Ian’s been looking at life and the obscure intimate moments that it offers up for a good while now. His fascination with these details often gets recorded in pencil in a battered notebook that is not much bigger than an overnight mail train buffet car menu. These thoughts can reside in that notebook for years until one day he will see or be part of an interaction that brings them to life.He’s got a strong connection to place and is a sucker for telling stories that go to the heart what happens in regional Australia having spent a good few years driving from town to town as part of work. Sometimes melodies pop into his head that fit perfectly with notes that he’s made years ago and before he knows it there’s a song mostly finished before he turns the motor off at the end of a shift. His latest collection of tunes was born from stints working in Bathurst, Newcastle and Bucketty (you might have to look the last one up) and the landscapes that connect them all. Musically he sits somewhere between alt country and ramshackle indie blues. It’s certainly not complex music but his story telling sits out the front of original melodies and beats that are anchored in some form of truth he’s experienced.Getting these songs to a point that are shovel ready required a close collaboration with ARIA and Golden Guitar award winner Matt Fell. Matt has created a studio and venue at Wilder Tasmania where artists and the community come together to write, record and experience music under the beauty of Mount Roland. Ian spent time there in July this year having previously sent demos from his home studio in Toukley.
He’s excited to get these tunes out there for people to hear as it’s his first solo project, having been a part of various bands’ outputs over the years. Getting his tune ‘Curtains’ into the top 100 songs in the 2024 Vanda and Young Song Competition gave him the something to build on and having road tested these new tunes at 2025 Dashville Skyline Music Festival and the 2026 Nundle Rocks Music Festival he reckons they will hold their own. Either way he’s at his happiest collaborating with pals and putting together new music that makes people pause and look at the little things in life.
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