What’s the earliest memory you have of writing or performing, and how did it shape where you are today?
Currently, I write all the parts and play all the instruments myself so perhaps these humble beginnings in the basement of The Con on a 4-track are still finding their way into my process today – now it’s a bedroom and a computer – but it’s still just me by myself writing and recording the music I want to hear in the world.
What elements or influences make your sound uniquely yours?
I’ve always loved the sound of real instruments moving real air: guitar through an amp, drums in a room, captured by a mic. That physicality matters to me.
My parents were classical musicians in the QLD Symphony Orchestra (violin and oboe), so from a young age I saw how different instruments could talk to each other, almost like a jigsaw puzzle. That stuck with me. I like the way musical parts duck underneath, weave around and lock in with each other, creating something greater than the sum of their individual parts.
Growing up, my older sisters’ CD collection shaped me: Weezer, The Cure, Nirvana, Pearl Jam. Then came the late ‘90s and early ‘00s pop explosion – the one-hit wonders like Teenage Dirtbag and Semi-Charmed Life gave me an ear for hooks.
Later I discovered the greats- The Beatles, Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd, Nick Drake, Simon & Garfunkel – along with Jeff Buckley, Elliott Smith, and Radiohead. Zeppelin’s IV blew me away me when I first heard it, and I devoured their catalogue. I couldn’t believe they’d been around 40+ years and I was only just discovering them.
Add in Red Hot Chili Peppers, Soundgarden, and late 80s/90s Euro dance – Sunchyme, Rhythm of the Night, Ace of Base – and that just about makes up what I was listening to in my formative years.
All of the above filters into the music I make now; driven guitars, organic drums, melodic bass, shifting time signatures, vocal harmonies, and strong, memorable melodies. For me it always comes back to just good songwriting: you know within seconds if you’re listening to a good song.
What’s your favourite part of making music, from that first idea to the finished track?
The refining stage. Once the initial idea is down – guitar, bass, drums, melody – I love going back and tightening everything up. Shifting rhythms so they anticipate and hold you back, opening the hi-hats going into a chorus, making sure the kick and bass speak to each other, adding in a tambourine or shaker for a ‘mid-verse lift’, cherry pick a moment from the song to inspire an Intro.
All of these little tweaks and adjustments get me so high on the creative process … I get shivers down my neck when all the pieces click and the song comes alive.
Which artists, genres, or even non-music influences have shaped your work?
I remember hearing 3 songs on my little cassette/radio when I was on school holidays (‘99/’00?) at my parents holiday house on Coochie Mudlo Island – Under The Bridge by RHCP, November Rain by Guns N Roses and Bohemian Rhapsody by Queen – these 3 songs transfixed and hypnotised me…I felt like there was a mysterious world hidden inside and behind the music. This was the beginning of my love for music.
I completed a degree of Jazz Performance on guitar, my parents were classical musicians, and I grew up at the end of grunge and during the Pop revolution. My music blends these influences – the colour of jazz, the interlocking parts of classical, the heavy guitars and drums of rock, and the memorable melodies of pop. I call my genre: Psych-Rock Dream-Pop.
What’s something you’ve just released or are about to share with the world?
I’m rolling out five singles leading into a 12-song album called No Longer Not Yet, due later in 2025. Some of these songs are over a decade old. I put my own music on hold for ten years to work as a high school music teacher, so this album has been in the works for a long time.
The songs all circle around themes of the human condition: impatience, longing, fear, loneliness, desire, despair, creating meaning, searching for home. Some tracks went through multiple demo versions – one had seven before I felt it truly stood up on its own. Every song has been refined to the point where there’s no filler… just the music that I want to hear in the world.
What do you hope listeners take away from your music as you grow as an artist?
I love listening to an album or a song that has stamped itself upon me and so when I hear it again, I am transported back to a place and time. I want to give this experience to the listener. I call it ‘pre-nostalgia’. I hope people feel something when they hear this music.
There’s a saying that goes something like “If you feel deeply then you’ve already won because the whole world is trying to make you numb”. These songs could be listened to while undertaking long drives on the highway, solo hikes through the mountains, and gazing at the horizon as day turns to dusk. Put them on through good speakers or headphones, and every little detail is there waiting to be discovered.
