So the rest of 2014 was pretty phenomenal - Lots of great gigs with Translucent Duo, the Hot Potato Band and Citizen of the World (sure felt good to be playing with all of them again!). However there were a few highlights I would love to share!
I got to play in the orchestra for Squabbalogic Independent  Music Theatre's production of "Sondheim on Sondheim" at the Reginald Theatre, Seymour Centre. A phenomenal show with an even more phenomenal cast! So privileged to have been a part of this production!
I was also invited to play as part of the "Carols by Cabaret" held at the Hayes Theatre (my first Hayes gig!) with joint MD-ing by Steven Kreamer (Wooden Horse: Love Bites) and Andrew Warboys (Luckiest Productions: Sweet Charity), Again, such a prevelige to work with such great musicians and wonderful performers including Nancy Hayes!? (They were all fantastic, but come on... It's her theatre?!)

And probably the biggest highlight of 2014 (and my career so far) was playing as part of the International Orchestra in the "Christmas at the House" Series which boasted the talent Eddie Perfect, Emma Pask and Rachel Beck in the Sydney Opera House Concert Hall (my first professional Opera House gig)! I was also fortunate enough to play under the Baton of Brian Castles Onion (Opera Australia) and play amongst some of the finest musicians that Australia has to offer! An absolutely phenomenal experience that I am genuinely hoping will be the first of many more to  come!

Okay, so first off is Translucent Duo! 2015 is shaping up to be a really exciting year for us, with a few projects currently underway - 
At the beginning of the year, the duo received its second dedicated work - "Smoke and Mirrors" Written by the wonderful Australian composer and academic Diana Blom. We are looking to officially premiere this work in a couple of months at a venue TBC.
The duo have also just come back from their latest In Sync Tour - This time around the New England region. We got a fantastic response from the school workshops and concerts and the tour's concluding concert at Tamworth Regional Conservatorium as part of their Professional Artists' concert series was exceptionally well received. These tours give the duo the opportunity to air some new repertoire, both solo and duo, as well as expose these communities to a completely unique and new type of performance they probably haven't been exposed to!
To coincide with the tour we also launched a Pozible campaign to fund 3 new commissions and the recording of the Translucent Duo's first album! We are looking to work with 3 relatively fresh faced composers in the new music scene (as we are a relatively fresh faced ensemble!) to compose some new, exciting music.  The pieces are:

Marimba + Saxophone x2 with special Guest Dr. Michael Duke 
Composed by Alex Chilvers

Saxophone + Marimba + Electronic Medium
Composed by Danielle Barry

DOUBLE CONCERTO for Saxophone and Marimba
Composed by Steven Kreamer 

The other part of the campaign is recording - giving the duo the financial platform to release their first album - which will include 2 of the new compositions as well as the other works previously commissioned by the duo!

The next exciting thing happening this year is my first MD gig! I will be musical director for Riverside Lyric Ensemble's production of the fantastic music Merrily we Roll Along! 
This has been an incredible experience so far! We have only given ourselves an 8 week rehearsal period, so it has been hectic to say the least! But with such a fantastic team to work with and a great cast taking the stage, could not be more excited about this production!

Tickets are on sale now?! and only $35 until the end of May, so get in early!! Incredibe music, hot band, great production and technical team  and wonderfully talented cast!? And my first gig as MD (I may or may not have a cheeky cameo on stage....)

So the "Spuds" have been busy as always! Have some incredible opportunities with this great group over the past few years and it's just getting bigger and better.

Hot Potato have now got a stage show!! And we have a tour which kicked off last Saturday at the Brass Monkey in Cronula - and there is no better feeling that starting a tour to a sold out room!! The next 2 performances coming up for this stage project are in Bulli and in Marrickville! Come along for a night of high energy entertainment and an all round good time! This is, of course, on top of the events, fares, festivals and functions we already play at!!

As well as the stage project, Hot Potato also released a music video!? A cover of Chet Faker's tune Talk is Cheap. Such a fun night of filming with such a great group of guys! Check it out!!

So I have delved into the world of Cabaret!? With my Marvellous collaborator Melody Beck, we have created a jazz/cabaret tribute show to English Jazz Legends Cleo Laine and John Dankworth!  We did a 20min preview of the show in April, and are planning to put the show the jazz festivals, cabaret festivals and other avenues that may appreciate it! 
Here's the tune from the show - John and Cleo's wonderful version of It Don't Mean a Thing! Full preview coming soon!

Unfortunately my time with this great group has had to draw to a close, but not without a final bang! 

Earlier this year - Citizen of the world shot a music video. But not just any music video?! we had a remote control couch on Coogee Promenade!?!? Such a fun time!! Stay tuned for the release!
But in the meantime, check out the video we shot last year - City of Million Lives

So in summary!? it'sS

So... it's been a while since I've done one of these but, I have finished my contract on the MS Rotterdam and I am back on Australian Shores!  I stopped blogging on the ship quite early on because as I settled into ship life, I started to have quite a mixed experience.  Not wanting to put too much on a public forum, I will just say that the life of a ship musician has the potential to be absolutely incredible!! Getting paid to travel the world doing what you love for 2 hours a day? Sounds great! but after actually doing it, I have to conclude that from my personal experience, it is not the life for me.  I did have some incredible experiences and meet some really wonderful people, but all-in-all very happy to be back in Oz!

