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I am a music guy living and working in Melbourne, Australia. I played in bands and now I work in theatre, write songs and occasionally produce records. Now Im going out as a performer again, making an album of my own songs.
I own some guitars and a 1970s recording console. I'm using suitcases and cardboard boxes for drums, and doing everything by myself on a computer. As a composer and sound designer for theatre I do atmospheres, leitmotif, orchestral homages to Bernard Hermann, Argentinian Tango in the style of Astor Piazzolla, minimalist electronica a la Steve Reich, Bossa Nova in the style of Jobim, rags like Joplin, telephones ringing (according to continent and time frame/decade), doorbells (order-in class and era), waves, thunder, sentimental piano themes, abstract swathes of harmonics morphing and globulating in time and space etc. My designs have been played on multi channel surround systems and battery operated cassette players. Im a big fan of the Casio MT 31 keyboard.
I was a long time member of Australian rock band Boom Crash Opera, touring incessantly etc. Having been through the dark satanic mills of corporate rock I am liberated. If you are reading this you are not a 'potential stakeholder'. Free to create what I will, I am profoundly compelled by the formal imperatives of the SONG - strange, fantastical, beautiful, nasty, angry, loving ideas riven together by the elegant insistence of FORM. I love the structure; it offers me great freedom.
I was in a band called Serious Young Insects, a 3-piece inspired by bands like Wire and XTC. Part of the Melbourne Post-Punk Crystal Ballroom scene at the start of the '80s, we made an album, toured incessantly etc. We despised 'rock', never drank and didnt use the word 'gig'. Everybody buzzed furiously in the top register of their instruments, driven by the pop ethos.
Ive written and/or produced many records (The Sharp, Rachael Kane, Klinger, Crying In Public Places). I teach songwriting in Melbourne. Producing and teaching are very similar: help people to find their essence and do their best to express it; then set them free to (hopefully) fly. I want my record to sound as small as my studio and as big as the universe. Maybe this is normal.
PF
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