Hi there, who are we speaking to, and what do you do in Brother James?
This is Ted O’Neil here, I play some guitar and do some singing.
You’ve got a couple of members pulled in from various well known local bands. How did you all come together?
Myself and Fitzy (Michael Fitzgerald, who plays keys and sings) are both from The Vasco Era, Jackson Gray (drums) is from I Know the Chief, Paul Doery (bass and singing) is from The Exploders and John Waller (guitar) is from Rat & Co. We have all known each other for a long time, so we all get along really well. The different styles of our other bands have really helped us develop a unique sound.
The band’s taken a bit of time off to explore some new music, can you tell us about about some of the concepts that have gone into shaping these tunes?
Originally Brother James was Fitzy and myself, with the others coming on board towards the end of recording. The new tunes have taken on a different feel, as we all wrote together and have used our individual strengths to create a bigger sound. The ideas within each song vary – songs about mates, quasi political to personal well being. So logically there is a bit of variance in sounds throughout the new stuff.
You had a good hard slog at the festival scene near the end of 2015 – got any more shows like this on the horizon?
Kennedys Creek Music Festival – it is a boutique festival in South West Victoria, with the sort of feel that I imagine Meredith would have had 20 years ago. It’s on in October. We will be releasing some songs a little later this year, so there will definitely be more shows soon.
