“ I’ve always felt very moved and very passionate about music. Most of my life I’ve followed my heart and just been who I am. I’ve never really had a career plan. I grew up in the UK and life brought me here and somehow when I moved to Lismore just over 20 years ago my brother inlaw and a good friend of mine ran Music Bizarre and I use to just come and hang out. I ended up working for them and I ended up buying my brother in-law out back in 1998 and then I bought Dave out when he retired a year and a half ago.
I’ve just sort of fallen into this job and Music Bizarre. It’s like everything I’ve been passionate about all my life has led to this. You know the things I’ve been doing just because I was passionate about doing them have given me all this knowledge that I can share with my customers over the love of music, the different styles of music.
I think music is such a magical thing. There is nothing else that can energise you, can bring you to tears, can comfort you, can take you through any emotions, there’s nothing else like it. It doesn’t damage your liver, you don’t have to pay for it every time you have that hit. If you buy a CD or a record you can have that hit again and again and its a beautiful thing to be involved in on a daily basis.
Obviously these days with the corporate world and the massive way technology has impacted on everything over the last couple of decades it’s not easy making a living out of music but I’m hoping there’s enough of a niche of people who do really want music on hard copy. It’s more than just selling objects. I feel like I’m part of a community here in Lismore, I feel like I’m a relevant and important place for people to come and connect when they come into town. There’s a lot of different stuff happening here on so many levels and its beautiful to share that.
I like having a space where people can come and just listen to something on the headphones and disappear into that sanctuary or they can just kill time waiting for their car to get fixed and I feel it’s important that we have places like this in the town centre. I also feel blessed, you know I feel sometimes some of my customers are quite crazy but even the most crazy are beautiful and I have a great affection and bond with most of my customers. Sometimes when I dip into other worlds and I see some of the power plays that happen and the way people that some people are surrounded with when they’re working and I realise how absolutely blessed I am for the beautiful exchange I have with people everyday.”