In episode 32 of Round the Ground, I spoke with Zach Vella from Wollongong funk outfit Business Doing Pleasure, who just performed in a barber shop at Port Kembla Festival.

So for those that are unaware of Business Doing Pleasure, how long have you guys been performing, and how did you meet?

We’ve probably been performing for nearly three years. We actually met at UOW. We were all studying music together, and when we were coming to the end of our degree, we just wanted to keep playing music with other people. So we’d do that with each other outside of class, and we just started writing songs together, and one thing led to another.

We had this idea of playing shows and doing that, but we really didn’t know how — in Wollongong, there’s plenty of opportunities for that thankfully. It went from a backyard gig with our friends to an open mic night here at the Unibar, and then from there, we had an audience.

Has Wollongong afforded you good opportunities for gigs? Like, as you said, you started out with the open mic nights, but they’re not even doing them at the Unibar anymore, unfortunately.

Personally, I think Wollongong has been such an incredible scene to be a part of, especially starting out. I think it’s very nurturing.

I think there’s so many venues, big and small, that were able to carry us. Different organisations and companies who put on shows, and also plenty of bands to play with.

That’s what I mean when I say that the scene’s really strong and nurturing — there were so many different ways to grow as musicians here in Wollongong.

Has there been a favourite gig opportunity that you’ve had, or even just a favourite venue that you’d like to mention in the Illawarra?

I think definitely the standout personally has been when we released our debut single last June and we played a big debut show at La La La’s. We managed to fill it, sell out all our tickets, and that was just truly an excellent night for everyone.

You just played a Port Kembla Festival — that’s the first time I’ve been to Port Kembla Festival. It was one of the best community music experiences I’ve seen. But you guys played in a barbershop. And I caught the tail end of your gig, which is the first time I’ve seen you guys live. How did you find that experience?

Oh, we had so much fun. We were down at the Shave Cave on Wentworth Street — they moved all the stuff and we set up our own stage. Thankfully with a small room like that, we were able to pack it out so quickly. It was filling out onto the streets.

But we had an amazing time and it was great to hear the crowds singing along.

You’ve released a single very recently called ‘Hot Rock’. I’ve listened to the song and obviously it’s fantastic, but I want to know, what is the hot rock? Is it more of a concept or is it an actual rock?

Well, at Business Doing Pleasure, we come up with a wonderful chorus and then take that to the most literal extent.

I think when I first wrote the chorus of that one I was just looking for something that would be so fun and easy to sing along with as a crowd. I wanted to have something that was like, you know, “dance, dance, dance … dance in your pants,” something like that. So I think the “hot rock in your pocket” just had a nice flow to it, so I stuck with that.

And then from there, I was like, “okay, what is this?” What could this really mean? It took the direction of anything that we might use to counter our social insecurities or our anxieties.

So I’m very open for people to take that as a metaphor for whatever they want. In this case, it’s dancing and just having that good time.

Follow Business Doing Pleasure on Instagram and buy/stream their music here.