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Last year saw the launch of a brand new venture between some of the international music scene’s leading minds in the form of Orbit DJ Retreats, which brought an immersive and holistic learning experience for DJ’s, producers and music industry enthusiasts to elevate their skills and knowledge to the next level.
After the huge success of its debut last year Orbit DJ Retreats return to the gorgeous setting of Fred’s Finca Ibiza, nestled in the centre of a stunning UNESCO protected national park near Salinas beach. This year Orbit DJ Retreats will present two five day experiences, with the first retreat running over the Ibiza openings period May 16th – 21st, and the second over Ibiza closings October 11th – 16th.
During the five day retreats, students will be mentored by a collection of the most successful and innovative names in electronic music and beyond whilst also having the opportunity to immerse themselves in wellness workshops. The programme will cover all the essentials to succeed in the music industry, including; using DJ equipment at the highest level of performance, mastering production and software skills, marketing, social media and branding, business and career development, plus workshops and classes focused on health, meditation and wellbeing.
DJ, Producer and Orbit Co-Founder Doorly will be joined by mentors such as promoter and music industry legend Rob Da Bank; Moonharbour’s Hauswerks; Drumcode DJj and producer Juliet Fox; Pioneer DJ’s Mo Funk, GAWP from Dirtybird Recordings, Ableton’s Mark Burnett, Davina Moss from Hot Creations, Data Transmission founder Grahame Farmer & many more.
Doorly, Orbit co-founder says: ‘After Last Summer’s retreat the Orbit team and I have been over the moon with the response from our students and the success stories that we’re already having with our alumni. Many signing to their favourite record labels, and playing dream gigs. I’ve even signed a few to my own label which was a nice bonus, to find such amazing un-tapped talent like this is a really special thing. Watching their success invigorates us, and that’s what this is all about!’ So we’re extremely excited to launch 2 dates for this summer in Ibiza in May and October for the opening and closing of the season. As last year we will be giving a free scholarship to one very talented applicant and one free spot to the winner of a remix competition which we will be launching soon. We will also continue to build on our ethos of being more than just a DJ and production retreat focussing heavily on well being, physically and mentally to prepare our Students for Long, Prosperous and Positive careers in Music with a full team in place to support them along the way from every angle.’
Mentor Testimonials
Matt (Gorgon City)
“The retreat was an amazing week for teaching and learning for me. I met some amazing people and made some friendships for life! The attention and time that the students get is really good and the setting is beautiful. I even signed some tracks to our record label. If you want to improve your skills or just meet some great people – orbit DJ retreats is the place!”
Rob da Bank (Sleep Retreat)
“Orbit in Ibiza was such an incredible event. To be part of that process of watching DJs learning, helping each other and working so hard but healthily was a joy to see and to host my own Sleep Retreat wellness platform there was the icing on the cake”
Sam Beck (RÜFÜS DU SOL & Flight Facilities artist manager – Leisurely)
“Orbit and my time in Ibiza was incredible. To play a small part of the retreat was such an honour to say the least. The retreat was a great place to learn every facet of the industry, direct from the people living and breathing music. Chatting with all the attendees and mentors, I got the sense this was something really special. If you have the chance, make the time and get to Orbit Retreats.”
Oliver Portamento, (GAWP / Logic Pro)
“The Orbit retreat in Ibiza was one of the most influential environments I’ve ever been to. What a place share my musical knowledge and experience, Everyone came from all corners of the globe to enhance their careers and skill sets by some of the industry’s leading mentors and I can honestly say… one week at the Orbit retreat created more than just an educational week, it also created a musical family, with great futures ahead.”
Orbit DJ Retreats will offer a fresh approach to learning the skills it takes to be successful in the music industry, with a focus on developing core attributes of students to build and maintain a long, healthy and successful career. Orbit will offer not only a comprehensive technical programme but also universal experience and knowledge of maintaining a healthy lifestyle in the music industry.
Teaming up with the mental health awareness campaign We Are Hummingbird, co-founder and trainer; Ian Hurst will deliver workshops, information and advice throughout the retreat and beyond to help students on their journey through the often challenging landscape of the electronic music world.
