A Life Of Music - Austin Osborne

Well, on episode three, welcome to a live of music podcast. I've got the lovely young fella Austin Osborne with me today. And we're going to talk some vocal nonsense, maybe a bit of dancing, a bit of piano in maybe, a couple of good stories. Old mate's going to aid the HD, the shit out of it, so we're going to have some good chats. Yes, we are. Austin's mainly a vocalist, he says, plays a bit of piano, plays a bit of guitar, he's only just starting. But he's just recently come off the back end of the festival festival of voices here at the Tasmania State Island, the thing place. Yes, the thing of the place. Yes, well, I think, you know, Tasmania is extremely lucky at festival voices and it's been, it was a very large eight days from there, starting on Friday, two weeks ago, an ending, that had just passed. So lots of, you know, we went up to Swansea and did a concert and workshops and, you know, archipelago concerts and the singers lounge and so performing with my amazing pianist Christian because I'm not good enough. It's the truth. But yeah, going there and getting involved with all the people from, you know, interstate inquires and choruses is definitely a highlight. Oh, yeah. How many shows did you play in the end? Oh, it is. At least four. There was the main members at Fed Concert Hall and that was with my youth chorus vocalist and then I spent a day in Swansea which was a bit of a drag to be honest to go out there and sing to, you know, 50 people, did two concerts up there and come back. But yeah, I think it's singers lounge, my chorus performed again and, yeah, those were the main concerts. There were pop-ups and stuff in Hobart and with my, another choir, a single young voice of Hobart, I've been doing a bit of conducting so I conducted a piece for them. So that was quite exciting for me to be able to get out and do something that I want to be doing in the future. That's wicked. What was the best festival of, like I said at word today? Festival of voices showed that you just did. Well, like you said, the Swansea one was a bit of a drag. Just getting up and going to Swansea for a day is just a bit of a drag. It's a long journey. It's just a bit of a drag. It would have been much worse on a bus. Luckily, we drove. But a majority of people had to go on a bus, so that would have been even longer. I feel sorry for them. I think honestly one of the performances that myself and my penis did at the festival, the voice of singers lounge, I did it a catered a song to a couple of friends and I've lost a lot of by, Good Night My Angel by Billy Joel. And that was probably the most moving performance of the whole thing. But at the end on the Saturday, I was lucky enough. I got a lot of singers from the Glee club and all these different choirs and I conducted Bohemian Rhapsody. That was pretty amazing. There was Buggler All Audience out there, but there was a lot of, there was a lot of people on stage and had a lot of people come up to me after and say that that was a highlight for them and thanks to me for doing it. So that was, that was pretty, you know, made the festival for me, I think. Yeah, yeah, man, nice. I'm happy with that. I'm very happy with that. I'm glad because if you were, I've got nothing else. So I'll have a look at the questions and we'll try and get something happening. So yeah, just, well, I've got it for you. But your sort of first memory of sort of being drawn to music, realizing that you loved music, sort of thing, if you know what I mean. Yeah, well, as a kid I had two different, actually I had probably three main different people who set me up with different music through, like I had my nanny Sue who was in the country and slim dust and all that stuff. So I'd listened to a lot of that and I had my auntie Patricia who was in the Rolling Stone. So anytime I'd get in the car with her, that's what I'd be playing. And then my dear grandmother would always have like the Beatles or George Michael or someone like that playing. So I had these three very different, you know, genres of music and, you know, I love, you know, I love country and I love, you know, classic rock and I love, I don't know what would you call the Beatles, I guess, the sometimes classic rock, there's sometimes jazz that it just depends which album does it. Yeah, it depends which album pop. Pop rock a roll back for a bit, wasn't it? Yeah. So, you know, those three were definitely, you know, kind of first memories. But I think being drawn to music was, you know, being sat in front of a piano or there being a piano in a house. I mean, all of my family and my mother's side are jazz musicians. So there was always kind of a bit of an atmosphere at family events that were the extended family that was there, which was, you know, people would typically be talking about music or making it in the room where we were. So yeah, it was always just something that was readily available. That's cool. I mean, while I sang in choirs around Hobart, the first kind of instrument that I learned would have been piano. I started piano lessons at probably the age of five. And then by the age of about seven, because I was being told to practice, I wouldn't practice because, you know, fuck people, I'm not going to be told what to do at the age of, you know, five, six, seven. So I kind of didn't play piano from the age of about seven to probably about ten or eleven. And probably about eleven or twelve. We still had piano in the house and I had just one morning got up and, you know, maybe it was Jesus unlikely. But, you know, I just got up and I started playing the piano again. And I taught myself chords and the names of chords and, you know, how to play them and, you know, a bass hand and all that kind of stuff. And, you know, you know, apps which just is a lead sheet. And I can just, you know, find a song. I like that song. How do I play that song? That's right there in front of me. And I, well, I know that. Oh, well, what's an aflap mind? Oh, well, that's that shape there. So that was, that was self-taught. And I didn't have a piano teacher for that. And then, yeah, I think probably from, you know, twelve and thirteen, I sung with a choir that wasn't related to barbershop and then I went into barbershop after that. So tell us about the barbershop stuff. I love this stuff. So I left, I cannot, I kind of a community choir in Hobart and I went to Deep South chorus, which is Labeldo's men, the Hobart's men's premier chorus because it's the only one. And that, I came there at the age of thirteen and a year after I joined, I was on the board. I spent two years on the board in various different roles, vice-president membership and all that kind of thing. And then there was a few incidences that happened and I was removed from the chorus. You wouldn't call things, would you? How I look at it is that I was standing up for things that I thought were not appropriate behaviors. And words like fuck apparently get people's goat but moving children and stuff's fine. But you know, we move on and eventually I'm sure I'm going to go back to that chorus because