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Neil Peart, Rush Drummer Who Set a New Standard for Rock Virtuosity, Dead at 67 0

HARTS IS ULTRA EXCITED 0

Our recent interview with singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, composer and producer Harts could be summarised as a tale of two Fender Strats. One of them is a guitar he uses in his Harts Plays Hendrix show. It’s an upside down left-handed Strat, strung for a right-hander, a mirror image of the guitar that Jimi Hendrix played. The other is the new American Ultra Strat, which Fender has bestowed upon him due to his role as an ambassador for the model. The American Ultra Strat is one of the most comfortable guitars Harts has ever played. Conversely, the Hendrix show Strat is quite challenging to play. Harts reveals why in our chat about the upcoming Harts Plays Hendrix tour in 2020, his role as ambassador for the American Ultra Strat and the many other projects he’s been working on. By Greg Phillips

Harts at Howler 2018 by Jason Rosewarne

In 2020 Darren Hart, aka Harts will embark on a national tour presenting his new show Harts Plays Hendrix. The show consists of a carefully curated set list from Jimi’s entire catalogue, performed live by Harts in a powerful three-piece band experience, with guest appearances by some of Australia’s most beloved musicians. A Hendrix tribute show is certainly nothing new, many have attempted the difficult task but for Harts the idea came about due to the persistent requests from his fans.
“The idea came from the fans,” he tells me. “At the end of a Harts show I would always throw in a cover and a lot of the time it was a Hendrix song. People were like, oh it would be awesome to see you play a whole gig of that, so it was always in the back of my mind. I thought that’s a pretty cool idea, I want to do that at some point. Then I had little moments of opportunities like at Blues On Broadbeach. A couple of years ago they did a Hendrix tribute and I came out to do one song for that. So there were a few little opportunities like that I had been part of and thought it was good timing to do it for 2020. I was talking with my friend at the Hendrix estate and basically I said to them, is that something you think I should do or how do you think it’s a good idea and they were very supportive about it. It was a long process. We were talking about it for 2 or 3 years in the background. We did one Melbourne show to gauge the response to see if there was a market or demand because we didn’t know if there was. Tickets are going well so far, so it’s proven there is a market for it.”

Harts was introduced to the music of Jimi Hendrix through first hearing Buddy Guy. Buddy was his first taste of the blues and led the young guitarist down the rabbit hole of exploring other great blues performers including Hendrix. It wasn’t so much Jimi’s tone or even songs that appealed most to Harts, it was the sense of freedom with which he played that really inspired him. “It felt like there wasn’t the same restrictions or rules with him as I’d seen with other people and I didn’t understand why,” Harts says. “I didn’t really get it because you felt like everybody was improvising and playing what was in their heart and their soul but there was something about Hendrix that felt more fearless in his playing … It’s really hard to articulate but I think it was just a fearlessness and freedom that he had when he played that was really inspiring to everybody. It was like this guy was on another level, not just because of his skill but he was not afraid to go places that no one had been before and take the guitar into a whole other realm.”

For the upcoming Harts Plays Hendrix tour, Darren is more focused on displaying the Hendrix spirit as opposed to precisely matching Jimi’s guitar tones. While there are some must-haves for his pedalboard, it’s not the deal breaker for him. “I am not trying not to make it an impersonation in any way and that was something I was very conscious about from the start,” he explains. “Definitely I want to send some cues like the upside down Strat and with the guitar tone, there are some things that you just have to have like that Octavia type of fuzz, the high octave fuzz on a lot of things. I am definitely going to recreate some of those sounds within the songs but I still want to open it up to a modern sound. Back then they weren’t using big PAs and big drum sounds, so we wanted to make it like a modern rock show with the kick drum hitting you in the chest and tie that gap between a normal Harts show and the Hendrix thing. So using the Hendrix sounds but putting them through a modern filter I guess.”

