interview – Page 12 – TINSEL and TAP SHOES

An Interview with Damien Leith

MI0003406690 Damien Leith has had a busy decade since taking out the title of Australian Idol. He’s recorded eight studio albums, written two books, and penned a one-man cabaret. This April marks what would have been Roy Orbison‘s 80th birthday, to celebrate Damien reprises his successful Roy – A Tribute to Roy Orbison tour!

Hi Damien. You’re bringing back your show Roy – A Tribute To Roy Orbison this April. You did this show back in 2011, what was the idea behind bringing the show back?

It would have been Roy Orbison’s 80th birthday in April, so it’s really to celebrate his 80th birthday (and) to return to a collection of songs that I just love performing. We don’t do this run of shows very often at all and even this one, it’s only six shows in total, so it’s a very limited run – it’s only in the month of his birthday. Six shows and then unfortunately, we put it away for a while. But I love these songs, I love performing them, it’s just great to get an opportunity to hit the road with them again.

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Interview: Actor Tim Draxl

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Tim Draxl has been enchanting audiences both onscreen, for his roles in A Few Best Men, Swimming Upstream, A Place To Call Home and the new tele-movie, Molly – as well as on stage, with his one man shows, Freeway – The Chet Baker Journey and Cabaret, since the tender age of 16. Now at 34, he returns to the stage with his new show, Once Upon Another Time.

You recently returned from America – what were you doing over there?

I try and go over once or twice a year. I have a green card, so I have to keep it active and I have lots of friends over there, because I used to live in (Los Angeles) – I lived in LA for seven years. I went to LA for a couple of days, then Aspen, then New York and then back again. It was a bit of a quick trip. I was only gone for two weeks, but it was good fun.

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Interview with musician, Adam Brand

Firstly, congratulations on the success of The Outlaws. Everyone seems to be really embracing the idea. I read that you’ve had this idea in your head for ten years or so – why has it taken so long to finally make happen?

It’s one of those things, to get five guys all with a little bit of a break from their schedules all at the same time, it’s a pretty big ask! I suppose it just had to wait to the point where it happened all very naturally, where everyone was like, ‘Yeah, I’m free, I’m free…’ That’s how I kinda knew that okay, it must be the right time.

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An Interview With Musician Jason Kerrison

New Zealand musician, Jason Kerrison recently completed his first solo tour around Australia, debuting songs off his first album #JKEP1 and showcasing his past hits. I spoke to Jason about this exciting year and what’s to come.

Jason, you were recently toured in Australia for the first time. How was your Australian gigs go?

Yeah, it was my first tour. I don’t know why it’s my first tour – I guess, being in bands in the past, it’s a lot more expensive bringing bands over. [So] it’s kind of nice to be able to be mobile and be able to be at a whole bunch of places over a couple of weekends, so it was good. Gosh, I can’t remember the name of the guy who played before me, but he was so good. He was ridiculously good! You know, when you see people so good, and you’re like, “why am I bothering to get up now?” Ego steps in, “I told you you shouldn’t have turned up”. [laughs] But I had a ball. It was really cool. All good people there.

Teneriffe Festival in Brisbane was fantastic! And then I played at a place called The Triffid, that is owned by one of the fellas from Powderfinger. [It’s] a great venue. I saw a band called the Church play in there that same night.

[The Yarra Hotel] was interesting. Sydney was interesting, as well – it was really bizarre, but there were [some] really cool people [there] I played in a lounge, like I played in someone’s lounge. It’s called Live n’ Lounging, apparently there’s a bit of a home circuit thing going.

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Interview: Actor Ben Nicholas

You may recognise Ben Nicholas from his days playing Scott “Stingray” Timmins in Neighbours 10-odd years ago. Ben just recently finished the mock-reality web-series Footballer Wants A Wife. I spoke to Ben about this exciting new project, reality television and the death of Stingray.

