This Sunday, Sunset Sounds are going out with a bang, with 11-piece Hot Potato Band turning up the heat in the Malvern Gardens. Starting out on street corners and having since taken over major festivals, Hot Potato Band’s infectious blend of blues, ska, funk and reggae has made them one of Australia’s favourite live acts. Expect energy and interaction in spades. We caught up with the band before the show to see how they were feeling for it.

TJ: A free show on a Sunday evening in the Malvern Gardens sounds like a great way to spend a Sunday. Looking forward to it? 

HPB: Very much so! We don’t get down to Victoria all that often so we are very much looking forward to it!

For anyone who doesn’t know Hot Potato Band, what should people be expecting from the live show?

We don’t like to give too much away but expect a very spontaneous high energy show filled with brass and antics.


The Hot Potato Band started out as a street performance act. How is that reflected in the way the band perform today?

Over the years, breaking down the barriers between the stage and the audience has become a forte of ours. We incorporated a lot of what we learnt on the streets into our stage show. 

You describe the new single 'Little Bird' as the beginning of a new chapter. Can you tell us much about where that next chapter will take Hot Potato Band?  

As a brass band we have been experimenting with our sound over the past two years. Our last album Paint The Town shows a variety of genres and ideas that we were playing with. 'Little Bird' is an evolution, a sound that we have settled into. It still incorporates all of the fun vibes that our previous releases have just with a much more mature sound.

A regular part of your act is covering some pretty well known pop hits in a pretty unique Hot Potato Band way. Are there any songs you’ve been fantasising about covering lately? 

We have some ideas however we do like to keep that a secret. We can tell you that we like to cover the least likely song to ever be covered by a brass band. 

How is your 2018 shaping up?

We are laying low most of 2018 writing our new album due in Summer. We’ll be keeping up the momentum making our way around the country playing at various festivals and off to New Zealand in February. 

What’s your perfect Sunday?

If we could lay in a park and listen to some live music every Sunday... we would!