StellaFauna

Stellafauna is the sequin spangled Dream Child of Mermaid Diva Phoebe Jacobs and Funk Aficionado Ben Milburn, told in prophecy by the Son of the Moon, whispered in dream speak of five cancerian craftmasters, hand picked and embraced, to create the soothing and scintillating sounds of stellafauna. Front woman Phoebe Jacobs is a moon driven powerbot. In the last few years she has established herself as an emerging force on the live music scene, engaging audiences with her unique style and authentic presence. She has collaborated or shared the bill with some of this city’s finest, including Mojo Juju, The Brothers Grimm, Hiatus Kaiyote, Vibraphonic Orchestra and even Ani DiFranco. Her unique vocal style encapsulates the timbre and essence of her idols, Aretha Franklin and Joni Mitchel while remaining contemporary and unique, even experimental at times as she tells stories of her experiences and dreams with a delicate balance of humour and candour. Her guitar, a Japanese Gretsch she calls ‘Velvet Tennessee’ dynamically supports her voice through these journeys. Her independently released debut album EYE OF THE STORM, an emotive soul/blues romp was recorded with Damien Charles (the Red Eyes/Goyte) which she released to a sold out Workers Club backed by a full band featuring members from Kimbra, ME, The Merlin Bird, Ether and Vibraphonic Orchestra. She toured the album solo around Europe playing an array of shows, from intimate concerts in bars such as The Troubadour to the wild wonder of Glastonbury Festival, all the while writing new material with a secret new project in mind. Stellafauna was formed in 2013, seeing her music take on new vibes of funk and nestling further into soul with a newfound psychedelic spark with the help of her partner Ben Milburn: psychonaut, synth addict and lover of all things funk. They took to the studio together to explore the potential alchemy of folk meeting funk when the common ground is soul. Not long afterwards the duo were joined by the rest of the band (as the prophecy foretold) that brought in the key feature flavours of hip hop, north African jazz and more funk. Nick Hemstrom, bass master, is a lover and bringer of funk. During his 20 funkadelic years of wielding the axe he played for 5 years with The Funky Love Tank, touring around Oz supporting the likes of DIG, Mental as Anything and Chocolate Starfish, as well as the Vans Warped tour. He rocked The Bert Newton Show with Jean-Paul Wabotai, French-African world music singer, toured internationally and rocked Oz festivals with energetic tribal electro rock outfit The Rush Effect, and still found time to record with Paul Hester (Crowded House drummer), Tim Wild (Taxiride), Andy Baldwin (Cat Empire, Morcheeba, The Killers), Danny Simcic (Real Life) and most recently Mast, (Ivo Reich, Singer/guitarist from The Rush effect). Then we found Mouad Benjouad, Afro Jazz guitar extraordinaire, schooled in the deeply traditional sounds of Dekka and the Gnawa people in his native Marrakech (Morocco). Inspired by many genres of music and a teenagers dream of playing electric guitar like his heroes Jimi Hendrix, Jeff Beck and Al Di Meola, Mouad made music become his profession, performing as a session guitarist for many Moroccan bands and popstars (Sy Mehdi, Jbara, Ganga Fusion, Moor Rocking Time, Salfa3ouss Band, Lamine to name a few). Fresh from Morocco, (18 months ago) he arrived in melbourne, Fender Strat in hand to explore new musical horizons and now brings his original and experimental soul sounds to StellaFauna. The last of our Cancerian counterparts to arrive was hip hop groove chief Ivan Khatchoyan, making fires with two sticks and a love of soul. Rhythmical star of Melbourne’s own soul trio Cookin’ On 3 Burners, lord of loops in The Rush Effect and currently working with divine diva Candice Monique, he was a welcome addition to StellaFauna to bring us to the fab 5… So if psychedelic soul funk is up your alley, shiny things make you happy, and you want to be loved up by classic tunes with real lyrics, then StellaFauna is for you. https://soundcloud.com/stellafauna Sequin Spangled Soul Funk