Check out my "Performances" tab to see what public performances I have coming up, but so much going on! The day I got back to the country I had a rehearsal for a showcase concert of Australian Composer Margaret Brandman's works. The day after I got back I performed at a "Daria Cabaret" night at Glebe Library (remember that show from the 90's with the really "indifferent" girl in green and brown?! Yeah, a cabaret night dedicated to her?! So cool!)

I have finally had the opportunity to reunite with my good friend and partner in musical-crime David Lockeridge with Translucent Duo, and we are busy preparing for a "Composer-Performer Collaboration" workshop at the University of Western Sydney Music School with Diana Blomb as well as putting together new educational shows, recitals and comissioning new Australian works from some of Sydney's finest young composers! It's a pretty exciting time!

Just today, I played my first gig back with the incomparable Hot Potato Band!? Such a joy to be back! An amazing group of musicians who welcomed me back with open arms, driving drums and blaring brass!  Have been fortunate enough to get book for several gigs with this fabulous group over the coming weeks (both public and private events), so am really looking forward to everything Hot Potato coming up!

I am also back with the "Epic Folk Band" Citizen of the World, which is really great! Having just released our EP before I left (which is available both on our website - http://www.citizenoftheworldmusic.com and on iTunes) it's been really good to get back into rehearsals with them, writing some new songs, and bringing it all to a venue near you!

But yes, even more exciting than all that, is that I'm starting a collaboration with this pretty incredible performer (singer/dancer/actress) Melody Beck! Melody won the 2014 "Your Theatrics International Cabaret Competition" this year and has spent the last 5 months touring around Australia and to NYC with her self-devised Cabaret show. This collaboration is in its very early stages, but very excited all the same.... More to come - Stay tuned!!

One of the really wonderful things about the boat was being able to save some money! This really gives me the opportunity to explore my options for the rest of the year. Having said that, I am going to get my job back life guarding at a couple of pools in the City, which I was doing before I left.  The rest of this year for me is going to be about getting lessons again - particularly on flute and clarinet, and honing my skills as a "doubler".  I would really love to get into some professional pit work, so I am looking to take as many gigs as I can where I get a chance to play flute and clarinet (particularly having to switch between the 2).  I'm also really looking to continue propelling projects for 2015, both solo and in different groups.  Looking into competitions and grants available both from arts councils and private benefactors and just trying to open up as many options as possible for 2015 and beyond!

So I’ve been a little slack in the blogging department lately, but I think the title of this one should suffice as an excuse – I have spent the last 3 weeks travelling through Europe and the Mediterranean! Stopping in a new port pretty much every day – very few sea days on this voyage, getting to see and experience some wonderful stuff!

In the last three weeks I have explored Greece, Italy, Monaco, Spain, Gibraltar and Portugal! Not a bad little list of countries to tick off the bucket list!! I was lucky enough to experience some amazing food (and spend way too much money doing it… When in Rome, right?! – literally!!) and see such sights as the Acropolis in Athens, Trevi Fountain in Rome, Michelangelo’s David (well a replica, anyway!) in Florence and many more amazing sights! So here’s a short summary of my time in Europe.

22/4 – Athens, Greece. Travelled to see the Acropolis with some of the members of the cast, found that there was porn for sale in every second store – definitely not ashamed of it over here!

24/4- Taomina, Italy.  Small seaside village in the south of Italy. Port was too small for our ship to dock, so we had to “Tender” (where they use one of the life boats as transportation to shore).  Cute city – INCREDIBLE FOOD!! I am half Italian, so I grown up with a lot of Italian food around, but I got Gnocchi, Pizza, Canoli and Gelato and Wow?! Good food, good mood!!

25/4 – Naples, Italy.  I was very surprised that some of the passengers had organised an ANZAC day ceremony at 6am on the ship! Being the sole Aussie/kiwi in the crew, I was almost obliged to attend, but I’m really glad I did. It was a really nice ceremony, and so many people there -  pushing 150 people in the “Crow’s Nest” where we play most nights – we’ve never had a crowd that big!!  I had a safety drill in the morning, so I just got off for a few hours to have some FOOD!! So so so good! Good food, good mood!!

26/4 – Rome, Italy.  We actually docked in Civitavecchia, which is about 50min drive from Rome. So a group of us got a “Taxi” of sorts to take us into Rome and return us to the ship.  When we got to Rome, we notably saw the Spanish steps – widest staircase in Europe and the Trevi Fountain. We then found the most amazing restaurant to eat at, with complimentary champagne, huge wine glasses, and of course incredible food!! The best meatball I have ever had in my life!? I don’t know what they did, but it was amazing! Our driver then took us to see the Colosseum, which was pretty surreal! And back to the Ship. Good food, good mood!! (You might be seeing a pattern here… needless to say, that everything was pretty fine and dandy whilst in Italy!)

27/4 – Livorno, Italy.  From this port, we again hired the services of a taxi to get from the port to Florence. It, was so beautiful! Gorgeous cathedrals, incredible sculptures and of course – AMAZING FOOD! We collectively decided that as wonderful as it was getting to see all this great stuff, the best part of Italy was by far the food! And Drink!? The wine was amazing, and we also had “Amaretto’ – a really sweet liquor (I’d never heard of it) but yummy, yummy, yummy!

29/4 – Monte Carlo, Monaco.  What can I say? So, so, so much money in this place?! Wow! They were setting up for the Grand Prix while we were there, so we got to see the F1 track, which was pretty cool. Went for a walk up to some gardens and got an amazing view over the city and bays.  Saw the casino, saw some Lamborghini’s and Ferraris?! Very, very rich place!!

