1. Growing Up

I grew up in a strange house where Dad would only play world music like Taj Mahal and the Buena Vista Social Club but Mum loved her country – Garth Brooks/John Denver type country. It was a strange mix. I probably could recite an entire John Denver album.

2. Inspirations

In year eight, one of my mates gave me a mixtape, which introduced me to bands like Something Corporate, Brand New, Blink-182, et cetera. I grew up with punk rock, played in punk/hardcore bands. The discovery of Travis Barker made me smash the drums and, nek minnit, a degree in percussion.

3. Your Crew



Shaun [Offbeat] and I met at WAAPA [Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts]. We learned to play some whacked shit on instruments people have never heard of. Classical music kind of bored us, and luckily we were introduced to Safri Duo by our teacher, which gave us the idea of dance music with live percussion. We have sort of built this studio for ourselves over the past five years, accumulating instruments and hanging foam over the windows – the house kind of looks like a meth lab from the outside. We both teach percussion at high schools too to make ends meet.

4. The Music You Make And Play

We play bass music – rhythmic bass music. We love dudes who push boundaries with a heap of rhythmic drive – Skrillex of course, Major Lazer, Buraka Som Sistema. But then the guys in the underground scene really expanding the bass movement – Djemba Djemba, AWE, JSTJR. There’s too many to list; it’s such a big scene. Some tracks we’ve been rinsing hard in almost every set are the AWE remix of the new Hermitude track ‘Through The Roof’ – such a killer remix – and the JSTJR remix of ‘Toque’ by Buraka, another hugely rhythmic bass tune.

5. Music, Right Here, Right Now 


The music scene is equally good as it is ruined. Social media is key and has made every artist accessible. This is a blessing and a curse! The Perth scene is reckless though. It is by far the strongest scene in the country and has been for bass music for a long time. Every week there’ll be at least two internationals playing somewhere and the shows are always full. It’s seriously crazy. There’s a culture here like nowhere else and it’s a really exciting place to grow up as a musician. For example, I saw Boombox Cartel, Pegboard Nerds and Tomsize at the same show on Sunday night. It was ridiculous.

Catch Command Q at The World Bar on Wednesday June 24 or Chinese Laundry on Friday June 26.