With a strong focus on the Australian music scene, Australian Guitar is a rich source of information on playing techniques, styles, the wide range of instruments available and all the technology that guitarists have to consider in the 21st Century.
NEW BOOK OFFERS BACKSTAGE PASS TO THE ARTIST’S LIFE Australian guitarist and music journalist Joe Matera has just released Backstage Pass: The Grit and the Glamour, an uncompromising, behind-the-scenes look at the touring lives of working musicians. Originally released in the UK last year, it’s now available locally in Australian bookstores and online. The book traces not only the reality of touring, but also the realities of reporting on music. “The aim of this book is to take you behind the scenes on my journey as a journalist and artist on tour,” Matera writes in the book’s opening pages, “It’s a glimpse into a world that is far from the public perception.” So who can you expect to meet within the pages of Backstage Pass? Artists ranging from Lemmy to…
ADAM NEWLING HE IS A second-gen Greek-Australian with the spirit of a weathered Nashville country-rocker, fusing his love for steely twang and sizzling melancholy with his proven penchant for indie-rock (when he’s not jamming up a storm on his own accord, Newling plays in Ruby Fields’ band). KINDA LIKE Andy Golledge, Buck Meek and Molly Burch. CHECK OUT Newling’s stirring second EP, Half Cut And Dangerous (which at eight tracks spanning 32 minutes, feels much more like an album), on which he embodies a vivid rawness with his battered and emotive singing, and a rich soundscape that seeks – and never fails to find – the beauty in minimalism. COLOURBLIND THEY ARE A quartet of nostalgic alt-rockers on Kaurna land (Adelaide) turning their lingering teen angst into cathartic emo anthems…
BEC SANDRIDGE HAILS FROM DHARAWAL LAND/ILLAWARRA, NSW PLAYS SOLO SOUNDS LIKE FUZZ-FILLED GLITTER-POP, CIRCA 1984 LATEST DROP LOST DOG (EP OUT OCTOBER 7TH INDEPENDENTLY) What’s your current go-to guitar? A blue Yamaha Revstar – it’s just a real wee pocket rocket and gets the job done. Also looks pretty slick. How did you initially fall in love with the instrument? Before this gal, I was a Tele person all the way. The Revstar is super versatile. I can kinda fling through my entire set with this gal with no problems – from the cleaner, more ‘80s tracks, to the fuzzier numbers. My first ever guitar was a shitty blue acoustic I bought off eBay. I remember bidding on it, hoping that I’d win. It was a no-brand piece of garbage,…
WHERE ROD LAVER ARENA NAARM/MELBOURNE, VICTORIA WHEN FRIDAY AUGUST 12TH, 2022 Between all the heavy subject matter, kaleidoscopic soundscapes and ambitious sonic detours it presented, Angel In Realtime – Gang Of Youths’ statement-making third album, which arrived back in February – can’t be authentically represented live anywhere smaller than an arena. The Sydney-native, London-based quintet have played a few intimate shows off the back off it – most in clubs around their new stomping grounds – and footage from those show the songs translating well, but notably so in a much different light to their studio-mixed counterparts. This stately run of arena shows, though, promised a genuine reflection of the grandeur captured on Angel In Realtime: grandeur that Gang Of Youths have proved they’re more than capable of. Before they…
WHERE THE CROXTON BANDROOM, NAARM/MELBOURNE, VICTORIA WHEN FRIDAY JULY 8TH, 2022 Almost two and a half years after it was first announced, Short Stack finally hit the road for their “comeback” tour in the middle of June. We headed along to one of three shows at Melbourne’s revered Croxton Bandroom, sprinting as fast as possible down High Street to make it in time for the last few songs of the first set, from Perth alt-pop duo Those Who Dream. Turns out we didn’t need to worry – thanks to technical difficulties, the venue opened up over an hour late. We were ultimately relieved, if a little miffed that we did all that running for nothing. Wielding ultra-tight, energised pop songs heavy on production and atmospheric effects, Those Who Dream made…
Coming to us live from his home studio – or as he’d rather call it, his “little underground doomsday bunker” – Parkway Drive’s Jeff Ling says with a forced chuckle, trying (and immediately failing) to shelter his anxiety: “Honestly, I’m scared of this room. I spent a lot of time in here over the last few years, so now I only come here when I need to escape the noises of my kids and everyone else upstairs. I call it the ‘trainwreck studio’ because I’ve got two young children, and life has just been so busy that it hasn’t been vacuumed in like five years, so there’s stuff stuck to the walls and all over the floor… It looks really sad in here – but it gets the job done!”…
