INTERVIEW: The Buckleys bring some 1950s-style rock to Christmas with 'Boogie Woogie Santa Claus'

Interview: Jett Tattersall
Australian sister-brother trio The Buckleys have had a remarkable 2021. After signing their first record deal in 2019 and releasing their debut album in 2020, this year has seen their star rise further, being named one of the 30 hottest creatives under 30 and scoring a breakthrough chart hit with their single ‘Woodstock69’. Individually they have also excelled with Sarah being awarded the prestigious Professional Development Award from APRA-AMCOS earlier this year.

They recently embraced the Christmas spirit by releasing their first ever Christmas single, ‘Boogie Woogie Santa Claus’. Originally recorded in 1948 by Mabel Scott, The Buckleys have re-created the track with a rock and roll twist and teamed it with a Studio 54 inspired music video.

“We wanted to give Christmas a whole new sound with this song and make it feel both nostalgic and fresh at the same time,” Sarah Buckley says. “It's been a tough year for everyone and as we are finally seeing the light at the end of the tunnel now, our goal is to get people feeling good and having a boogie with us to celebrate this wonderful time of year!”

The band are set to perform the track virtually at the Adelaide Carols on December 12, before heading to Nashville early next year to start work on their next record.

We recently caught up with Sarah and Molly Buckley to chat more about ‘Boogie Woogie Santa Claus’, 2021 and their coming plans.

Hi Sarah and Molly, so lovely to chat to you again. Congratulations, and thank you, for releasing and revamping Mabel Smith's ‘Boogie Woogie Santa Claus’.
Sarah: Thank you so much. We're so excited about this song. It's our first official Christmas release, although we did play a lot of rockabilly Christmas specials as a family back in the day!

Molly: We used to play this song when we were little so we're really excited to bring it back and record it properly and release it into the world

There is obviously a plethora of Christmas diamonds to choose from. You've been singing this song since you were children, what is it about ‘Boogie Woogie Santa Claus’?
Mollie: No-one’s been able to dance for so long, we really just wanted to record a Christmas song that people could easily get up and move their feet to and have a boogie. That was out main objective with the song 

Sarah: Mollie used to be a star swing dancer, so she got to dust off the old dancing shoes for the film clip. We used to do swing dancing classes, and Molly would always get picked to do the demonstrations. Apparently I was not very good!

So were you in charge of the choreography on set during the music video Molly?
Molly: We used to go to these lessons run by Swing On In, Christine Ray, and they taught me how to swing dance. So they gave us a rough choreograph, the dancer was from Swing On In and he helped because I hadn't danced in like six years, so I could not really remember anything.

Sarah: We also had some brass players and backstage I taught them some Blues Brothers dance routines that you can see them do.

Molly: I’ve never seen Sarah take a mission so far in teaching them the dance moves!

How did you then approach this very classic, beautiful Christmas song and execute it with that Buckleys signature?
Sarah: It's funny because our producer Chad Carlson is over in Nashville so he recorded a bunch over there and we recorded half the stuff from Lachlan’s bedroom studio here in Byron Hinterland. We wanted to put all of our own flavours into it and kind of rock it up a little like we love to do especially for our live show. The horns are so important, to have that really authentic 40s horn section which the guys in Nashville did, it is so amazing and took it to a whole other level. Also Lachlan’s guitar is a really important part of our sound and is on the track.

Molly: Also the Andrew sisters and their harmonies [were an influence]. Recording the vocals in Lachlan’s studio was the first time we had to record vocals with just us. Usually Chad's there to mediate, you don't mind getting tips off your producer, but not your sibling! It doesn't work the same. We really channelled that Andrews Sisters vibe and we really look up to them when it comes to harmonies.

You also recently released the gorgeous ‘Woodstock69’ which is obviously homage to one of the most monumental moments in the history of music with a stunning accompanying video directed by your in house swing dancer, Molly.
Molly: Yeah, that was an incredible experience, writing, directing and editing that music video. It was just such a journey. I learnt so much, I’m excited to do it again. It was just so incredible to have the song and then physically execute it. It was a really, really fun process filmed on Sugar Beach Ranch.

And that song in itself, it's so beautiful. You do tend to lean towards that era of another time when you play. What was it about Woodstock, 1969, that really propelled that song?
Sarah: We grew up hearing from dad's friends, my parents friends all about Woodstock. I was in Nashville thinking what kind of song we wanted to write, we just started talking about music and it eventually led to talking about Woodstock and all the artists that played there, it was such a iconic festival and we have so much respect for it as well. It represents that era in music that we love and really draw from and are inspired by.

