Western Sydney live music scene struggles with Sydney competition
SOME western Sydney musicians have not played a show near home in years — and now they want to bring the music back to their neighbourhoods.
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WESTERN Sydney bands have to hit the highways to play music these days — something The Sweet Jelly Rolls know all too well.
A love of 1960s outlaw country music and modern American country inspires the band, who always make a great first impression with their infectiously enjoyable country and blues tunes.
However, just like country icon Waylon Jennings, the duo of Andrew Cavalieri and Matt Golotta always find themselves “a long way from home” when they play their own gigs.
“Four years ago the Mars Hill Cafe in Parramatta shut down,” Cavalieri said. “Since then, we have never played out west again.”
It is a disappointing state of affairs for the born and bred western Sydneysiders, who must instead travel around to venues in Manly, Newtown and Surry Hills to find audiences.
“It is a shame there aren’t many venues out here, it would be much faster to get home at the end of the gig,” Cavalieri laughed.
“I believe people in western Sydney would appreciate some original music if it was actually plugged and they were warned it was happening ahead of time.”
However, many western Sydney musicians only make money at local venues if they play in cover bands.
“All my mates I know living in western Sydney are all in cover bands,” Cavalieri said.
“It’s quite sad if you ask me because I know them as great songwriters with original music, but you can’t get work out of it around here.”
In the absence of venues and engaged audiences, the region’s musicians are almost exclusively travelling east to make headway in their careers.
“It’s a hard situation because it is difficult to scope out how or where you would go from here,” Cavalieri said.
“It’s not often you see venues promoting original music and local talent — but I think if we had something like Mars Hill in the middle of our communities, people might be willing to put some money down to see what was going on up there.”
The Sweet Jelly Rolls are halfway through a month-long residency at popular live music haunt Moonshine, situated on the roof of Manly’s Hotel Steyne.
“We are just about making people have a little bit of a dance or a wriggle in their seats,” Cavalieri said.
“We really want to make them feel as good as we feel when we’re up on stage performing.”
Next week, we talk to Casula Powerhouse Arts Centre acting director Craig Donarski about the way forward for arts in the southwest Sydney region.
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