The 5 day immersive learning retreat including accommodation at the Orbit Finca starts at £1799 per person. For more information on Orbit DJ Retreats please visit: www.orbitdjretreats.com
CAMILLE HENROT: PLAY YOUR PART
22 May 2020 – 4 Oct 2020, 10am – 5pm | Free entry | NGV International
Camille Henrot, the French-born, New York City-based contemporary artist, will be celebrated in an Australian-first survey of works that take a playful and inventive approach to addressing existential questions, in May 2020.
The exhibition will feature recent watercolours that explore aspects of human psychology, and the artist’s Interphones series of telephone sculptures that playfully draw attention to our relationship to authority and technology. In these interactive works, Henrot invites visitors to pick up a customised telephone and respond to prompts such as ‘Would you ever have sex at work? Is Google right about you? Are you gluten-free? Press control for yes. Enter for no.’
Featuring key works created by the artist over the past decade, Camille Henrot: Play Your Part will include the immersive room-scale installation The Pale Fox 2014, a companion piece to Henrot’s award-winning film Grosse Fatigue 2013, for which she won the Silver Lion at the 55th Venice Biennale. Grosse Fatigue attempted to tell the story of the universe whereas The Pale Fox is a meditation on our shared desire to understand the world intimately through the objects that surround us. Characterised by what Henrot has called a ‘cataloguing psychosis’, this vast installation features en masse more than 500 objects encompassing photographs, sculptures, books and drawings, including objects made by the artist as well as collected via eBay.
1 May – 25 October 2020, 10am – 5pm | Free entry | The Ian Potter Centre: NGV Australia
Ivan Durrant, a leading exponent of photorealism, and natural raconteur, will be celebrated in a major survey paying tribute to five decades of his extraordinarily diverse career since the 1970s, at The Ian Potter Centre: NGV Australia from 1 May 2020.
Ivan Durrant: Barrier Draw is the most comprehensive survey of Durrant’s work to date. Featuring over 100 multi-disciplinary works from the Melbourne-born artist, the exhibition will also unveil a new larger-than-life sculpture inspired by his controversial back catalogue. Drawn extensively from Durrant’s personal collection, the exhibition also includes major works from public and private collections from across Australia.
‘A prolific artist and provocateur, Ivan Durrant has created one of the most audacious bodies of work in Australian art,’ said Tony Ellwood AM, Director, NGV. ‘With his work first exhibited at the NGV in 1979, we’re delighted to welcome Ivan back to pay tribute to his extensive career and provide a platform to unveil an unmissable new work.’
The exhibition chronicles the evolution of Durrant’s diverse career, including his earliest folk paintings depicting an idyllic childhood in the countryside, which were a sharp contrast to his own experiences having grown up in an orphanage; his realist paintings, short films and sculptures of the 1970s and 80s, including his race track and movie star series; politically motivated installation works including Butcher Shop 1977/78, held in the NGV Collection; and more recent evocative ‘soft-focus’ paintings of the 1990s and 2000s.
PLANS FOR THE PLANET: OLAF BREUNING FOR KIDS
29 May 2020 – 4 October 2020, 10am – 5pm | Free entry | NGV International
Contemporary artist Olaf Breuning presents a large-scale participatory exhibition for children that plays to young people’s universal love of adventure and theme parks while referencing Breuning’s thoughts about life. Drawing from popular culture and inspired by the artist’s love of video games and movies from his youth such as Jurassic Park, the exhibition is an adventure of self-discovery.
WE CHANGE THE WORLD
8 May 2020 – April 2021, 10am – 5pm | Free entry | The Ian Potter Centre: NGV Australia
Tackling global issues including climate, tolerance and social change, today’s children and young people are arguably the leading activists of our time, urging the world to think about how our actions are influencing our future.
We Change the World takes the positive influence of this generation on shaping our worldview and, through the work of contemporary artists and designers, explores how creativity and expression is important at personal, community and global levels.
The exhibition encourages all visitors, and especially school students and young people, to engage with the work of prominent Australian and international artists from the NGV Collection who focus on some of the big issues of today as well as celebrating everyday life.
We Change the World highlights the contribution of creative minds and challenges us to consider our own potential for change, empowering young people, but also those of all ages, with the permission to be creative, speak up or speak differently.
