Singer-songwriter Hue Blanes keeps his baby grand in a church at West Brunswick and sings at Sunday service in return.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
The Melbourne musician will launch his debut record in Ballarat this Friday at Minerva’s Books and Pot of Gold Collectables on Sturt Street.
“I can’t fit my piano in my house so I have my baby grand piano in a church.
“I’ve been there for about four years and they’ve got a Hammond organ and they’ve got a big space I can practice in.”
Blanes practises at West Brunswick’s Moreland Baptist Church in the week and sings for his keep at Sunday services.
The PBS Young Elder of Jazz 2017 and 2017 Green Room multiple nominee plays to the theme of the sermon, he said.
“They’re the best buildings (churches) easily, they're always so well designed, it’s one of the best things that’s happened in the last three or four years for sure.
“Anything from Ben Harper to Bob Dylan and then I’ll play some original music, some opera, whatever fits.”
Blanes’ debut record Holiday was written when he was living with a “schizophrenic golfing marijuana shaman”.
“H(the flatmate) spent 8 hours a day shaking maracas on his knees whilst massaging himself and giving complex advice on posture and world politics to the other housemates and myself.
“Things needed to change. I wrote songs and got some new housemates. Meanwhile the shaman is living in a volcano in Nicaragua and having a great time and I’m releasing the album three years later and still in the same house.”
The “bleakly comic” song cycle is direct, accessible – and a little existential.
“It’s work that tries to be as honest as possible and there no ‘how good am I’ moments on the piano or vocally.
I can’t fit my piano in my house so I have my baby grand piano in a church. I’ve been there for about four years and they’ve got a Hammond organ and they’ve got a big space I can practice in.
- Singer-songwriter Hue Blanes
“I think for the very first time I wrote lyrics that I thought didn’t sound like anyone else.
“It wasn’t like I was using Tom Waits or Leonard Cohen type verse.
“When I write poems I just write whatever comes out it doesn’t seem to be too planned. Most of the songs were written straight away and developed later.I’d write a whole song in a day and then it might be another month till I wrote another song.”
Hue Blanes will play at Minerva’s Books and Pot of Gold Collectables on Friday, April 14.
To book call 4310 6623.
Jessica Black
Ballarat journalist.
Ballarat journalist.