Playing the upside down Strat has been quite a learning curve for Harts. It’s strung for a right hand player so that’s not an issue, it’s more about the body being upside down and the guitar’s protruding horn (which would normally be on top) making it difficult to access frets. “What I didn’t realise was that because of the Strat’s cut out style, you can’t access above the 14th or 15th fret and I never realised that, something I just overlooked. That took a bit of getting used to, just to access those high frets. You have to bend your hand in a really awkward way and it hurts a little bit. I got used to it but also the tone and volume knobs are constantly getting knocked by your strumming hand because they are on top. I always found I was rolling back my tone and volume. Half way through a song my knobs were almost off, so it was a challenge to play without hitting those knobs. I think I have to figure a way to glue them in place temporarily. It’s really hard when you are trying to go in and turn everything up to ten and get that feedback but then you realise your volume is on 3! It happened to me at Caloundra. I have to figure a way around that. I don’t know how he did it, bent his wrist a little bit more or something. I actually have to go back and watch some stuff and figure out why he wasn’t hitting his knobs all the time … maybe he was!”

As alluded to in this interview’s intro, the polar opposite to that guitar from a playing comfort perspective is the new Fender American Ultra Strat, which Harts has become an ambassador for. In fact, with it’s rolled edges and D shape neck, straight out of the box the Ultra Strat felt instantly comfortable in Harts’ hands.
“Usually when I pick up a new guitar for the first time, it does take a while to get used to because I come from using cheaper guitars like the Squier … so whenever I upgrade to a really good guitar, it does feel different. When I picked up the Ultra, the differences weren’t there straight away. There’s a video that I hope Fender is going to bring out which are my reactions from the first time I played it. It was genuine, it just felt really good straight away and I didn’t understand why because they didn’t tell me anything about the neck shape or anything. I wasn’t used to the trem system but everything else felt so familiar, especially the neck profile and they had it strung with 9 gauge strings, so it felt just right for me. Everything felt great straight out of the box.”

Harts loved the sculpted neck heel too, which is major feature of the Ultra series guitars …
“That’s something that I never had on a guitar before,” he says. “I was used to the big, old-school heel joint. I didn’t know it was such an improvement. Access to the higher frets becomes so seamless but it is something that I hadn’t thought of. The contour on the neck changes too … the radius as you go up, so it’s little things like that which I have never felt on a guitar before. That’s why I didn’t feel that rigidness going up the neck anymore. The main thing that I really love about it though is the S1 switch. I have a Squier Strat, not one I play on stage but I had it modified to have that mod in it, so I could hit a switch and add the neck to the bridge, add the neck to all three in the configuration. I was already doing that and didn’t think Fender would actually add that to a line of guitars. I really like that because there is a specific configuration for funk music that sounds amazing and it is basically all three together, it’s in between the bridge and middle position and then you press the S1 switch to activate the neck and it feels great for funk.”

While Harts has been relatively quiet on social media lately, he’s been extremely busy in the studio with a wide range of projects, many of which he’s not in a position to announce just yet. What we do know however is that he is responsible for the music theme to the upcoming 2020 Cricket World Cup.
“They reached out to a bunch of artists to work on the song and they picked me to do it. It will be used in all of their advertising campaigns throughout 2020. That was a big project to be part of and something I really enjoyed because I am into cricket as well. I’ve also been working really hard producing some records at the moment, a lot of local up and coming musicians. I always wanted to give back and help other artists achieve what they are trying to do. I have been delving into that world. I am producing a rock album for a friend, an EP and some other things for other artists which I can’t really say anything about until it lands a placement. A lot of hip hop stuff, working with a lot of rappers. So I’ve been really busy in the studio. I have been quiet on social media because like the Fender Ultra thing, a lot of things are yet to be announced. I think once 2020 rolls around and things are announced, it will all start to make more sense. I have also been doing a little bit of modelling for David Jones, a bit of their campaign and trying to get into acting, doing a lot of different activities which are not all music related. It’s actually really good because there was a time when I was getting a little confused about where I was heading. I didn’t want to do rock or guitar-based music forever and I didn’t know how to do that without being Harts, so there was a lot time just trying to figure out a direction because I had achieved what I wanted to very early. It was great, a blessing but it left me a bit stumped for a while. A lot of this year was planning the next five years and how am I going to get there and just being open to opportunities that come along and saying yes to things and being more involved in the music community as a whole. So a lot of that thinking and decisions are leading to the things that are being announced now and into next year. Had I not been open to new ideas these things wouldn’t have happened and who knows what I’d be doing? I’d probably be doing another Harts album but reluctantly so, just because I didn’t have anything else on the table. I am just happy to go wherever the road’s leading. At the moment there are a lot of things going on and in the next months things will reveal themselves and this conversation won’t sound as vague as it does now!”

