Leesa – “ I grew up in Lennox Head till half way through primary school then my parents bought a macadamia farm in Alstonvale. We lived there a while then moved to Wollongbar and I went to Alstonville High.
I decided I wanted to sing at 9 years old. My parents got me singing lessons at the Conservatorium in Lismore with a wonderful singer and teacher Trysette. We would come into town when I was about 13 back in the Old Lismore Club days in Club Lane. It was pretty legendary. I used to get up and sing a couple of songs and just loved it. I grew up singing with my sister Kristy. We would do all the talent quests. They used to do one at the Station Hotel called the Cedar Guitar Country music Awards. We loved it.
As soon as I finished school I moved to Sydney and had a record deal with ABC Country. As things do that fell apart after a couple of years. I was living in Bondi as I still wanted to be near the coast. I was in Sydney for 3 – 4 years and I fell in love with a boy back in Lennox Head so I broke up with my partner down there and moved home. He had a cover band and I was still playing with my sister. We started working together doing contract work. We went to Abu Dhabi and played in a hotel there for 3 months. We then jumped on cruise ships for almost a year doing contract after contract. It was great for my country travel list but really good for stamina. I was the only singer for the first 2 contracts and we played every night for 2 – 5 hours. It was pretty challenging at times. My Grandmother died when I was in Miami in the States. You can’t call anyone when you are out to sea. I got back and called home to find out we had lost my grandmother. We were really close and I was devastated. That afternoon I spoke to the cruise director and said, look I can’t perform! He said, It’s in your contract so you have to. It would have been a miserable gig because I cried the whole way through it.
I broke ups with the boy who was the drummer in the band and moved back home again. I reconnected with Tracy who still plays bass with us and is part of The Hussy Hicks but hates having photos and that sort of thing. We started hanging out together again and a few months later Julz came back. Trace and Julz have been best friends since high school. I hadn’t met Julz but I’d heard all about her and I thought I would hate her. I thought that we’d be like hard core rivals…”
J-“then she found out how I sing so she was fine”
L – “Everyone I knew was like .…’Julz is the coolest chick in the world’ and I’m thinking….Whatever, she can’t be that cool.
J – “She just happened to be hanging with the 5 people who like me really tightly.”
L – “Julz had just got back from London and I’d just got back, When you’ve been living overseas for a couple of years and you come home, you don’t really have anything in place or a base, your kind of flailing around so we connected to each other and flailed around together. That was fun.”
J – “Lots of music, lots of jamming.”
L-“That summer of 2004/5 was awesome. We ran amok. Lots of hanging out with Marshall Okell, Birdy and Fliss. We partied pretty hard but we just played lots of music. I wasn’t gigging as I wanted a break and I didn’t want to sing anymore so I would play percussion or something. Playing for fun, not work.”
J-“We are very lucky as we very rarely feel like we’re working. When we’re going to an airport or driving home, that feels like work. Very occasionally we get through a gig and we think that was work. It’s not worth the money. I think you only have a limited time to play the music you love and if you stop loving it than there’s no amount of money that replaces that time.”
L-“Singing was all I ever really wanted to do. Back when I used to watch Neighbours I decided for 5 minutes that I wanted to be a Mechanic because my dad was mechanic and Charlene was a Mechanic. When I met Julz it was very fortunate timing. Any other time we both would have been embroiled in projects but we were both free. I was just out of a 3 year relationship and I had heaps off money. I’d been working so much and getting paid well so we had lots of fun.”
J-” I was like this Leesa chick’s rad, she’s bought a case of beer and a bottle of Jaegermeister to this party. This will be fun.”
L-“Julz had come from London doing the share house, music thing so she knew how to live on no money. We used to get wine and cheese and go to a park with our instruments. Pretty soon you’d have new friends jamming. Beautiful, wonderful times. Because I’d been in contract world Julz rekindled my love of creative music. I’d been singing covers and show tunes. I got offered another contract in Dubai for 3 months and we went over and worked, me, my sister and Julz.”
J-“It was 2005 and exciting times. There was a huge boom. People were just farting money over there. We would go eat with the workers. They got us an apartment in the old town Karama and it was great. We would immerse ourselves in the markets and we were really away from the glitzy, gold. We would have $2 wholemeal curries and 5c boat rides across the old part of town to go through the Souks. We’d sit and have fresh orange juice and teas. We got caught in funny situations but that’s the beautiful side of Dubai. We’ve been back since and if you fall into the expat scene it gets flashy really quickly, expensive wines and expensive everything. The funny thing is people go there to save money but you gets used to this hyper inflated life that you come home and you’re not happy….Where’s my maid? Sort of thing.”
L-“We’d never played a gig together before. We’d jammed together but not had a gig. When we arrived they said can you sing something with 3 part harmonies. I think we did something by Fleetwood Mac that they knew I’d know. We had a ball playing 6 nights a week.”
J-“That’s how I bought my first Pro-tools rig to record all the stuff we’ve put out since. I’d come from the anti world of that. I’d come from the gigs you want to do with no money travelling across America, sleeping in your car and playing original music to people. It can be easy to fall into that making money side but neither of us wanted that to be our future.”
L-“I think I’d run out of money at that stage so It was like next. We came home and then ended up going back to Dubai separately which was the strangest turn of events.”
J-“Leesa was offered a fill in month contract with Tracy. I was missing the London scene but was also offered work there so got flown over to play for a month too. The weird thing was both our gigs were cancelled.”