1/5 – Barcelona, Spain.  Beautiful, beautiful city. I only had a few hours, as I needed to be back on for a rehearsal, but what a few hours! We wondered up the La Rambles, where they had all these markets set up.  We were there on “May Day” so some stores and markets were closed, but we still managed to get amazing Tapas! And discover “Cuarenta Tres” (43 in English) Sweet liquor. Very nice!

2/5 – Alacante, Spain. Gorgeous place! A group of us went to the beach and stayed there most of the day.  We drank sangria, swum, lay in the sun… it was a pretty wonderful day!

3/5 – Almeria, Spain.  I was on a tour in this port that took us all up through the old town and explored the “Fortress” that stood in the middle of the city.  Very interesting tour that delved into both the Islamic and Catholic occupation and rule of both Spain and Almeria specifically.  Found out a fun-family-fact too, which is always good – There are 613 seeds in any pomegranate (no matter the size).  Mohammed (the prophet) wrote the Quran in 613 verses – hence the Pomegranate is seen as almost a “Holy fruit” to the Islamic people. 

4/5 – Gibraltar.  I got another tour for Gibraltar entitled “A City under siege”.  Very fascinating place! From their military value, the English inquisition of this tiny point of Spain, their role in WWII and the Monkeys that live up the rock. Very cool place! All religions live in harmony, Spain hate them, almost no working class of people who live in Gibraltar – they employ Spanish labourers. Then I met up with some people for lunch and ended up chilling in an Irish pub!

5/5 – Cadiz, Spain.  Didn’t do a lot in this port, as stayed on the ship to practice and such, but got off for an hour or so, and explored this beautiful city! Found out this was the port Columbus sailed from when setting off to discover America! Gorgeous trees and parks in Cadiz. Very nice!

6/5 – Lisbon, Portugal.  I went a beach about 20min drive from Lisbon, with the art auctioneer; Mandy, and it was amazing! We had a slight confusion with the taxi driver regarding 40 vs. 14… very funny, we won out in the end!  So we drank Mojitos on the beach, hired bicycles and cycled along the promenade, drinking a beer at each end and then we went swimming and lay in the sun! Beautiful way to cap off this little Europe chapter! Needless to say – I’ll most definitely be back!!

And I finally received my Seaman’s book, which means I’ll be able to get off in Russia!! YIEW!

Musically it’s been a really interesting few weeks.  Most prominently, because we’ve had all these really cool ports, I haven’t done nearly as much practice as I would have liked! Actually kind of looking forward to the repetition of Norway coming up, so I can get back into a good routine! I’m really excited about a few different aspects of my playing and just music in general at the moment, and Josh was kind enough to give me his entire music library and a bunch of concert videos, so have got a whole new selection for listening, which is really exciting!

We had a lot of nights in the Crow’s nest these past few weeks, which has been pretty tough on Joanne – singing and “Front-lining” every night. The Guest Entertainers that we have played for have been quite spread out, and a lot of magicians/dancers/acts that don’t require the band have been in the showroom. And Yonae has asked her to essentially put together 3 or 4 Guest Entertainer shows for our sets in the showroom (of which we had 2 these last 3 weeks and now we’re going to have around 1 per week), which although is great experience for her, as she’s looking to try and put a proper show together when she gets home, is most definitely above and beyond her contracted requirements! And on top of that, we were informed by our new cruise director that “Head office” in Seattle stipulates that the Hal Cats sets in the showroom are not meant to be advertised/treated like a show the same as cast shows and guest entertainers, which is absolute bollock, and a complete rip for Joanne, especially seeing as she is putting together proper shows, and not just reading out of the books! So that’s been interesting! But she’s pretty great, so it’s going to be fine! Very glad that she’s going to be here until the end of my contract! We get along very well, and with Josh leaving, will be good to have her still here!

We had a guy from “Corporate” come on the ship for about a week too.  He is essentially paid to go around all the Holland America ships and report back on all entertainment happenings – quality of players, equipment requirements etc.  Really nice guy, and very interesting to talk to.  Quite openly admitted that this industry is pretty screwed up, and having gotten into his current position from being a band leader (he’s a keys player – apparently quite a good one), he said that you’ll get further in the ships business by going along with everything, smiling your way through it all, logging your hours properly, turning up on time and keeping your mouth shut, rather than being a good musician and standing up for musical integrity, professionalism or any of the other stuff that we are essentially employed to do! They are more interested in the fact that you can follow ship protocol and appease their every request, rather than be the best musician you can. Some very interesting conversations with Josh about all this over the past few weeks! But at the end of the day, he was a really nice guy, and was very straight up about everything, including the fact that our sole purpose on this ship as musician is to sell drinks and make the company money!

1 of the things I got from this guy, Steve, though was that I can put in a request to defer my flight home.  This was something that I toyed with before my contract started – spending a few weeks in Europe after my contract, England especially, but I was told by my agency that this privilege was usually reserved for people of a higher standing than sidemen in the band.  So I lodged a request to have my flight delayed by a bit over 2 weeks and to see if I could be flown out of London instead, so we will see what come of that! Fingers crossed!!

And as I mentioned before, Josh the drummer is leaving the ship in Rotterdam, which I am really quite sad about.  He is such a great guy who I have learned lots and lots from in our 6 weeks playing/hanging together.  He’s taught me a lot about music, the industry, life in general and most potently – ego! A lot of chats regarding ego and how unnecessary and destructive it is!! Very interesting philosophies! But life moves on I guess, and looking forward to meeting the new band we’ve got coming on!