For more info on the American Ultra Series, visit Fender HERE

HARTS PLAYS HENDRIX DATES

6 MARCH THE GOV ADELAIDE, SA
7 MARCH PALMS AT CROWN MELBOURNE, VIC
27 MARCH ANITA’S THEATRE WOLLONGONG, NSW
28 MARCH ENMORE THEATRE SYDNEY, NSW
3 APRIL THE TIVOLI BRISBANE, QLD
29 MAY TWIN TOWNS TWEED HEADS, NSW
30 MAY EVENTS CENTRE CALOUNDRA, QLD
5 JUNE ASTOR THEATRE PERTH, WA
6 JUNE BUNBURY REC BUNBURY, WA
12 JUNE PENRITH PANTHERS PENRITH, NSW
13 JUNE THE ARTHOUSE WYONG, NSW
20 JUNE COSTA HALL GEELONG, VIC

Ticket info https://hartsmusic.com/

CHICAGO, ROBERTA FLACK, ISAAC HAYES, IGGY POP, JOHN PRINE, PUBLIC ENEMY AND SISTER ROSETTA THARPE TO BE HONOURED WITH RECORDING ACADEMY® LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT AWARD 0

Pic by Jason Rosewarne

The Recording Academy® is honoured to announce its 2020 Special Merit Awards recipients. The Lifetime Achievement Award honorees are Chicago, Roberta Flack, Isaac Hayes, Iggy Pop, John Prine, Public Enemy and Sister Rosetta Tharpe. Ken Ehrlich, Philip Glass and Frank Walker are Trustees Award honorees; and George Augspurger is the Technical GRAMMY® Award recipient. A special award presentation ceremony and concert celebrating the honorees will be held on April 18, 2020, at the Pasadena Civic Auditorium. Additional details regarding the ceremony will be announced shortly.

“Our industry is one that prides itself on influence and paying it forward, and each year the Recording Academy has the privilege of honoring a select group of visionaries whose creative contributions have rippled throughout our culture,” said Deborah Dugan, President/CEO of the Recording Academy. “Our Special Merit Awards recipients have molded their musical passion into pieces of history that will continue to influence and inspire generations of music creators and music lovers to come.”

GRAMMY-winning rock band Chicago are among the first acts to bring big jazz band-style horns into rock music. Following their 1969 debut album, Chicago Transit Authority, which was inducted into the GRAMMY Hall Of Fame®, they have released five No. 1 albums and nearly three dozen Top 40 hits.

Roberta Flack is a true testament of what music education can do if you foster talent from an early age.  Classically trained since age 15, she has garnered four GRAMMYs®, a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame and an everlasting musical legacy with songs such as “Where Is The Love” and “Killing Me Softly With His Song.”

A soul music pioneer, Isaac Hayes* was an in-house songwriter/producer at the legendary Stax Records, where he wrote such hits as “Soul Man” and “B-A-B-Y.” He also had a successful solo career, releasing the GRAMMY-winning “Theme From Shaft” in 1971.

Godfather of Punk Iggy Pop was the lead singer of influential proto-punk band the Stooges and has released more than 15 albums as a solo artist. With rebellious and sometimes dangerous stage antics, he has influenced countless acts, including Sid Vicious and the Clash.

John Prine’s witty approach to storytelling has made him one of the most revered country & folk singer/songwriters since his emergence in the ’70s. He has garnered two GRAMMYs and his classic eponymous debut album was inducted into the GRAMMY Hall Of Fame.

