A hard day's night

Warrnambool Standard 4th March. 2006 - ©Copyright Warrnambool Standard  2006.  All rights reserved
 
Jason Bull

For many people the idea of making a living out of music is either a dream job or a total bludge -- no nine-to-five drudgery, you get paid to do some thing you love and you can drink at work if you want. The reality is far different from what most punters think. The pay is irregular and is often below the minimum wage, the hours are long and you never get weekends off, and, like in all jobs, you get bad customers, except these ones is often drunk and pouring beer onto thousands of dollars of high-tech equipment. But ask a musician if they’d rather do something else for a living and the answer is a universal “no”. There is believed to be only one musician in Warrnambool who makes a living solely from performing and that’s pianist-vocalist Jason Bull. Other south-west musicians either teach music on the side, work in music stores or studios, repair instruments or hold down non-musical day jobs to make ends meet, but Bull is the exception. He plays about four nights a week during summer, but it drops back to two or three over winter, he said. Bull has resorted to heading north for winter to keep the money rolling in. “For two months each year I go to Airlie Beach (Queensland) and I can get six nights a week up there. “It’s easier to play for someone on holidays who wants to hear the music than someone who wants to watch the footy.” In his 20 years as a gigging muso, the 35-year-old said the biggest change had been the shift in the covers he played. Almost a decade ago, before the pubs started staying open later and trying to compete with night clubs, Bull said he could play what he wanted, which usually meant “a mountain of Billy Joel and Joe Jackson”. “Now you have to play newer stuff (otherwise) they head off to the night club.” he said. Bull estimated about 25 per cent of his income goes into fixing gear that’s blown up from repeated use or some drunken punter pouring a beer in it. But Bull wouldn’t do anything else for a living. “I still enjoy playing other people’s songs. If you want to chase success and be a star that’s the original music path, but if people say they want to go and see Jason Bull play covers at the pub that’s enough fame for me”.

 
Richard Tankard

Warrnambool musician Richard Tankard, a solo artist and leader of Tank Dilemma, has struck a happy medium between performing, making a living keeping his life revolving around music. An average week for Tankard starts with his lone day off on Monday before he teaches music on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. Thursday night he generally has a gig, usually the first of four consecutive nights of playing (he says he plays “anywhere between one and seven gigs a week”). His record is 52 gigs in two months, but you have to strike while the iron’s hot, he said. “For (this year’s) Folkie I’ve got seven in three days — I did 10 over three days a couple of Folkies ago,” Tankard said. While a festival gig with a supplied PA system is only a couple of hours work, not counting prior rehearsals and travelling time, the majority of the gigs can be a hard day’s night. “If I’m playing at Portland, I pack the car at 7pm and get home at 3.30am,” he said. Thursday’s are the big days — five hours of teaching followed by a three-to-four hour gig with an hour or so of pack-up and set-up either side — all with a number of prolapsed discs in his back which has made driving and lifting difficult, he said. For Tankard, the special gigs make it all worthwhile, although often they’re the ones not worth much money.


 
Zygoma


BASSIST Mitch Crute has played with Zygoma since his early high school days and over the past seven years the band has enjoyed a growing following for their original music and covers. Like Tankard. Crute’s life is devoted to music. B day he’s behind the counter at Capricorn Records (the next best thing to working in a music equipment store, he says) and by night he’s on stage with his fellow Zygomas. His working week begins Wednesday night with hand practice and on Thursdays he starts five days in a row at Capricorn. Friday he finishes work at 9pm, rushes straight to a gig, getting to bed at 3am before fronting to work at 9am. Saturday night he gigs again and is back at work lO am Sunday. Crute wouldn’t trade a musical lifestyle for anything and he and Zygoma are keen to embark on the toughest of musical journeys — trying to crack it in the big smoke’s original music scene. “My goal is to do it in Melbourne or Sydney or somewhere. Talent-wise we’re about as ready as we’ll ever be, but material-wise there’s not enough there to do a good hour or hour-and-a-half show.” Eventually that will mean a leap out into the great unknown for all four members, who either work or study or both. Crute said he can’t wait.

 
Steve Gravett

CAMPERDOWN drummer Steve Gravett is at the other end of the scale — he keeps music as a hobby, but he’s very dedicated to his hobby. As a mobile mechanic and removalist, Gravett makes a living — the occasional gigs he does with his covers band Kleetus or as a sound engineer are “the cream on top”. His love of music and the effect it has on an audience is a driving force to keep him playing after 21 years as a musician, the 34-year- old said. “(The best thing is) when people come up to you and pat you on the back and you see people having a good time” Gravett said. Still, if there was no money in it he wouldn’t do it.