourne, before concluding on Saturday 15 November in Adelaide. Tickets for Skunkhour’s upcoming tour are on sale now from www.skunkhour.com.au.
A raw, jazzy and ultimately uplifting outing, Up To Our Necks In It opens with melancholic instrumentation before swelling into a swooning, soulful affair, embracing rapped spoken-word vocal verses balanced alongside soaring melodies and rousing arrangements. Taken from the band’s sophomore 1995 album Feed, with the album peaking at #21 on the ARIA Charts, Up To Our Necks In It went on to feature on triple j’s Hottest 100, with the single also deviating from Skunkhour’s earlier sonic terrain, ultimately solidifying the group’s trademark funk-meets-rock distinctive musical DNA. “Up To Our Necks is a fairly unique track,” the band shares. “It was very different to the heavier, darker sound we went for on Feed, our second album, and for us in general. It crossed a lot of boundaries and markets for us. It got played on triple j, ABC, commercial FM and community radio. All of that was pretty rare for any band back then let alone a funk, rock, Oz hip hop indie band in the mid 90s.”
“It also helped seal our deal with Acid Jazz records in the UK and was included in their Totally Wired series of compilations,” the band add.
“It’s still our most popular track live and on Spotify as well.”
Instantly turning heads upon its release, the origin story behind Up To Our Necks In It was a truly organic affair, stemming from a literal dream before evolving naturally into the magnetic end result, as the band reveal, “our guitarist Warwick Scott woke up from a dream one morning and that signature riff, chords an all was stuck in his head. He brought it to rehearsal and the band started jamming on it. The vibe of it reminded me of a poem I’d written a couple of years prior. It just had this melancholic and introspective feel to the chords and groove. I seem to remember the chorus and Aya’s verse melody, and lyrics coming together right away too.”
“It was one of those blessed moments in a band when everything seems to get plucked from the ether and things just write themselves,” the band continues. “That’s when you know you’re all in tune and meant to be doing this thing together.”
A band entirely like no other, Skunkhour remain a unique force in the Australian music landscape. Fusing disparate sonic elements together to create a sound entirely their own, it’s this very distinctive and authentic approach that the band attribute as the likely underlying secret sauce behind their ongoing legacy. “I think that’s why the music we wrote 30 years ago still stacks up and why we have such a loyal following,” the band share of their eclectic yet focused repertoire. “And we now have younger generations coming to our shows now who appreciate the mix. It’s a total blast.”
Starting life as a band in the early 90s, Skunkhour emerged in a time that surrounded the rise of grunge, rave culture and hip hop in their early stages gaining momentum. Bringing together eclectic influences and insatiable talent, Skunkhour’s mix of thunderous rhythms, trail-blazing (for the time) rapping, brass sections and more saw them gain a cult status locally, which soon spread like wildfire across the country. Whether wowing the mainstage at festivals, performing alongside INXS and Beastie Boys, or holding court onstage at their own headline shows, the sonic love child of hip hop, acid jazz, alt rock and funk found a dazzling home at the core of Skunkhour’s creative identity; and it’s one that has survived and thrived against disbanding, reforming, multiple appearances on triple j’s Hottest 100, repeated chart success and the general highs and lows of life as a professional musician.
“We’ve been through our trials and tribulations like anyone or group of a certain age (cough, cough),” the band shares. “Most of us had or have side projects and careers in other fields. Aya lived and gigged in LA for a number of years in the late 2000’s.”
“When we reformed around 2010, the original keyboardist Paul Searles was living overseas, so we brought in the legendary Al Goodman who has been with us ever since,” the band adds. “Then in 2022 our drummer Michael Sutherland (who started the band with Dean and Warwick) left, and we brought in Carlos Adura. He plays with The Strides, Tim Finn and The Beautiful Girls. Both he and Al have been a perfect fit in every way. They’ve really helped rejuvenate the spirit and brought back a heavier emphasis on the soul funk groove side of our sound. Which has meant that our live shows are more dynamic and powerful than ever.”
