Skyscraper Stan & The Commission Flats

Antipodean songwriter Skyscraper Stan is a true believer in the power of words.

One sentence, massaged just the right way, can be an entire story in and of itself. “I write songs slowly” he says. “I think about everything I put down. Every line I sing, there’s a meaning to it”. Across a career spanning the better part of a decade, two studio albums and countless live performances, he has established himself as one of the most thrilling lyricists working in Australia today. Endless months on the road, “singing for his chips”, observing the lives of people in town and country and putting it all down on paper has sharpened Stan’s songwriting to a fine point.

The Commission Flats, Stan’s longtime collaborators, are equally responsible for the band’s cult following. The distinctive guitar work of Oskar Herbig is as much a part of the sound as Stan’s songwriting. Martin Schilov’s melodic basslines, with influences ranging Stax era soul through to Melbourne post punk, march in lockstep with Andy Lloyd-Russell’s consistently surprising (and endlessly satisfying) work on the drumkit. A more recent addition to the sound - the saxophone of Samuel Boon - peppers the live set with pops, blasts, squeals, growls and hooks.

With the Sydney Morning Herald calling him “a revelation,” his two previous albums including 2015’s Last Year’s Tune and 2019’s Golden Boy, and between them a live solo album in 2017 Live at Some Velvet Morning, shone a light on Stan’s ability to write concise and accessible narratives in a timeless style,

suggesting a writer steeped in the traditions of the classics but looking to refresh that sound for the modern era.

His global reach has been extended by the songs I Fell Over and Always Thinking of You featuring on the first season of the TV series Colin From Accounts, a further tune 21st Century Lullaby features in season 2 of the hit show.

PERFORMING SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 16