Tank Dilemma Newspaper article

Soul funksters to put pictures with their sounds
Warrnambool Standard Aug 4, 2011 - ©Copyright Warrnambool Standard  2011.  All rights reserved

Tank Dilemma’s Matt Trenery (left), Matt Hewson, Ruben Shannon (obscured), Brenton Smith and Richard Tankard play at last year’s Tarerer Festival.



THE film clip craze is continuing in Warrnambool with Tank Dilemma the latest south-west band to shoot a video. The funky soul quintet worked with Warrnambool filmmaker James McAnulty (who has previously shot clips for Tom Richardson and The 80 Aces) last week at an undisclosed location to shoot a promo for the song Like To Like. The track will be the lead song on the band’s forthcoming album, which is about half-completed, frontman Richard Tankard said. Like To Like is already receiving a positive response at live gigs, thanks to a super-catchy chorus, some James Brown-style horns, and a keyboard riff reminiscent of Stevie Wonder’s early ’70s work. Tankard said the incomplete album will feature the “customary ballad” and “what I would loosely call ‘piano pop’”, but he added he hoped it will be a more consistent album than its predecessor Alright Already, which was released in 2007. “I think it’s going to be less eclectic and much more focused,” he said. “The album is going to be very riffy, very riffheavy. There’ll be some hard funk. “And I’d like to think the lyrics are a notch up. There are more stories now about (made-up) people, more character pieces.” Tankard’s keyboard talents have been in demand throughout his career and seen him play with the likes of Jimmy Barnes, Richard Clapton, Things Of Stone & Wood, Blue Heat, and Broderick Smith. But in between these outings, his focus has been on Tank Dilemma, which comprises Brenton Smith (drums), Ruben Shannon (bass), Matt Trenery (trumpet) and Matt Hewson (saxophone). Tankard took his band to Melbourne to make Alright Already, but decided to take a more local approach this time, employing the talents of his multi-skilled drummer Brenton Smith to record the record at Smith’s studio in Naringal. With six songs already close to completion, Tankard said he’s resisting the temptation to release an EP. “I think I’m an album person,” he explained. “It would be a lot easier to release an EP. I did an EP back in the day (but) I don’t know. I feel like EPs feel somehow incomplete. I think it’s also a genre thing — if you’re doing funky soul, it seems to lean more towards a full-length album.’’ No release date is set for the record, which will be Tank Dilemma’s fourth release after the Flaunt Your Sweetness EP (2001), Innersoul (2004) and Alright Already, but more recording time is set down for later in the year. “There are more songs that are really strongly brewing,” Tankard said, adding that his modus operandi for songwriting lately has been to go for “long walks with a notepad and a pen”. The band will be roadtesting the new material as it comes together in the coming months, including at The Loft in Warrnambool on Saturday night and semi-regular gigs at the Hotel Warrnambool at the Thursday jazz sessions or on Sundays. Doors open at The Loft on Saturday night from 9 pm.South West TAFE music archive