Words: Nugie Rian
Photo: Garrin Faturrahman/Whiteboard Journal

The first time I ever heard the name Surprise Chef was in 2019 when a friend of mine mentioned them to me and said I would love their stuff, but I never really got into listening to it. Fast forward a couple of weeks, I was blessed by the YouTube algorithm gods when I saw one of their videos recommended to me at my home page.

The video was their collaboration track with Karate Boogaloo, titled “Where’s The Cream?”. I was instantly captivated by their material and how their sound reminded me so much of bands from Daptone Records, Big Crown Records, and they reminded me so much of Leon Michels’ stuff. To my surprise, the chefs cooked so hard they became part of Michels’ label Big Crown.

Their cinematic sounds are able to bring to life moods and stories without even saying a single word. I sometimes think about an imaginary scene in my head while their music plays.

A couple of years back, I missed the opportunity to watch them live at Potato Head Bali, but then Joyland Festival Jakarta 2024 became the MVP when they brought Surprise Chef to Jakarta alongside a plethora of amazing music acts.

We conversed with Surprise Chef to discuss about how living together impacts how they make music, being among the roster of one of the big honchos of contemporary soul music, and their house cat: The Fabulous Baby Huey.

First of all, how was the atmosphere? Is it like what you expected or exceeded it? 

Congues: Yeah, better for sure. I had no idea what to expect with this festival and it’s nice to see thousands of people out there enjoying music from all kinds of genres, all kinds of bands, we’ll definitely come back.

Oh, that’ll be sick. I’m really hoping you guys’d come back to Indonesia.

Tell the bosses. Haha.

So most of you guys still live together?

Congues: There’s three that live together: Jethro, Carl, and Stuckey living in this big beautiful mansion in Coburg…

Carl: Decrepit mansion.

Congues: Yeah, decrepit mansion, and the fourth member is the most important, which is the cat, Baby Huey. He’s at home, at the College right now. Looking after everything, overseeing the studio, doing laps. [College here refers to the College of Knowledge Records, an independent label run by Jethro Curtin and Lachlan Stuckey – Ed.]

Stuckey: These guys are around a lot, like, we got the studio at the house, and Hudson records a lot of music at our house with his other projects—he’s got a library music thing called Frollen Music Library, they record there once a week. We all play the Surprise Chef once a week, so three of us sleep there but everyone’s around a lot.

 

 

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So it’s like a hub for you guys to hang out? Including your friends from outside of the band?

Stuckey: We don’t have a lot of friends, but the few friends we do have definitely kicked into the College a bit. Everyone’s welcome at the College.

Even if I go there? 

Surprise Chef: Oh, yeah, of course! Definitely, man. 

So does living together affect how you guys make music?

Stuckey: Yeah, for sure. I think it’s just an intimacy thing. The more we play together, the more we understand everybody’s musical language and the nuances of that.

And I think living together gives us an even deeper intimacy—understanding everybody’s tendencies, eccentricities, and we all hear what music everyone’s listening to or what records everyone’s buying, and when Jethro playing whatever record that he’s into that week and then the next week he brings in a tune for Surprise Chef, it’s like I know where it’s coming from, you know?

Do small things from living together creep into your creative process of making music? Like, for instance, one of you didn’t do the dishes or anything?

Stuckey: Haha, yeah, you’re answering the question yourself man. 

Or, like, maybe one of you guys are pissed at somebody because they didn’t do the chores or something like that?

Stuckey: Hahaha, straight up, of course! So Jethro, Carl, and I have lived together in that house for, like, seven… six years? That’s six years, that’s a long time to live with people, man! Like, especially in Melbourne where shared houses are a thing, especially if you’re a musician, we can’t necessarily afford to live on our own, so we’ve got to share, so the shared house experience is ingrained. 

But to live with the same group of people in the same house for more than a couple of years, that’s unusual. And naturally, I think, you get sick of the people you live with.

Sometimes someone hasn’t done the dishes or someone forgot to take the bins out. And, of course, those frustrations play in. It’s like when we’re in the kitchen, we’re housemates. And then we step into the studio, and we’re bandmates.

 

 

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But again, that’s all part of the intimacy. That’s us understanding each other. It’s the good and the bad. No relationships are 100% happy all the time. And it’s our ability to be angry at each other over the dishes and then make awesome music with each other 10 minutes later, you know? That makes it cool.

So how is Baby Huey doing these days? How old is he? 

Stuckey: He’s nine years old. He’s officially a senior. He’s okay. He’s been fighting with other neighbourhood cats. He’s a bit of a bruiser. So, he’s been recuperating the last couple of weeks. He’s been in a cone. He hates that. He’s in a cone of shame. 

