EDDIE Boyd and The Phatapillars are a trio of mountain men - Sydney Blue Mountains men to be precise.
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While not actually hillbillies, the barefoot, front porch, banjo picking’, pig squealing feeling somehow seems to have been passed down to them.
Winners of this year’s prestigious Bluesfest Busking Competition, the band has managed to mash the hillbilly vibe together with the sounds of Led Zeppelin, Nirvana, The White Stripes and everything else an Aussie bloke born in the 90s is likely to have come across in his travels.
The resulting sound is riff-driven, quite removed from the musings of the current apprentices of Australian roots music.
They maintain a folky edge and deliver it all with wild abandon, passion and plenty of decibels which will be heard at Milton’s Commercial Hotel on Saturday night.
Eddie Boyd started playing ukulele at age two and met fellow Phatapillars Andy and Alex when they all landed in a punk band together in year nine.
Skip forward to 2012 and Eddie headed to Byron Bay to take part in the hotly contested Bluesfest Busking Competition.
He won himself a spot on the busking stage at the festival and called his old band mates to come play with him.
They needed a name quickly, made a few spelling mistakes in their haste, and Eddie Boyd and The Phatapillars kicked off.
Eddie writes and plays from the heart, absolutely shreds on the acoustic guitar, and delivers it all with a huge vocal range with just the right amount of gravel.
The rhythm section is among the tightest of any young band touring the country at the moment, and with each new performance The Phatapillars are gaining a family of loyal devotees along their way.
Eddie Boyd and The Phatapillars have just inked a management deal with Rhythm Section Management, the team behind blues and roots stalwarts Chase The Sun and Claude Hay amongst others, and the band is planning a big 2014 of recording, touring, sleeping on the beach, breaking down in the van and generally living out the lyrics of ACDC’s ‘Long Way To The Top’.
They’ve landed themselves some pretty cool festival appearances so far, including The Sydney Blues and Roots Festival and The Dirty Roots Festival in Wollongong, as well as the aforementioned shows at Bluesfest in Byron.
The band has even headlined successful shows in Sydney and surrounds and has made some inroads into touring the East Coast including supports with stablemates Chase The Sun, Marshall Okell and Cass Eager.