1. What Do You Look For in a Band?
The type of band members I look for are: great listeners, creative and open-minded, willing to share their ideas, positive and encouraging. I particularly love musicians who like stepping outside the box and experimenting, so that each performance feels new and different.
My band sounds like a bit of an eclectic mix of styles and sounds. You can definitely hear my jazz roots in my writing, however my band and I experiment pretty openly with sounds and effects at live performances.
2. Keeping Busy
Keeping busy is my natural state of living these days… the same for any independent musician I guess! The past two months has all been about prep for my new album release, Paper Mache City, and the nine-date national tour we have just started. It’s been quite an adventure piecing it all together and now it’s finally here.
Just before the tour I jetted off to South Korea in August with my six-piece band to perform at the Chilpo International Jazz Festival. I also spent two weeks touring Kuala Lumpur, Singapore and Cambodia in June this year with a new multimedia arts project I am involved in called The Wires Project (thewiresproject.com). It’s been quite a year so far!
3. Best Gig Ever
The best gig I’ve ever done was definitely our headline performance at the Chilpo International Jazz Festival in Pohang, South Korea. We were the only international act and played on the main stage to 5,000 people – both terrifying and exhilarating! The biggest gig I had done prior to this was to a few hundred people, so this was a really new and exciting experience for me. Apart from the amazing sound crew, and the fact that we were playing on a beachfront in the beautiful summer weather, the Korean audience was the most enthusiastic and warm crowd I have ever played to. Quite amazing actually. I’d die to go back there and perform on that stage again.
4. Current Playlist
I’m binge listening to some great Aussie artists at the moment – Ngaiire, Vance Joy and The Falls. I am also absolutely addicted to Gregory Porter, an American singer and composer living in New York who just has the most hypnotising, soulful voice I have ever heard. My most recent gig highlight was going to watch The Falls, a Sydney-based singer-songwriter duo, at Hibernian House in Surry Hills. They write simple but beautiful and unique melodies and songs.
5. Your Ultimate Rider
My dream gig rider would include: An unlimited tea supply of all types of tea (Oolong is a must), a bottle of red wine, a fruit platter (including mango), a private room and a yoga mat to do some pre-show yoga, and a bottle of Sambuca to share with the band after the gig. Heaven.
Briana Cowlishaw plays Blue Beat in Double Bay on Thursday October 24.Paper Mache Cityout now.