I do love the singing, I do love the atmosphere that that chorus brings. But at the moment Vocalis which is Hobart's and one of Australia's only kind of youth choruses which is kind of, you know, 16 to under 30, that's probably my home at the moment. That's directed by Aaron Powell and he's fantastic. I'm a sing with young voices of Hobart too which is not barbershop. Out of Vocalis I have created Toe's Mainers Premier Youth Cautet, one stop shop so that's been a good other learning curve but I also have another men's, just a purely men's barbershop quartet called Southern Jints. So there's a lot of barbershop going on in my life. My first convention was in 2023. So I was, you know, 14 or something. And it was in Auckland. So I was a pan-Pacific competition. So I was Australia, New Zealand and Hawaii. And there was Japanese quartet there too. And so I went to Auckland with Aaron. I didn't have any family that we were going with me and it was a fantastic experience to see, you know, two, you know, slash another half of a country in one city or with one purpose of singing and creating harmonies was mind blowing really. And it's only gone up from there. I mean, the year after that was Gold Coast and that was a fantastic time. And then this year was, last year was Camber and this year's Newcastle. So we had, we, the Australia gets together once a year at the National Convention and competition and the pan-Pacific one happens every three years. So in the next couple of years, I think it's going to be in Sydney. Is it like when you're there, obviously it's all barbershop, but because you're right into it, do you notice that every group has their little subtle cool little differences or sound, even though it's still barbershop? There definitely are like groups that are better. There are groups that are at the A level in terms of Australia. Chorus is like cornerstone and you know, Fox, Sydney Harmene and Chorus is like that which have got, you know, a member base that is really strong with their knowledge is makes a much better sound than, you know, say an older men's chorus because their voices are older. And you know, they, you lose, you know, your vocal strength, yeah, and your warmth as you get older. So if you've got a younger group who are all, you know, like minded and musically able, then the sound you can produce is huge. That's cool. I don't know much about it, but obviously it's different if you're not in the competition, but in the competition, are you allowed to like click your fingers and do the different things or is it purely only voice? So the jokes in barbershop is that the rule book is bigger than the Olympic rule book. So the rule book rule book for barbershop is probably about that thick. And what we say is that it's answering questions that no one is ever going to ask or has ever asked. So the, you can click and there are movements that there has been seen that there's a lot more movement now than, you know, just kind of a sway or something. But I think especially with my experience, it causes much dilemma with choruses about, always is that too cringey or are we can't do that or, but I think it's just we need to be going, now let's do that and let's decide because that's what's coming through at the moment in the performance category because there's three categories that you're judged as musicality, they're singing and there's performance. So there are judges from all those different categories that specialize in that category and then you get judged accordingly. So if you just stand then don't perform as you think it's a bit cringey, you're going to get a shitsk or essentially. It's, it's, you could stand there and just stand still, but if you're performing with your face and you're telling the story, like if you're singing a ballad and it doesn't make sense to be moving, say, say if you've got. And that suits that performance, doesn't it? Yeah, yeah. So if you've got an up tune, which is what we call them and you're standing there still, it doesn't make much sense because it's got a rhythm, but it's, you know, it's got that backbeat or whatever. So yeah, it, it's, it's kind of situational to the song. Yeah, yeah. But yeah, so for example, if there was an up song and the bloke was a bit, just a bit rigid, he'd probably have to be across the whole chorus. So like if, if one bloke isn't doing it, they probably won't mark it down too harshly. When you get feedback, they'll probably go, "Oh, another thing to work on is getting, you know, engagement across your whole chorus." I don't tend to point people out, which I would love them to. I think we go, "No, okay, so you need to do this." And we go, "That's fine. I should be doing that to the benefit of my chorus." So I'm Steve. Yeah. Yeah. So. But yeah, that there's. When you get to nationals, typically there's a nine panel, a nine. So there's three judges from each category. And then they're all added up, and then they're all divided. And so you get scores like, you know, a good score is above 70. And then like you've got the insane groups in America, which are scoring high 80s, early 90s. But Australia, Australia is only really just broken into the early 80s kind of area without singing. But we're certainly, you know, the trajectory of our quality is going up. Was it like an originated American thing? Was it like a talianne or.? Yeah, yeah. So it's certainly deeply rooted in America. I mean, I talked to someone recently about the American culture. And if you go somewhere and you talk to any American, the likelihood of a family member being in a barbershop country is like, it would almost be impossible to find someone who doesn't have a connection to barbershop. Somehow somewhere, or know of someone that, you know, might be their kids' friends, parents, might be in the tunnel. Yeah, or their grandfather or their uncle or someone. Someone will have a connection somewhere. That's pretty cool. And, you know, to sing in a quartet in your high school or college is also really, you know, that's prominent, you know, that is something that happens regularly. And yeah, so barbershop have new society, which is kind of like the original foundation for it. In America has, yeah, thousands, like their festivals, I think I saw recently typically have like 5,000 minimum kind of thing. Don't quote me on that, but I think entries like, yeah, like 5,000 participants. Oh, shit. That's heaps. Yeah. That's pretty cool. And like Australia's kind of just broken through like maybe 1200 members across the whole of Australia. And of course, we're, you know, to get to a small way. Yeah. Obviously we've got a smaller population, but, yeah, America is just insane. But, you know, Australia has sent quartets over to compete. So when in our national competition, when a quartet, you know, gets first place in our national competition, they have the opportunity to accept to go to international contest. And if they don't accept, then second gets that choice. So we have sent quartets most recently a New Zealand group called Promenade, just went over and competed for the last time in their next gen