Regarding the roommate situation, I’ve been able to line up moving in with Edison who works in the Youth Centre, which is really exciting! Both for the fact that we get along really well, but also because when his contract finishes in 2 weeks, there is a girl coming on to replace him, which means that there’s a possibility that I could have my own room (fingers crossed!)

Now if you’ve made it this far, I’m very impressed!! Essentially 3 blog posts in 1, so thank you for staying with me!! All in all, settling into this crazy life style, starting to make some good friends, and looking to get back into a good routine once we hit the Norway circuit! Sailing from Southampton to Rotterdam today! Lots of exciting things to work on! Keep you posted!!

Hey Hey Hey!.  Three weeks in now, and we have almost finished our Asian/Middle Eastern/Arabian adventures – Onward and upward to Europe (Very exciting!!)

Our first stop this week was Salalah, Oman.  In summary – Awesome food, amazing beach, scarily angry taxi drivers! We were offered a shuttle bus 1km or so up the road to the resort that we were going to for lunch, and our bus was blocked by 3 taxis, because he was stealing their business! They came up to the window and yelled abuse at our driver in Arabic!? It was pretty intense!! We ended up getting off before the confrontation turned ugly and walk. That night we heard that one of the crew had a contact who gave him a lift to where he was going, and again the taxi drivers hurled abuse at his friend who drove him, because he was taking their business?! When they drove off, the taxi drivers threw rocks and bricks at the car?!?!?  Absolutely mental?!

After this delightful port, we then had 4 days at sea. This was great from the perspective of getting stuff done! Got lots of stuff done – practice, arranging, organising possibly future collaborations with cast members. And to be honest, we have been very lucky because the sea is very calm! So not complaining.  Is just a long time to be “stuck” anywhere (even a 5 star resort!).  In keeping busy, though, I took part in the “Dancing with the Stars” show that the cast put on, which was fun! The girls in the cast had been complaining that they always ended up having to dance with the female passengers because not enough males were interested. So I did it partly as a favour, but more so because I figured it would be a good laugh (which it was!) And of course there’s been a few nights in the OB – we even had an 80’s night! After, which I thought it would be a good idea to order room service, but I kind of fell asleep before they got to me, so there was a whole kerfuffle with ringing the room and lots of knocking (All of which I missed….) Sorry Julien!! But all good fun!

And finally at the end of our 4 sea days, on Good Friday, we arrived in Jordan, where a crew tour had been organised to go and see the ancient city of Petra! Now, to be perfectly honest, before this tour, my knowledge of Petra was limited to what Karl Pilkington taught me on “An Idiot Abroad”, and I haven’t seen Indiana Jones (shock-horror?!), so that reference was lost on me. But Wow?! What an incredibly place! Pictures just do not do something like that justice! The exquisite architecture and the sheer feat of engineering to create this place 2200 years ago, is absolutely astounding!! A group of us went exploring – climbing up the rocks to get better views, discovering caves and bridges (with a very healthy spattering of markets, restrooms and restaurants of course! And every second person wanting to offer you a donkey or a camel ride!). A very good Friday indeed!

Musically things have been going well. I am getting more settled, so feeling more comfortable with practice and arranging. A lot of gigs up in the Crow’s Nest this week, as the guest entertainers have been all Comedians, pianist and a string quartet – all of which didn’t require a band.  So it’s been cool getting some consistency up with the Hal Cat repertoire and getting through more and more of it each gig.  

Yonae has been really lovely, and checking up on me lots this week. I think she’s worried that I’m not settling in or something, because she’s called me for a few “chats”.. We had a few funny moments on the band stand with some mis-communication, which was a little frustrating, and we had some very interesting conversations post performance... I won’t go into detail, but I don’t think the Cruise musician life is one I want to pursue long term.  I’m really thankful to have this experience now, and I’m really enjoying it! However, there are just a few things that I view a little differently in regards to music making, and I quite like my current view! I have been having lots of great conversations with our great drummer – Josh, and he has the same views as me, which is really nice!!

We played for the Black and White ball on Wednesday night, which was really fun! All the officers on the ship get dressed up in their formal gear and guests are encouraged to dance with them. And there’s nothing more awkward than a 70 year old American who can barely walk dancing with a 35 year old Dutch engineer!! Very entertaining from the band stand!

But pretty much getting into a good mind set and routine with practice and feeling good!

Otherwise, the food is still amazing, the people are still lovely and the passengers are all really nice. I had an Australian passenger who has been cruising for years offer me his wisdom when we get up into Europe.  How to do it all “on the cheap”! I love Australians!

-          Sea days – Get stuff done!

-          Room service – order early, so you actually get to eat it!

-          Jordan and Petra is amazing!

-          Very much looking forward to Europe!!

Heya! So I’ve just finished my second week on board the MS Rotterdam! 

This week has been a lot of time spent on the ship! As I said on my last entry, I was not allowed to get off the boat in India – we were docked in India for 3 days, plus a sailing day before and 2 after, so I had 6 days straight on the boat! Now, there is definitely plenty to do – it essentially at floating 5 star hotel! However, things can get a little claustrophobic. The thing that I’ve really discovered this week is that I like having my own space! I am a huge extrovert – I love the company of other people, sharing things, discussing ideas, all that! But at the end of the day (or in the middle of the day, or whenever!) it’s great to be able to come back to your own space and relax.  Now I really like my roommate, Julien, but just having to share your room with anyone is something that I haven’t had to do since I was 5 years old! It’s just an adjustment, and not one I think I’ll be incredibly comfortable with even after 4 months, so definitely going to enjoy that aspect of coming home (and having a bed I can actually fit in will be nice too!). I’m finding it very easy to slip into a very lazy routine – as a lot of people do very little on the ship (crew and passengers), so I had a couple of days, where I’ve gotten very little done, but trying desperately to get out of that! But overall still going well!