Public Enemy are one of the architects of hip-hop, bursting on the scene in ’86, with a sonic firestorm of hard-hitting political, cultural rhymes. They’ve since released 13 acclaimed LP’s including their classic album, It Takes A Nation Of Millions To Hold Us Back, which was named one of the greatest albums of all time by Rolling Stone. In 2018, their song “Fight The Power” was inducted into the GRAMMY Hall Of Fame.

Sister Rosetta Tharpe*’s combination of gospel and blues, and her renowned technique on electric guitar, has influenced countless musicians, from Little Richard to Bob Dylan. The Godmother of Rock and Roll’s 1945 hit, “Strange Things Happening Every Day,” has been credited as the first gospel song to cross over to the R&B charts, becoming an early model for rock and roll.

Ken Ehrlich has shepherded the GRAMMY Awards® telecast for the last 40 years and his ability to create events that are memorable and innovative has set a standard for television programming in the music industry. He helped pioneer the GRAMMY Moment — unique artist collaborations never before seen onstage.

Composer and pianist Philip Glass is widely regarded as the most influential composer of the late 20th and 21st centuries. Through his operas, film scores, concert pieces, theater works and wide-ranging collaborations with the likes of David Bowie, Paul Simon and Martin Scorsese, his music with repetitive structures has shaped the modern contemporary classical cannon.

Frank Walker* began his career as an A&R scout for Columbia Records and went on to discover artists such as country great Hank Williams and blues legends Bessie Smith and Blind Willie Johnson. After wearing many hats at Columbia, he became the label chief for MGM Records in the mid-40s, where he introduced the soundtrack album concept and helped establish the Record Industry Association of America (RIAA).

An audio and acoustical engineer, George Augspurger has designed rooms for some of the most reputable studios in North America. After beginning his career at JBL, where he established the JBL Professional division, he started his own independent consulting firm, Perception Inc., and continues to work after 70 years in the industry.

The Lifetime Achievement Award celebrates performers who have made outstanding contributions of artistic significance to the field of recording, while the Trustees Award honors such contributions in areas other than performance. The Recording Academy’s National Board of Trustees determines the honorees of both awards. Technical GRAMMY Award recipients are voted on by the Academy’s Producers & Engineers Wing® Advisory Council and Chapter Committees, and are ratified by the Academy’s Trustees. The award is presented to individuals and companies who have made contributions of outstanding technical significance to the recording industry.

*Denotes posthumous honoree.

For more information about the Academy, please visit www.grammy.com.

BABY ANIMALS AND KILLING HEIDI JOIN FORCES FOR “BACK TO BACK 2020” TOUR 0

Following sell out shows across the country earlier this year in celebration of Baby Animals’ 30th Anniversary, Baby Animals and Killing Heidi will unite once again, due to popular demand, for a massive  tour – “Back To Back 2020”, presented by Triple M.

The tour will run from July 3 to September 12,  taking in Melbourne, Emu Plains, Sydney, Brisbane, Adelaide, Perth, Newcastle, Thirroul, Canberra, Sunshine Coast, Miami on the Gold Coast, and winding up with two final shows in Vic, 11th and 12th September.

My Ticketmaster pre-sale commences tomorrow, December 17  at 10am, running until 9am on Thurs December 19, with general public tickets on sale from 10am on December 19.

Baby Animals and Killing Heidi feature two of Australia’s most formidable frontwomen, Suze DeMarchi and Ella Hooper respectively. Between the two bands, the setlists read like a page from the Aussie rock songbook – ‘Early Warning’, ‘One Word’, ‘Painless’, ‘Rush You’, ‘Weir’, ‘Mascara’ and more.

Ella Hooper said today, “Killing Heidi and Baby Animals just feels like a match made in heaven, if I do say so myself, and the crowd's response was so enthusiastic the first time we played together that we couldn’t resist having another go – AND extending the tour! When do you get to see two hard-rocking female-fronted bands back to back that happens to span two of rock’s funnest and most vibrant era’s – the 90’s and the Naughties! It’s a pretty powerful night out. We love it.”