![King Krule today releases ‘Alone, Omen 3’, the second single from his forthcoming album Man Alive! out Friday 21 February via XL Recordings / Remote Control Records. The track comes with a video directed by Archy Marshall’s close friend Jocelyn Anquetil and was co-written by the artist and director. Featuring Archy surrounded by his friends, band mates and collaborators, the video backs up the message that “you’re not alone”. “I felt like I had gotten out of a dark place, and I was on a high. I appreciated the depression… but I also liked how I felt better in the here and now”. Archy Ivan Marshall has the world at his feet. After two feverishly received albums as King Krule, plus another low-key outing under his own name, this extraordinarily gifted 25-year-old from Peckham in South London adds further depth and substance to his oeuvre with another wondrous long-player called Man Alive!. It arrives packed full of his trademark sonic ambition and compositional skill, as well as the now-familiar corrosive lyricism and lurid social observation. Marshall has emerged as a pack leader amongst his peers, leading the charge in a fearless blurring of genre divisions, one minute seeming to drag the listener through the trashiest punk experience, the next ushering in a soundworld that’s apparently hi-tech and forward-looking. Like any great artist on the rise, Archy’s life is moving fast. There’s a lot to catch up on, after 2017’s sprawling masterpiece, The Ooz, broke through amid Mercury Prize nominations and minds-blown media plaudits. Unlike that record, Man Alive! doesn’t aim to present any kind of narrative thread, or Brexit-era state-of-the-nation address, just a collection of snapshots and stories, artfully sequenced into a dazzlingly coherent whole. This third King Krule album was written as a direct reaction to the non-stop energy of touring The Ooz, and then partly recorded at Shrunken Heads in Marshall’s native stamping ground of Nunhead, with ‘Ooz’ co-producer Dilip Harris. Midway through those sessions, however, Archy found out he was going to become a dad for the first time, and he decided to move up to the North West to be near the mother’s family, ready for the baby’s arrival. “I should’ve had it all wrapped up before my daughter was born,” says Marshall today with a sheepish grin. Impending parenthood came at a felicitous moment for him, as he was beginning to feel trapped in South London’s suburban lifestyle of all-eclipsing drunkenness and depression, which existing fans will know was a recurring theme in his earlier music. “It was just the easiness of it,” he reflects today. “There really is nothing else to do here, especially when it turns to winter. Everyone I know has jobs, whereas I’d sit on my arse all day sometimes not doing anything, then I’d go to the pub with them when they finished work. It became a bit habitual. Then, right in the middle of the record, this big change came in my life that I didn't really comprehend initially. It was like, ‘Oh, I’d better get my shit together!’ To be honest, I was really glad to get away from all that so I could focus on more pressing matters – like keeping a child alive and stuff.” The new album’s title, he explains, “is an exclamation, about the times we live in. Like, ‘Fucking hell, man!’” He stole the title from a CD that his uncle gave him back in 2013 with some of his uncle’s own music on it, and originally planned to use it for his last album. “More and more,” he explains, “I've been put off by the intention of speaking about what's going on in society as a black-and-white thing, or trying to get to the bottom of why we’re in this position. So the album is mostly made up of snapshots and observations. There are a lot of real-time-and-place moments, songs talking about walking through the park just over there and getting a head injury [don’t ask! – Ed.], then there are other tracks which are just simplicity, looking at one particular situation and reflecting on it as somehow being super-profound.” Just as the lyrics are diverse in theme and purpose, so is the music: ‘Comet Face’ lopes along with irresistible unease like a wonky New Wave hit, and ‘Stoned Again’ packs all the inspired beatmongery of ’90s hip hop, while much of the record’s sparser second half recalls the lo-fi intimacy of Robert Wyatt’s ’80s solo work, or indeed the recordings of mass-murderer Charles Manson. As the concluding ‘Please Complete Thee’ sails out on upliftingly twangsome slide guitar, you’d be forgiven for imagining that some of the more agonizing preceding numbers have served as a kind of therapy for their creator. “Oh yeah,” he freely admits, “once you’re able to discuss things and talk honestly, there is no better way than just shouting it out at a bunch of people. I was always empowered by lyricism and getting my aggression out in some way, or any kind of emotion. That has always been a process for me. This time I felt like I had gotten out of a dark place, and I was on a high. I appreciated the depression, and the low times I’d been through, but I also liked how I felt better in the here and now. So it was about reaching that new plateau.” King Krule - Man Alive! 1. Cellular 2. Supermarché 3. Stoned Again 4. Comet Face 5. The Dream 6. Perfecto Miserable 7. Alone, Omen 3 8. Slinky 9. Airport Antenatal Airplane 10. (Don't Let The Dragon) Draag On 11. Theme For The Cross 12. Underclass 13. Energy Fleets 14. Please Complete Thee King Krule - Man Alive! is out Friday 21 February via XL Recordings / Remote Control. xlrecordings.com remotecontrolrecords.com.au](https://thepartae.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/KING-KRULE-1170x658.jpg "KING KRULE")
King Krule today releases ‘Alone, Omen 3’, the second single from his forthcoming album Man Alive! out Friday 21 February via XL Recordings / Remote Control Records. The track comes with a video directed by Archy Marshall’s close friend Jocelyn Anquetil and was co-written by the artist and director.
