“My old man said to me one day when I was a young fella, about nine, ‘You’re going to learn piano because when you’re too old and can’t play footy anymore you can still entertain people by playing music,’” quips AFL veteran Russell Robertson.
He played 229 games for the Melbourne Football Club, and now dabbling in music, Robertson is preparing for two shows at Prince Public Bar in June. They’re particularly special to Robertson because of the venue’s proud music history and its unassuming dive bar aesthetic, but also because they see him collaborating with Scott Wood – dilettante guitarist and producer for Black Cat.
In late 2016 the musical odd-couple came together because they both work at Melbourne Football Club – Wood as the business analyst and Robertson in Club Development as well as game-day engagement. It was actually due to Dallas Crane’s Dave Larkin, who held the position as graphic designer at the club until earlier this year, that Robertson began playing music with Wood.
“Dave mentioned that Scotty played music and I saw him on The Footy Show that time with Larko and I needed a guitarist for a gig so I called him and said, ‘let’s just get four or five songs we can play together’. So one lunchtime we ducked down to the old Melbourne change-rooms and it worked instantly.”
Wood was actually playing keyboard when he performed with Larkin on The Footy Show. Wood completed a Bachelor of Music from Monash University, and is a proficient multi-instrumentalist. The mind boggles somewhat when he describes his roles in Black Cat.
“That band is taking the concept of a DJ set based on soul, disco, funk and house music and converting it to a two-hour set of fully live improvised music. I mainly play guitar but I have a synth, an 808-drum machine and a 909-drum machine that I loop through a midi-clock that all goes into a proper analogue DJ mixer,” he explains. “Then we sync it and while that is playing I’ll start to layer the music through the looped lead lines I play on the guitar.”
Despite this acute instrumental acumen, Woods is enjoying playing music with Robertson because of his dynamic. “He is pretty much holding everything down through voice and guitar and he has great timing, he even plays some acoustic drum and then loops it through a pedal,” Wood says of his musical partner. “This means that my role is just to provide the mayo on top, through improvised electric guitar.”
Earlier this month, Robertson performed solo at Prince Public Bar, where his two 30-minute sets extended to around two hours and 45-minutes. The seasoned performer – who is regularly booked for corporate gigs and once partnered with Kate Ceberano in 2008 on TV singing competition It Takes Two – seems genuinely humbled as he explains why he provided the audience with an additional 105 minutes of music, or approximately 21 more songs.
“Number one: I love playing music and I was really feeding off the crowd. They were dancing and enjoying it and the other thing is that a lot of people don’t get out much – everyone’s busy and they don’t get a lot of time for themselves; you’re not just playing for yourself, you’re playing for them so you should read that,” Robertson explains.
Finally, Robertson expresses his desire to record original music with Wood. “I would love to. I would like to find my sound because it’s been a good ten years doing gigs of covers at corporate events and on TV. That’s another reason I love playing Prince of Wales, because I know a lot of great bands have gone in there to play their craft and the people that go there are so cool and open-minded.”
