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Christian

dreadlock77

About Me

I live in a shack I built from recycled stuff in the hills behind the Sunshine Coast in Australia. I love music, and the Bass has been my instrument since school days. Making music has been the vehicle for my life and it has taken me around Australia many times and around the world quite a few. Music has given me my greatest highs and set up my most terrifying moments. It has fed my ego and my soul, it has introduced me to experiences and people I could only dream of, it has taught me commitment, it has taught me persistence.......I have been fortunate to be a touring musician with some great musicians. Some of the highlights include.... ** touring with the late Matt Moffitt and playing my favourite Aussie ballad 'Short Note' to open a gig at 'The Venue' in DeeWhy, Sydney.... ** getting the 5 star treatment while playing with NZ star Margaret Urlich.... ** touring with guitar legend Kevin Borich. Using Ray Charles' dressing room (and pinching a beer from his rider) at the Australian Music Festival in Melbourne, and later .. our set, finding myself standing shoulder to shoulder back stage between John Mayall and Tony Joe White.... ** sharing a bottle of Vodka with Jay Kay at a party outside London.... ** chatting about mutual friends with Doug Wimbish at the Union Chapel gig.... ** partying hard at Moody Studio in London the night before Duncan and Jamie left to make the first '1 Giant Leap' album.... ** performing songs off the 1Giant Leap album with Duncan Bridgeman at the Woodford Folk Festival in Australia.... ** playing Ronnie Scotts in London.... ** meeting Gail Ann Dorsey.... ** getting a call from Nigel Butler (a true friend) to tour Europe in 'Tribal Drift'..... ** being offered the opportunity to produce and play bass for Emily Maguire. When I first heard her music my only thought was '...the world needs to hear this.' Seven years later she trusted me to help make that happen..... ** headlining at Piano's in New York City.** Touring the UK and Ireland with Emily, supporting Don McLean.... ** playing the Royal Albert Hall in London..... ** touring with Eric Bibb..... ** playing Glastonbury 2008.... working with drummer Geoff Dugmore.....

My Interests

I'm really into music production, I like trying to work out how they get 'that' sound in the big expensive studios and then improvise a method to fake it in my little blue room. I'm into doing things myself. I built Shaktu by recycling other people's junk. I find necessity a great asset to creativity. I really like being busy with our record label, Shaktu Records. It's about as independent as you can get.... but we have websites, a recording studio, a computer, an engineer, a producer, and an amazingly talented song writer.... so I guess we are pretty Major in our own eyes.I love good food - the local produce here in the hills is wonderful. We make goat cheese on the farm, so we hook up with local gourmets at farmers markets. I spent a lot of years living in Sydney and London and the difference between plastic wrapped 'food' from a supermarket and buying local from the guy who grew it or made it can only be experienced.I'm really into touring. Travelling and playing music is food for the soul. 'Moving' is the major force, the energiser for my creativity. I need my fix of city life. The hustle of sound checks and gigs. Paris is my favourite city so far, probably 'cos I've never lived there. Drinking beer at 3am in La Cordonierre in Sauntier with Shon Sullivan, Will Haliday, Stuart Miller, and Bart, while we recorded Will's album in Paris is one of my fondest memories. We've just returned from a tour including gigs in London and New York. Fantastic gigs at Mo Pitkins and Pianos in Manhattan. I cant wait to get back there later in '07 for more shows.

Music:

Emily Maguire, Joni Mitchell, Chatham County Line , Jaco, John Coltrane, Earth Wind and Fire, The Isley Brothers, Jimi Hendrix, Neil Young, 1 Giant Leap, Massive Attack, Matt Moffit, Miles Davis, Pat Metheny, Aimee Mann, Kevin Borich, Seal, Aretha Franklin, Burt Bacharach, Michael Franti, Prince, Bill Evans, Gil Scott-Herron, The Tubes, Pmff, Dave SB

Movies:

The World According to Bush, Amelie, Chocolate, Blade Runner, Matchstick Men, The Wicker Man, Omega Man, Raising Arizona, Blue Velvet, Mad Max, Rabbit Proof Fence, Delicatessen,

Television:

I dont watch television. I have a beautiful lady, 3 guitars, a bass, a piano, a recording studio, lots of talented friends, a short life, I live in paradise.....why would I want a television!

Books:

Perfume, Dirt Music, The Kite Runner, Birds Without Wings, The Green Mile, Thinner, The Wind-up Bird Chronicle, The Way to Freedom, Touching The Void, Down Under, Factotum, The Lost Continent, Jesus The Man, The Broken Shore, One Mans Bible, Rage, ... most Dean Koontz, Walter Mosley, Michael Connelly, Lee Child.... anything from H.H. The Dalai Lama.

Heroes:

People whose struggle in life has defied the odds. My friends who got back up and kept going...