The next story is pretty special to me as I remember seeing The Perch Creek Family performing back in the 90’s and loved watching these quirky kids with perfect pitch and their home made instruments entertain the crowd. I Face-timed Camilla yesterday in Melbourne and we did our interview. Check out their new music video (link attached) It’s awesome!
Photo – Emily Jensen.
Camilla _
“There’s 8 kids in our family and we all grew up in Midginbil which is Perch Creek. I just turned 30 and I’m the eldest. My youngest sibling Lenny is now 16. We grew up in the Midginbil school house my parents moved into when I was 6 months old. It was a small property on 2 1/2 acres. Dad was an avid gardener so we grew a bit of produce and had a couple of dogs but it was by no means a farm. It was a kid farm though (laughs)
I had been learning classical piano for about 3 years at the age of 13. Dad always encouraged me to try and improvise so he bought me a how to improvise Blues music book. We would go through that together and learn different scales. He was always very encouraging to take the music I was learning and make it more my own.
Dad was into op shopping, trading post and Ebay. He was always on the hunt for whacky instruments. He loved collecting different instruments. There was a saxophone, clarinet, piano, guitars and banjos. It got a bit out of hand but he always encouraged us. He was really inspired by the American 1920s and 30’s jug bands and that style of music. He made a washboard and attached a jug to it which my brother Lear played. Eileen played the Clarinet and Christi played Kazoo with this big oil funnel stuck on the end. I played keyboard. They are all the instruments you would have seen us play back at the Lismore Carboot. We would play the markets, fairs and festivals locally. We performed at Port Fairy and Woodford a couple of times. We did have a TV but with pretty much no reception. We only got ABC so occasionally we would watch something as a family.
Perch Creek has consisted of the same band members for 6 years now, myself, my sister Eileen, my brothers Lear and Christi and my boyfriend James. Most of the family are into music but we all do other things as well. Our Mum doesn’t play music but she loves writing and she’s still finding her creative feet I feel. Dad plays guitar and sings. My other 2 sisters are great singers and piano players. Our youngest brother Lenny is an avid electronic music producer now. He’s awesome. Our brother Ira loves music and he plays a bit of banjo.
Dad used to play in the band with us and he had a very strong vision for the band and writing songs. Sometimes it’s hard to wrangle other people into your vision so it reached a natural end really. He kind of quit the band and it gave us the opportunity to take off and find our feet ourselves. It’s healthy not doing everything with your parents.
We moved to Melbourne 6 years ago and we’ve played lots of gigs. When we first moved here we found a booking agent and they booked us everywhere. We toured Australia lots of times and went to Europe 3 times, Canada in 2015. The last 2 years we decided to take it more slowly. My brother Lear the drummer has 3 kids now. My other brother Ira also has 3 kids. Usually when we record albums we do it in a fast space of time. This album we have recorded slowly over 2 years. We recorded the songs as we finished writing them so that was cool.
We all have other jobs and we’ve also started a warehouse project together. We bought a warehouse in Coburg North with some friends and we’ve started an arts space there. Our plan is for a music venue and cafe and lots of good things down the line. A big hub! We have big dreams and we’ve had a fun year learning lots of building skills. It’s called Big House Arts and it’s very exciting. Its good to have other jobs and not to have to put the focus on your music to earn your living.
The latest film clip was filmed all in one day. It was totally epic. We had the best Cinematographer on board who made the best spreadsheet of all the locations, times, lunch break, emergency points. It was so organised. Some scenes were at the warehouse and some at our friends guitar shop in Northcote and all around Melbourne’s north.
I think back to how we were a jug band and had all those whacky instruments and it’s interesting to look back to those times. There’s a lot history of performing in the Northern Rivers at the markets and whenever we still do lots of people remember us. It’s a lot different here in Melbourne because we don’t have that history. I forget that we used to make very different music and it’s funny to think we have been around for so long. There’s not many bands that have been doing it since they were kids and still going strong. We’ve kept changing and our musical style has changed a lot since then. We don’t really play jug band music anymore but it’s interesting to look back at where it began. There is a lot of common thread through the spirit of our band even if we don’t sound like we did.
