Tony Cohen: Half Deaf, Completely Mad

Raised in the suburbs of Melbourne, Phill Calvert started learning the drums at four years of age. At the private boys school Caulfield Grammar in the early 1970s he met vocalist Nick Cave and guitarist Mick Harvey and formed a rock band with other students, playing parties and school functions with a mixed repertoire of proto-punk material (David Bowie, Lou Reed, Roxy Music, The Sensational Alex Harvey Band, Alice Cooper). The band picked up Cave’s friend Tracy Pew on bass, and after finishing secondary school named themselves The Boys Next Door. They swiftly became a leading band in the Melbourne Punk rock scene, playing new wave style originals. After recordings for local independent labels Suicide (a subsidiary of Mushroom Records) and Missing Link, and playing hundreds of live shows, the band left for London in 1980 and renamed themselves The Birthday Party, signing first to 4AD Records and then Mute Records. After his split with The Birthday Party in 1982, Calvert joined the UK group The Psychedelic Furs, touring the U.S., but never recorded with them. He left before they recorded Mirror Moves in 1984. He returned to Melbourne and in 1985 became a founding member of the rock group Blue Ruin. They recorded five LPs with Calvert and travelled to the UK. Calvert split with Blue Ruin in the late '80s. Blue Ruin reformed with Calvert for some shows in 2006. Phill along with Guitarist Ben Ling have co-produced the Melbourne band Witch Hats on releases Wound of a Little Horse (2006), Cellulite Soul (2008) and Solarium Down the Causeway (2009). In 2015 Calvert launched the label Behind the Beat Records with associate Ben Ling and have released 10 albums by various Australian Artists to date. As of 2020 Calvert makes assemblage sculpture in collaboration with his wife Julia under the name "Kitty Calvert", while still recording and producing local artists.

A 'soon-to-be-iconic voice' (Rolling Stone), Grace Cummings is a contemporary folk musician from Melbourne, Australia. Her songwriting is influenced by 20th century poets and luminaries, from Joni Mitchell and Bob Dylan to Brett Whitely and Van Gogh, reflecting a strong connection to the Australian landscape. She has appearance at globally renowned music festivals including Womad, SXSW, The Great Escape, End of the Road and Transmusicales and supported a host of venerated artists including Weyes Blood, Gareth Liddiard, J Mascis, King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard and Ezra Furman. Grace won fans around the world with the release of her critically acclaimed 2022 sophomore album, Storm Queen (ATO/Virgin Music Australia) which was acclaimed in industry-leading publications including MOJO (Lead review, 4/5), Uncut (8/10), Reader’s Digest (Album of the Month), American Songwriter (‘Artists to Watch in 2022’) and NME (“beautiful, soaring with an unholy majesty... breathtaking”).

Like most of us, Martin Frawley is busy trying to work himself out. He lives alongside the long shadow of his late dad, musician and songwriter Maurice Frawley, a cultural icon of the Australian underground and collaborator with Paul Kelly, Tex Perkins and Mick Thomas. Most of Martin’s 20s were spent writing and playing songs in locally beloved Melbourne band Twerps – a collection of pals on the forefront of the city’s jangle pop renaissance. His new solo album The Wannabe is a personal, cheeky and, at times, self-deprecating collection of songs unpacking the reality of finding his way as an adult without his dad around, and ultimately falling back in love with life, music and someone new.

Dave Graney started out IN the Moodists. Then there was Dave Graney ‘n’ the Coral Snakes. Then Dave Graney and the mistLY. Involved in the writing, production, recording, mixing and releasing of approximately 40 albums. Four books: It Is Written, Baby (1997); 1001 Australian Nights (2011); Workshy (2018) and There He Goes With His Eye Out – Lyrics 1980–2023 (2023). Presenter of Banana Lounge Broadcasting, a weekly show focused on contemporary Australian music on Melbourne’s Triple R FM since 2008.

Mick Harvey, renowned as a founding member of both The Boys Next Door/The Birthday Party and Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds and for his collaborations with PJ Harvey, has made a series of solo albums during the last two decades including One Man’s Treasure and FOUR (Acts of Love). He has also completed a four-volume collection of translations of the songs of Serge Gainsbourg begun in the 1990s.

Billy Miller is best known as the singer of The Ferrets, who in 1977 had a number 1 hit (‘Don’t Fall In Love’) and gold album (Dreams of a Love). Between then and today nearly 10,000 gigs have passed under the bridge, with The Great Blokes, The Spaniards, The Gypsys, Dave Graney and Clare Moore, The Love Brothers (current) and countless more acts. In April 2018, with co-writer Paul Kelly, Billy was awarded APRA Song of the Year for ‘Firewood and Candles’

Charlie Owen is a renowned multi-instrumentalist who has recorded and toured with just about everyone. He was a member of The New Christs, Maurice Frawley and Working Class Ringos, Tex, Don and Charlie and Beasts of Bourbon, touring member of Divinyls, and as a session player has appeared on albums by Kim Salmon and the Surrealists, Robert Forster, Spencer P. Jones, The Cruel Sea, Steve Prestwich, Conway Savage, Don Walker and Paul Kelly.

Kim Salmon’s most enduring legacy, and not one that he particularly tried for, will no doubt be that many blame him, or at least his band The Scientists, for ‘grunge’ in Australia. His expansive career has seen him traipse many of Australia’s most beloved stages, release a plethora of albums and receive induction into both the Western Australia Music Industry Association and Music Victoria’s respective Hall’s of Fame.

Leah Senior silences audiences with her ethereal vocals and unique lyricism. Hailed by critics as a divine masterpiece, her latest album The Passing Scene is a charming expansion on her previous two records lilting between springtime baroque-pop and 70s folk. The Passing Scene effortlessly weaves together themes of impermanence, the natural world, loss and ultimately hope. In May 2023, Leah Senior released a version of Grant McLennan's Easy Come, Easy Go as part of the Tony Cohen memoir song series.

Chris Thompson has been recording, mixing, and producing music for decades, working with the likes of Paul Kelly, the Waifs, Augie March, and the Hilltop Hoods. He worked with Triple J recording many local and overseas acts.