Episodes

Zoe Hauptmann has become one of the most in demand bass players around with gigs like Missy Higgins, Ian Moss, Paul Kelly and Neil Finn, Justine Clarke, Elana Stone, Tim Minchin, Katie Noonan and many others. Growing up in a musical family on an apple orchid in Canberra, Zoe and her two brothers, Ben and James Hauptmann developed a deep love for the history and traditions of Jazz. Transfixed by their parent’s record collection, the Hauptmann’s were a ready-made trio with Zoe on bass, Ben and hi...

Kav Temperley is the lead singer, bassist and songwriter for the legendary Fremantle rockers, Eskimo Joe. The Eskies have made 6 studio albums, 3 of those debuting at number 1 on the Aria Charts and juggernaut Black Finger Nails, Red Wine staying 62 weeks in the Australian top 50, thats just a few of their impressive achievements. A well as Eskimo Joe, Kav co-formed soul collective Basement Birds, started a small indie record Label called Dirt Diamond Productions, he’s written and released some...

Carmen Smith, originally from western Sydney, is a singer songwriter and performer who has also worked, toured and written extensively with some of Australia’s best artists. Her first experience as a backing vocalist came in 2004 with Guy Sebastian and his first nationwide tour. Since that time Carmen has performed and toured with Diesel (support act), Jessica Mauboy, Stan Walker, Diana Rouvas, Ricki Lee, Rahsaan Patterson, Roachford, Tina Arena and many others. Carmen joined the cast of The ...

Jason Bruer is a saxophonist from Sydney. Born and raised in Adelaide, Jason didn’t start playing music till his very late teens. He studied music at Adelaide University in the same year as his brother and sister. That’s a unique story in itself. He played around Adelaide with quintet Small Hours before joining the band Fat Time, which quickly outgrew Adelaide so he moved with the band to Sydney. From there Fat Time went on to win Star Search that then lead to national tours with Joe Cocker, San...

Emma Pask. Award winning vocalist Emma Pask has firmly established herself as one of Australia’s favourite voices in Jazz. Her effortless honest stage presence combined with her powerful vocal ability, leaves audiences spellbound and inspired whenever she takes to the stage. While Emma’s voice and style are unique, and individually her own, her performances are reminiscent of the classic era of jazz, when swing was top of the charts. Her talent was first spotted by internationally renowned jazz ...

My guest today is Australian drumming legend, Darryn Farrugia. When I was an beginner drummer in NZ in the early 90s, there wasn’t much access to international drummers apart from magazines or Starlick or DCI videos. So I used to sit down every Saturday night and study Darren doing his thing as the house band drummer on Hey Hey It’s Saturday. He used to blow me away with his playing and crack me up with his quirk by sticking his head in the TV shot he wasn’t suppose to be in haha! Daz studied wi...

Darryl Beaton is a multi-instrumentalist, musical director, songwriter and producer. Born and raised in Tasmania Australia to a drummer dad, and singer mum, obviously music is going to be part of everyday life. DB moved to Sydney in his late teens to begin working his way up the ladder to becoming one of Australia’s leading musical directors. In his late 20s, a trip to Morocco then onto Africa to study the music, he came home with a completely different outlook on life and music. After meeting t...

Ara Adams-Tamatea is the bass player for NZ band, L.A.B. Born in the Hutt Valley of NZ, growing up on the Kapiti Coast, music was always around and bass was always the instrument for Ara. The back yard jams with the whanau, having to learn guitar for the local kapa haka group because he couldn’t work out the actions, to then seeing The Eagles Hell Freezes Over concert and having that epiphany moment, that this music thing was what he wanted to do with his life. A move to Hamilton to study at Uni...

Hamish Stuart is an Australian drumming legend. Born and raised in Sydney, Hamo had the idea very early on that if he could just play drums and make a living, survive as a musician, then that what he wanted. Hamish has gone on play with Ayers Rock, Marcia Hines, Billy Fields, Doug Parkinson, Jackie Orszaczky, Mike Nock, Barry Leef, The Catholics, Lucie Thorne, Jade MacRae, Don Walker, and many more. Known for his musicality, versatility, reliability, wit and delivery, the hang, and always beauti...

Barry Leef is a vocalist and guitarist born and raised in Blenheim, a small town in the South island of NZ. He moved to Wellington to chase his dream, formed the band The Simple Image, had a number 1 hit and on things rolled from there. Barry moved to Sydney in the late 60s where the music scene was booming, playing 3 gigs a day, 6 days a week. He met Frank Zappa at a gig, joined his band and toured around Australia for awhile, In the mid 70s, Barry and his mate Ian Couch started the now fam...

Dane Laboyrie is a Trumpeter and vocalist from Sydney, Australia. His trumpet mastery has seen him onstage alongside Taylor Swift, Noel Gallagher, Hugh Jackman, Tim Minchin, James Morrison, The Cat Empire, Boy & Bear, The Potbellez, The Ministry of Sound Orchestra and countless others. Dane has also played in the orchestra pits for theatre shows such as Disney's Aladdin, Wicked, Fidler on the Roof, Dirty Rotten Scoundrels + more. Here is the picture of Dizzy Gillespie that we talked about. Thos...

Abe Rounds is drummer, bass player, song writer and producer from Sydney, but now living in LA. Abe first picked up drum sticks and started playing when he was 1 year old. His father is legendary Sydney bass player, Victor Rounds so as you can imagine, there was music in the house right from the beginning. Jamming with Victor's musicians friends was common place so there was invaluable lessons learned. Abe went to Newtown Performing Arts school and also studied with local drumming legends. He wa...

