Steve Boyd reflects on his return to the stage and how life changed his relationship with music for the better, before he continues his comeback at Herb and Chilli Festival.
As Pascoe Vale Hotel’s beer garden soaks up the sun of a definitive summer’s day, Melbourne local legend Steve Boyd battles the late afternoon heat with a fedora, Hawaiian shirt and an ice-cold pint in a hand adorned with rings and tattoos of nautical symbols.
“I want to come back after a significant gap in time with something that I wasn’t going to be embarrassed about in terms of my age,” he says. “I wanted my music to feel exciting and cool, but you didn’t want to sound like an old fart trying to pretend they’re a younger pop star.”
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Steve and the Rum Reverie are currently preparing for the next step in a grand comeback, a set at Melbourne’s eleventh Herb and Chilli Festival on March 18 and 19, alongside Inka Marka and Garry and John. It’s going to be exactly the kind of wild reverie Steve suits best: spicy wing, tequila, hot sauce and shouting contests, Mexican wrestling, cook-offs and demos, a 20-stall food court and the region’s best alcohol. Tickets available here.
It’s exactly the kind of raucous fun Steve was hoping for when he returned to his storied musical career. Hailing from Scotland’s east coast city of Dundee with an upbringing of community discos, record collecting and an admiration for DIY music, singer songwriter Steve Boyd arrived in Melbourne in the ‘90s and fast-earned himself a secure spot within the city’s local music scene.
“In my early to mid-teens I started mucking around, writing little pieces, thinking up concepts and forming little garage bands with friends and so by the time I ended up in Australia, that grew and morphed into forming real bands and, you know, starting to play gigs with PA systems and things like that.”
Kicking off his musical career in Melbourne as the temporary singer/ guitarist for a Celtic-folk band, it was here that Steve Boyd and the Preachers came into action.
“While playing for them I decided to start writing some of my own songs in that folk-Celtic genre, so we released some independent stuff separate from the band which got quite popular to the point where I started introducing elements from artists like Tom Waits and Captain Beefheart. So it slowly took over from what was the original main project and transformed into what was Steve Boyd and The Preachers.”
As the century turned over, Boyd continued to morph his sound; stepping away from the classic American roots of The Preachers, a combination of old school soul-funk and gospel style brass with The Steve Boyd Revue.
“It was a very exciting time,” he says. “I had all the energy in the world for creating and performing music. I rehearsed and rehearsed and seemingly never tired out.”
The early 2000s saw Boyd enter a new chapter of his life; the artist’s creative streak was placed in an indefinite suspension as he plunged into the world of parenthood.
“I pretty much assumed I was never going to be a parent,” he says. “I had no driving ambition to become one, so my life changed all of a sudden and I realised that I actually need a steady income now. If you’re a full-time musician and you devote yourself significantly to drumming up gigs, networking, rehearsing and all of that, it’s a bit of a selfish existence. You can’t do that anymore when you become a parent.”
For the past 20 years, Boyd has been working within Vincentcare Victoria, running music and songwriting groups for members of our community who are struggling with poverty, mental health, addiction and homelessness.
“I ended up going back and studying a bit, getting myself a more reliable day job again. I gravitated towards social work just because of my inherent sense of social justice.”
As Steve worked closely with the marginalised members of the community, a newfound relationship with music began to take over.
“As I used music as a medium in terms of working and connecting with people who are struggling, my relationship with music began to naturally change as it became a different kind of tool,” he says. “It became therapeutic intervention for other people. It was a less selfish way or less ego driven way to utilise music.”
After spending almost a decade away from creating his own original music; Steve Boyd’s Rum Reverie came to action in the mid 2010s, releasing an initial EP in 2014 and their debut album in 2018.
“I felt that music stirring inside me again. I regained that sense of butterflies in my stomach and I was motivated. I stayed awake at night with excitement, thinking of ideas and concepts.”
Providing a brass-filled concoction of jazz, blues, soul, blues and New Orleans swagger, Steve Boyd’s Rum Reverie handpicks the best elements of all the musical influences from Steve’s career to create a mighty, animated sound that flows with awe-striking vigour, infectious confidence and a ridiculous amount of fun.
As our collective excitement builds for his long-awaited performance at the gig-savvy spice festival, Boyd adds: “I’m really excited to be playing there. It’s tough for a lot of gig-goers when they become parents and have really young kids. So I think Herb and Chilli Fest is providing a really lovely platform for those people as they get to be able to get out and still enjoy live music while the place has lots of kid friendly aspects for the young ones.”
The place to catch it all in the flesh is Yarra Valley’s Herb and Chilli Festival. It all goes down from 18-19 of March, grab tickets here.
This article was made in partnership with Herb and Chilli Festival.