With 30 years passing since the release of their iconic single Up To Our Necks In It, the group have staged multiple revivals over the years, gifting more Skunkhour goodness onstage for fans to revel in. And while all eyes are currently on celebrating their 30-year anniversary milestone this year for one of their most beloved tracks, the chance for even more Skunkhour new music isn’t entirely off the cards, as the band reveals. “We’ve released a number of new tracks in recent years with our Parts of the Sun EP and Rain on Me. But at the moment we’re pretty flat out managing our lives and doing a regular run of shows every year, and the odd festival appearance.”
“We’re probably due for some new music next year to keep things moving,” they add.
But before any talk concretely turns to new material, 2025 offers a chance to pay fitting homage to Up To Our Necks In It and Skunkhour in general, with the band set to bring their infectious live energy and a horde of old and new favourites to stages around the country starting this October.
“Fans can expect plenty of energy and good vibes,” the band shares about the upcoming tour, “with an emphasis on the more well known, dynamic funky side of our catalogue, sprinkled with some reworks, a few of our own faves, as well as some of the recent releases from the past couple of years.”
“We played a run of regional show last year which was a lot of fun and we were amazed by the turnout and reaction. People in those areas seem to really appreciate you coming to their towns and seem a little less self-conscious so the vibe was awesome. It actually reminded us of the early days of touring when you turn up to a place with no idea what to expect and it almost feels like a party ‘cause everyone kind of knows each other or are connected in some way.”
Tickets for Skunkhour’s upcoming Up To Our Necks In it (For 30 Years) tour are onsale now from https://www.skunkhour.com.au/.
SKUNKHOUR – UP TO OUR NECKS IN IT (FOR 30 YEARS) TOUR DATES:
FRI 24 OCT | EVERGLADES, WOY WOY NSW | 18+
Tickets available from www.moshtix.com.au | 1300 GET TIX | All Moshtix Outlets
SAT 25 OCT | KING STREET BANDROOM, NEWCASTLE NSW | ALL AGES
Tickets available from www.oztix.com.au | 1300 762 545 | All Oztix Outlets
THUR 30 OCT | THE NORTHERN, BYRON BAY NSW | 18+
Tickets available from www.oztix.com.au | 1300 762 545 | All Oztix Outlets
FRI 31 OCT | BURLEIGH TOWN HOTEL, BURLEIGH HEADS QLD | 18+
Tickets available from www.oztix.com.au | 1300 762 545 | All Oztix Outlets
SAT 1 NOV | THE TRIFFID, BRISBANE QLD | 18+
Tickets available from www.moshtix.com.au | 1300 GET TIX | All Moshtix Outlets
THUR 13 NOV | PELLY BAR, FRANKSTON VIC | 18+
Tickets available from www.oztix.com.au | 1300 762 545 | All Oztix Outlets
FRI 14 NOV | CORNER HOTEL, MELBOURNE VIC | 18+
Tickets available from www.oztix.com.au | 1300 762 545 | All Oztix Outlets
SAT 15 NOV | THE GOV, ADELAIDE SA | 18+
Tickets available from www.oztix.com.au | 1300 762 545 | All Oztix Outlets
EMILY ULMAN RETURNS WITH SPARKLING NEW SINGLE ‘SEVERE CLEAR’ THE TITLE TRACK FROM HER FORTHCOMING ALBUM, ‘SEVERE CLEAR’, OUT OCTOBER 10
A bright and dulcet addition to her ever-growing repertoire, Melbourne/Narrm singer-songwriter, and music industry legend, Emily Ulman today returns with Severe Clear, the sparkling title track from her forthcoming album of the same name set for release on Friday, October 10.
Blending her buoyant charm with acoustic, folk and pop elements, Severe Clear channels a poignant optimism, with Emily nodding to Johnny Nash’s I Can See Clearly Now to evoke “the hope after the heavy.” As Emily explains, “Severe clear is an aviation term describing skies so clear and cloudless that the endless visibility is too much to take in. I have always loved the phrase. Severe clear weather often follows a storm, and that resonates with me too. A furious, cloudy pocket of weather giving way to something calm and bright and still. Pilots say these conditions are dazzling,almost too perfect.”