Featuring Archy surrounded by his friends, band mates and collaborators, the video backs up the message that “you’re not alone”.
“I felt like I had gotten out of a dark place, and I was on a high. I appreciated the depression… but I also liked how I felt better in the here and now”.
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Image: Wyatt Clough
With their new album A Beautiful Place To Drown due to drop in a month, Silverstein are lifting the lid on the record’s blistering opener ‘Bad Habits’ alongside a stunning music video today.
Guitarist Paul Marc Rousseau explains the song’s themes saying: “This record largely deals with the feeling of defeat that can come from trying to overcome your demons, but ‘Bad Habits’ turns that upside down. It’s resigned rather than aspirational. ‘Bad Habits’ is a banger that takes place in that sliver of daylight between recognition and regret. After action, but before reaction. For these three minutes, we’re embracing the devil on our collective shoulder.”
Vocalist Shane Told adds, “When we finished putting together ‘Bad Habits’ I knew it was going to be a fan favourite. This song is action packed and just plain fun. It’s a rush of adrenaline and then Aaron (Intervals) comes in shredding and just puts it over the top.”
‘Bad Habits’ highlights Silverstein’s signature blend of aggression and melody, and includes a mind-melting guitar solo from Intervals’ Aaron Marshall. The contribution on ‘Bad Habits‘ is one of the many stellar guest spots on the album, with appearances from Underoath’s Aaron Gillespie, Beartooth’s Caleb Shomo, Simple Plan’s Pierre Bouvier, and perhaps most surprisingly, hip hop fireband Princess Nokia all indicating the band’s wide-reaching impact and their ability to reach listeners in all worlds of music.
Consistently active, influential, and crowd-pleasing in the post-hardcore space, Silverstein have cemented their status as career legends over the past two decades.
On their ninth studio album, the Ontario-based five-piece explore the mental duress that seems to be inextricable from the personal and societal challenges of modern life, often focusing on external perspectives and even political elements without losing the band’s trademark intimacy.
The release comes as part of the Silverstein’s 20th Anniversary celebrations this year, including a worldwide touring schedule with over 40 dates slated throughout the UK, Europe, Asia and North America. The band will be pulling out all the stops to honour their entire catalogue in the live setting, performing three sets at each show: their seminal 2005 full-length, Discovering The Waterfront, in full, a stripped-down acoustic section, and a careering-spanning batch of fan favourites. Full itinerary and tickets HERE.
A Beautiful Place To Drown is out Friday March 6 via UNFD.
TRACK LIST:
1. Bad Habits ft. Intervals
2. Burn It Down ft. Caleb Shomo
3. Where Are You
4. Infinite ft. Aaron Gillespie
5. Shape Shift
6. All On Me
7. Madness ft. Princess Nokia
8. Say Yes
9. Stop
10. September 14th
11. Coming Down
12. Take What You Give ft. Pierre Bouvier
facebook.com/silversteinmusic
unfdcentral.com
![TRIPLE J PRESENTS THIS SELFISH LOVE TOUR Thursday, April 30 - The Tivoli, Brisbane QLD [18+] Friday, May 1 - Metro Theatre, Sydney NSW [18+] Saturday, May 2 - Odeon Theatre, Hobart TAS [Lic/AA] Thursday May 7 - Freo.Social, Fremantle WA [18+] Friday May 8 - UniBar, Adelaide SA [Lic/AA] Saturday May 9 - The Forum, Melbourne VIC [18+] Supported by - Drug Church (USA), Moaning Lisa (AUS), Kat Edwards (AUS) GENERAL ON-SALE Monday, February 10 at 9:00AM AEDT at lucabrasi.com.au For more information on Luca Brasi, visit: WEBSITE | FACEBOOK | TWITTER | INSTAGRAM](https://thepartae.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/LUCA-BRASI.jpg "LUCA BRASI")
Luca Brasi have released their new single This Selfish Love, out today via Cooking Vinyl Australia.