What happened to him? 

Stuckey: Oh, he got his ass kicked. I think his mouth was writing checks his ass couldn’t cash. I think he stepped to some step to some heavies in the neighborhood and he fucked around and found out. He’s like the OG on the block who thinks he’s still got it.

 

 

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So who’s Baby Huey’s favorite person from Surprise Chef? 

Stuckey: Oh, Baby Huey, he shares the love. He shares the love. He loves everyone. Yeah, he’s a polygamous cat with his love.

He shares it around. I think he loves whoever’s feeding him and he loves whoever’s room has the sunlight coming in at any given point of the day.

Who’s the chef in Surprise Chef?

Stuckey: We’re all getting there! We’re all getting a bit older, I reckon. Like, if you asked us when we started the band, then the answer would have been a bit clearer. But I think everybody’s honing their culinary skills.

Congues: Yeah, I think so. I do think we don’t cook enough.

Stuckey: We cook plenty! Do you not cook enough?

Congues: We do, but we can always cook more.

Jethro: I need to bring over some more goulash.

(Credits: Surprise Chef/Instagram)

So do you guys have a get-together for a dinner and one guy makes everything for everybody?

Stuckey: We don’t really do that enough. We, like, play once a week and we always try to make sure that there’s some home-cooked food going on.

But it’s kind of like everybody pitches in, you know? We just made this record a couple of weeks ago and we’re at home. We record our music at home and so every day it’s like someone else is making the food.

Does the new record consist of more new experimental stuff or are you guys just having fun with it? 

Congues: Kind of both. Yeah, we kind of changed the process a little bit and I think it focuses more on spontaneity, having fun in the studio, and making easy decisions, but also, like, fun. If it sounds good, it is good.

I saw you guys shared about the High-fives one. You guys were really having fun with it.

Stuckey: It was Congues’ idea, yeah.

Congues: What’s better than claps is high-fives. We can all do it together.

 

 

 

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What do you guys feel that you guys are now part of Big Crown Records? I imagine it’s like a kid on Christmas day.

Stuckey: Yeah, absolutely. It’s nice to be a part of this global family, and we’re up with our fellow label mains brainstorming here. We’ve been on tour and that’s awesome and it’s a dream come true to be part of that crew.

I think, it’s like, you know, as you get older, I think your tastes get more and more refined, and you become more discerning, and with me, at least, you get this kind of scope of what you think is really good kind of gets narrower—not necessarily in a bad way, but through that process, you identify the people around the world that are doing things in the way that you think is hip, and you get a more developed sense of what is hip, and Big Crown Records, for us and Truth & Soul before it, that was always the benchmark of what is here, and loads of people make music that’s similar or is influenced by that group. But for us, Big Crown Records was like the gold standard.

That’s like the rule book in a way. There’s so many lessons in them, as far as the people like us who resonate with exactly how they were doing it. So to be able to be a part of that—as far as that being an endorsement of what we’re doing—is really really special. It’s like a bit of a pat on the back knowing you’re doing good, you’re doing it the right way and keep going, you know?

Big Crown Records is owned by Leon Michaels, does he have a word in a way of mentoring you guys to hone your musical skills, or like he just lets you go on into the world and do whatever?

Stuckey: He just sends the fire emojis sometimes. He just says like “yo sounds dope,” but he isn’t like getting there being like “hey, change this change that,” he’s just generally just been encouraging.

 

 

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Because I think, the thing about Leon is probably, like, a lot of people (us included) kind of look up to him as this kind of like oracle, of like “oh Leon, how do we make good music?” and he’s just carving his own path and doing his own thing. I don’t think he acts like he’s an apostle who’s like, “now everybody—this is how you have to make music.” He’s just kind of like “oh, word, these tunes are cool. Nice one, guys.”

Who should we be looking out for from the College of Knowledge camp? 

Stuckey: Oh, that is a great question. Karate Boogaloo. Karate Boogaloo has always been one of the biggest influences for this band, absolutely. Karate Boogaloo have a brand new record out called Hold Your Horses and it is just yet another example of how the people around you can push you creatively, like, every time they make a record, I feel like it pushes us to do better.

We’re always proud of what we do. I don’t think we’ve ever made a record that we’re not happy with, but every time Karate Boogaloo makes a record, it’s like… okay, we gotta try harder. 

And there’s always lessons in their records, too. Hudson plays drums in their band same as The Pro-Teens, and was really one of the reasons that we started recording to tape and making music the way that we do because Hudson’s been making music that way for like a lot longer than Surprise Chef been a thing, and Hudson made all these The Pro-Teens records like 6–8 years ago, around the time Surprise Chef was starting, and we were kind of like “oh, we should do that.” The Pro-Teens have this great record of MF Doom tributes coming out in January.