“Severe Clear is a song about the moments that arrive after everything has settled,” Emily adds. “It’s about clarity that is so beautiful it is almost unbearable. That strange kind of beauty: perfect, but piercing. I think about weather a lot. I lean right in because it is intrinsic. And magical. This song lives in that space between forecast and feeling. It is about the quiet, everyday moments that suddenly become enormous in their clarity. Like standing in the middle of something spectacular and letting yourself be swept up by it. It is about love, about letting yourself be soft and fall, it’s about buying matching towels because you want to be one and the same. Johnny Nash wrote ‘I Can See Clearly Now’. And I’m borrowing the idea that after the clouds and hard times pass, something brighter takes their place. Sometimes clarity isn’t sharp or sudden or cold. Sometimes it is soft and patient and a little bit dizzying. And perfect.”
With Severe Clear – both the single and broader album – Emily worked alongside a stellar team to realise her creative vision. Produced and mixed by Bonnie Knight (Amyl and the Sniffers, Angie McMahon, Teen Jesus and the Jean Teasers) at The Aviary, with Every Hillside recorded at Soundpark, the album was mastered by Simon Berckelman (Courtney Barnett, Passenger, Lime Cordiale, Cate Le Bon). Drawing inspiration from the likes of Julia Jacklin, Adrienne Lenker, Big Thief, Pinegrove and Bill Callahan the album’s songwriting, structure and emotional weight are further enriched by contributions from Gab Strum (Japanese Wallpaper, Mallrat, Gretta Ray), Alex Lashlie (Closet Straights, Loose Tooth), and Soren Maryasin (Stella Bridie, Chitra).
Beginning with its glowing title track, Severe Clear opens on a serene and stirring note, offering an optimistic warm embrace drawing listeners into Emily’s inner world. From there, the album moves through intimate acoustic beauty and soothing harmonies (Every Hillside), wistful melodies over ethereal backdrops (Fans in the Stands), and a folksy yet cinematic ode to life’s highs and lows (Mountains Mountains Mountains). It balances polished introspection (Trundle), stripped-back glimmers that swirl through your bones (Lake Mistake), and gentle flourishes of empowerment (Planned Burn). At the midpoint of Severe Clear, is an exquisite, vulnerable modern love ballad (Liminal Spaces) that gives way to brooding melancholia (Toughest Tourniquet), before the raw, rousing penultimate track If It Isn’t True, where Emily shifts between vocal serenity and spoken word over sparse, moody instrumentation. Closing with Repeat Things, Severe Clear ends in resounding clarity and vulnerability, carrying inescapable undertones of optimism through heartache, change, and renewal – a perfect embodiment of Emily’s potent songwriting and performance, as well as the broader album’s themes.
“Severe Clear is about change,” shares Emily, “and renewal. About being brave enough to step back into something you love, even after a long absence. It is an album full of mountains and hillsides and clouds and clarity. It is about duality. The ability to hold two conflicting and coexisting truths at the same time. Severe Clear is deciduous. A letting go and a returning. A way to make peace with the cycles that keep pulling me back to songwriting, and back to myself.”
A defining force in the Australian music industry for over two decades, both on stage and behind the scenes, Emily Ulman’s lengthy tenure championing artists has seen her curate and program lineups at some of Melbourne’s most iconic venues, including The Prince Bandroom, The Gasometer Hotel, and The Toff In Town. Additionally, Emily has programmed some of the country’s most significant music events, including Brunswick Music Festival, White Night Melbourne, the CHANGES summit, and her own award-winning online festival Isol-Aid, which received the 2020 triple j J Award for “Done Good” and was named Best Festival at the 2021 Music Victoria Awards. Recently, Emily served as Executive Program Director for ALWAYS LIVE, a Victorian state-wide celebration of contemporary music, inclusive of emerging artists through to international icons, from sell-out stadiums through to intimate venues all playing home to these one-off, exclusive and community-focused events.