division. And did, and did very well. And there's been a New Zealand chorus went over last year and also did extremely well. I can't remember if Australia has ever sent over a chorus, but we've certainly sent quartets. Have you been to America to see any of this? No. Plano. My I was supposed to be going this year. So the PanPak this year is in Honolulu, Hawaii, which is the first time Hawaii's hosted it in like a decade, maybe two. So an originally, Barbershop, Harmony New Zealand, a Barbershop Australia, we're going to go. That was the plan. But because we've got the orange-faced fuck in power, we've all pulled out kind of thing. Because some of our members probably, you know, they might get stopped at the border and you can't have a courted if someone stopped at the border or always went in because, you know, three people doesn't make four-part harmony. There are, I think there may be still a couple of groups going, but certainly not the majority. That's why they've put on Newcastle has been a bit of an afterthought because everything that's been going on, but I guarantee lots of the members will go. Would you, and do you think some of the people will go just to, like, look just as a spectator? Like, would that be something you'd do? I've actually been, I mean, an airing about just going to Newcastle as a spectator and whether that's worth it. I probably wouldn't go to Hawaii or America just to spectate. I would want to be competing in some form. Yeah. Yeah, so because I don't have a course that's going in Newcastle, I'm not sure whether I'm going to go yet, but they're all decisions that need to be made. Yeah, it's like an expensive to fly in Newcastle. It's ridiculous. Yeah, at the moment. I can try driving a troop carrier. That'll fuck you. But it's cool. Yeah, I look cool doing it. That's fine. That's the only reason, you know. It's just not the $120 on fucking diesel. You don't get all the chicks looking at your male or male bikes. Oh, man. Look at that. Look at that. Man, what's that? Actually, I had the ex-president of BHA come down for a recent regional competition. I said, "How do I drive a troop carrier?" We came out. He said, "Fuck is that?" He said, "That's a fucking suburban troop carrier." I'm like, it's just an omelette. He's like, "Not when I was in the fucking army, they didn't have tops." I'm like, "Well, now they do have tops, Dan." But no, I love driving a troop carrier. It's good for the gardening business. Good for moving things. Just an all-round beautiful, engineered piece of machinery. The Japanese do a perfect job and it'll just keep going and going and going and can't wait to do Australia. It's 12.9. I'm going to play guitar because then you can make money. I can take a guitar with me. It's a bit different. I can strap a baby grand to the top of my. You can have a special trailer mate. I could. Who just did that recently? I don't know. The slides just fall down and you just rock out and plunge. Someone did that recently from Testmania. Yeah, remember the guy that pushed the piano up the mat. Yeah, yeah. He had a page, which was just called some piano player or something. It was like a blandest name ever that this Facebook page. But he didn't know because he took it over to Western Australia. Yeah, he did this massive thing. I think he got the piano from Bethlehem House. Anyway, that's not about him. That's about me. Fucking. That was pretty cool, though. Well, he pushed the piano up the mountain. That's insane. That's it. I wouldn't do that. Yeah. Like one wrong move and. Yeah. You're not pushing it free for any time ever. No, after you can look at it. In pieces. Yeah. Oh, that was good exercise. Millegs, this all dropped down. Yeah, I mean, I did the point to pinnacle and that was enough. That was enough. I got to metal. That's okay. Nice, mate. Nice. Now, this is Sammy J on the first episode. So, surprise me with this question because I think she was going to have an answer, but she did. So, I'm going to ask all vocalists this question, you know, it's kind of like a guitar new question, but the question is, do you have a favorite piece of gear? What is it and why? Favorite piece of gear. It's got to be cocaine or something. So, that gear, right? Well, that's what I was going to say, like something that's, it may not be a music related thing, but you use it every time you gig or something because I know vocalists. Can I say my penis? Can I say? Can I pack him down? You can't know. You could fold him. I could fold him, but I think a mic isn't extremely handy piece of gear to have. And I do have one. Do you have a specific one because of a reason or you just have one? I just tell you, is it sure? Is that how you pronounce it? Sure, I think. Sure. Don't care. It doesn't matter. Sure. Sure. She, him, her, whatever. Well, I care about names and the reason is, I always get my last name pronounced incorrectly. So when I realized that, do you want to say it for the audience? Can you just look at the camera? No, no, no, no, just going to tell them. We're not going to. We're not going to. No, no, we're not doing this. I may not move you going to do safe for the audience. That's oh, Gary. So Gary, same as scary. They're not Gary. Not Gary. No, because people do that, don't call it. Grady. Did you read it? There's no. Actually, I have heard that. I've heard a Grady before. But like, when I realized that Porsche was Porsche, I was like, oh, that sounds wrong. I look good. Okay. I'll call Porsche from now. Oh, Gary. So when, when names like sure, or it's Sinhizer, Sinhizer, how, how did they do it? I know it's the dairy. I know. I finally watched a video. So how do you pronounce D your Poster V A, D D, D, whatever the fucking is? So that's why I care about names, because I'm always gets it wrong. Well, my people always spell my name wrong. You didn't though. No, I checked it. You did your research. You did. I checked. Congratulations. I was like, I don't think there's a you, and I just go good up your little profile. No, you know you. Yeah. So that's good. So, it's sure. So you've got a SM 58. Yeah, sure. No, I swear. Right. I don't know. I think it's probably like the base. When you think of microphone, that's the shape. Yeah. Yeah. It's got to be a 50. Yeah. Reliable. Heavy duty. Works well. Pretty much anywhere. Yeah. Yeah. Fits in your back pocket. Yeah. So the answer to that question is not really. Don't really have a favorite piece of equipment. I don't really have equipment. No, that's, yeah. That's why it's not really a vocalist question, but Sammy was really adamant about her little send-hizer thing. She loves it. She knows, saying through other mics, but this one suits me. So that's why I'm going to ask the question from Neal on. But yeah, nice. Anything else that you may take to every gig that you think's good, like vocally, or helps you with your routine. Not, not, not, not particularly in terms of gear. I think one of my things is getting up and trying to make the audience laugh before I start singing, so that if I sing like shit, they can remember that I made them laugh, so it just can't soothe each other