and playing as much as possible with just the two of us until SNAG came along (Julien Wilson, Björn Meyer) Its something i really love doing now (if Im in the right company) and with the use of the technology I have (octave displacement devices, loops) Im having a Ball! Some other influences for me include alot of movie soundtracks like Paris Texas (Ry cooder) Dead Man (Neil Young) or the music of Steve Reich, Jim Black's Alas no Axis, the police and many many other groups...

What's with all the pedals?
The instrument that I spend most of the time playing at home is a nylon string guitar. Unfortunately I can't play this instrument at a gig without amplification so basically that's the reason why I play the electric guitar. Now when you amplify this instrument suddenly the sound is coming out of another place and I always had a problem with this, it feels detached. So I started experimenting with electronic devices to try and find other interesting colour. Basically my pedal boards rather simple. It consists of an Ernie Ball Volume Pedal, Boss Tuner, Super Octave pedal, Tremolo, Line 6 DL4 and Modulation pedal and an Alesis Reverb. The Advantage of having them in one unit is just so I don't have to deal with dodgy cables anymore. Simon Tragire @ Soul amp engineering designed and made the board for me. He’s an old friend and an electronics Wiz. Thanks Simey!

Do you define yourself as a jazz musician?
Funny you should say that. I played a gig on Thursday night at a place called Barbukka. We played this music - which was two guitars and drums, Ren Walters, Dave Beck and myself. It was really intense and rhythmic and was so much fun. After we finished the gig someone came up to us and said “That's Jazz”. I’ve had to do a lot of thinking about that word jazz \ I’ve never really called myself a jazz musician because I don't really play the repertoire. At the same time I am a jazz musician because I represent living in this day and age, which is pretty much what it's about. Real jazz musicians don't try to sound like they're playing a style. They just do what they do.

When you were studying at VCA what type of music did you study?
Jazz. I only studied classical music privately. Never really studied the stylistic things in the music. I looked at the nuts and bolts - the mechanics of it. Not the stylistic interpretation of it. How did we know what it sounded like? We've never heard it! It's only been documented for the last 100 years. That's why I say maybe its better if I just interpret it my own way. Another thing is a lot of classical musicians like Bach were incredible improvisers. And they had cutting sessions. Like Mozart and those guys at night time they'd all get really off their face on parties and they'd have these competitions - who could improvise the best. They were doing it 100's of years ago. To answer the question am I a jazz musician. Yes and No. I am just a musician trying to make a living in this town. It's that simple really.

Establishing a music performance career in Melbourne...
When and how did you feel you were established in your performance career?
I reckon I felt it when I first left college because you know if you make a decision about what you want and you're at a particular point of your life, you don't necessarily need to make $1000 a week to survive. When I finished college, I was in a reggae band and a little jazz ensemble. I was 19 when I finished college so I was a kid living in this dump of a house in Richmond. I was making $100 a week and somehow lived off that. I remember thinking “hey I'm making a living playing music”. And I had some students on the side as I’d been teaching since I was 10 years old. I was a kid but I could play when I was 10 so I used to teach the kids and my schoolteacher in primary school.

What was the process involved in establishing your career in Melbourne?
If you like doing something - you're going to do something aren't you? I did it because I had to do it. The same thing about establishing yourself - I just did. I was fortunate enough to be in an environment that allowed me to do it. Like for instance I met musicians who were really good that gave me the chance to play with them. When I was 19, I met guys who were freaky players like Paul Grabowsky and Ren Walters and played with them.

I was lucky Ren Walters and those guys who are 10 years older than me asked me to play with them. I was out there and obviously had something that was ok and they were like “yeah you're alright come and join our band or come and play”. Maybe that was an important thing to get you into the scene. If you play with really good people its so easy. They make you play better. You know what its like if you play with bad people it makes it really hard to communicate where you're coming from. It think the musical community that your involved in is very important. Maybe universities and schools are good in a way because they nurture that. You study with a group of people and you hang out with them. And then from that establishing your career really comes from the infrastructure that you create within your peers. Originally I didn't make any conscious decision that I was going to “establish my career”.

However a few years later I thought 'well if you want to make a living out of doing this people are going to have to know who you are. It's not a negative thing - its not like I think I'm the greatest musician in the world. But people have to know what you're on about. So a bit of chiseling is good. Just being out there and involved in the scene.

Did you feel equipped to make your career after you left university?
This is a performance-based art form. We all learn on the job. Improvisation especially you do it in real time. You've got to learn it by screwing up.

How hard was it to secure regular gigs while studying and/or working?
I was 17 when I started the college. I lived at home. I moved out when I finished the college. I never had to worry about that. For those 3 years when I was studying, I was practicing my ass off. I had a few gigs but not many. I was lucky.

What are the skills you needed to develop in order to create
your music career? How did you identify these skills and learn them?
People skills. How do you communicate with people?
You can be the most incredible musician in the world but if you can't communicate with people you may not even be able to get a gig. Cause you can't talk to anyone. I know this sounds weird but I know people who are like that. Often the freaks are like that. They're so nuts and so in their own headspace that they can't communicate. Of course I think that you need to be proficient on your instrument and know what you want to say with your music. You're learning to that all the way through your life - get better at your craft. So why don't' you just get out there and do it.