With that, obviously, we can only ever look on those things now with this kind of rose tinted nostalgia of what we didn't experience. Do you think there's something missing in the music today? Or do you think nostalgia just always makes things prettier than they were?
Sarah: I don’t think there is anything missing in music today, music is forever evolving and changing. Particular sounds and different ideas come out. It'd be a bit boring if music all stayed the same.

Molly: Everyone's influenced by classic music, even if you don't necessarily know it. Music is always evolving. It's so amazing to look back on 70s, 80s artists and even before then, and just study it and really appreciate it.

We spoke following the release of your debut album, Daydream and I remember that you said, Sarah, that you wanted to create an album that was a journey. And obviously you've since released ‘Boogie Woogie Santa Claus’ and ‘Woodstock69’. How did those tracks play into the metaphorical journey?
Sarah: We spent a lot of time on the track order for the album and having all these different flavours in the album is really important for us to create that journey. ‘Woodstock69’ is lyrically a whole other layer of story and narrative that we haven't really explored. And musically it's more percussive than we usually do. So having all these different kinds of songs that draw on different things and have different layers to them.

Molly: Then there’s ‘Vibe’ which has this funk element. We just wanted to create something that was a journey and people listen to different songs and wouldn't expect to hear it. It explores things that we haven't done yet.

Gorgeous. Now last year you embarked on your virtual tour where you were performing curated shows for site specific places. You've been performing live since you were primary school kids, how did you go about cultivating that same energy without the live audience?  
Molly: It felt so weird at first, it was so strange. We'd finish the set and it would just be silence because we're at home, with mum and dad in the kitchen making spaghetti bolognese!

Sarah: It all happened so quickly, within like three days we’re like ‘oh we’re doing a world virtual tour’. We didn’t have a band, we didn’t have a drummer…

Molly: We didn’t have a bass player so that's when Sarah picked up bass. We chucked our little brother, Dylan in the deep end and Dad, we forced him to play drums with us, we really went back to a full family band. It was really fun. There was an extra layer of difficulty getting in all the equipment that we had stored in our shed to make it the rock and roll show that we do. It was interesting, just trying to create an energy, a live show that people could experience when it was a really rough time for everyone

Now, I also caught your ‘Meet the Buckleys’ documentary recently, and one of the moments I loved the most was your dad talking about how the reason he channelled you into country was to get your away from the Byron bush doof!
Sarah: When we saw that were like ‘ooh Dad bringing the controversy in, in our home town everyone's gonna hate us!’ Honestly that is what he was thinking, but he just really wanted to show us the art of live music and instruments and to see all the instruments that you wouldn't usually see. It was just the experience of live music because that's what he was brought up around and he toured all his life so he just wanted to show us that.

Now I know you guys are heading back out to Nashville to do some recording again soon. Can you tell me a little bit about what's coming up?
Molly: We're gonna be writing away, we’re so excited to go back to Nashville in February. We’re gonna be writing heaps, we've spent a lot of time over the last two years developing as songwriters, writing together and over Zoom. Just evolving into the next chapter of the Buckleys. So we're excited to go to Nashville and dive into that and create a new project. Another chapter which we're so excited for people to hear what we've been working on.

Gorgeous. You guys have really self propelled from the beginning. You saved up to get yourself to Nashville, you've been singing since you were kids. And you've always had this energy just pushing you through. Was there ever a moment where you're like, ‘Do you know what? This is not for us, we just need to be kids for a bit’ or have you always gone ‘No, because we're together we'll just keep going’?
Sarah: We've always definitely wanted to do it. Mum and dad were always keeping us in check, making sure we wanted to do it ‘are you sure you want to be doing this?!’

Molly: It's funny because Dad is obviously a musician and he says ‘music just kind of finds you, every time you start to move away from it, it eventually finds you’. When we graduated from high school and went to Nashville, I came back to Australia and I actually enrolled in a uni course. And then a week or two before I was about to start uni, we got the call from Chris Murphy and we got signed to Petrol Records I was like well, that’s that idea in the bin, I’m going back to Nashville!

Lastly before I leave you, look we have ‘Boogie Woogie Santa Claus’, Christmas is back on, people are seeing each other. Tell me what is Christmas like in the Buckley household?
Sarah: Chaotic energy all around. We have a big family, lots of aunties, cousins, siblings and so it's pretty heckers!

Molly: Everyone tries to get out of cleanup duty because it's that bad and big, the dishwasher’s on all day but it's fun, it's a good time.

‘Boogie Woogie Santa Claus’ is out now via Petrol Records. You can download on iTunes and stream on Apple Music and Spotify.

To keep up with all things The Buckleys you can follow them on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter.