The 30-year-old saxophonist – who is also a music composer and teacher – is a familiar face at weddings, pub gigs and major Tassie events like Taste of Summer, Clarence Jazz Festival, Dark Mofo, Festival of Voices and Hobart Hurricanes Big Bash cricket matches, with his talent, high energy and infectious enthusiasm earning him a legion of fans across Hobart and beyond.

Whether he’s performing as part of a DJ sax duo or as bandleader of various groups – including Uncle Gus and The Rimshots, The Gus Leighton Quartet and The Greenrises Jazz Orchestra – Leighton says no matter how many times he steps on stage, he’s still deeply drawn to the buzz he gets from performing in front of a live crowd.

“It’s a real adrenaline rush for me, when I perform and when I play,’’ explains Leighton, who has shared the stage with artists like Dami Im, The Melbourne Ska Orchestra and The Wolfe Brothers.

“And I think that comes from getting a crowd really excited and getting people dancing. The harder the crowd goes, the harder I’ll go, subconsciously, because I just feed off that feeling.

There’s something about it that just really psyches me up and gets me going and wants me to keep playing. For particular gigs I’ve done, there have been crowds that have hyped me up so much that I haven’t wanted to stop playing and I’ll be saying ‘can we do one more (song)?’.’’

Leighton, who lives on the fringe of Hobart’s CBD with his partner and their pets, spends his days working at various Tasmanian schools – including Elizabeth College, Claremont College, Hobart College and The Hutchins School – tutoring students and running band programs. Meanwhile his nights and weekends are spent playing gigs and also recording – he has released five albums with the bands he plays with in the past six years, and he’s got two more albums on the way – one with Uncle Gus and the Rimshots and another with The Gus Leighton Quartet – which were recorded this year and are currently being mixed and mastered.

Leighton is also preparing to record a live album with Uncle Gus and the Bigshots – a big band version of Uncle Gus and the Rimshots – on March 20 at The Founders Room, with a 12-piece big band doing covers of well-known pop, rock and roll and funk songs.

Having a live audience brings an extra level of excitement to recording, which Leighton – who studied at the University of Tasmania’s Conservatorium of Music and more recently completed his PhD – certainly enjoys.

“Particularly stuff like the Rimshots and the DJ stuff and the cricket – that energy is what keeps me going back to those gigs,’’ Leighton explains.

He says while other performances like the jazz quartet have more of a “sit and listen” vibe for audiences, they still offer that same buzz of live performing, while also inducing a meditative quality that Leighton finds so addictive.

“There’s a feeling when you’re doing improv in jazz where you’re so in the moment that you don’t actually feel the song processing,’’ he says.

“It’s almost like you time travel – you’re so in the moment and you feel so comfortable with your instrument that nothing else matters except you and the band and the people in the room.

And I find that feeling really magical. Every gig for me is trying to chase that feeling.’’

Interestingly, Leighton has discovered more recently that he can conjure a similar meditative state by spending time at the gym, swinging kettlebells – a habit that has been life-changing for him, and for his music.

Once topping the scales at 181kg, Leighton embarked on a weight-loss journey in early 2022, and within a year had shed a whopping 100kg to reach 81kg, a weight he has been able to successfully maintain.

Leighton initially took part in a charity weight-loss challenge to raise funds for the Black Dog Institute and Musicians Making a Difference.

He’d had a few health issues prior to that, but primarily wanted to improve his mental health.

“I started a public health journey, it wasn’t just weight loss – it was mental health as well,” Leighton told the Mercury in early 2023.

“My hope for it and the hope for the idea of doing it publicly was to try and put some good out there as a way of helping. I sought help and started identifying things that were making me feel worse and try to take action to help resolve that.’’

Leighton sought help from a counsellor and a nutritionist and in addition to exercise and healthy eating he also underwent gastric bypass surgery.

His progress was documented in a short film, Definition, in the hope that his own journey might encourage others to seek help to improve their own health and mental wellbeing.

“I definitely didn’t start chasing a particular number, it was more the mental health thing and getting generally healthier because I’d had a few health scares prior,’’ Leighton explains.

