Being entirely unfamiliar with THE RAY MANN THREE, I figured I better do a bit of prep work before my interview with the band's frontman, Ray Wassef. So after listening to hit tracks Smile and Hook Me Up I thought to myself, "how have I never heard of this fantastic band before?" Their sound is a mix of soul and funk and the vocals are, quite frankly, a bit sexy. They've been described as audio sex and the band whose gigs you shouldn't take your girlfriend to, but when I mention this to Wassef, he just laughs and replies "I'd just describe our music as soul."
When asked about leaving one band (Kid Confucius) for another, Wassef politely informs me that this was not the case. "I had actually been playing in both bands for a while. After a few years it got a bit difficult doing both bands, so I decided to focus on just The Ray Mann Three." He sees the main differences between the two bands as "one having a lot of people and one only having three people." Simple? Yes, but I'm sure that somehow, it does make a difference. Wassef lists his band's main influences as artists like Al Green, D'Angelo and Mos Def. "Basically anyone in black American music between 1950 and 2009," he clarifies.
The band worked with producer Tony Buchen, whose production credits include bluejuice and Wassef's former band Kid Confucius, on their debut self-titled LP. "Working with [Tony] was very familiar because I met him in my days of Kid Confucius," Wassef explains. "He produced all of the albums and that's how I got to know him." The two had discussed what kind of album they would make a year before they had even started making it. By the time they actually got in the studio, everything had been worked out and they finished recording the album in one weekend. "Doing it was just like working with family," he recalls.
Being a Sydney-based band, playing in Melbourne was a very different experience for the band. How so? Well, it's all in the types of audiences. "The Melbourne audiences we've played to, they lean in really closely to everything on stage and that changes the way we perform... It's like a conversation between us and the people in the crowd." But as Wassef mentions, Sydney is their home and Melbourne is like the place they always felt welcomed to visit. And what about playing in Canberra? "[Our shows] were really good. It gets pretty rowdy at Transit Bar, we had a good time... and we're looking forward to having another rowdy night down there again on this tour."
The Ray Mann Three are coming to Canberra as part of their national Opa Opa Tour, so catch them for free at Transit Bar on Saturday July 25 and show them what a good time really is.