out. Yeah. It's a good treat. Yeah. Well, it tends to work. It tends to why I think it tends to work. Do you find it relaxes you as well as them? That's probably more what I do it for is because I get up and I talk for a bit about, you know, absolutely nothing. I did a bit on what sport people thought I played. And one lady got it, like she guessed 10 pin bowling and I was like, that's a good effort. Like some woman yelled out, rugby and I stopped and I said, have you ever seen a rugby player built like me? Some woman yelled out, yes, and I went, you liar. No, you have not, because I'm not built like a rugby player. What grade was in? Yeah, yeah, he was in year seven. But yeah, so yeah, it is probably, it is more to calm me down before I get up and sing and you know, have a bit of a connection with the audience, which I think isn't very important. Yeah. Yeah, I like it. What is your fondest and or proudest moment, so fast, far of being a musician? Oh, and it can be anything that is related to being a musician, doesn't necessarily have to be a show or anything. Probably conducting the like the two times I've probably conducted, which has been with young voices of Hobart and the last night at the Singers Lounge. I think those two events have absolutely been highlights of my musical career. And I think with young voices of Hobart been given the song and rehearsing it in rehearsals and telling them what I want and them knowing what I'm going to do. And that's really special. But also to be able to ask a whole room of singers on the last night of a festival, I'm like, we're going to do this. And my original plan was not to conduct it. I'm like, I'm just going to start you off. And I'm going to leave the stage. And I'm just going to get you to sing it. But I started it and I'm like, no, this could get really out of hand because the people on this so the room can't hear the people on this so the room. So I stood up there and the people were watching. And there is something about having a group of people following your hands and following everything you do that's really special. And I had-- yes, so many people come up to me after that and go, that was awesome. That made the festival for me. And I went, I didn't-- that wasn't-- that was almost a bit confronting. Because I was like, oh, I was just doing what I loved and what you all wanted to sing. So yeah. The singers said that to you. Yeah. Not the audience. No, the singers on stage. Oh, that's pretty cool. Yeah, that's cool. And I had a guy called Paul Jam and who's been coming to the festival for, you know, since it began like two decades ago. And he typically hosts the singers lounge. He came up to me after that. And I've known him for a few years. And he came up to me and said, well, that was exactly what the festival needed. Like that vibe and that energy is exactly what we needed right then. And that was fantastic. And that man, a lot coming from him because he's a fantastic musician and a great person. So, you know, and even conductors out of-- there was a conductor from that course who came up to me and said that was really good. And I had a guy from Queensland come up to me and say, and you've got really easy hands to follow, which is a good thing to be told if you want to conduct. You know, you don't want someone going, "Facts are doing with his hands." What is that mean? It's like if you can get up in front of a group of people that you don't know and people are going, oh, that's easy enough to follow. And I go, well, must be doing something right. I believe in. That's weird. Yeah, so I think those are my highlights and especially bohemian rhapsody on the last night of the singers there. I'm sure the festival invoices in 2026. I wish I was there, Neil. It's on Facebook. Oh, is it? It's on Facebook. I can just do it. A sneaky little plug, which is-- That'll be a link that will add to this. We're Sozboan Music. We're sozboan. And then there's a little hyphen. And it's Osborne, O-S-B-O-R-N-E. Music. So, Austin. Yeah, that's the space. Austin, we're sozboan. Music. Oh, yeah. Well, just-- Justin is currently streaming. I'm not sure if he's going to be there. The love you get from other Truppy drivers on the road is awesome. I was driving next to another Truppy today and it's beautiful like 2013 tan Truppy. I passed him and he didn't see me and then he sped up so he could wave at me and then I was sitting behind him and then I went past him again and he was like, "Yeah!" That's what I love. That's what I love. Now anyways, I went to party in the paddock and there was this drag show on and I went, "Oh, I've done that before. I'll go and I'll see what it's about." And anyways, Dylan Blue and someone else was doing this show and they're like, "Right, we're going to do a fucking lip sync pad." I'm like, "This could be interesting." So I was like, "I'll put it on my hand." And then this. Are they pulling people out of the crib? Yeah, okay. So this other girl got up and so they're like, "What song do you want to do?" I'm like, "Let's do Sweet Transvestite from the Rockio Pitcher Show." And they're like, "Oh, we like that and they went to the girl. What song do you want to do?" And she's like, "Scat man." And they're like, "No, we're not going to do Scat Man because they had something against it." I don't know. And so they did Sweet Transvestite and this poor girl had no hope. That's my dream role in theatre as Frankenford. So, yeah, she had no hope. And the crowd absolutely fucking all loved it. Like, the 150 people there, which was in what's called the bullpen, they just went off. There's a fantastic photo of me actually doing it. And it was just, yeah. That's probably the craziest show I've been a part of, I think. Because it was just so spontaneous, you think? It was just so spontaneous. And it was kind of like, you know, the whole. This is what I've been preparing my whole life for. You know, kind of thing. But yeah, I don't think there's been anything else that's kind of been. Crazy. Something random happening in the gig or. No. Yeah. Also fun, like what you just mentioned, there's something magic about, like, say there's a band or an act on stage. There's something magic to the punters when someone from the crowd gets up and fucking owns it, whether it's like a musician friend. So I always do that. My mates say, "If you want to get up and jam, fucking come and jam." Because I know how I feel when I'm on your position, I just want to join you. And so, like, if the people don't know, like, they just go, "Oh, this guy's been in the pub just drinking beers the last two hours." And look at it, look at it. And that was amazing. And they don't expect them to be musicians. And that's like. There's something magic about that. I remember when I was really young, one of the biggest gigs I ever did, when I was that age, it was just a mate's birthday party. He's asked me, "Bit with this massive stage, anyway, we get up there." And one of my mates, Dad's was there, and he can sing really well. So I said to him, "Do you want to get up there?" He said, "Yeah, I'll call you out. I'll call you out." And