Baby Animals have been one of Australia’s biggest bands since they burst onto the scene with their self-titled debut. The band was touring with Van Halen in the US when they heard the album had topped the charts. Baby Animals spent six weeks at number one in Australia – keeping Nirvana’s Nevermind out of top spot.
Baby Animals went eight times platinum and won three ARIA Awards – Best Album, Best Debut Album and Best Debut Single. It was also declared one of the Top 25 albums of 1992 in UK rock bible Kerrang!, and Baby Animals performed ‘Painless’ on Late Night With David Letterman.

Baby Animals was later featured in The 100 Best Australian Albums, with the book explaining: “Baby Animals exploded on the Australian music scene with a bracing fusion of heavy metal bravura, a touch of glam dynamics and a look and a swagger.”

Fierce and uncompromising – the first single from the band’s second album was called ‘Don’t Tell Me What To Do’ – Suze DeMarchi was also featured in the book Rock Chicks, The Hottest Female Rockers from the 1960s to Now. “Baby Animals was like a breath of fresh air,” the book stated, “a hard-rocking band fronted by a guitar-wielding, tattooed temptress who could rock with the best of them.”

It’s been twenty years since Hooper Siblings Killing Heidi released their disarming folk-pop song, ‘Kettle’ on triple j unearthed. The band soon expanded into colorful teenage power pop and burst onto the national and international stage with their breakthrough debut album Reflector, released in March 2000.

Anthemic singles ‘Mascara’ and ‘Weir’ made Reflector a blow-out success and cemented the work as one of Australia’s most loved pop albums.

The early naughties belonged to Killing Heidi with Weir placing #2 and Mascara #14 in triple j’s Hottest 100. Reflector went on to take out four ARIA awards and reach 4 x platinum status. The Hooper siblings also won the critically-acclaimed APRA songwriters of the year award.

BABY ANIMALS AND KILLING HEIDI – BACK TO BACK 2020
Presented by Triple M

MYTM Pre-sale: 10am, Tues Dec 17 – 9am, Thurs Dec 19
General On-sale: 10am, Thurs Dec 19

Tickets available from:
thebabyanimals.com
killingheidiofficial.com

Fri July 3          Melbourne, VIC            Croxton Bandroom

Sat July 4         Melbourne, VIC            Croxton Bandroom

Fri July 10        Emu Plains, NSW        O’Donoghue’s Irish Pub

Sat July 11       Sydney, NSW             Manning Bar

Fri July 17        Brisbane, QLD             The Triffid

Sat July 18       Brisbane, QLD             The Triffid

Fri July 31        Adelaide, SA                The Gov

Sat Aug 1         Adelaide, SA                The Gov

Fri Aug 7          Perth, WA                    The Astor

Sat Aug 8         Perth, WA                    The Astor

Fri Aug 28        Newcastle, NSW          The Cambridge

Sat Aug 29       Thirroul, NSW             Anita’s Theatre

Thur Sept 3      Canberra, ACT            The Basement

Sat Sept 5        Sunshine Coast, QLD  Aussie World

Sun Sept 6       Miami, QLD                  Miami Marketta

Fri Sept 11       Aspendale Gdns, VIC Chelsea Heights Hotel

Sat Sept 12      Doncaster, VIC            Shoppingtown Hotel

THE BEAUTIFUL GIRLS: HAVE JAZZMASTER WILL TOUR 0

The Beautiful Girls is the moniker singer, songwriter, guitarist and producer Mat McHugh has used over the last couple of decades to perform, record and release his feel-good rhythms. Occasionally, depending on his vibe, he’ll use his own name too. It’s a brand (although he wouldn’t like that term) which has seen McHugh travel the world with his mates playing to audiences from Europe to North and South America and all points in between. He’s done it totally on his own terms too as the quintessential independent artist. Twenty years down the track since he began, it was time to both reflect and celebrate. McHugh has put together Seaside Highlife, a greatest hits package on vinyl and is about to take it out on the road with an extensive Australian tour beginning on January 4, 2020. At some point near the end of the Australian tour, he’ll release yet another album. Adding to his current state of contentment and joy is the acquisition of a new Fender Ultra Series Jazzmaster, replacing his old Jazzmaster which has served him well for the last 15 years.