There’s a wonderful dynamic duo of musicians, Ella Thompson and Liam McGorry. Ella Thompson’s an incredible singer. She’s one of the coolest soul singers in Melbourne, for sure. And Liam McGorry is a creative partner. They’re making wonderful music together that we’re all a part of in some way.

And yeah, all those people are making great music. Let Your Hair Down is another great band that has music coming out, Henry Jenkins who records all of the music on College of Knowledge like all the Surprise Chef stuff, Karate Boogaloo, and The Pro-Teens, he’s just like the oracle, as far as i’m concerned. He’s the spiritual leader, he’s a love guru, and he’s our big brother. Whether it’s the music that he makes under a nom de plume, Jnbo, or the music that he’s producing for everybody, he really shows us what’s up, every day in every way.

There’s this rapper called Miss Kaninna. She’s really fresh, we really dig Miss Kaninna, she’s awesome. She’s like a real fierce indigenous woman who’s making really cool rap music.

Tiana Khasi is awesome.

Owelu Dreamhouse is a really cool band.

Blakey Bone, people gotta know about Blakey Bone. He’s in England but he’s, some say he was once from Melbourne. Blakey Bone’s really ill, he’s got a record coming I think. He’s a real Francophile and an Anglophile, in more ways than one.

All of these talents are from the College of Knowledge? 

Stuckey: Yeah, more or less. Some of those people are from the generation above us and some of them are from the generation below us, and some of those people were just like really big fans of. But a lot of those aforementioned professionals are people that we’re really lucky to be able to release on the label and be a part of their records, and rub shoulders with creatively in one way or another. 

So what’s next for a Surprise Chef?

Congues: To play more shows in Asia. We got some shows and we’re gonna do more touring next year and releasing these records, so we’ll do the record for all over the world hopefully. 

Stuckey: I think another thing on a broader level is just to try and keep doing music in a way that’s sustainable. You know, just trying to keep the flame alive for our love for each other and our love for music.

Being in a band can be really tough. Like the financial rewards are few and far between. And as you get older, that financial pinch becomes far less abstract and far more real, you know? When you’re growing up everyone says you can’t make money off music, but when you’re young that doesn’t matter.

When you get paid a hundred bucks for a gig, you’re like, ‘ah, sucked in all those people who said I couldn’t make money from music! Look at me! I just got paid a hundred bucks to play guitar!’ But as you get older, the goalposts move—one of us has a kid! But, you know, it does get harder and harder to try and be a professional musician as you get older and as your sort of standards for living change.

So I think what’s really important to us is to keep making music in a way that is spiritually nourishing and just keeps us wanting to do it. But, you know, we’ve got to make sure we do it in a way that just has longevity.

You guys once said The Pro-Teens have a couple of LPs done. When is that gonna be out?

Stuckey: Well, you gotta talk to this Pro-Teens right here. Hudson’s in The Pro-Teens, so he can answer that question.

Hudson: We got the MF Doom tribute record coming out on January 17th, College of Knowledge records, and that’s gonna be an absolute smash, an absolute knockout of the park. And then there’s the record before that which is by Snooch Dodd and The Pro-Teens, that’s I Flip My Life Every Time I Fly side quest for The Pro-Teens, and then there’s another three records before that, they’re all on Bandcamp.

Stuckey: Yeah, websites are becoming more and more important to the fabric of Surprise Chef, because sometimes you take websites for granted, but when you really think about it, you know, the internet’s really popular these days, and I just think any website is a good website if given the chance. Bandcamp is an especially really good website that we really like.

Last question: You guys happy?

Stuckey: Yeah, yeah, no, definitely, definitely! I mean, at this moment, being able to come to Jakarta, which is a city that we’ve never been to, and, you know, moonlight as, like, famous musicians is really cool!

We are genuinely extremely grateful to get to do this because this is the dream, and it’s easy to think the grass is always greener and to look at the next thing and go off, if we were playing bigger shows, or if you’re selling more records, or if we were getting a bigger label advance, or if we had more fucking Instagram followers, bigger bus, bigger house, but I truly think it doesn’t actually get better than this. I mean, we get to just come over here, stay in a nice hotel, hang out, play music to people who care about it and they’re listening, and, you know, we go home to the real world next week and we go live our normal ass lives until the next time we get to do this. And that’s an absolute blessing.

That’s not something that we take for granted. That’s something that could end at any time. And if that doesn’t make us happy then, gee whiz, I don’t know what will.