so I made up this bullshit little story thing. And I was like, "Who in the crowd wants to get up and sing us all wins?" And everyone was like, "Yeah, I was like, "What about you, mate? You look like you can sing and he gets out there, owns it." And everybody's like, "Yeah, yeah." Because I just made it. That was staged, but some people didn't realize. And they were just thought, "These old blokes, we're getting, you know." Yeah, of course. And you've just ruined that for them now. They're gonna listen to this podcast, and you've just fucked all their dreams. Yeah, but nobody knows what I'm talking about. This is easy, mate. There's only a couple hundred people in here. I know you're a couple hundred, he says. Yeah, that was a good fun. But yeah, moving on, eh? Moving on, mate. What's one piece of advice that you would give to younger musicians if you could only give one piece of advice? Just own who you are and be confident. Is that two piece of advice? That's the same thing. That's encapsulated in the one. You can just say just own who you are. But like, I think your second part was big confident in that. Yeah, you know, don't. There's no need to hide yourself. There's no need to, you know, be less. If someone tells you to be less, tell them to be less for fuckhead. And then walk away from them. You know, there's no need to be less. You know, you should be the exact amount of you that you want to be. And, you know, don't worry about what that means. Just do you. Do whatever makes you happy. And, yeah, fuck what other people think. Imagine if they told Freddie Mercury to be less. I'm sure someone. I'm sure someone, exactly. Any listen. Imagine that. You wouldn't have this dude prancing around a lot of that. No. But I guarantee you. People like Freddie Mercury and Elton John and George Michael, you know, they all had people who went, "Are you a bit much?" You know. But the lucky thing was that they did pay attention. I'll just say thank you. That's what I'm generally mean. And you see them go, huh? Yeah, they got nowhere to go. I didn't upsetting what the fuck. Yeah, yeah, good, I'm glad. Thanks for nowhere to go. That is a fantastic way to do with these kind of people too. It is good. On the other side of that question, what is the best piece of advice that you've been given that helped you or in the same way you may have just figured out over the time, or it could be two? I mean, what I just said then, which is just, you know, don't worry about what other people think. You know, if. I was at something you learnt or as you got told. I think it was a bit of both. I couldn't tell you if someone, you know, there wasn't a memory where someone went. Yeah. I think it was more because I didn't fit in at school and I didn't fit in with people my age that I just, you know, went and mum telling me and stuff like that, I went, "Ah, yeah, these people mean nothing." So, why am I getting upset about them saying that, you know, they don't like my haircut? I like my haircut. Yeah. It's that simple. Yeah. Yeah, so I think just not. not dwelling and not caring on what other people say. I agree. Massive. So important, man. Because so many people get bogged down by what other people think. And I mean, education's another thing entirely. You know, people get really bogged down in the fact that they think that, you know, "A talent shit matters and it does not matter at all." Not a bit. You know, I mean, sure, if you want to go straight from college into university and be like a fucking doctor and that's fantastic, we need doctors. But like, you could just like wait a year to use, have a couple of gap years work. Then ATA doesn't matter. And you just get into uni anyway. Hmm. Yep. So, I think there's a lot of unnecessary pressure on people. Nowadays, then before ATA and stuff like that, and a lot of misinformation around that. Yeah. I think like, for me at least, I'd probably see it more now because that's my mind frame. Mindset is like, I've given less fucks about, oh, I've got to achieve this by ATA or X age. I should be here. I should be there. And I'm like, you spend so long worrying about all this shit. But you never fucking stop to go, "Am I actually happy?" Yeah. The only time that matters when you're happy is fucking right now. Yeah. Doesn't matter if you were happy fucking two weeks ago yesterday, am I happy today? And like, if it's just a minor inconvenience, oh, that's just life. But if you're not happy today, and it's always, it's been there for a long time, or that's a problem, fix it. And it's like, oh, but if I fucking, if I study and I do this, and I achieve that, I'll be happy in 10 years. I fucked that. You gotta be happy along the way, too. Yeah, it's 10 years of your life where you're thinking. Oh, I think. That's what I like. I agree with you. And I mean, the thing about being happy now is, and my grandmother used to always say this, is that you can, you're only in charge of your feelings. If someone does something to you, you can let that not ruin your day. Yeah. You can, you have the power to just move past that. It's hard to learn if you're not that way inclined, but it is fucking bad. Exactly. When you learn it. It's not an easy thing to go, you know, in the things that I've just said, which is not care about other people, and what they think about you, you know, not let other people ruin your day. Those two things, if you haven't been brought up with them, very difficult, just very hard to learn. Very difficult to learn. But like, it's possible. Yeah. You've just gotta realize that if someone says something to you, you've then gotta have a process in your head that goes, "Oh, actually, you're a muppet." I'm not gonna pay any attention to you, and I'm just gonna disengage. Yeah. Now it's powerful, it's very powerful. But on the other side of something else, for something completely different. I like different. Let's go there. What's the worst thing about being a musician? Uh, the people. No. (laughs) Well, with the other musicians? This is terrible, though. I love this, and thank you for the opportunity. I probably should say thank you for your opportunity. No, it's not a worry at all. Thank you for coming on. I mean, I haven't experienced it much, but talking to people is, you know, what people's expectations are for gigs and stuff, and money, and that sort of thing is that it's, it is very difficult to make a living out of, and I'm sure you can give me some insight to what I've already been told, which is that, you know, unless you're already, I mean, I look wealthy or well set up, you know, or have a good base to perform, then it's near impossible. I mean, especially in Tassie, that's why a lot of, you know, musicians and stuff, move to the mainland so they can get, you know, jobs in orchestras and stuff like that. So I would probably say that's certainly one of the, the toughest things for musicians. There's also a lot of negativity, you know, there's a lot of people saying, you know, like you can't do that. There's a career or, you know, there's a lot of, that kind of stuff for, yeah, I think it's a, it's mainly the