boi&eSKae
A dynamic duo who write, perform, record and produce their own distinctive style of guitar-based pop music.
BOI CROMPTON
Guitars and Vocals
eSKae van ECK
Backing vocals, percussion & miniture xylophone
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Boi and Eskae are known for their quintessentially unique take on life and their passion for getting it right. Often working together in multi-faceted roles, always supporting and inflaming each other.
They form a perfect harmony: Eskae inspires Boi creates. His challenge and ambition is to encapture her ethereal qualities and beauty, her calm and her passion in the melodies and lyrics he crafts. Their performance overflows with experience, tenderness and emotion.
Boi and Eskae are both true thespians coming from the ancient traditions of storytelling and performance, art and theatre, always inspired by the transcendental themes of life, love, death and eternity.
HOW THEY MET…
boi&eSKae met in the house clubs of Sydney back in 1987. Their love of music, dance and performance connected them instantly and began a partnership that has endured over 30 years.
Since then they have travelled the world together and played shows across Australia and both have worked with some of the biggest artists in the world. They have released two EP’s and continue to write & perform their catchy pop/folk/indie style tunes
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Boi the songwriter
Boi’s material is rich and emotive, full of the elements of his life, the sights and sounds and feelings of places half remembered, of living and dying and loving. There are glimpses of his muse Eskae in every stanza.
From vivid to vague his mind offers recollections from exotic childhood brushes with death to unassuming characters with the power to inspire to the pop memorabilia of every teen.
As a two year old in colonial Singapore Boi had his first introduction to death, fighting meningitis in the army hospital. He retains the sights and sounds and smells. At six the little boi had the heart of a man; congenital heart disease led to open-heart surgery and memories of waking mid surgery and watching the procedure in the mirrored ceiling.
As a child Boi was fiercely competitive, determined to show that he could better any able bodied person. He listened to the sounds of the time: the Cure, Abba, The Sex Pistols, Depeche Mode, Duran Duran and New Order.
His first taste of music…..
A quiet maintenance man at Boi’s school in Victoria gave boi his first taste of music. He remembers a tall, reedy, older man. Boi says, “I saw him playing drums one day. He was an old man but he just looked so cool. He showed me some rhythms one day and I just got it. He taught me how to play side drum and organized with the principal that I would play as we marched into assembly each week. So he played every day, and when he left that school he gave boi a harmonica which he still has today.”
As the son of an army family there were many schools and many new friends. In high school he learnt trombone and starred in the lead role as Smike in the eponymous musical based on Dicken’s Nicholas Nickleby. At 14 he became an apprentice jockey while applying to join the army as a musician. The army said no because he was too young but at 15 he joined the Navy.
From Mombassa to Dar Es Salam…
First based in Freemantle then Sydney Boi discovered the Sydney club house scene, the revolutionary house music of the ‘80s and experimented. He served on three warships and picked up a guitar from a fellow shipmate learning to play and write as he served. The warships took him from Hawaii to the Solomon Islands, from Mombassa to Dar Es Salam, Goa to Singapore, patrolling the from the Pacific to the Gulf. In 1990, six months before discharge Boi completed a four month tour of duty in the first Gulf War.
Back in Australia Boi met Eskae, an artist and creative force, and they immersed themselves in the music scene, both playing in bands and working in production. Boi’s first industry job was in 1993 driving U2 on the Zooropa tour. Since then he has used his considerable technical knowledge on tours and festivals for some of the world’s greatest artists. His tour list is a who’s who of pop rock and roll including all time greats Aerosmith, Yusuf Islam (Cat Stevens), Crowded House, The Rolling Stones, Madonna, Tom Jones, Sting and James Brown and today’s hot favourites Kanye West, Nikki Minaj, MGMT, The Dandy Warhols, Diesel, Jack Johnson, Pete Murray, Macy Gray, Snoop Dogg and The Rogue Traders. Boi has also worked many years as a production manager for productions including Spiegeltent festivals, Operas including Cinderella and The Pilgrims Progress as well as the Tokyo Quartet and the Queensland Orchestra.
His greatest inspiration? “Always Eskae”
While working alongside great musicians Boi continued to compose new material. His greatest inspiration? “Always Eskae, especially when she is doing art.” In 1997 Boi and Eskae released their first EP titled “Skinpop” and in 2000 they formed a band also named Skinpop. Skinpop was quickly acclaimed and they played at festivals including Livid and Big Day Out and supported major bands such as INXS, Hanson, Roachford, Christine Anu, Yothu Yindi, Mental as Anything, IOTA, Diesel and Renee Geyer.
In 2001 Boi was forced to pull back from performance. A near-fatal accident (as a pedestrian he was hit by a truck) caused a reworking in the way that he lived.
The reflective time away from performance gave his audience a gift of music that is more organic, a refined production style and a maturity of sound and message that resonates with every listener.
the duo
Sexy dark moody pop, totally of this moment but eternal. Expressing timeless emotions with a depth that shows several lives. Lyrics that find their own place in your head and your heart and melodies that seduce, capture and enrapture.
DISCOGRAPHY
SKINPOP – DEBUT EP – 1997 (independent)
ACOUSTICA COMPILATION CD – (various artists Velvet Records, Sydney)
AUSTRALIAN MUSIC WEEK CD – 2001
ALL YOU NEED IS LOVE EP – 2010 (independent)
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