We are coming home in June to do a show at the Star Court theatre so we are really looking forward to that. Whenever I come back to the Northern Rivers I feel instantly at home and so grateful to have grown up there. It’s a very special place.”
Photo – Emily Jensen.
Camilla _
“There’s 8 kids in our family and we all grew up in Midginbil which is Perch Creek. I just turned 30 and I’m the eldest. My youngest sibling Lenny is now 16. We grew up in the Midginbil school house my parents moved into when I was 6 months old. It was a small property on 2 1/2 acres. Dad was an avid gardener so we grew a bit of produce and had a couple of dogs but it was by no means a farm. It was a kid farm though (laughs)
I had been learning classical piano for about 3 years at the age of 13. Dad always encouraged me to try and improvise so he bought me a how to improvise Blues music book. We would go through that together and learn different scales. He was always very encouraging to take the music I was learning and make it more my own.
Dad was into op shopping, trading post and Ebay. He was always on the hunt for whacky instruments. He loved collecting different instruments. There was a saxophone, clarinet, piano, guitars and banjos. It got a bit out of hand but he always encouraged us. He was really inspired by the American 1920s and 30’s jug bands and that style of music. He made a washboard and attached a jug to it which my brother Lear played. Eileen played the Clarinet and Christi played Kazoo with this big oil funnel stuck on the end. I played keyboard. They are all the instruments you would have seen us play back at the Lismore Carboot. We would play the markets, fairs and festivals locally. We performed at Port Fairy and Woodford a couple of times. We did have a TV but with pretty much no reception. We only got ABC so occasionally we would watch something as a family.
Perch Creek has consisted of the same band members for 6 years now, myself, my sister Eileen, my brothers Lear and Christi and my boyfriend James. Most of the family are into music but we all do other things as well. Our Mum doesn’t play music but she loves writing and she’s still finding her creative feet I feel. Dad plays guitar and sings. My other 2 sisters are great singers and piano players. Our youngest brother Lenny is an avid electronic music producer now. He’s awesome. Our brother Ira loves music and he plays a bit of banjo.
Dad used to play in the band with us and he had a very strong vision for the band and writing songs. Sometimes it’s hard to wrangle other people into your vision so it reached a natural end really. He kind of quit the band and it gave us the opportunity to take off and find our feet ourselves. It’s healthy not doing everything with your parents.
We moved to Melbourne 6 years ago and we’ve played lots of gigs. When we first moved here we found a booking agent and they booked us everywhere. We toured Australia lots of times and went to Europe 3 times, Canada in 2015. The last 2 years we decided to take it more slowly. My brother Lear the drummer has 3 kids now. My other brother Ira also has 3 kids. Usually when we record albums we do it in a fast space of time. This album we have recorded slowly over 2 years. We recorded the songs as we finished writing them so that was cool.
We all have other jobs and we’ve also started a warehouse project together. We bought a warehouse in Coburg North with some friends and we’ve started an arts space there. Our plan is for a music venue and cafe and lots of good things down the line. A big hub! We have big dreams and we’ve had a fun year learning lots of building skills. It’s called Big House Arts and it’s very exciting. Its good to have other jobs and not to have to put the focus on your music to earn your living.
The latest film clip was filmed all in one day. It was totally epic. We had the best Cinematographer on board who made the best spreadsheet of all the locations, times, lunch break, emergency points. It was so organised. Some scenes were at the warehouse and some at our friends guitar shop in Northcote and all around Melbourne’s north.
I think back to how we were a jug band and had all those whacky instruments and it’s interesting to look back to those times. There’s a lot history of performing in the Northern Rivers at the markets and whenever we still do lots of people remember us. It’s a lot different here in Melbourne because we don’t have that history. I forget that we used to make very different music and it’s funny to think we have been around for so long. There’s not many bands that have been doing it since they were kids and still going strong. We’ve kept changing and our musical style has changed a lot since then. We don’t really play jug band music anymore but it’s interesting to look back at where it began. There is a lot of common thread through the spirit of our band even if we don’t sound like we did.
We are coming home in June to do a show at the Star Court theatre so we are really looking forward to that. Whenever I come back to the Northern Rivers I feel instantly at home and so grateful to have grown up there. It’s a very special place.”