So I think people skills are very important. Being able to sell your product, even if you don't have a product. I'm pretty good at that because I know how to crap on. I think that's why I'm a good teacher. I know how to make people feel good. That's the key cause you've got to vibe them up so they can go and do what they've got to do.

A good teacher is not someone that just knows everything. I've had teachers like that but they don't make me feel like I want to do it. Whereas just a teacher that says I'm in and I believe in this and you've got to have the passion as well. I think it's the same if you're trying to get a gig. There was a year when I got back from living in Europe in 2000. I got home and I said, “I want to get people talking about me. So I'm going to get on the phone and the e-mail and I'm going to chisel all the places that will give me attention”. And I know it might seem wanky but hey you've got to push your own product sometimes. Cause who else is going to believe in it? No one else is. Record companies don't.

All great musicians believe in what they're doing. Regardless of what style their doing. They all believe in themselves - you have to! You must push a little bit. Americans are the best at it. I've read stories of people like Pat Metheny when he was 16 or 17 he was in Boston studying music and there would be a gig organized for a guitarist he was rooming with he'd roll up to the gig unannounced, uninvited with his equipment and ask if he could sit in and take over the gig.

Did you get professional advice on how you should go about creating your music career?
No, which I think is a real shame. I went the VCA and it was never discussed. And that's bad. If you had your own business and did a business course you'd learn about that. Musicians don't. That's probably why a lot of musicians probably don't crank. They don't' believe in what their doing, its really weird. There should be a bit of that. I don't know how. But I know that maybe something like this will help. Something like “how am I going to do this?” You have to look at all your options - what do you want to say within that framework.

You know a lot of people think in the music industry that there's only one way to do it - to be a rock star. And that's only one little increment. And we all know how fleeting that is. It's not work. There should be course on how to do this. No-one told me all I knew was I'm good at what I do and I believe in and I'm going to make a living out of it. I'm going to get gigs and I'm going to teach. That's the way I'm going to survive. I definitely worked at trying to find good opportunities for me to teach at and now I've got great opportunities because I'm teaching at VCA and Monash. I'm teaching at places that I want to teach at. So the energy is great.

Whereas when I first started teaching I taught at Primary Schools and out at Ring wood and Private Boy's school but it was child minding. When in Europe, I got into a university over there so that was the beginning of it and getting into doing what I want to do. Living in Melbourne you can't just do one thing most of the time. There is only a hand full of people who can live just being a performing musician.

And if you just wanted to be a performing musician, chances are you're going to burn out. Like all the performing musicians like say a bass player that works 7 nights a week. I wouldn't want to do that. I don't want to be 60 years of age working 7 nights a week. That would be bad for me. I only like playing 2 or 3 times a week maximum.

Can you describe your sound?
Not in words but I know what it is and what it sounds like. I know what my voice is. It's a bit of a mish mash of everyone else's sound. I know it's an amalgamation of things that are happening in my life that I love. I know it's from listening to Andy Somers from the Police all the way to listening to a Death Metal band that I really like. It's all of that. Listening to the Keith Jarrett trio or Gilberto Gil. I think that's all in there.

Global Jazz Scene
Where have you toured overseas?
That's the great thing about this job. I've been to London, Amsterdam, Paris, Switzerland, Italy, Bulgaria, and America. It's never been on grants.

Do you think a lot of your students have trouble finding their voice?
Yes often because of the traditions and stylistic boundaries that are supposedly ingrained in the music. They think that to play bebop you have to play (if you're a guitarist) through an arch top through a particular amp to get a really clean sound. And negotiate the material using these notes and these rhythmical structures. No you don't. Its just one approach it's not a bad approach but it's not the only one! People tend to forget that music came from a particular time period and that's why it's easy for me to have my own sound.

I mean look where I live, look what I do, look at the music that turns me on. Its all got a meaning. That's what I say to the guys that come to me from the rock school. I say: they’re your roots man, don't forget where you came from. It's really wrong. If you grew up listening to Jimi Hendrix, you should acknowledge that somehow in your playing. You don't' have to play Foxy Lady. But it's important because the guys changed your musical ears.

For me it was Andy Somers - he had interest in chords, in colors in a mainstream pop band in the 80's. I was like wow what a sound. I never heard anyone do that before. And of course Jimmy Page was another one for me because I was into Led Zeppelin after that. And then Ian Moss from Cold Chisel - Cause he just played great phrases, beautiful sound and great ideas in a pop mainstream kind of way. And then I got into jazz musicians from there. But I'm just as influenced by Bjork or Radiohead and John Mayer as what other jazz guys are doing in America. Or in Australia, Martin Breeze -his songs influence me as much as a Cole Porter tune. I'm not comparing. I'm just saying when you start making comparisons, you're shot and that's what we do. The reason why we don't find our own voice is because you think that those guys are better than you because you're comparing yourself to them.

Don't compare yourself. You've just got to be yourself. That's a social thing. Turn the telly on and watch Australian idol you see everyone is trying to mimic other people. Find what you believe in and hold it dear. It might have an American influence you can't deny their cultural influence on us. Especially with the politic agendas going on - its like we're another state of America. I think that's the biggest problem. That's why we don't sound like us - because we think we have to sound like them. It's a global village of music now. There's not American French etc.

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