Britney Spears And Beethoven Collide On Sydney Klezmer Punk Collective CHUTNEY’S New Single

Britney Spears and Beethoven collide in dark and beautiful whimsy in the hands of Sydney klezmer punk collective CHUTNEY. Teaming up with The Potbelleez vocalist Ilan Kidron on guest vocals to conjure Toxic Moonlight, the hypnotic melodics of Britney Spears’ 2003 hit Toxic fuse with Beethoven’s melancholic masterpiece Moonlight Sonata alongside CHUTNEY’s trademark Eastern European and Middle Eastern flair. Or, as CHUTNEY themselves put it: “It’s the illicit love child of Britney and Beethoven in a raucous Balkan bar – it’s bonkers”.

The equivalent of The Cat Empire partying in pop and classical territory, with a hora dance in its chorus thrown in for good measure, Toxic Moonlight welds two equally iconic yet exceedingly diverse songs, with over two centuries elapsing between Beethoven’s Moonlight Sonata and Britney Spears’ Toxic being released into the world. Growing from a seed planted by Kidron, with The Potbelleez front man noting the klezmer-esque qualities of Toxic, as well as CHUTNEY violinist Ben Adler exhuming Moonlight Sonata, the end result for Toxic Moonlight captures the urgency and catharsis of both originals, while also transforming the source material into a modern and daring re-imagination. The band tells Hi Fi Way more.

How has the build-up been leading up to the release of Toxic Moonlight?
Toxic Moonlight is our fifth single, but the first that has been picked up in a big way by the Aussie music industry, thanks to the amazing efforts of Emily and Jack at On the Map PR. We organised some website takeovers to promote the single and its music video (which was another first for us), and it’s been exciting and fulfilling to see all the pieces of this campaign come together.

Was the process of making your single as challenging as you thought?
Toxic Moonlight is one of two tracks we recorded with guest singer Ilan Kidron (The Potbelleez frontman), and one of thirteen tracks that total more than sixty minutes of music on our debut album, Ajar. It was a huge year of recording for us. This single required a fair amount of post production work – our brilliant producer Dan Natoli at A Sharp Studio led us in this journey, layering overdubs and samples to construct the epic textures we’d envisioned. Our bassist Ralph Marshall was also heavily involved in the post production process for this track, contributing stacks of ‘electronic fuzz and fart noises’ that we selected judiciously.

Filming a full music video (complete with multiple venues, a big crew led by director Adam Dostalek and supported by dozens of extras) was also a huge logistical challenge – I’ve never spent so much money on pizza! It was 100% worth it, we loved the experience and are so proud of the outcome.

Sonically, how would you describe your music?
Like our namesake, we’re a combination of divergent ingredients – sweet, sour, chunky, smooth, chewy, soft (klezmer, classical, funk, jazz, punk, pop and more). A spicy mix! Somehow, within the warm, sugary embrace of klezmer schmaltz (the sweet, literally ‘fat’ sounds of Jewish Eastern European folk music), these influences bind and the product is somehow unified, delicious and eminently danceable!

In the words of Ilan, CHUTNEY has “an unashamed ability to bend the rules; but somehow it works.”

Who would you consider to be the biggest influence on your music and why?
We’ve imbibed a wide range of influences, from contemporary to vintage, folk to art music, Jewish traditional to commercial pop. The Cat Empire, though, would have to be one of our biggest musical role models. We have long admired how they synthesise world music styles and refract them through an indelibly Australian lens. We love their cheek, irreverence and energy. We’re also inspired by how prominently they display instrumental virtuosity.

Best piece of advice you have been given?
“Trust your instincts” – a few people have given me variations on that theme, most recently Ilan Kidron and Dan Natoli. Audiences crave authenticity, and bands need direction. Learning to back myself has been transformative.

What is the “Chutney” life story?
For years, keyboardist Paul Khodor pestered me with the blithe suggestion that we “start a klezmer band”. When clarinettist (and now doctor) Josh Druery asked me in mid 2019 to play music at a Jewish festival he was helping to organise, I saw an opportunity to kill two birds with one stone – and so the band started as a nameless trio.

We became a quartet a few months later, but CHUTNEY was only birthed in January 2020 when we opened for a friend whose band had just returned from Woodford. We found a drummer and bassist, rearranged our entire repertoire, made a Facebook page and had the most amazing night at LazyBones Lounge, Marrickville. We knew as well as our audience that we had found something special, so we kept gigging till COVID-19 closed down the world; we recorded and composed during lockdown; we sold out our first show at Sydney’s premier world music venue Camelot Lounge in August 2020; and we’ve been growing ever since.

We toured regional NSW several times in 2022, and made our Sydney Festival debut at the Opera House as well as our first folk festival appearances. We spent most of 2023 in the studio recording Ajar, which we released in physical form in March this year. We’ve since toured down to Victoria and been releasing our singles regularly.

Are you looking to tour more broadly?
Absolutely. We’ve covered a lot of the east coast, so our sights are set on the rest of the country and then global! We’re looking forward to North America and Europe in the next couple of years.

What’s next for you?
We’re dropping our album digitally on August 6, and are stoked to be supporting the brilliant Melbourne Ska Orchestra on the New South Wales and south Queensland legs of their national tour:

Fri 23 Aug The Brightside Outdoors, Brisbane

Sat 24 Aug The Station, Sunshine Coast

Sun 25 Aug Soundlounge, Gold Coast

Thu 29 Aug King Street Bandroom, Newcastle

Fri 30 Aug Waves, Towradgi

Sat 31 Aug Metro Theatre, Sydney

Sun 01 Sep The Basement, Canberra

Interview By Rob Lyon

Connect with CHUTNEY
Website ~ Facebook ~ Instagram ~ Spotify