more difficult part is figuring out how to have a balance of still doing what you love, which is music, and still working out, how to make a living. - Fine answers, which I'm sure you know all the much about. - Yeah, yeah, it is hard. I've found personally a my journey, my style of playing the way I perform, I find it in Tazzy, it's really, really hard to make a good income unless you're doing like corporate things, weddings, covers, gigs. Like for me to go and make a living, doing originals in Tazzy, like really hard. I know I need to go on tour and I know I need to do this, but without a record company or an agency, or whatever, I've got no money to go and do that. - No. - So it's like, well, yeah, to take, you know, a couple of vans or, you know, something like that. And without being a known artist, like I'm not really gonna sell out rooms, so I'm probably gonna lose money to do that. So it's, yeah, it's really hard if you want to do that. - You really needed to do that. - To do it as an opener or something with someone, and you know, like, yeah. - That are gonna pave your travel costs and things. - Yeah. - That would be the dream, you know, as a little small artist that's in a reduce, I guess, but. - But yeah, everybody's different. I know you can get into like, sink, licensee and things, and there's a different avenues you can do, but obviously, like you said, you have to be happy with what you're doing with music, 'cause some people might love the cover scene, others hated, some people like, I love like writing scores and songs for adverts and TV shows, but other people are like, "Oh, shit, I don't wanna do that." So you've gotta find your avenue and, yeah, to make the money that way can be difficult, I guess, for a lot of people. - Yeah, and I think, you know, there are bands that have been around so long and they just tend to get the gigs too, I think, that's another issue, you know, that. - Who you know. - Well, yeah, exactly. And that's such a thing, especially at Hobart. - Massive. - Is that, you know, bands that have been around, you know, possibly more than a decade, you know, getting to two. You know, we'll be favoured over, you know, a newer band that started up. But yeah, we get a preview selfie for a new one. - Yeah, you certainly do it. I mean, I would like to break into that scene in some form, but, you know. - Might have did you piano play and learned how to play, probably might. - No, I don't. - I think you can play for. - I'd be okay splitting the minimal fee two ways at the start. But I think it would make sense for me to learn guitar and then you had two instruments. - That'd be cool. - You had a piano and a guitar. and then we on vocals would work quite well, especially for somewhere like, what is that? The bird cage, because they know which is, I went there once before a gig that I was seeing there and the lady behind the bar, we were chatting and whoever was performing there was absolutely horrendous and she was like, this is fucking terrible and utter a breath to another waitress. I was like, I agree with you, apparently this used to be a piano brush and you used to be a piano brush and we should change it back. We should change that back and have that scenario. So that's something that I wouldn't mind doing, it would be awesome. So it's just about learning a, if I ever have throw away money on Megan of Nune, you can come up play. Mum and I, it's so funny you mentioned that. Mum and I have said that we'd love to open like Hobart's Jazz Bar. Like, of course you've got like the Iaxle Long Bar and like, Taiwanese, but we really would love to open a Jazz Bar. It's a bit bigger, you know, more people in like, those two places are amazing, but they're so small and if it's busy, you're like, oh sorry mate. And if you say hello to somebody you've interrupted the music, yeah. And you can't almost go to whisper, it's a bit awkward and the regular look at you very grumpy. Yeah. I did that one, that was a fuck sorry. Don't upset then. But yeah, there'd be cool to have a bigger space where you could, if you're near the stage, it was great, but then you could be a little bit away in chat. I drink at the bar or something. I don't know where you'd put it. No, no, no, you need money to buy a venue and all the venues and our apartments. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. So it's, you know, down the track, maybe, you know, we'll find, find somewhere. We'll win the lottery. We'll be the only ones with enough, because we're going to have to share the winnings and we'll go into some department building to say all the people in there. I didn't tell you to make a lot of your house. Well, we'll rob a bank, win the lottery. Well, what did you said something else? Start an only fans and show our fans. Start only fans and show our playlist. Well, I'm sure young Austin, people would like to see you and your beautifully majestic grandpa knowing the nude playing songs dedicated to them. Well, look, there is this money and everything and, you know, if some old lady in her 60s from Cuba wants to see that, then she can see it or he, I don't mind. I think you might start it, mate. After this podcast, after this podcast, we're getting out there. We're just going to branch out, because as we've discussed music itself, it's not going to work. My money and covers aren't cutting it, mate. We're going to have to, no, we're going to have to lift our game, we're going to have to lift our game. Pod dropping our pants. Yep. So, we've been moving on from that subject. Yeah, we've made it. We've made it. We've made it. We'll go down to Rabbit Hole. We'll get off topic too, mate. Rabbit Hole. There, all right. The other side of that question, what's the best thing about being a musician? The people. For me, it's the people. Musicians. Both. I would more say the audience. The punters. And the people that know you and get to know you consistently. Some musicians I find can be a bit difficult. Maybe I'm the difficult one. I don't know. I haven't worked that out yet. The therapist hasn't, we haven't gone there. It's been, it's been right. No. No, I think the punters would be the reason why I continue to do it. Obviously, I love doing it. And I love singing. I love engaging. But seeing people's faces change throughout a song. Or you hit a note and they're like, "Oh, wow, you hit that note. I don't think he was going to hit that note, but I hit that note." You know what I mean? That kind of thing where you go, "He does. He is actually not shit." So that's, I love seeing that in people's faces because you go, "Oh, you know, I'm going to judge." They should judge. I would appreciate people if they come up to me and they go, "That wasn't. " Or there was a part of your performance where I was like, "It could have been better." Or maybe there's someone with pitch perfect and they go, "Oh, look, it slipped a bit here." I'm like, "Great, thanks. I'll go and work on that." Or you could have been more engaging with the audience. Fantastic. I'll work on that. Rather than, and it's lovely people come up to you and go, "That was fantastic. That was an amazing performance. I'm like, thank you." But if you don't mean that and you have something to say, I'd prefer you to just say it. You know what I mean? Some people find that very confronting, obviously. It's not the norm to go and criticize someone, but. I especially if you don't know them, yeah. But like, if you come up and you introduce yourself and we have a conversation and then you do it, then I don't have an issue with that. Or quite like, I thought you were going to say this when someone will come up and go, "That wasn't what I was expecting." I thought it was going to be different and I loved it. Like you say, "Judger, book bites cover." Like, if you look at me before I sing a note, I want the fucks this going to be. And it's not normally what a lot of people think. No. No. And that's a good point too. I mean, some of the songs, because I mean, this is obviously very informal. Typically, I'm in a suit of some kind. Yeah. Well, I thought you were very appreciative of being on the end. You let me down, mate. No, I was going to. Well, I was going to. And I'm like, "Well, it's on fucking radios." Who cares? But then I realised that we were live streaming. No, it's only there once. It could be worse, mate. It could be worse. It could be way worse. As long as you're happy. With this? Yeah. Yeah. Absolutely. I'm ecstatic. Good. I was kind of rooting for Mr. BW to be on well. Oh, yeah, yeah. You were live. I was like, "No, I obviously don't want to be on well." But I'm like, I'd love to sub a tune. It's really fantastic. We would have got you on anyway. I'm easy. It's great to be here. I'm not a fan. That's good, haven't you? I'm enjoying this. I'm not as nervous as I thought I was going to be for as long. The first one was Sammy, the first 10 minutes. I was, "Judry." This is all good. And it was just relaxed. I just talked to the person. Yeah. Stop thinking about the recording. There's no camera. There's no mic in my face. Now I'm excited about it. It's good. I think it's fantastic. Yeah, as a touch of the phone, I want to, I've always liked the idea of podcasts and it's just sitting down and chatting. It's the main thing. So yeah, I think it's fantastic. It's good. I want to get the chats and all the locals. Yeah. It's cool. So who would you say is your favourite artist? If you'd only listened to one, you know that horrible question. I am a prick. Yeah. So I'll give you a look. And this can be, I think you can categorise this into say, feel like an artist, but they also write songs that other people, you can listen to that as well. Or even if you want to make it say a producer. So for example, Mutt Lang has produced some amazing things. Yeah, but I couldn't tell you the producers. Okay, so it's going to be artist for you. You're not that nerdy. Not that nerdy. Yeah. Yeah. I'm going to have to be now. I know. Because when people ask me, I'm going to be like, no, I'm not going to give you an artist. I'm going to give you a producer. Yeah, you'd like that one. And then because they won't know. They won't because they won't be nerdy. It's going to be great. Just shit. Because I've got no idea what you're going to pick here. You'll probably surprise me. But who would you pick? For me, myself personally. Yeah, artists. I don't know. Produce, but just they wouldn't. Yeah. Okay. That is a second thought. Yeah. Because I'm giving you lots of second thoughts and thirds and fourths. People like, Oh, John and Billy Joel and Ben Fowls come to mind. And that's because of their versatility between genres. Yeah. So you know, listen to the same thing all the time. Yeah. Because someone, because like a band like Kiss or I say they say it's all the same shit. Like it's it's, you know, constant. Um. I even summon gaff and cool shit. Well, this is not fair. You're an evil. It's not an actual, I outcome. Like it's just a matter of. No, I understand that. But like, I I need to stay in autism. Like, you know, you've got to run through all these, you know. - Possibilities. - Possibilities and the categories that you've got to go through. Like you've got ABBA and then you've got, you know, fuck, beetles and rolling stones. Let's just like lock in Billy Joe. - Billy Joe? - I like it. - I think that's-- - I like it. - That's got, actually no, I changed that. - Already. - Yeah, we're going mountain goats. - Mountain goats. - The mountain goats. - I'll never rid of them. - That's unfortunate. You're missing a-- - I'm gonna fry that down. - The mountain goats, actually. - Yeah. - And Nick Cordo, my music teacher, will be very proud of me right now if he ever listens to this. I'll send you the link, Nick. They're an American band and they've got-- - Would I know a song? Do you think? Like, you know, sometimes people go, "You know that song? "No, I don't. "They put it on the eye on that song." I don't think you would. - No, okay. - I can play you like one of the most famous songs that they want me to get my phone out. I can like, you know. - Oh, we might get copyrighted. - I get copyrighted. - They're like, John D'Arnell is the lead singer and guitarist. And his lyrics are like, sometimes quite dark and humorous. Like one of his lyrics is, "I'm gonna poke you in the eye with a phone object." You know, another one is like, you know, I hope you lie and I hope you die and like, you've been a good wife and stuff like that. Like, they're very, I don't know, he's an amazing lyricist and I think if I had to pick a band to listen to, and no one else, and because they've got different, they've got, he's got like so many albums and so many different genres that he covers. It would be them. - Yeah, so you can get a good eclectic mix of things even as the same person. - Yeah. - Yeah, that's cool. I like it. - Yeah. - So the mountain goats locked in Eddie. - Oh yeah. - Nice. - Yeah, nice work mate. I'll go and have to listen to them. That's my homework this week. Where do we get up to? - A favorite artist. - If you could have a chat like this with anyone or have somebody else do it, who would it be? Dead or alive, past, present, future, and anyone? Music related of course. The reason I don't prep these questions so you don't have three days to think about it. - Yeah, no. I think, I think Elton John could be a really interesting person to talk to. - I don't know if I've heard anything with him actually. - I've got a little for it but. - I. - Yeah. He, yeah. I'm not sure how it would go. I get the sense that he's a bit like over talking to people - Talking to people. - And like the idea of a podcast. But like just, I feel like it's very basic to say Freddie Mercury. Like I feel like that's a basic answer. - I feel like. - Not if you like it. Remember what we said, fuck with anyone else things. - Yeah, I just, yeah. - 'Cause Freddie was before this more relaxed interview style of podcasts. He was always a stupid reporter with their stupid questions. Like what did you cat have for breakfast? You know, none of this long form chat. - Yeah, I think I've seen anything of Freddie that's like a long form chat. - No, I think he'd probably be okay with this kind of more intimate