Mat McHugh took some time out from tour preparations to chat with Australian Musician’s Greg Phillips about his career, gear and the upcoming tour.

Where’s home these days Mat and what space have you set aside to weave your musical magic?
I live on the beach in Cronulla. I just have a room at our place dedicated to music. In the last decade all of the albums I have done have been out of the home studio. Convenience-wise it is good but probably like anyone who works from home will tell you, there is a degree of discipline required. Having everyone in the house understand that the studio is where I have to go to go to work. I think the impetus for it was that wherever I was recording at another studio, I felt this … just a weird feeling where you turn up at a studio, pay your money, it might be 11am on a Tuesday and it’s like ok, go! Then you’ve got to play the guitar, sing, perform. I felt like at least half of the time I just wasn’t in that space. I mean, it worked out but you’re kind of jumping through hoops. Whereas now when it comes the time to actually perform at home, I try to be in the moment and feel it and capture you being inside the song and being a part of it instead of just 1,2,3 go.

Has your method of writing songs changed at all over the years?
Yeah it definitely has. I have a guy Ian Pritchard, who has mixed everything I have done and I was talking with him. I was reflecting on albums I’d done this decade and the ones I’d done before. At the start of this decade it was the first time I had got my hands on a computer and tried to chop up performances and edit things together at home. I was just baffled as to how these things worked. I’d never used a DAW before. Now every record I have made since, I got so far inside that process that it got a bit crazy and recently I have let the reins off a bit. The last couple of records I was sampling my voice, making a single sound and then turning it into a synth pad and flipping this and that but now I am back to using the home studio as a tape machine basically. Switch it on, capture a performance and if you don’t get the performance right, try and do it again.

Seaside Highlife is your greatest hits collection which you’ve released in conjunction with the tour. Did you ever believe when you started out that you would have a hits collection?
Ha ha it was the furthest thing from my mind. I studied visual arts, like graphic design when I left school and I was bumming around, spent some time in India and the United States but I was always writing songs. My old man played guitar and he always wrote. When I got back to Sydney there was a girl running an open mic night down in Bondi and I was on the Northern beaches. I was like, I gotta figure out a way to hang out with this girl. I got a few guys I knew to play some of these songs that I’d written. Growing up I was in punk bands and stoner rock bands with the fuzz pedals switched on the whole time. These were more introspective and mellow songs and I showed the guys the song parts and off we went down to Bondi for the open Mic night. We got asked back and it just started getting packed every time we played. I thought we need to do a demo now and the first record cost $300 and took three hours. No song took more than two passes and that thing sold 100,000 copies. From that point every single cent made from sales was put back into making another record and touring the world. We are as independent as it gets. There was never an agenda other than saving enough to make the next. So looking back it was a struggle to whittle down the songs to fit onto a double vinyl album. I always find that the most popular songs aren’t necessarily the ones that carry the most artistic weight, not always the songs that I find the most interesting. The challenge for me was balancing it out so people might have got the songs on there that they are familiar with but I also wanted to include the ones that had a particular sense of value artistically to me. It might be a song where I turned a corner and got better at what I do. There’s 88 minutes of music, 22 minutes per side on vinyl, so there was a real cut off point to fit everything.

Do you recall any greatest hits albums that you got into growing up?
I really love that Paul Kelly one. That Songs From The South, I smashed that. I smashed that and the Bob Marley Legend one. What was great about that was it makes you go backwards, dig deep and find actual albums and then album tracks become the ones you love. Just touching on the Paul Kelly one again, it was kind of an inspiration for this thing that we are doing. His was Song from the South volume one and he brought out another one recently. I thought that’s what I want to do. I don’t want a greatest hits to be ok, here it is and ride out into the sunset. We’re really independent and to find all of our records in a store is kind of hard. If there is going to be a record in a record store, I want it to be this one and if people want to investigate further, go for it. I just wanted a solid gateway, a good body of work for people to get into the band who may not have heard of us.