L-“I got asked to sing for another band and Julz was in Abu Dhabi and by this freak occurrence we both lost our gigs. They were cracking down on everyone for licences at Julz’s venue and at my venue the owner died. So there we are in the Middle Ea
I decided I wanted to sing at 9 years old. My parents got me singing lessons at the Conservatorium in Lismore with a wonderful singer and teacher Trysette. We would come into town when I was about 13 back in the Old Lismore Club days in Club Lane. It was pretty legendary. I used to get up and sing a couple of songs and just loved it. I grew up singing with my sister Kristy. We would do all the talent quests. They used to do one at the Station Hotel called the Cedar Guitar Country music Awards. We loved it.
As soon as I finished school I moved to Sydney and had a record deal with ABC Country. As things do that fell apart after a couple of years. I was living in Bondi as I still wanted to be near the coast. I was in Sydney for 3 – 4 years and I fell in love with a boy back in Lennox Head so I broke up with my partner down there and moved home. He had a cover band and I was still playing with my sister. We started working together doing contract work. We went to Abu Dhabi and played in a hotel there for 3 months. We then jumped on cruise ships for almost a year doing contract after contract. It was great for my country travel list but really good for stamina. I was the only singer for the first 2 contracts and we played every night for 2 – 5 hours. It was pretty challenging at times. My Grandmother died when I was in Miami in the States. You can’t call anyone when you are out to sea. I got back and called home to find out we had lost my grandmother. We were really close and I was devastated. That afternoon I spoke to the cruise director and said, look I can’t perform! He said, It’s in your contract so you have to. It would have been a miserable gig because I cried the whole way through it.
I broke ups with the boy who was the drummer in the band and moved back home again. I reconnected with Tracy who still plays bass with us and is part of The Hussy Hicks but hates having photos and that sort of thing. We started hanging out together again and a few months later Julz came back. Trace and Julz have been best friends since high school. I hadn’t met Julz but I’d heard all about her and I thought I would hate her. I thought that we’d be like hard core rivals…”
J-“then she found out how I sing so she was fine”
L – “Everyone I knew was like .…’Julz is the coolest chick in the world’ and I’m thinking….Whatever, she can’t be that cool.
J – “She just happened to be hanging with the 5 people who like me really tightly.”
L – “Julz had just got back from London and I’d just got back, When you’ve been living overseas for a couple of years and you come home, you don’t really have anything in place or a base, your kind of flailing around so we connected to each other and flailed around together. That was fun.”
J – “Lots of music, lots of jamming.”
L-“That summer of 2004/5 was awesome. We ran amok. Lots of hanging out with Marshall Okell, Birdy and Fliss. We partied pretty hard but we just played lots of music. I wasn’t gigging as I wanted a break and I didn’t want to sing anymore so I would play percussion or something. Playing for fun, not work.”
J-“We are very lucky as we very rarely feel like we’re working. When we’re going to an airport or driving home, that feels like work. Very occasionally we get through a gig and we think that was work. It’s not worth the money. I think you only have a limited time to play the music you love and if you stop loving it than there’s no amount of money that replaces that time.”
L-“Singing was all I ever really wanted to do. Back when I used to watch Neighbours I decided for 5 minutes that I wanted to be a Mechanic because my dad was mechanic and Charlene was a Mechanic. When I met Julz it was very fortunate timing. Any other time we both would have been embroiled in projects but we were both free. I was just out of a 3 year relationship and I had heaps off money. I’d been working so much and getting paid well so we had lots of fun.”
J-” I was like this Leesa chick’s rad, she’s bought a case of beer and a bottle of Jaegermeister to this party. This will be fun.”
L-“Julz had come from London doing the share house, music thing so she knew how to live on no money. We used to get wine and cheese and go to a park with our instruments. Pretty soon you’d have new friends jamming. Beautiful, wonderful times. Because I’d been in contract world Julz rekindled my love of creative music. I’d been singing covers and show tunes. I got offered another contract in Dubai for 3 months and we went over and worked, me, my sister and Julz.”
J-“It was 2005 and exciting times. There was a huge boom. People were just farting money over there. We would go eat with the workers. They got us an apartment in the old town Karama and it was great. We would immerse ourselves in the markets and we were really away from the glitzy, gold. We would have $2 wholemeal curries and 5c boat rides across the old part of town to go through the Souks. We’d sit and have fresh orange juice and teas. We got caught in funny situations but that’s the beautiful side of Dubai. We’ve been back since and if you fall into the expat scene it gets flashy really quickly, expensive wines and expensive everything. The funny thing is people go there to save money but you gets used to this hyper inflated life that you come home and you’re not happy….Where’s my maid? Sort of thing.”
L-“We’d never played a gig together before. We’d jammed together but not had a gig. When we arrived they said can you sing something with 3 part harmonies. I think we did something by Fleetwood Mac that they knew I’d know. We had a ball playing 6 nights a week.”
J-“That’s how I bought my first Pro-tools rig to record all the stuff we’ve put out since. I’d come from the anti world of that. I’d come from the gigs you want to do with no money travelling across America, sleeping in your car and playing original music to people. It can be easy to fall into that making money side but neither of us wanted that to be our future.”
L-“I think I’d run out of money at that stage so It was like next. We came home and then ended up going back to Dubai separately which was the strangest turn of events.”
J-“Leesa was offered a fill in month contract with Tracy. I was missing the London scene but was also offered work there so got flown over to play for a month too. The weird thing was both our gigs were cancelled.”
L-“I got asked to sing for another band and Julz was in Abu Dhabi and by this freak occurrence we both lost our gigs. They were cracking down on everyone for licences at Julz’s venue and at my venue the owner died. So there we are in the Middle Ea