rather than, yeah. - And it'd be super interesting. - Yeah, because you'd hear just about absolutely everything. - Something like Freddie or something like Van Morrison. - Hmm. - I mean, he's reasonably anti-social. So it would be quite difficult to get something out of him. But if you've gone him on a good day, where he was facing the audience, that could be a bit odd if he was sitting on the couch and he was facing the wall. Yeah. Dr. John could be interesting. Dr. Cokka. Yeah, it's odd. I think Peter Garrett actually could be. - Hmm. - He'd go close at home. Okay, he could have some good stories and be really good at like the sitting down chatting style. - And be cool, he's good at chatting, isn't he? He's neat about the tuition that look. - He was until he realised that it probably, probably more difficult to do something solo. I guess it's really difficult to get what you want as a politician. Especially if you can't, my parents said you'd be a great politician. That's like not true, 'cause I don't like lying to the people. And I want the best people. That's not politicians, it's not the fucking facade. So I think I think Freddie Garrett could be cool. I think that's where the tangent has led me. - There I will lock him in. - Lock him in. - So I'm in auto on the last two in one system. It was awesome, it was like the Royal Park or something right on the waterfront. And there was like a thousand people there, not even that. And it was sold out too, and it was so small. And I was like, like I rode back from the barrier, and it was just so casual, and it was insane. It was insane concert. And they just released a final album which had like tar kind and stuff on it. And it was insane. Yeah, it was such an intimate piece. - What you was there? Must have been like, 22, 23. - Okay. - It was pretty recent. I don't even remember seeing it advertised. - Because they, yeah, it was really on, I can't remember exactly what it was for. - So it wasn't for their actual tour, it's just a random one? - I can't remember whether they were doing a tour because after that I remembered that they called it quits. - Okay. - They weren't gonna progress as a band or another. - And enough, yeah. Yeah, you think might have been for like part of some festival being or some bloody. - It wasn't a festival, but like a couple of the songs were related to Tasmania, like Tar-Kon. So I think maybe they felt that they needed to come down and perform the Tasmanian songs. - Yeah. - The Tasmanian songs. - Yeah. - The interesting. - Yeah. It was great though. - I don't know that. - So what's the best gig you've attended actually? - Herbie Hancock at the Sydney Opera House was pretty up there. - Cool. - That was pretty insane. Kiss. Kiss was pretty insane too. And that was in the front, Oshpit. That was bit hectic. - They were, I don't know. - Yeah. - And glad I went to see them though, because that was their fourth time final tour, a ton of thing, but now it is that they're not coming back now. They're sold all the rights and everything. Elton John was up there too. I think like Rufus Wainwright at the Odian, that's it. - That's the one. - Right there in Hobart. - Yeah, didn't have to go anywhere. - Didn't have to go anywhere and I was front row center and it was right there. - Yes. - And I'm like this is insane. - Waves is so good. - Just because it was so intimate and it was just bizarre. Like, why is he here? - Well, like such a big name and just little theater. - Yeah, like why? And I think it's because he has a friend here. And like this is, 'cause I'm playing the Palais Theater and stuff like that, which is a thousand people, or whatnot. - Yeah. - Okay, the Odian seats what? - 400. - I don't know. - If that. - A big Zodian, Timmy. - Capacity. - I've got a knife in that. - A thousand. - Yeah. - Maybe. - Well, you've got the standing area and then the extra bit. - Let's go. - He's gonna go go go. - He's gonna ask Uncle Google. - This is where you need a piano to play it out of the elevator music, like the palm, - Dum-dum-dum-dum-dum-dum-dum. - We can do a bit of a snare thing there if you get the brushes with your nice coffee stand. - That's so much effort. - Oh, it's quiet. The town is fantastic. The Odian Theater and the Hollywood City. They're saying that he's congerting. 50 for standing events while it's sitting here to capacity is 820 Yes, I was off by 400 1300 standing 820 seating Yeah, some wild stand-up gigs. Yeah, how have what's the palaith is or in Melbourne then It's got to be more. I saw a jet actually Jeff Goldblum. Yeah, that was recently I met I met Jeff Goldblum and shook his hand how cool that he's an amazing people don't know that is amazing jazz pianist like he's wicked Has a fully seated capacity of Yeah, that makes sense It's not it's no it's it's it's it's it's such a weird thing to Is not at the pala yeah seated only what is that to eight is that we said yeah To eight yeah, that's pretty cool Yeah, two point nine base. So that's just a two point nine because you've got the ashes who's sitting at the top Well, and you've got a couple of people in wheelchairs that have to sit in their wheelchairs, so there'd be at least ten of those So you have a point nine. Let's go two point nine. I think that's easy. You got to include people Do we I don't think we should I think we should stop doing that Timmy did I send you that wheelchair comedy comedy video not long ago like this week last week was that it was actually just a Couple of people falling downstairs. No, and this guy was singing did I was so she was so funny It was not I'll find a I'll send it to yourself as she was fucking hilarious Was so good was so good But yeah, she was sitting in her own chair because obviously she can't get out and get into the standard seat So two point nine the pala for you to see just two point nine easily easily two point nine Let's go with that and the people probably bring their lap dogs in as well. So we'll include the dogs Don't another thing. Oh, let's let's go there those people. I Lose kind of people and I'm not Lebanese. Don't say that Have you got anything upcoming you'd like to promote Not tomorrow this week because it won't be out yet Oh, no, I don't actually no recordings. No nothing. No big gigs no more festival of voices. No, that's all ended No, I No swinging your hand around events No, do you want me to swing a hand in your events what is called conducting? Connecting No, nothing recent left keeping on the old sushils. Yes, keeping on the socials can follow all the socials and stuff and then you'll know We'll put them in the link mate link in bio. That's what they say Link in the bio. I don't know nothing about that. Not covered technology You said you were good with it. I knew a bag of me happy before we hit record. Yeah, well, that's because I can do that I don't know fair. I think that's all we got. My unless you want to include something else. I think there's anything else to include. I think thanks to you and thanks to Tim and It's been a pleasure. Thanks kindly young Austin Osborne. Thanks mate. Thanks for jumping on. Thank you very much