Carmel is a vocalist and singing teacher form Sydney. She’s sung for many of Australia’s greats including Marcia Hines, Delta Goodrem, Human Nature, Christine Anu, David Campbell, Spud Murphy, Chaz Bono, Jake Shears, Courtney Act, Steve Balbi, Doug Parkinson, Angry Anderson and Vanessa Amorossi as well as performing on Television shows such as Aust Idol, Mornings with Kerry-Anne Kennerley, Midday with Ray Martin and In Sydney Today, amongst others. Carmel has her own singing school called The ...

Lily Guerrero. Lily is a singer, songwriter, dancer, guitarist, drummer/percussionist from Sydney. Born in Canada to Chilean parents, and brought up in multicultural Sydney, Lily was exposed to music and dance at a very young age where chilean folklore was a strong influence in her household. Lily was performing from the age of 5 to early 20’s as a Chilean folklore dancer, at 7 she was chosen to play guitar and sing in the band for children folk dance group Sud Amerca 11. Lily has gone on to...

Episode 68: 2019 Year In Review (Bonus Episode). Thank you for listening, subscribing and supporting The Gig Life Podcast this year. Here's my take on 2019. All the best 2020. Cheers, Stevie Taylor -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Click here to securely donate to The Gig Life Podcast. Your support is very much appreciated. Thank you. The Gig Life Podcast Website The Gig Life Podcast Fac...

TGLP/GSP Guitarist Roundtable Part 2 Welcome to Part 2 and the conclusion of The Gig Life Podcast / Guitar Speak Podcast Guitarist Round Table. In part 2 here, the guys expanded more on who the are developing their business, gear, analogue vs digital (Axe Effects v Tube, Amp Modelling etc), Fender Stratocaster vs Boutique guitars, favourite rig/dessert island rig, guitar techs, young players who are inspiring, playing with a drummer and a few other listener questions. This roundtable features...

TGLP/GSP Guitarist Roundtable Part 1 Welcome to Part 1 of The Gig Life Podcast / Guitar Speak Podcast Guitarist Round Table. This roundtable features 6 Australian guitarist who are carving their own path and making things happen. Peter Northcote. As well as having 4 solo albums and 12 library/production albums, Pete has recorded with Australian Idol cast albums, Anthony Callea, Bob Downe, Daryl Braithwaite, Doc Neeson, Dragon, Grace Knight, Guy Sebastian, Hi5, Human Nature, Jenny Morris, Jim...

Tina Harris. Tina is a Canadian born multi-instrumentalist with a diversity of talents as performer, composer and musical director. With beginnings in community arts, she has been bandleader, teacher, composer, arranger and all-round boss for many styles of ensemble, including big bands, cabaret, latin, funk and a cappella. Theatre musical direction credits include the recent 2019 Australian Tour of Hair the Musical, Helpmann Award winner, Smoke and Mirrors, featuring iOTA, Hedwig and the Angr...

Steve Hunter. Electric bass player, composer, songwriter and educator from Sydney, Australia. Born and raised in Kent, South East England , Steve was picking out melodies on the family piano from an early age , but it wasn't until shortly after his family emigrated to Australia that, when at age 15 he picked up an electric bass and immediately knew that creating music and playing bass was to basically become his life. With 10 albums to date as band leader, Steve has also gone on to play with ...

Gordon Rytmeister. Drummer from Sydney, Australia. When you look at the upper echelon of any field, there’s usually a handful of people that come to mind, right? Within the Australian drumming community, Gordo is one of those people. You only need to google his name to see the enormous body of work he’s amassed over his 3 + decades on the instrument. And that work continues, as he’s still one of the most in demand drummers around. Attitude, facility and reliability keep Gordo as that first ca...

Andy Caryofyllis. Founder, singer, manager of Jellybean Jam, performer, actor and also a die hard Sydney Roosters supporter from Sydney. Jellybean Jam has been part of the Sydney cover band party scene since 1993 (that’s 26 years) and has performed at over 3500 shows and still going strong. As well as Jellybean Jam, Andy has had a number of acting roles and also co-owns/managers PartyBands. With the popularity of Jellybean Jam, there was a need to manage excess band enquiries. To do this and ...

Gordon Rytmeister. Drummer from Sydney, Australia. When you look at the upper echelon of any field, there’s usually a handful of people that come to mind, right? Within the Australian drumming community, Gordo is one of those people. You only need to google his name to see the enormous body of work he’s amassed over his 3 + decades on the instrument. And that work continues, as he’s still one of the most in demand drummers around. Attitude, facility and reliability keep Gordo as that first ca...

Bill Risby. Pianist, bass player, composer and songwriter from Sydney, Australia. Bill started piano at age 3, and after progressing through classical grades, studied Jazz at the NSW Conservatorium of Music. He took up bass guitar at age 13 and bass was his second instrument at the Con. He is now regarded as one of the most accomplished musicians in his field, in jazz, improvised and popular music. Bill has played with many visiting jazz artists such as Bob Mintzer, Maria Schneider, Kitty Ma...

Jak Housden. Guitarist, singer, songwriter, producer and musical director from Sydney, Australia. Jak is a former member of Daryl Braithwaite's touring band, founding member of The Badloves, current member of The Whitlams since 1999 and current member of Tim Minchin's band. Amongst other gigs, Jak also plays with Richard Clapton, is the musical director of Pure Gold Live and is currently writing and recording his own solo album which is heavily influenced by the sounds and feelings of 60's. ...