Crown Street is full of surprises. You never know quite who you’ll come across. One of the more pleasant surprises is a marching band that pops up from time to time. We’ve become quite the fans. Erez has been known to follow them down the street with a video camera.
We tracked down trumpet player Luke Stephens to get the story behind the Brassholes.
How would you describe your music?
Happy!
How did all you brassholes meet?
We met at uni and playing in various bands together around Sydney.
How did the idea to walk the streets come about? How long have you been doing it?
We noticed that people were always a little too serious when walking around the streets of Sydney and we decided playing brass band music would be a great way to cheer everyone up! We have only been a band for a few weeks, we were waiting on the sousaphone (the big one) to arrive from America so that we could start!
What do you listen to when you’re not playing in the band?
Most of us are studying jazz at Sydney Conservatorium so we spend a lot of time listening to that. Our inspiration for the Brassholes comes from the great New Orleans brass bands such as Rebirth and Dirty Dozen (check them out!).
If you could get the dream gig/contract/tour tomorrow what would it be?
It would be called the “Happy Tour”, where we tour the whole world making everyone smile and dance in the streets.
Do you have a band leader? If so who and how do they defend their title?
The band’s ultimate leader is Chris O’dea, he is the baritone sax player, he also organises the personnel, rehearsals and marches. Luke J Stephens runs the website/facebook/twitter stuff and replies to all the emails.
Anything else we should know?
We have our first real gig coming up on March 3rd at Bohemian Grove, an underground jazz venue in Surry Hills. If you don’t know where it is, email us at [email protected] and we will give you the address! Only $10 entry!
Where can we find you?
Website: www.thebrassholes.com
Facebook: www.facebook.com/brassholesband
Twitter: www.twitter.com/brassholesband
Email: [email protected]