You’ve recently got your hands on a new Fender Ultra Jazzmaster. Were you a big fan of the Jazzmaster model in general beforehand?
I only played a Jazzmaster for around 15 years. I had a few other guitars but got a Mexican Jazzmaster 15 years ago and just loved it. When I first started I played resonators, then acoustic. After a while I thought I don’t really want to do this acoustic thing, it was a pain in the bum to play live with it. I didn’t want to get lumped in with this acoustic movement because I didn’t really feel like I was that. I wanted to get back to what I grew up doing and wanted to find an electric guitar. I think I tried a Tele and a Jazzmaster and I just thought the Jazzmaster was amazing and it’s the only guitar I have played on stage for the last 15 years. It’s just been like putting on an old pair of jeans.

When you picked up the new Ultra Jazzmaster, what were your first thoughts?
Many things but the first thing I noticed was … my guitar was a bit of an old clunker, an old jeep. This new one looks like a Bentley. That was the very first thing, the look of it, the finish, the build was amazing. What was weird about it … I’m pretty much a staunch vintage enthusiastic. I just play into an old Blackface, Deluxe or Twin with hardly anything in between. I love vintage stuff so I went into it thinking, I’m not sure if I am going to like this! I knew that it was a modern spec guitar so I was skeptical. I appreciate people that are into the newer stuff but I didn’t think it was going to be for me. When I got it into my hands, it looked and felt vintage but an easy to play vintage without the hangups. I went into Fender and played it, then went home and I couldn’t stop thinking about it. So I went in again and had another play and probably annoyed them going in there for days having a go. I think what is so amazing about it is that all of the little hang ups I had about a Jazzmaster, it addresses them. It is the first modern Jazzmaster that they have done but still feels and looks vintage. Also I use to hear the term noiseless pickups and shudder, I’m philosophically against it. I’d played friends guitars with early versions of noiseless pickups and I wasn’t into it but with the Ultra, they sound vintage.

The thing that I really love though, more than any other Jazzmaster I have had in the past is the switching options. Usually you’d have this rhythm circuit that just darkened it up, which was nice but the way that I approach guitar, I use it more as an atmospheric thing or to fill up or surround the vocal. I don’t approach it like The Rolling Stones or AC/DC, I am more along the lines of jazz or James Brown, where the bass is the harmonic road map. The bass and melody and hi-hats are the poles in the ground of the song for me. The guitar is like a paint brush putting details in and darting in and out and it needs to occupy a certain frequency and just play that role. There’s a switching thing on the new Jazzmaster where you can switch it out of phase, which is cool but historically out of phase for me is a strong statement and can sound super thin, super wirey and almost too small. The genius point I am getting to is that on the new one, the rollers on the top switch, they roll in the amount of each of the pickups you want for the out of phase thing. So you can have an out of phase sound but not overwhelmingly so, it sits exactly where you want it. I don’t need to set up an EQ pedal or anything now. I get that for some people that wouldn’t mean much but for me it’s the greatest thing I’ve ever found on an electric guitar.

Which colour did you go for?
I went for the same colour as my trusty old one which is just the the three tone burst, so it looks like my old one but way more handsome. I am a bit of a traditionalist but I did see that mocha burst in there at Fender on a Tele, so I have put an order in for one of those too. So if it comes in time I will be taking those two guitars on the tour.

You have this greatest hits tour at the beginning of the year, then what for the remainder of 2020?
Leading up to the end of this year I have been recording a new record that is almost ready to go. I never know what I am going to release them as up until about a week before release. I make the records first then decide whether to put them out under Beautiful Girls or my name or whatever. It’s a three piece record with maybe more guitar than I have ever done before. About half of the record is the new Jazzmaster. It came in toward the end of the process. I will release that toward the end of the Australian tour then do a bunch of dates in Europe and America and back to oz for next summer.