From Vocalist Tyler Richardson- “This tune is a bit of a deep dive into watching life unfold in front of you. Sometimes I look back and wonder what the hell happened, then get all nostalgic, then realise all that stuff doesn’t matter. What really matters is right now, hold onto that.”
To celebrate the release of their new track, Tasmania’s finest will hit the mainland for their first capital city headline tour in over 12 months!
The vibe at these shows will be huge, with a massive line-up of international and local artists put together by Luca Brasi. Making their highly anticipated first trip to Australia is New York’s Drug Church, plus Canberra’s Moaning Lisa and fellow Taswegian Kat Edwards.
TRIPLE J PRESENTS
THIS SELFISH LOVE TOUR
Thursday, April 30 – The Tivoli, Brisbane QLD [18+]
Friday, May 1 – Metro Theatre, Sydney NSW [18+]
Saturday, May 2 – Odeon Theatre, Hobart TAS [Lic/AA]
Thursday May 7 – Freo.Social, Fremantle WA [18+]
Friday May 8 – UniBar, Adelaide SA [Lic/AA]
Saturday May 9 – The Forum, Melbourne VIC [18+]
Supported by – Drug Church (USA), Moaning Lisa (AUS), Kat Edwards (AUS)
GENERAL ON-SALE
Monday, February 10 at 9:00AM AEDT at lucabrasi.
For more information on Luca Brasi, visit:
WEBSITE | FACEBOOK | TWITTER | INSTAGRAM
Under the Southern Stars are thrilled to announce their spectacular Rock Carnival Festival Series coming to you this April 2020.
Playing together for the first time in Australia will be
+LIVE+, BUSH and STONE TEMPLE PILOTS!
Celebrating 25 years since the release of their iconic Throwing Copper album, +LIVE+ are one of the most beloved rock bands ever to tour the nation. During their career, +LIVE+ have achieved seven Top 5 albums in Australia, three of which topped the charts at #1 for a total of ten weeks!
They have had a string of top 40 singles and Throwing Copper spent over two years in the Australian top 50 between 1994 and 1997. It has been certified 8 times platinum and was also the 8th highest selling album in Australia in 95/96.
+LIVE+ reunited with original frontman Ed Kowalczyk in 2017 and have been blowing audiences away with their power ever since. From the rocking All Over You and I Alone to the glorious emotion of The Dolphin’s Cry and Lightning Crashes, +LIVE+ are playing with a vengeance and a vigor that reveals the band in top form and better than ever!
BUSH have been a mainstay on Australian radios since the release of their debut album Sixteen Stone in 1994.
The album was an instant smash spending 43 weeks in the Australian Top 50, peaking at #5. Glycerine, Everything Zen and Comedown are in the DNA of Aussie rock fans and are played daily on the airwaves to this day.
While the 90’s belonged to BUSH, they were on hiatus between 2001 and 2011 when they returned with The Sea Of Memories featuring The Sound Of Winter which made rock radio history in the US becoming the first self released song to ever hit #1 at Alternative Rock Radio!
In 2019, BUSH came roaring back with the track Bullet Holes which is featured as the end title on the soundtrack to this summer’s Hollywood blockbuster John Wick 3 Parabellum.
If you haven’t seen Gavin Rossdale in the killer video for Bullet Holes, check it out here!
One of the biggest rock acts of the 1990’s with over 50 million albums sold, Stone Temple Pilots broke out of the scene they helped to define into bonafide superstars. From their breakout debut album, Core, with legendary hits, Sex Type Thing, Creep, and Plush to Purple’s soaring Interstate Love Song and Big Empty and the late 90’s smash singles Big Bang Baby and Sour Girl, STP songs are the soundtrack of a generation.