Dedicated to shaping a more progressive, inclusive and artist-first Australian music scene, Emily’s creative output is as acclaimed as her work behind the scenes, with her earlier 2025 single Every Hillside marking her first new solo material in over a decade. Now with her stunning and hotly-anticipated new album Severe Clear set for release this October, Emily has channelled her passions and creative core into a collection that is honest, intimate and destined to captivate.
“I’m a words and feelings to the front type of writer,” Emily reveals. “I have described my songwriting as emotional archaeology; digging through my memories to see what might still be living underneath. To sift and sort and better myself as a creator and as a person. I’m constantly taken by the intensity of a moment or phrase and the way a single word can unearth something you thought was long buried. And this is who I realise I am. I write to excavate. I sing to archive and fossilise and remember the mess and magic of it all.”
“It feels really good, really scary, really perfect, really disorienting to be releasing Severe Clear,” Emily concludes. “This is the first time in ten years that I’ve released music and it’s so familiar and wildly foreign. I’ve spent the past decade working behind the scenes in the music industry, but I never stopped writing. I’m glad that Severe Clear is the song and album returning me to my own music and creativity. It’s honest and personal, and I’m proud of it.”
Severe Clear (single) is out today.
Severe Clear (album) is due out Friday October 10.
Pre-order: SEVERE CLEAR (Album)
Pre-save: SEVERE CLEAR (Album)
TRACKLIST:
Side A
- Severe Clear
- Every Hillside
- Fans in the Stands
- Mountains Mountains Mountains
- Trundle
Side B
6. Lake Mistake
- Planned Burn
- Liminal Spaces
- Toughest Tourniquet
- If it Isn’t True
- Repeat Things
“Emily Ulman, you’ve done it again, it’s an exquisite song, ‘Mountains Mountains Mountains’…. it’s so lovely to hear a voice that we know so well as a co-host and a conversationalist, to hear that voice just amplified and there’s an alchemy that takes place that turns the voice we know into lyrical mode, it’s very specially to hear that tune…. what a storyteller, it’s a short song at 2 minutes 12 but she just packs so much in”. – David Astle – ABC Victoria statewide evenings
“Love how organic and natural this track (Mountains Mountains Mountains) feels! Emily Ulman creates a gorgeous atmosphere <3” –
Anika Luna – triple j
“It’s all sweetness when it comes to Emily Ulman. Dulcet yet pointed songwriting makes it the worth the wait after an almost-decade hiatus. Welcome back Emily!” – Sara Glaidous – triple j
MAMA KIN SPENDER RELEASE SPELL-BINDING NEW ALBUM ‘PROMISES’
A mesmerising journey through soul folk, hypnotic harmonies and open-veined lyricism, the new album Promises out today from ARIA-nominated and WAM award-winning duo Mama Kin Spender is one of those truly rare creative entities that transfixes mind, body and soul; a seismic concept album that explores every facet of love, from optimism through to decay, rage and transformation.
The opening track, Arrows is immediately captivating, and so Promises kicks off with a nod to the likes of Alabama Shakes and Pat Benetar.Swaggering melodics and resoundingly relatable lyricism: “You and me / What a team / Then something started creepin’ in / A lazy blamin’ kinda thing / Just when I, I thought that you, could be my everything”. Steeped in real-world experience, Arrows also pierces memorably with its bewitching vocal interplay between Mama Kin Spender’s Danielle Caruana and Dingo Spender, voicing universal themes of drifting apart offering an intoxicating catharsis. Next up, Bleeding Out instantly charms with a juxtaposition of melody and sentiment. With openly raunchy yet honest lyricism, unpacking passion and frustration. Love continues to thread its way through Promises in its raw title track, channeling regret and romantic despair. The otherworldly Desert Rain is effortlessly draped in humid instrumentals, oscillating melodies and swooning vocals.And finally the relief that is the sumptuous ruminations of We Are The Water.
