Here is Phunk de Sonique: the union of Christian Vance, George Galanis and Chris McLean, and the complexity of their declarations, the strange way it makes you feel, has made them a strong and innovative musical body in Melbourne’s electronic hub. As musicians and as people they have garnered the respect not only of a wide and appreciative audience, but also of musicians and industry stalwarts around the world. Their sound has bridged borders, time and space. There are rhythms and strings adapted from Detroit, eastern tinges harvested from Singapore, and stripped back feelings and thoughts manifested from their own triage in Melbourne.

They sit back and laugh about how they met. “It was the late eighties in Detroit and we got together…” says Chris and they all laugh. “There is this place called Belleville high. Also known as Caulfield Grammar, Wheelers Hill.” If they were born twenty years earlier, in the United States of America, one could be forgiven for mistaking Caulfield Grammar for Belleville High in Detroit. Their sound and spirit embodies the evolutionary essence of the music that was harbored in Motor City with a Melbourne touch. Since high school they have joined their three minds and experienced music and life on varying levels.

“Christian and Chris used to write guitar songs when they were little tuckers together,” says George. “Yeah, we wrote this blues number called ‘Sitting on a Country Road’,” adds Christian. “It was the shit though,” George laughs, which forces Christian to bust out in a chorus and reflect on that youthful music ambition. Only now the guitars have been replaced with synthesizers, samplers and effects and their attention has turned to the depths of electronic music. With three heads to work with, Phunk de Sonique have an abundance of thoughts and textures to manipulate and work through their music, and it is more than evident in the instinctive connection that presents itself on stage during their live performances.

“Christian is head programmer without a doubt,” says George. Yet each of their musical input is a known force. You can hear George. You can hear Chris. You can hear Christian. “Last time when we spoke and I was playing all sorts of stuff off all sorts of discs and I said this is Chris and this is Chris and I can tell straight away even though there were discs with lots of unlabelled stuff on it,” says Christian. “Christian’s stuff is very, very complex and deep and has all of these elements. Where as my stuff, it tends to be, at the moment, well, there is less to it. There are definitely differences with our personality coming through,” adds Chris, while according to George, of late, his sound has been a little bit harder and more bass line driven. They can even associate their individual sounds and styles to the integral musicians that have influenced each of them. “George writes like Kenny Larkin,” says Chris. “I write a bit more like Theo or Moodymann or something that is a bit more stripped back and Christian is almost a combo of Carl and Derrick.” At this point Chris and George both stare at Christian with a smile on their face. “That is a pretty good compliment, but I don’t know how he is going to take it…” laughs George.

Yet, as Chris explains, their sets are a juggernaut of input, which cannot be measured. “It depends on time, and who is doing what. If you have a couple of months to write something than we will each get in there and do stuff, and if it is tighter than it is who has got the time or whoever is going to get it banged out quicker.” On stage, it is free for all, and their sets feed off the people in the room. The way it makes you feel. One hundred percent live. “The stuff that happens onstage is just manipulation of what has already been put down in the studio,” says George and Chris concedes that this is the fun part of being a live act. “If there is a good response we tend to do more, and it becomes more live because you can take it further. You are sucking people into a story,” says Christian. The crowd’s reaction is at the heart of their live performance, says George. “The little tricks and effects that you do are usually the result of whether the crowd are reacting to a certain thing.”

Recently they were asked to write a set of music for a promotion at a boutique spa retreat in South Yarra. “It was actually refreshing to hear the whole thing go down with no dance floor in mind,” says George. “Because that was under time restraint as well and it just took it some place else. It just developed.” And it will continue to develop. Phunk de Sonique are about pressing forward. Never stagnating. It is sophistication, soul and funk. A journey that starts in one place and finishes in an entirely different place. Their complex declarations will hopefully reach the world in the form of releases in the coming year.