Cookin' on 3 Burners

Despite lighting up Melbourne's music scene with their bright, jazzy Hammond organ licks and soul-funk grooves since the late 1990s, Cookin' On 3 Burners came to wider attention when French DJ Kungs turned their track 'This Girl' into a major worldwide hit. Lead member Jake Mason started out playing on a Wurlitzer electric piano when he was eight-years-old, and was still using it when he teamed up with guitarist Lance Ferguson and drummer Ivan Khatchoyan in 1997 as a freestyle jazz outfit. As they evolved into a swaggering, retro funk trio and drew inspiration from the likes of Booker T and the MGs, The Meters and vintage Stax sounds, their retro, 1960s soul found a natural home on UK label Freestyle Records alongside other revivalists including Sharon Jones and Alice Russell; their debut 2007 album 'Baked, Boiled and Fried' was heavily championed by BBC Radio 1 DJ Craig Charles. Though mainly an instrumental act, their use of a variety of guest vocalists added another element to the band's sound, and when they re-united with local singer-songwriter Kylie Auldist on second album 'Soul Messin'' in 2009, it was the single 'This Girl' which stood out as a popular anthem among modern soul aficionados. The band went on to work with Tex Perkins from The Cruel Sea on albums 'Blind Bet' and 'The Writing's On the Wall', but it wasn't until 2016 that a little known, 19-year-old French DJ contacted them about re-mixing 'This Girl'. Kungs (real name Valentin Brunel) had been making a name for himself on SoundCloud with his sunkissed, tropical house remixes and, while opening for superstar DJ David Guetta he turned 'This Girl' in to a smooth, shimmering Ibiza dancefloor strut that became a popular feature of his sets. From a club favourite, summer anthem, the track shot to number two in the UK Charts and grew to become a top ten hit in 37 countries with over 300 million YouTube views. The attention helped boost the band's profile and they returned with compilation album 'Vs.' in 2017, before Mason released his debut solo album 'The Stranger in the Mirror' in 2018.

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