After years as a musician and label boss, Guy Blackman’s career is beginning all over again as a solo artist. The driving force behind Chapter Music, one of Australia’s best-regarded independent labels, he has amassed a large, free-ranging catalogue of artists from places as far-flung as Tokyo, New Haven or Gothenburg.
Guy also served in fondly-remembered Melbourne groups Sleepy Township and Minimum Chips, who both released records on labels all over the world. But since returning to Melbourne in 2004 after a life-changing 18 months in Japan, Guy has focused on his intricate and melody-rich work as a solo artist.
These days, he presents himself as a balladeer, playing deftly constructed songs on piano and guitar that deal with issues of love, sexuality and commitment. He describes his music, tongue-in-cheek, as “M.O.R. D.I.Y.â€, and his songs evoke comparisons to Brian Wilson, Tim Hardin, Serge Gainsbourg and The Left Banke. Honesty, emotion and personal revelation are the focal points of his work, although none come at the expense of melody or songcraft.
In Australia, he has shared stages with a host of international names such as Vashti Bunyan, Joanna Newsom, Bill Callahan, Jens Lekman, Calvin Johnson, Mt Eerie, The Blow, Karl Blau, Josephine Foster and Dear Nora, while his former bands supported Cat Power, Stereolab and Elliott Smith, amongst others. Elsewhere, Guy has played festivals from Arhus, Denmark to Anacortes, Washington, braved the icy streets of Sapporo, Japan and the elegant, former Communist ruins of East Berlin.
