Taryn La Fauci has established herself as quite a promising name on the Sydney music scene.
Originally hailing from Townsville, La Fauci drifted down to the Harbour City five years ago and rose through the ranks the old-fashioned way, throwing herself into various open mic nights across town until a pattern began to emerge and people began to take notice. She will next be spearheading Top Of The World’s In The Round performance/podcast at the Seymour Centre’s Courtyard Sessions, and takes some time out to look back on the road to now.
“I was pretty lucky coming to Sydney,” she says. “I had a share house with someone interested in jazz, so I was meeting people that way. But then I made this friend, Caitlin Harnett, who is also a singer, who took me down to the Coogee Diggers. I found a great community there, and also through Home Sweet Home, these Inner West house concerts we used to be involved in. I was meeting these communities and realising they were all kind of connected. I actually met Larry [Heath, Courtyard Sessions booker] through Fanny Lumsden, who I’d met at the Bunker [at Coogee Diggers], so these little connections just kept happening. That’s how Top Of The World came about. I’d met so many musicians, I thought it would be nice to have them talk not just through music, but through conversation as well.”
While the Courtyard Sessions provide a tremendous avenue for artist exposure – the calendar features the likes of Frank Sultana, Jordie Lane, Amber Rae Slade and many others – the Top Of The World event is unique. Not only does it feature amazing talent, but it allows La Fauci to talk with these performers about insights beyond the music; what their own stories and sojourns to performance have been.
“I find sometimes artists just get up and play, so it’ll be nice to have these musicians – all female – be onstage and sing, but also have a chat. People love consuming music, but they don’t often know what those musicians go through behind the scenes. Working out their journeys, how they write, how they create and pay bills living in Sydney. That was something I personally wanted to know about as a musician, ’cause I’m still trying to juggle it. How does everybody else do it? [‘In the round’ events] are big in America but don’t happen quite as often here. They do at places like the Petersham Bowling Club, which is great, but we’re hoping this can become another place for artists to get up and show something that’s maybe behind the music too.”
As such, the night will not only be of interest to fans of live music in general, but an invaluable insight to those still trying to find exactly what it takes to make the Sydney music scene take notice.
“Go to songwriter nights, and once you go around to those, you start to meet people,” La Fauci suggests. “There are so many little sessions around, all of these little backyard gigs, but they can be hard to find when you’ve just hopped off the train. So you search out the open mic nights. I was playing a few of those around Newtown for about a year before I found Coogee. There’s The Little Guy in Glebe, where my friend Julia Jacklin would play, and Ryan Brennan, who is now producing my album, and Lady Lyon, who is on my podcast. If you want to grow as an artist, I think that’s where you start. You meet people, and then if you’re lucky enough – and good enough – that’s how you’ll grow.”
Photo: Nicole Robinson Photography
Top Of The World Presents In The Round featuring Taryn La Fauciat Seymour Centre’s Courtyard Sessionson Friday February 17.
