Growing Up. My father was a professional bouzouki player – weddings, name days, that sort of thing – but he was dead against me going into the family trade. For my tenth birthday he gave me a set of golf clubs but I swapped them for a guitar. As teenagers, my pals and I formed The Triffids and hid out from Perth’s hot summer sun in a cellar, recording weekend albums on a cassette machine.
Inspirations. Tom Waits ruined my life. I heard him barking out front of the orchestra one night and two weeks later I’d bought a double bass and joined a Mexican jazz band.
Your Music. The Blackeyed Susans are moody romantics with an existential bent. Over the past 28 years we’ve toured the world, played with the likes of Johnny Cash and Leonard Cohen and released numerous albums of occasional beauty. Most of our contemporaries are dead or in prison. Our new album Close Your Eyes and See, is the culmination of our work together. It’s chock full of dreamy soundscapes, bruised ballads and sweeping stories that sound both classic and contemporary.
Your Show/Release. Join us at the Melbourne Winter Masterpieces exhibition, Van Gogh and the Seasons, for a special after-hours performance. See the exhibition and enjoy a bite to eat before our performance in the Great Hall. We’ll be playing selections from the new album as well as the best of our back catalogue.
