1.Growing Up
A formative musical experience for me, really early on, was listening to Mum play piano. Then came K-Tel bargain albums (Superbad and Fantastic) which kept us happily glam rockin’, naff popping and soft country ballading until the overwhelming Sunday night religion of Countdown took over. I loved the ‘hooray for everything’ vibe. The first gig I ever went to was a Suzi Quatro show at Festival Hall, and my dad still asks of the entire musical universe: “Yeah, but how does it compare with Suzi?” Then I managed to hustle my way into my brother’s bands and here we are.
2.Inspirations
I’m not on my own with this one, but for me, there’s The Beatles and thenthere’s everybody else. I remember an uncle in Adelaide letting us listen to his Sgt. Pepper’s if we cleaned it with alcohol before and after playing it.
3.Your Band
Got to love my band. They’re ace. Tony Floyd: singing drummer extraordinaire, teenage jazz wunderkind, backstage frisbee cricket inventor and a totally tops brother-in-law too. Mikey Allen: mate from school, nuanced bass playing, inspired harmony singing, film and game scoring, fountain of youth discovering happy machine. James Black: playing everything brilliantly, producing (once managing), sage counsel delivering, RocKwiz orchestra-ing, maestro-philosopher. Also tops bloke. Who could stay mad at those guys?
4.The Music You Make
This tour is a really nice journey back to our first album. We’re playing The Yearning from start to finish. I have to say, listening to that album is always a pretty overwhelming experience for me, so I’m looking forward to playing the dang thing from start to finish for the first time. Especially as we are with our old touring buddies Club Hoy.
5.Music, Right Here, Right Now
I live in Geneva at the moment, and it really makes you appreciate how exciting the Australian music scene is. There’s always so much energy and it is so good at adapting to change. I’m thrilled to see so many of my ex-students (such as Alexander Biggs, The Outdoor Type and Stonefield) making a splash.
Things Of Stone And Wood, supported byClub Hoy and The Old Married Couple, playNewtown Social Club on Sunday March 26