What are you most proud of in your music career?
I have always just tried to get better and write decent music that has some value to me. I never thought of it in terms of what can this generate for me. I just wanted to express myself and try to get to a place where it was original, honest and truthful and I can hear that when I listen back to it and I can hear the improvement over the years too. Maybe the main thing is the way I’ve gone about it. It is an industry of so much smoke and mirrors and bullshit and so many people making empty promises. It is a weird place. I have always remained staunchly independent, not pretend independent where you’re with major label but act independent but truly independent. In that time I turned down hundreds of thousands or even millions in advertising by beer companies and this, that and the other. The only agenda has been just keeping it only about music, making decent music and not selling it out or sell out the people who listen to it and that’s it. That’s been maintained for nearly twenty years now. In this world I feel like that’s something to be proud of. I would feel the same way if I was a baker, shoe repairman or plumber, same thing just not bow down to the dark arts, fight the good fight and that is what I am most proud of.

https://www.thebeautifulgirls.com

Credit Australian Musician

FINNISH BLUES SHREDDER ERJA LYYTINEN, KOOL & THE GANG AND MORE FOR BLUESFEST 0

The ever-giving folks at Bluesfest have just posted their third announcement of acts for the 2020 event and it includes:

Kool & the Gang
Erja Lyytinen
The Gipsy Kings ft. Nicolas Reyes and Tonino Baliardo
Guy Sebastian
Allen Stone
LP
Dweezil Zappa
Troy Cassar-Daley
The Waifs
Chain
Ash Grunwald

The eleven new additions will be joining the big names such as Crowded House, Dave Matthews Band, Patti Smith and her Band and Lenny Kravitz this Easter.

Commenting on the announcement, Festival Director Peter Noble OAM said “I am thrilled to say that our headliners on this announcement have almost 100,000,000 album sales between them. Household names, R&B funk masters, Kool & the Gang are the winners of two GRAMMY Awards and with 70,000,000 album sales – their performance this Easter Saturday is going to be a standout! The Gipsy Kings, the creators of flamenco rumba with one GRAMMY Award plus a Latin GRAMMY Award and with 25,000,000 album sales it makes for a stellar third artist announcement for Bluesfest 2020.

Everyone knows the songs immediately when they hear the first few chords of Kool’s ‘Celebration’, ‘Ladies Night’ or ‘Get Down On It’ or The Gipsy Kings ‘Bamboleo’, ‘Djobi Djoba’, ‘Bem Bem Maria’ and so many more. AND, they are both playing our main stage on Saturday night at Bluesfest with George Benson, back to back – what a night of hits this will be!
We’re lucky enough to have Guy Sebastian are his two incredible ARIA Award wins last week. The mighty Allen Stone, a real-deal Bluesfest favourite who is becoming another breakout star following his numerous appearances over the years. Dweezil Zappa will be playing his Dad’s brilliant record ‘Hot Rats’. Winner of the European Guitarist of the Year – ErjaLyytinen, Australia’s greatest ever blues band – Chain and so much more. Stay tuned for another lot of amazing additions for what is fast becoming one of our greatest lineups’s ever!”

The Bluesfest 2020 Lineup So far:
DAVE MATTHEWS BAND – CROWDED HOUSE – PATTI SMITH AND HER BAND
LENNY KRAVITZ
GEORGE BENSON -BRANDI CARLILE – JOHN BUTLER
THE WATERBOYS – XAVIER RUDD – THE CAT EMPIRE – MORCHEEBA
JOHN PRINE – BUFFY SAINTE-MARIE
ZUCCHERO – JIMMIE VAUGHAN
EAGLES OF DEATH METAL – ANI DIFRANCO
FRANK TURNER – JOHN MAYALL – AMADOU & MARIAM
CORY HENRY & THE FUNK APOSTLES
THE ALLMAN BETTS BAND – THE MARCUS KING BAND – WALTER TROUT
LARKIN POE – THE WAR AND TREATY
JENNY LEWIS – YOLA – CHRISTONE “KINGFISH” INGRAM
GREENSKY BLUEGRASS – TAL WILKENFELD
JOACHIM COODER – STEVE ‘N’ SEAGULLS

For further information on the lineup or artists please see here. 

Bluesfest 2020 is being held from 9 – 13 April 2020. Tickets are on sale now via Moshtix.