Nik Hamby

We did a camping road-trip out to Carnarvon Gorge later in April.  Lots of awesome, breath-taking, heart-moving experiences.  Walking though the gorge each day amidst the towering stone cliffs and the amazing scenery brought emotion to the surface.  We spent a week in the gorge and every day was a new adventure. Each night was filled with music and conversation.   The last day in the gorge had us visiting the amazing Amphitheatre where we met another hiker, who sang beautifully.  The sound was amazing!  I also sang a song fitting the spirit of the place.  Such an inspiring location.

I got back to the The Kingston Butter Factory in April for their open mic night. Milena Luna Music were there.  An awesome duo.  We chatted a bit after the event.  Nice people. I played a few songs. I noticed I had the guitar case open. Might have been my recent Byron Bay busking creeping in?! 

I looked at getting a Byron Bay busking permit back in 2021 but Covid impacted on those plans.  Fast forward to this March when I was up early, dropped my son to work - and then headed down to Bryon.   I spent two hours playing my songs. No tips cos it seems the Covid induced cashless economy may have some credibility.  It was a great venue though and as I moved around a bit I found an awesome echo that went across the street.

February.  What a month, so far!  I started with the night at Kingston Butter Factory, then did another two open mic events at Banshees, which is closer to home.  There was opportunity to do a longer set on the first of those nights - and I sang nine of my songs, including a new one "You Draw Blood".  It's a great song and I had a very positive response to it, so that will be on my release radar very soon - and you'll be able to hear it, too! I decided to enter the Vanda & Young Global Songwriting Competition this year, for the first time.  It's described as "... one of the world's most prestigious songwriting competitions" with a combined prize pool of AUD$70,000.  The judging panel is comprised of high-profile industry professionals and winners are expected to be announced around the end of June.  Fingers crossed! Over the weekend, I attended an APRA AMCOS (music rights management organisation) seminar, at the QUT campus in Brisbane. There were...

Kingston Butter Factory in Logan runs open mic nights as part of their Arts Development program.  I went along for the first time in February and played a few of my songs.  Rebecca came with me and took some footage of me playing. Clips of those are on my FB page, if you want to have a look. It was a good night with quite a few people taking part, many playing originals.  There was a lot of encouragement.  The audience was very attentive and it always feels good for people to really listen to your songs.  It looks like there is opportunity to put in for more work in that area, in terms of longer sets/proper gigs as well as more open mic nights.  (I'll miss the March open mic but should be able to attend in April).     Steve T from Radio Logan 101FM played a couple of songs and we chatted afterwards.  As a follow-on from that meeting, I'll soon be in contact with a program director to tee up a live-interview and play some songs on-air....

Well, January came and went - quite quickly!  A fair bit happened.  There was no trip to Tamworth but Giving Gigs had a song-writing challenge.  "What matters" was the prompt and I threw in a song, which is up on their FaceBook page if you'd like to have a listen. What's Giving Gigs?  It's a "... wordwide vitural venue with Centre Stage for all to showcase their music ..."  They have live-streaming performances, with member artists doing half-hour (and occasionally one-hour) sets.  I took part in two of their events last May and did another two in January - from my new studio.  (I'll probably post of my DIY studio build soon, cos it's come together really well). I post a link on my Facebook page when I'm going to take part in one of these online gigs.  Of course you can follow Giving Gigs directly and check out lots of other independent artists.  There are recordings of past performances up on YouTube, also.  Enjoy!

I released four singles this year, was a Top 30 finalist in the Australian Song-writing Competition (for “A Dog’s Sadness”) - and had three paid gigs, playing two-hour sets of my originals!  My contract with Musicians for World Peace (for “All We Need to Do is Care”) was renewed for a further three years - and this time Rebecca gets credit as graphic artist (for use of her photo).  I did an interview for a local radio station and might get a write-up in the Ipswich newspaper also. It’s all happening!  Recently I was invited to join a group of professional song-writers. That led to a song being reviewed by an industry rep, who gave encouraging feedback.  I’ve played quite a few open mic events (in Melbourne, Sydney, Dalby as well as locally and online). All good fun!  Now we are home-owners, I’ve been busy building a proper studio downstairs. I’m looking forward to more professional production next year - free of traffic noise and bird calls!  The Tamw...