This year marks the 25th anniversary of STP’s Purple, one of the world’s top selling-albums in the 90s, that reached #1 on the Australian chart. In celebration, the band is releasing a super deluxe edition of the iconic album, featuring unreleased versions of album tracks and rarities, along with an unreleased full concert recording from 1994.
Stone Temple Pilots are reborn and writing the next chapter of their storied career, with their seventh studio album, Stone Temple Pilots (2018), their first with new lead singer, Jeff Gutt.
What more can be said about one of Australia’s longest running and most cherished rock acts? Rose Tattoo need no introduction but just in case you need a refresher, one of the pillars of Australia’s distinct pub rock sound have been spreading their message across the world for nearly 50 years! The Rock n Roll Outlaws, led by the one and only Angry Anderson, who at 72 years of age continues to show frontmen a quarter of his age, just how it’s done, will pull no punches as they deliver a set full of classics. You know the words, you know the drill…
Prepare to be Scarred For Life.
Armed with their latest slab of pure rock n roll, Mother, Melbourne’s legendary hard rockers, Electric Mary, will get the crowds primed for the evening ahead. Over their decade long career, Electric Mary have shared the world’s stages with some of the most revered names in hard rock including Whitesnake, Judas Priest, Deep Purple, Kiss, Alice Cooper, Motorhead, Def Leppard and many more, Their explosive brain-bending live performances at home and abroad are regarded as one of, if not the best live shows anywhere!.
While we can talk facts and figures all day, the fact remains, you know the bands, you love the songs. Under The Southern Stars gives you the opportunity to experience the greatest hits from some of the worlds’ greatest bands all in the one day and night of incredible rock and roll!
THE UNDER THE SOUTHERN STARS VILLAGE
More Than Just Music
Under The Southern Stars will deliver more than great music alone with the introduction in April 2020 of..
The Under The Southern Stars Village
The one day festival will truly be a day and night to remember with a host of fantastic installations and activities planned. From Carnival Rides, Market Stalls selling everything from vintage clothes, music and lifestyle products to fantastic food vendors (varying from venue to venue), UTSS will be one awesome day and night out!
UNDER THE SOUTHERN STARS 2020
Friday, April 3: Peter Barclay Field, Tuncurry NSW
Saturday, April 4: The Crescent, Parramatta Park, NSW
Sunday, April 5: The Entertainment Grounds, Gosford NSW
Thursday, April 9: Stuart Park, Wollongong NSW
Saturday, April 11: Hastings Foreshore Reserve, Mornington VIC
Sunday, April 12: Showgrounds, Yarrawonga VIC
Monday, April 13: Bonython Park, Adelaide SA
Wednesday, April 15: HBF Stadium, Perth WA – Not a UTSS Festival Date
Friday, April 17: Sunshine Coast Stadium, Sunshine Coast QLD
Saturday, April 18: Riverstage, Brisbane QLD
Sunday, April 19: Foreshore Park, Newcastle NSW
Strictly Limited VIP Tickets will be available for all shows (excluding Perth)
VIP Tickets include:
VIP Lanyard& Fast track Entry in the event,
Dedicated VIP Bar, Grazing table & VIP Toilets
PRE SALE TICKETS
Thursday, September 5 to Sunday, September 8
PUBLIC ONSALE
Monday, September 9
Tickets for all events available from:
www.underthesouthernstars.com.au
*Transaction fees, processing fees and other charges may apply.
Each show will see Live, Bush and STP alternate their playing order.
Set times will be advised closer to the events.
IMPORTANT INFORMATION
This is a fully licensed 18+ event
Strictly no BYO alcohol
This is an outdoor concert, the show will go ahead rain, hail or shine
No chairs, tables, tents or sun shelters are permitted
No umbrellas (even if it is raining) bring good quality poncho’s/raincoats and gumboots instead
See our website for complete list of permitted & prohibited items
Get social:
#UTSS2020
www.facebook.com/utssconcerts
www.instagram.com/utssconcerts
www.facebook.com/freaks4LIVE
www.facebook.com/BUSHOfficial
www.facebook.com/stpband
Tour Dates
Friday 6 March: The Imperial Hotel, Sydney
Fri 6 March – Mon 9 March: Pitch Music & Arts Festival, Moyston
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Made up of Rachel Matkin, Barry Mathers, and Jim Ryan – Dirt Road Opera come from an esteemed musical background. Rachel got her professional start singing with The Matkin Family Band at the tender age of eight and was nominated for a Juno award in the category of Country Female Vocalist of the year just a few years later on the strength of her solo debut album, Living Beyond Our Dreams.
