interviews

Esfera Magazine - Brazil, July 2000 * Blues from Australia - how come you ended up playing a genre that's so North-American? Where I was bought up in Tasmania (which was very sheltered & isolated), you either listened to the local radio playing Country & Western and Top 40 or you tapped into the "underground" music that your older brother or sister was into, It just happened to be blues and blues based music that my sister was into. You didn't even consider it North American - just hip music at the time...I heard those guitars! * The band made a record deal in the Netherlands in 1994 and then a successful European tour - how did it happen? I was living in Melbourne in 1991 and it was an uneventful time for me musically. I was watching a current affairs news program on TV when a story on an Australian blues guitarist who had just signed with Alligator Records in the US was screened. The guitarist was Dave Hole. I was so excited to see an Australian blues guitarist get a break so I wrote to him via the station and congratulated him. Dave wrote back and thanked me for the letter, and that was that! I moved north to Queensland later that year in search of work. Two years later after settling there, I sent Dave a cassette of some of my songs (as a last resort) and enclosed the letter he sent me a couple of years earlier. I received a call from him about a week later and he told me he was heading to Europe for an 8 week tour and was going to give my tape to his record company in The Netherlands.(Provogue) I was quite shocked at the time, but as the weeks rolled on I had forgotten about it. Exactly 8 weeks later Provogue Music rang me and offered me a 5 album deal. The first album "Stones & Colours" was produced by Dave and released with great press reaction which opened the doorway for me to tour Europe on a regular basis. * What's the importance of the Internet in your career? Does having several songs in the MP3 charts makes a big difference? The importance of the Internet cannot be understated. It has not only strengthened my ties within Europe, it has allowed my music to be accessed in places I would just never had been able to reach. This very interview would otherwise would not have taken place, I'm sure of it! Having songs in the MP3.com charts has created a huge following mainly in the US. It has created new touring opportunities and new friends. * Stones and Colours, Headstrong... what's next, and when? Well I have 3 European Provogue releases including a live album "Live At The Twilight". I've released 5 CDs on MP3.com - "Compilation", "Gravy Booby", "Live In Denmark", "Noise In Belgie/Belga" & "Live - Raw In Germany". I have written my next album which will be recorded sometime in August/September and released early next year. I will be touring again shortly after the release. * Two guitars, bass and drums - do you have plans to make the band bigger or is this all you need to make good music? I don't think you need anymore, there are still plenty of ideas to explore with this setup! * What do you like to hear and who are the guys who influenced your music? Feel... I don't care how rough a band is - as long as they mean it and are honest with themselves, and that's any genre, blues, punk, anything!. I LOVE Jimi Hendrix & Angus Young, Hound Dog Taylor, B.B. King & Stevie Ray Vaughan. * What's the best blues record of all times? Album - Hound Dog Taylor - "Natural Boogie", that's as RAW as it gets...As a blues song, listen to Angus Young play lead in "The Jack", he's amazing and of course Hendrix with "Red House". * Do you really like to dress like Batman? (In reference to one of Rob's songs "I Like To Dress Like Batman") That song was written after checking out a particularly weird adult magazine...it was a laugh. I didn't intend to record it, but we rehearsed it just to put in the live set (a bit of humour)...and it ended up on the live album - the joke was on me...