After my long stint at sea, we docked in Arabia – Muscat, Oman. Now, to be honest, I hadn’t even heard of Oman before receiving this itinerary…. But WOW?! What an incredible country!! I was fortunate enough to get chosen to be a “crew escort” for one of the guest tours around Muscat. This pretty much means that I get a free tour and all I have to do is wear my name badge?! Pretty sweet deal, if you ask me! This tour went to “Sultan Qaboos Grand Mosque”, shopping at the souk (Market), to the “Bait Al Zubair Museum”, and to visit one of the Sultan’s guest palaces. 

The mosque was incredible! And an amazingly modern country!! This Sultan is putting so much money into the country’s infrastructure! It was only finished in 2001, and is still immaculate! Our guide – Ahmed, was fantastic and telling us all about the Muslim traditions followed in Oman; how everyone prays 5 times a day, men at the mosque, women at home (generally) and they are allowed up to 5 wives! All really interesting! He was then telling us about the country, and how no one pays taxes, everything is funded by the Sultan! They have free education, free healthcare – remember those days, Australia? – And (this is amazing!) everyone gets given land at the age of 23?! And how can they possibly do all this and have a currency that is 3x as strong as the US dollar – Why, oil of course?! Good, old fashioned oil money! Which also explains why there is no public transport and everyone has a car (because petrol is 13c/L!?).

Everything else was pretty cool too, and so clean?! So clean, wow!! Spotless city!! The museum was really interesting, the market was filled with Pashmina and incense, and the palace was remarkable!

We are currently on our way to another port in Oman “Salalah” and then we have 4 sea days coming up – woo… Before we reach Jordan and get to visit Petra :D!

This past week has been a little lighter on the guest entertainer shows.  We had a variety night with Mark Donoghue, Anthony Stuart Lloyd and Cheryl Sinclair which was great, but have been doing a lot of sets up in the Crow’s Nest this week, which is fun (however, I think once we get to Rotterdam, we’re going to be doing a lot more of that, and far less Guest Entertainers because of the shorter cruises). We an impressionist “Jonathan Clarke” come and perform, who has done 6 months on the Vegas Strip at the Riviera, which is pretty cool. It was a very stressful rehearsal though, because he had some many aspects to his show and so much to get done in such a short rehearsal! But the show went really well, and was really fun – He was very good!

We actually got a night off this week, which is unheard of, so I went around and checked out everything else that was going on around the ship.  I went and listened to the “Adagio” duo who are a classical violin/piano duo that play in the “Explorer’s lounge” next to the library.  I checked out my good friends the “Neptunes” in the “Ocean Bar”, I caught the magic show that was going on in the main theatre, which was pretty impressive and I actually spent most of my time watching “Stryker” the piano man! This guy is great! He doesn’t read a note, but he has the most incredible ear, and is such a wonderful performer! I’ve had a couple of conversations with him, and he’s a really great guy, I’m looking forward to getting to know him better!

Last night, we had a really fun concert – Joanne, the HAL CATS singer, essentially put together her own Guest Entertainer show out of the HAL CATS tunes. It was really great! She did such a good job, and we all got features throughout the concert (I have a wireless bug mic, so I went out centre stage on a few occasions… YIEW!). It wasn’t the greatest rehearsal leading up to it – we had just had a set out next to the pool for “Sail Away” which was SOO0 Hot!! So, we were all a bit flustered when we got to the sound check, but it all worked out great!

I won’t say too much about this, because it’s a lot of “maybe’s” at the moment, but I’ve been talking to some people, and doing some things that could possibly turn into some arranging work for guest entertainer shows… A really exciting possibility!!! Will keep you posted with developments!

This week, a lot of people spent a lot of time on the ship, so there were a few parties organised (and not organised). Last Saturday we had a cross-dressing party. Always a good time! One of the girls who works in the Spa, Kirsten from South Africa, decked my out with dress and make up, so that was a really fun night!

 On Wednesday, it was my birthday, so there were a few nights of celebration for that! At midnight on my birthday I went down to the OB (Officer Bar) and got tricked into buying the bar a round! There is a big bell in the bar and Sy, the OB bartender, told me I should ring it because it was my birthday… Yeah, screw you Sy! Still, it came to a grand total of $15, so it could have been worse! Then the next night (the night of my birthday) I went to have a play with the Neptunes after our show in the theatre with the impressionist, and we played a rock ‘n’ roll medley and “Celebrate good times” together, which was really nice! That night, there was a party organised for someone else’s birthday and someone’s going away party! So that was really fun and quite big… (I had to be up at 7am for the tour I was escorting around Oman, which was a struggle to say the least!) And then on Thursday night, the night we were actually docked overnight in Oman, there was a crew party organised, which was really cool! They deck out the “oasis” (which is this area at the top of the ship with fake palm trees and boulders and such) with lights and a bar and music and essentially all the Crew get together and “relax”. The most entertaining aspect of the night was a bunch of the Philippino guys all getting quite elaborately dressed as women and partying the night away! Apparently that’s all very taboo back where they are from, and if their parents saw them dressing like that, they would be in a lot of trouble, so they’re making the most of their time here!

