Peter ‘Blackie’ Black needs no introduction – an Australian independent music icon playing with the Hard-Ons since the age of 13 and also the largely ignored but brilliant Nunchukka Superfly.
On his lonesome, Black is a master of gentle Psych pop, sometimes acoustic with strings and a tiny bit of piano. Described by some as “that wonderful feeling when an altercation with an scooter at a busy city intersections ends up in your favour”.
In 2020 Blackie released not one but two new albums; If This Is The Hand I’m Dealt and I’m Gonna Cheat As Much As I Can.
“My biggest hero is probably Paul McCartney,” Blackie says. “That guy does it all and his sense of melody and experimentation in the form is wild. I love the 60’s a lot. I love Michael Brown’s writing in all his bands the Stories, Left Banke etc … And all the classic power pop – Raspberries, you name it… In many ways I don’t see what I do solo as that different as its still POP but wanted to present it in a much more gentle fashion.
John Sharkey III: Perhaps best known as the creative force behind confrontational noise-punk band Clockcleaner, which erupted from the fertile soil of Philly’s DIY scene in the 00s, Sharkey's solid underground creds include hardcore/punk bands such as 9 Shocks Terror and more recently, literate indie-rock explorations as Puerto Rico Flowers and Dark Blue.
Written and recorded amidst the devastating bushfires which ravaged his adopted hometown Canberra, just before the wave of pandemic broke, Sharkey’s latest album Shoot Out The Cameras reveals him to be a master craftsman; honing in on the existential dread of living in a burning world, and the imperative to find beauty in what remains.
Jamie Hay has been a stalwart of the Australian punk scene for some years now, from time with the politically charged and double kick-delivered Conation, to his tenure in A Death In The Family, and the ongoing efforts of folk-punk ensemble Fear Like Us. Throughout all his musical endeavours, there has been a slightly haggard sense of catharsis in Hay's voice, an unmistakable song trait that is present and at the fore in solo mode.