You’re currently working on Footballer Wants A Wife. Where did the idea come from?

Well, after a really bad trip to LA in search of work, I decided to take matters into my own hands and write my own show. Naturally, I wrote myself as the lead [laughs].

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Interview: Musician Simon Gibson of ‘The Coolites’

a2664581741_10 Singer, songwriter, guitarist and drummer – Simon Gibson is a well rounded performer. He returns to Australia, after living/performing in Vietnam, with the newly-formed band The Coolites and brings you their debut album Caravan Park Summers. I spoke to Simon about living overseas, performing, summer memories and the new album.

You just got back from Saigon. How was it? I’ve never been.

Saigon’s a great place. It’s pretty wild [and] it wears you out. It’s [also] very busy and noisy but it’s an interesting place to live – particularly when you first go there. In the first year or two, it’s actually really really good, but I’ve been there for over 7 years. Having said, I will be going back there in a while for a couple of weeks because I still have a lot of stuff over there. It’s a good place, it’s fun, it’s interesting. It’s another world really.

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An Interview with Singer Karise Eden

Karise Eden first entered the music scene when she won The Voice back in 2012. After a break from the industry, Karise is back with her album Things I’ve Done, and is on the road again bringing her music and new baby with her.

So let’s talk about the album, Things I’ve Done – Why did you choose that as the title and how did you go about making the new album?

The album is full of songs talking about my life, what I’ve done or experienced. At the same time it’s songs I’ve been working on since my first album (and beforehand)… so it’s me literally saying, ‘here you go, here’s what I’ve been doing since my last album!’ [laughs]. I wrote the album all over the place – London, LA, Melbourne, Sydney and on my farm in Queensland. We recorded most of the album in Sydney and Melbourne with a few really killer producers.

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An Interview with Normie Rowe

To celebrate fifty years since the release of It Ain’t Necessarily So, Normie Rowe brings FRENZY! – The 50th Anniversary Collection. The new album features 30 of his hits from 1965-1968 remastered for 2015. I attended his album launch yesterday – but before I get to that – here’s the interview I did with him last week.

Let’s start with the new album FRENZY! – The 50th Anniversary Collection …

We decided to go back and revisit songs we recorded in the 60s as a celebration of the 50th anniversary of the release of my first record It Ain’t Necessarily So. To point out the fact that in those times the pop music world was incredibly frenetic. The kids were more enthusiastic about the music than hither to been seen. Much more enthusiastic than I guess the Rock ‘n’ Roll period or the Bobby Socks’ period of the early Frank Sinatra times. The kids were just like maniacs! To get out of a venue with some article of clothing in tact or some part of your hair still on your head was quite a miracle. So we chose the songs that were pretty reminiscent of the sort of things we were singing and playing in those days.

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An Interview With CHESS director Ryan Fogwell and lead Tavis Cunningham

It’s hard to describe Chess, the musical composed by Benny Andersson and Bjorn Ulvaeus from ABBA with lyrics by Tim Rice, with its intricate plot, complex characters and multitudinous themes of love, politics and war – one really has to see it to appreciate it. With such well known songs as Anthem and One Night in Bangkok, this production has won countless fans all over the world and its original London production, starring Elaine Page and Murray Head, ran for three years on the West End. I spoke with Director Ryan Fogwell and lead Tavis Cunningham, who plays Anatoly Sergievsky, about the new production coming to Manly, NSW for a limited run this May.

Let’s talk about Chess. For people who haven’t heard of nor seen the musical before – what is Chess about?

Tavis: It’s set in the middle of the Cold War in 1979-1980 – a bit more into the later of the Cold War I guess, – and it’s really about how people are controlled by their countries and the political machinations that are going on between members of the US and the Soviet Union. It’s all taking place during two chess tournaments – one in Italy and one in Thailand. It follows the Russian chess player [Anatoly] and one of the members of the American team [Florence] who they get together during the first chess match and then various complications happen.

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