So it’s been a pretty big week in terms of “that stuff”, which may have contributed to the laziness of my days… So I’m not worried. I’m staying motivated and I have lots of stuff to do and keep busy with for the next 4 months!

-          No one is going to force, encourage, suggest that you be motivated and get things done! As long as you turn up to the gigs and play the music, that is all that’s required! So a lot of self-motivation on the ship!!

-          I feel much better about myself and just in general when I’ve had a productive day!

-          Don’t ring the bell in the OB!

-          Oman is amazing! Would definitely come back!

-          I really appreciate having my own space!

I’ve now been on board the MS Rotterdam for 1 week, and I am slowly figuring out this weird and wacky lifestyle.

So I kind of thought that I might have a chance to ease into this lifestyle… Oh, no! We were picked up from the hotel by shuttle at 8am where I met my band leader, Yonae who is a South-Korean/American pianist and my roommate, Julien who is a French/American guitarist. Very cool guys! I found out the band of the ship is called the “HAL Cats” (Holland America Liner), so my official “position” on the ship is “Hal Cats Saxophone”. Awesome!

We got to the boat and, after a bit of waiting around and paperwork stuff, we embarked the MS Rotterdam! This place is amazing!! I’ve never been on a ship before, but they have so much cool stuff – multiple bars, casino, theatre, pools, gyms, a huge dining room?! It’s quite remarkable!  So the day continued as we went through some trainings and orientation – we had our first “Boat Drill” in which I am a “Traffic Director”. Pretty straight forward, really, but I get to wear florescent life jacket and cap!

Then we had a few hours to put our things in our room, followed by my first Hal Cats set on the back deck of the ship.  Here I met our Drummer, Josh from Up State New York, Bassist Olex from Ukraine and Singer Joanne who is from England.  So a very international crew – confirming the notion that music really is the international language! The set was really fun! Fun music, fun guys to work with, and really cool vibe!  Then we had another set in the Theatre that evening. This theatre is pretty amazing! Complete with lighting, stage crew and clip-on bug mic for my sax!

So, needless to say, I was pretty exhausted by the end of my first day, but I think this is going to be a great experience.

So musically, this first week has been a roller-coaster! On my second night we performed in one of the 5 “Cast Shows” on board the ship (we only play in 2, the others with backing track). All with click track, and the click track requires a ¼ inch jack (larger than normal headphone jack). I wish I had been told this before I got on the ship, because I have an adapter at home… Not much use to me there…. So I’m currently using Olex’s spare, which is pretty “touchy” to say the least, so I have had some trying moments mid-performance…

We’ve had several guest entertainers on the ship this week too, which is more characteristic of the longer cruises.  This is one of the many reasons, I am finding out, that I have been lucky in my first contract, in that if you don’t have as many guest entertainers (like on the shorter cruises) then you are pretty much playing the same sets and shows throughout your contract… So this is great! This week we played with the “McDonald Brothers” – multi-instrumental celtic duo from Scotland, “Anthony Stuart Lloyd” – Opera/music theatre singer from Wales, “Cheryl Sinclair” – Singer from England and “Mark Donoghue” – Multi-instrumental act from England.  So it’s been pretty insane! Oh, and no nights off! On the nights where we aren’t playing for a Guest Entertainer or a show, we are doing a show of our own up the bar at the top of the ship called the “Crow’s Nest” – This week we did a 50s and 60s night. That joint was a-rockin’! Looking forward to having played together for a few weeks when we are all gel-ing much more, but even now it’s pretty great!

We get a schedule every night for the next day’s happenings in terms of what gig we’re playing and what we need to wear (both for the gig and I public areas). This, I found out, is very important to read! I found myself one night last week sitting at dinner with the “Cruise Director (my boss’s, boss’s boss!) in my regular cruise clothes on Formal night… It was on the schedule; after 6pm, everyone is to be dressed formally in public areas.  So luckily all the people on this ship are very calm and relaxed, and they realise that I’m new, but apparently on other ships, people have been severely berated for such things!

The one part of this gig that was kind of expected, but still kind of weird in the flesh is the semi “Karoke band” ordeal.  For some of these acts, we are literally playing along to a track… I realise this is where the industry is going, in theatre and such, but this is still somewhat disturbing for a few reasons but most potently - why have a band at all? ie. Putting us out of a job.  I’ve discussed this with my band mates, and they assure me not to stress about it – it’s not worth it. So I won’t, I’ll just stand there and do my thing, and do it as well as I can, but still… Very interesting.

Getting lots of time to practice, which is great! Working hard on the flute and clarinet as well as both my classical and jazz saxophone!

So, this week, we made our way through Asia. I explored Panang, Malaysia, which was really cool! In Phuket I went riding elephants, learned about the local cuisine, and had possibly the most amazing green curry at the most picturesque beach.  And in Sri Lanka I went swimming at a gorgeous beach, drank mojitos and got to hold sea turtles! Meeting some really great people from all different areas of the ship, and really enjoying “port days”.

So everyone has told me that it takes about a week to settle in and get everything sorted.  I’d say they’re about right. All this week I have been completing online training courses in the “training room” on the ship, sorting out all the facets of my new employment – financial and otherwise. I’ve had to sort out all my medical stuff – I got tested for my exposure for TB and got my own “Medical Book”, which I will be able to use for all future contracts! I also found out that in place of visas for crew at certain ports, we are required to have a “Seaman’s book” in order to disembark the ship.   I was unaware of this and in hindsight, I could have had this sorted before I got here. However, as I was not aware, I will not have it in time for our Ports in India, which means I am not allowed to disembark. Little bit annoyed by this as I had been on my agency’s back about this, because I didn’t want to be in this situation. I’m sure they would have also known about the ¼ inch jack for click tracks, so I wish they had told me that!

