Brisbane band Greshka are a bit difficult to tie to a genre, and that’s exactly how they like it! Forming in 2008 after meeting each other on Gumtree, the band consists of a variety of musicians – from those who play “ole fashun klezmer and Balkan” to band leader Andre Bonetti’s self-described “white-boy-gypsy.”

Their sound has developed over time, in a way that Andre says is both authentic and novel at the same time.

“Our music is authentic in that the melodies, harmony and grooves adhere to Eastern Europe traditions.  On the other hand, due to my short attention span I’ll sometimes slap in a triphop breakdown for humours sake,” said Andre.

The band have spoken a lot about the idea of genres causing feuds in the world, and experiment themselves with a mix of genres to create their signature style.

“I feel like all genres are feuding in our society. Start getting to know a stranger and one of the more common questions is “what kind of music do you like?” meaning genre. That’s dumb though because every genre can be agreeable.”

With their M-O for blending genres harmoniously, we asked Greshka to give us the rundown on all the so-called “conflicting” genres they believe should unite.

FEUDING GENRES UNITE, GRESHKA STYLE!

  1. Classical vs Gypsy. The oldest battle. The nineteenth twentieth centuries are littered with melodies stolen and stolen back: Monti, Liszt and Ravel. Eastern European isn’t traditionally written down or arranged; what we do is put it on paper, poke and prod, and try to make the gypsy sound more complicated, and the classical sound more…fun…hem…less boring. We’ve explored this a bit in our track Gipsie Tears Pt1: Extraction.
  2. Folk vs Metal. Sometimes metal can be a bit…well…samey. Sometimes folk can be a bit too light-hearted, like that guy you know who’s just too cheery especially when you’re trying to hate everything. Admittedly, most of our metal is incidental; just a few seconds every now and then, but I’m fond of Black Burnt Breakfast. It’s a song about Guinness and has a somewhat Macedonian-folk melody on top of hectic power-chord bass.
  3. Drum n Bass vs Funk. Man, let’s face it, these guys are feuding because they’re both competing for sick bass lines. Slap some delicious sounds on a funk line and you’re getting into DnB territory – fantastic. Put it in a Romanian-gypsy scale too. One of our newest tunes Sirba De La Attention Spam has some sick funk lines, some hectic drum ‘n’ bass, and just a brief hint of triphop. It’s on our latest album, which is due for release in a couple of months.

Catch Greshka at the National Folk Festival from 13 – 17 April.