Barry, who many know from the Juno-nominated Cruzeros, is a veteran of the Canadian music scene who has been recognized with many awards for his singing, songwriting and instrumental talents. Jim has played with Mathers for ten years in the Cruzeros, along with Rachel. He’s played with the who’s who in the world of music. While each has their own style, sensibility and depth of expression they bring to the music, it’s perhaps together that they shine brightest, as audiences have come to appreciate.
https://www.facebook.com/DirtRoadOpera/
https://twitter.com/dirtroadopera
https://www.instagram.com/dirt_road_opera/
https://www.youtube.com/c/DirtRoadOpera
What’s your name and role within the band?
My names Ben and I’m the bass player for Ava Kaydo. I also played drums for the recording of our debut single ‘Lucid’.
Where are you currently based and what is the music scene like there?
We are currently based in Yeppoon/Rockhampton of Central Queensland. The music scene in this area is fairly lacking, with only a few original bands out and about. Being a rural area, cover bands are much more prominent.
What’s been happening recently?
Well we’ve just released our first ever single which feels so relieving. We’ve been holding onto this one for a few years now, and after recording it we could finally show everyone what we’ve been working on.
Your first single ‘Lucid’ has just been released, what influenced the sound and songwriting?
The sound itself was just naturally inspired by our influences I suppose. At the time we had Ocean Alley’s album ‘Chiaroscuro’ on heavy rotation, and we were also taking notes from DMA’s newest material. But the song was pure improv and wasn’t really methodically written.
How did you go about writing Lucid?
The process for writing ‘Lucid’ was very natural and spontaneous. It was one of those songs that came out of thin air. Sparked by an overwhelming moment of creativity, Jeremy our guitarist just started playing the main riff of the song and we just all started joining in. Within a matter of minutes the meat of the song was there and we we’re stoked with it. Maddy, our singer, layered her spacey vocals over the top and that was that.
The lyrics we’re written after Maddy had a bad sleep paralysis experience. Using the concept of ‘Lucid’ dreaming, Maddy used the words to turn the song into a positive retelling of what happened. A sort of therapy I suppose.
Where and when did you record/produce and who with?
We recorded the track on October of 2019 in Brisbane. We worked with Paradox Audio Productions; a studio based out of our friend’s house. Blake and Rob really worked well with us and understood our vision. It really opened our eyes to how fun the recording process can be.
What programs/instruments did you use?
We used guitar, bass, drums and vocals. And for programs we used the ol’ trusty pro tools.
Being from a rural area ‘Yeppoon’ what challenges do you face as a band?
It’s hard to make connections with the industry, and we often need to travel to record and play gigs. It’s why we believe there needs to be more attention given to original live music in rural communities in towns such as Yeppoon. The live music community in our area has definitely improved over the last couple of years. However, the biggest challenge is definitely the isolation from the music industry.
What do you like to do away from music?
If we aren’t playing music, we are usually listening to it over a couple of margaritas.
Who are you listening to at the moment?
We are massive DMA’s fans and they are always playing when we are hanging out together. I myself have been obsessed with Pond’s ‘Hobo Rocket’ album recently. I’m also loving local Brisbane band Sunbather’s debut song ‘Softly Spoken’. It’s been on repeat for the last few days.
What’s planned for 2020?
2020 is the year we get our shit together. With our first single out, we’re looking towards an EP in the near future. So, keep an eye out for new music.
Favourite food and place to hangout?
We have a cheeky obsession with KFC. When we have a break from band practise it is usually our ritual to get ‘The Colonel’ for lunch. Favourite place to hang out is the beach.
Facebook | @avakaydoband
Instagram | @avakaydoband
Twitter | @avakaydoband
Soundcloud | @avakaydoband