The food is amazing!! As musicians, we are able to eat on the “Lido deck” with the passengers, and we are absolutely spoilt!! I have a gourmet “all you can eat” Buffet for every meal, and a late night snack! So good! But to counter this, I am getting into a good exercise routine at the gym, so hopefully won’t gain weight on this cruise!  (I have heard, though, that there are cruises where the food is pretty horrible, and people actually lose weight!)

The other part of this life is the uniform.  I ordered my uniforms from the Holland America online store 5 weeks before my contract begun (assured a 4 week shipping time) and for them to be sent to the ship. Low and behold once I got on the ship, my uniform had not arrived… Luckily, there were some spare shirts and such left in my room from the previous people, and I brought my suit with me, just in case this happened, so I have been able to get by.  My uniform is arriving on the ship when we dock in Greece at the end of April…. So I’m not sure exactly what went wrong there…..

Internet?! Wow! I haven’t really thought of internet as a privilege for a long time… We have to buy either a $20 or $40 internet card, which gives us X amount of minutes online (460min for $40 card).  Because of this, I have found that a lot of people no. 1 priority when going ashore is to find wi-fi! I personally am not all the fond of this mentality because when I go to places like Jordan, Greece, Italy and all these other wonderful countries, I don’t really want to be sitting on my computer in a café – I want to be exploring and travelling these great destinations!! So while I might use these occasionally, I think I’m just going to pay and use it on sea days, so that I can make the most of my travel.  It’s actually going to be good for me, I think, to spend less time online! So much procrastination that I can avoid! Will be good to be a sometimes thing, and to call people back home!

-          ¼ inch jack – bring one!

-          Get you Seaman’s book sorted before you embark!

-          Make friends, and make them quickly! Everyone is super friendly, and you don’t want to be stuck without anyone on this ship! I’ve found settling in difficult enough, and I have been making friends with everyone!

-          Longer cruises are better, more desirable contracts – less monotonous, more different music from Guest Entertainers

-          Just push through the first week (that’s what everyone has told me!) It gets easier after that. Will keep you posted!

So the week leading up to my cruise... Wow! 

It all started on the Sunday before I was due to fly out – the following Thursday (though I still hadn’t received my flights… Will come back to that!). I’d just been in Tamworth the week before tutoring on a regional music camp, so I hadn’t really started packing. I thought come Sunday night that might be a good thing to start thinking about doing!  Now, I know where I left my passport – it is where I have left it for the past 18 months. So when it wasn’t there, I started to worry… I searched in a few more draws, in every box in my room, every cupboard – quite literally turned my house upside down – nothing! It was getting late so I thought I’d leave it to the next day when my mum was coming up and she could help me look (she always said I had boys eyes!)

It’s now Monday, still no sign of passport.  After a few minutes of mum being in the house, she declared that we had been broken into and robbed as her rings she had left there previously went missing.  This made so much sense, as I knew I hadn’t touched my passport in weeks, and I was fairly sure I hadn’t lost it…. So I got on the phone to the Passport office and reported my passport missing/stolen.  Now, I personally hadn’t had anything to do with stolen/missing passports previously, so this was news to me; if you cancel a passport suspected stolen and then you find it, you can’t un-cancel it! So as the passport office man is informing me of this and he cancels my passport, mum walks into the room with the “Stolen” rings…. So we probably weren’t robbed.  I proceeded down to the post office to get the new passport forms, and as I walk back into the house, there’s mum with my “Stolen” passport in hand…… Apparently what happened was that last time she was up, she saw my passport in its usual spot and thought “That’s a horrible place for it – so easy to find! I’m going to move it”.  She then “forgot” she moved it (obviously!) until she found it… Needless to say I was pretty ropable (putting it mildly).

I contacted my agency in America to explain the situation, and they were pretty nervous, because if I didn’t have the same passport that I had given them previously, there was a possibility that HAL would not be able to book my flights, and that my contract would be either cancelled or delayed (neither were good options!). So I’m in a pretty bad way by this point – Monday night, having drinks in Sydney with my gorgeous girl and in sheer disbelief that this could have all just gone down the toilet!

Then things got better. I went into the passport office at 9am Tuesday morning, explained the situation and presented my HAL contracts.  They were incredibly helpful, and understanding and I had a brand new passport by midday… 3 hrs?! A document that usually takes 10-14 days to process etc. took 3 hrs?!?! I was astounded and relieved to say the least, as were my agency; Lime Entertainment, who were consequently very impressed at the Australian Passport office!!

So I had my (very unnecessarily stressful!) new passport! That was fine. However I still didn’t have flights booked to Singapore, where I would be embarking.  I had been told all along that my flights would come a few days before, and that I should just “Be ready” to leave between Wednesday morning and Thursday evening.  So I’d been contacting the Guys at Lime pretty regularly to figure out what was going on here and they just said they were coming….

Thursday morning….. Nothing! I had to be playing on this ship in less than 48hrs (let alone orientation and training I had to go through!) and I still didn’t know when I was flying out! Then at 6:45am I get an email saying that they had booked my flights – for 7:40am?! Lime even picked up that this may not work… and I confirmed that it would be impossible so they said they would re-book.  Finally at 8:30am I received an email confirming that I would be flying out at 12:15pm. Awesome!!!