The album’s glimmering focus track Dance With Me offers a more upbeat fare, with Danielle and Dingo both capturing a fearless and cathartic energy that powerfully pulses through the instrumentation and driving rhythms. “Dance With Me is the wild, fleeting magic of the honeymoon period—those heady moments when love surges like a tidal wave, fueled by dopamine, and oxytocin,” shares Mama Kin Spender. “It’s the hugs AND the drugs and the song that lingers in your heart after the first sleepover, a melody that tugs at your soul years later, weaving together the shimmering highs of young, optimistic love in its opening chapters. Euphoria, rapture and joyful freedom.”
Love That Will Not Die, captivates, a soulful ballad punctuated by poignant guitar lines and dreamy vocal back-and-forth between Danielle and Dingo. Promises then dives deeper into heartfelt rumination on the smoky yet serene What’s Wrong With Me. Mama Kin Spender continue to re-imagine the soul and roots space with their own brand of magic, Promises’ penultimate track Blue Belle slithers with sensual melodies and whiskey-soaked soundscapes, channelling vivid heartbreak. Danielle and Dingo deliver a final note of surrender and acceptance, with the timeless track, The Road. A cinematic end point to Promises, and one that also yet again showcases the flawless balance between Danielle and Dingo, and the broader magic wielded by this collaboration under the Mama Kin Spender moniker. The Road would happily find its place at the end of a heart-rending indie romance as it softly rolls away with the lines: “Don’t ask me any questions / I don’t need reminding / Of the road we leave behind…”
An album that captures a galaxy of vignettes of the relational experience and ultimately in the space of 10 tracks, Promises is achingly personal yet easily relatable, ultimately a diary entry about the rise, fall and transformation of love. An album that details with pure honesty every facet of matters of the heart with a compelling array of soul, folk, pop, rock and more, Promises will capture your heart, make you feel seen, and maybe – just maybe – inspire you to take great care of love.
Renowned for their raw, percussive energy and beguiling harmonies, Mama Kin Spender is the collaborative creative project from long-time friends and creative partners Mama Kin (Danielle Caruana) and Spender (Dingo Spender). With a stalwart reputation for songwriting that grips at your core, as well as their unforgettable live performances, Mama Kin Spender released their debut full-length album in 2018, with Golden Magnetic scoring an ARIA Award nomination for Best Blues and Roots Album. The pair have previously won Best Folk Act (2013) and Best Blues / Roots Act (2018) at the West Australian Music Industry Awards, and have also performed at the likes of WOMADelaide and Woodford Festival, Perth, Darwin and Vivid Festival, and toured across North America and Ireland and across Australia; with plenty more to come.
Mama Kin Spender will be taking their incredible show on the road starting next month for their Promises Tour, heading to Pomona, Murwillumbah, Brisbane, Brunswick, Archie’s Creek, Belgrave, Sydney, Milton and Dashville don’t miss your chance to catch this incredible pair and their spectacular new album live in action.
Promises is out today.
MAMA KIN SPENDER – UPCOMING SHOWS:
Tickets available from mamakinspender.love
FRI 05 SEP | MAJESTIC THEATRE, POMONA/GUBBI GUBBI QLD
SAT 06 SEP | THE CITADEL, MURWILLUMBAH/BUNDJALUNG NSW
SUN 07 SEP | LEFTY’S MUSIC HALL, BRISBANE/MEANJIN QLD
FRI 12 SEP | BRUNSWICK BALLROOM, BRUNSWICK/BULLEKE-BEK VIC
SAT 13 SEP | ARCHIE’S CREEK HALL, ARCHIE’S CREEK/BUNURONG VIC
SUN 14 SEP | SOOKI LOUNGE, BELGRAVE/WURUNDJERI VIC
FRI 03 OCT | PADDINGTON UNITING CHURCH, SYDNEY/GADIGAL NSW
SAT 04 OCT | MILTON THEATRE, MILTON/BUDAWANG NSW
SUN 05 OCT | DASHVILLE SKYLINE, DASHVILLE/WONNARUA NSW