So I had my flights, and I had my luggage all sorted – I would carry my alto and a bag (containing clarinet, flute, computer) as hand luggage and I would book through my suitcase and my tenor, which had been padded and packed VERY well!!!

When I got to check in, they inform me that I can have only 1 carry-on bag and a laptop bag weighing less than 5kg and that I would need to book through another bag.  I was very strong in telling them that I couldn’t do that as these were musical instruments, and I was freaking out enough about the 1 I had to book through! My only other option was to book another seat.  I didn’t think HAL would be up for that, but I gave LIME a call anyway, to see what they said.  Eventually I ended up packing my clarinet into my suitcase and shoving everything bar my laptop into my alto case so that my “Laptop bag” would pass.  Eventually after much discussion, I got through, and (bonus) NO excess fees! Turns out that a “Seaman” (Lol) gets a 40kg luggage allowance! Sweet!!

After that everything was fine. Flight was good, Singapore is lovely, taxi driver was hilarious, hotel was beautiful! And on top of that, I found out that a friend of mine from school now lives in Singapore and tours around Southeast Asia with Puppet shows! Amongst other things.  So we met up for dinner and caught up on the last 5 years of our lives!



So that was the stress and craziness that was the week leading up to my cruise, and I learned a few things that I feel obliged to pass on:

-          Don’t let anyone go through/move your stuff… ever! 

-          If you have a work contract that requires you to go overseas, the passport office will sort you out!

-          Cruise liners have a “portal” for all their employees, where they will post your flight information as soon as it is booked (regardless of your situation with agents etc.) so try and get onto that sooner than the day you fly out.

-          Singapore Airlines need some exceptions written in for musicians! They have no idea of what instruments are worth both in monetary terms and in value for so many other reasons – they are more willing to make exceptions for a laptop before an instrument! Frustrating!!

-          Bailey’s on ice – or any of the other fine beverages Singapore Airlines offer on their service - makes everything better!

Heya,

So I have decided to start a blog, because I'm getting on a cruise in a few weeks, and I feel my experience could be helpful, or at least interesting for people who are looking to take a similar path in the future... 

The "positives" of doing a cruise are pretty obvious - Paid to do what you love, travel the world, meet new people etc. So I'm going to jump straight to a couple of the cons that went through my head when embarking on this opportunity and how I think about each one.

"Out of the Scene": This was probably the biggest con that I struggled with - having just graduated from uni, willing and ready to jump on any gig that came my way (and meeting people who could give them to me) not being in the country does prove quite a dilemma to furthering your "land career". The way I see it is that this is something that have really wanted to do as a musician, and there was/is always going to be a gig/tour/show on that I "could" do instead of the cruise... But these opportunities are going to be far better and more plentiful in 5 years time (hopefully!) So while I am missing stuff now, it's nowhere near the quantity or quality of stuff I'd be missing if I put it off for any length of time!

"Musical Soul - Destroyed!": This is a "Kind-of-joke-but-not-really" that I've found gets tossed around about cruise musicians. Playing the same music week after week, not playing anything all that challenging or musically gratifying... And to be honest I can see where they're coming from, but I'm actually pretty keen to play some "lame" music for a change! Not that that's all I'll be playing (I'll come back to that later) but, I think it's going to be really fun! The music is only as lame as you make it! One of the challenges of playing this music is to keep it interesting and fun for both yourself and the audience?!

In my very limited experience so far, I believe it is near impossible to get a gig on a boat with out an agent/agency of sorts to start with.  After looking around/asking advice I went with Lime Entertainment.  Of all the agencies I had contact with, these guys have been the best.  Sam and Fede, who are the two I have been in contact with have been amazingly helpful in every aspect of the process - especially the audition! Even though it is primarily a sight reading audition, they gave me the flute and clarinet music a whole day in advance!

Having not been on the boat yet, I don't have a whole lot of knowledge about different liners and what they offer, but from what I have found, most boats have a very minimal band set up - Rhythm section, 1 horn and vocalist.  I went in under the impression I'd be playing with 6+ horns every night, but apparently Carnival are one of the only liners that offer this, and they are some of the more sought after contracts.  
My cruise is with the Holland America Liner (HAL). Having not heard great things about the liner and how they treat staff, Lime have assured me that I am on one of their "Elite Ships", and that as a musician, I get "Officer" ranking; ie "Access all Areas".  We shall see....

Again, having not been on the ship yet, I haven't got much of an idea of what the actual performing situation is going to be like, but from the music they have sent me, I'm actually a little bit excited about it! Having spent four years focusing on classical saxophone (which I really enjoyed and got a lot from!) It's going to be really different playing lounge jazz/pop/show music/whatever-they-thow-at-us!

So, I've been told that cruise musicians get very bored, very quickly because it is a lot of repetition of routine and repertoire. I have devised a plan to overcome this (success of said plan is to be seen.) My plan is to use this Cruise not only as an amazing opportunity to see the world and get paid to do it, but also for self improvement! I am planning on continuing on my health kick - taking advantage of the gym and pool on board in an effort not to succumb to too much delicious food and cheap beer.  The other thing I'm quite excited about, actually, is the amount of time I'm going to have to practice!! I've got a lot of repertoire I want to have under way by the time I get back (including a possible very exciting collaboration that could be happening in the second half of this year.. Watch this space!) As well as really getting stuck into flute and clarinet, and furthering my jazz chops (which I'll get to put into practice every night!).
That's the plan.... We'll see what happens....

Well they're the main things that I've found/been thinking about during/since getting this gig. All in all, pretty excited for this experience and looking forward to new people, new places and new adventures!