He certainly didn’t expect to lose 100kg but says his physical and mental health are now

much better and this has had an obvious flow-on effect in daily life, as well as performing on stage as a musician.

“It’s had dramatic benefits to my playing ability,’’ he says.

But Leighton is quick to point out that while he does look different on the outside, his core beliefs and values remain largely unchanged.

“Regardless of what size I am, I’m still me,’’ he says.

It was through regular sessions at Artgym that Leighton discovered a passion for kettlebells, inspired by gym owner and kettlebell trainer/competitor Eilish Kidd.

“I found I was getting that same sort of feeling that I get through music,’’ he explains.

“But instead of playing a song and being transported to a place where all that mattered was me and the band and the music, in that moment it was just me and the movement of these kettlebells.’’

He was part of a Tassie contingent that competed at the Girevoy Sport Australia National Kettlebell Championships in Perth, Western Australia, in September, where all Leighton’s training paid off. He won gold in the national one-arm jerk half marathon (which involves 30-minutes of continuous kettlebell swinging from the chest to over the head) in the professional category, and he won silver in the military snatch professional category (which involves swinging the kettlebell up to an overhead position for 12 continuous minutes). He also set an Australian military snatch record for athletes under 85kg, with a 32kg kettlebell.

The Tasmanian team won a total of 17 medals in Perth, and also set a string of national records and Leighton has actually now qualified for the world championships next year, although he’s not yet sure if he’ll attend.

“It has been pretty unreal actually,’’ Leighton says of his foray into being a competitive athlete on a national level.

Another great bonus of his new active lifestyle is that Leighton has found himself a new support network within Hobart’s fitness community.

“Not that I didn’t have that with the music community,’’ he says.

“But I’ve just found a new community and new family really – they are just so caring and so invested in me. And I really needed that support to help me in more ways than just the weight loss. I think I gained a lot in that sense. Obviously I’ve gained fitness, but again – the thing to stress with it – is that it’s more the emotional intelligence and the benefits of community and the friendship I made that were the big changes in my life that I didn’t think I would get from a place like a gym. Artgym is a great community, and it’s something I never thought I would be so involved in.’’

He’s even found a way to entwine both music and fitness – he occasionally plays live sax with a DJ for aerobics classes at Artgym and his fitness friends often come to see him perform at gigs around Hobart.

Leighton grew up on a farm at Cressy, in the state’s north, and started listening to – and playing – music from a young age.

“My parents sort of had music on around the house – various genres,’’ Leighton explains.

“When Dad was a teenager he was a ballroom dancer so he had a musical background from there. And I guess Mum and Dad were both very encouraging of music for me and my two older sisters.’’

He started playing violin at the age of three, taught himself to play piano and guitar, and did five years of drum lessons before picking up the saxophone at the age of 12.

Leighton also had an interest in competitive clay target shooting and as part of his sponsorship deal with a local hotel, he would regularly play guitar and sing at their restaurant in exchange for having his sporting travel expenses covered.

He stopped clay target shooting when he moved to Hobart to attend university at the age of 18, but has continued to perform at venues ever since.

Leighton completed a Bachelor of Music at the University of Tasmania’s Conservatorium of Music and intended to complete a Masters of Teaching after that. However, he admits he “got so caught up in just researching music and creating music” that he instead decided to do a year of honours and then start his PhD, which he finished almost two years ago.

As a contemporary tenor saxophonist, Leighton is known for his improvisational skills and compositional style, drawing influence from notable saxophonists such as Lester Young, Dexter Gordon, Stan Getz and Wayne Shorter. And it was these musicians – and the way musicians through the generations have inspired and informed the work of musicians who come after them – that became the focus of Leighton’s doctoral research.

Leighton says teaching at a variety of schools and mentoring students one-on-one while also helping with rock bands, jazz bands and musical theatre productions ensured his work days were always varied and interesting.

“It’s a lot of fun,’’ he says of juggling his work in schools while training at the gym early in the morning and also performing on nights and weekends.

“Each day is very different for me which is awesome. I love that you never know what you’re going to get into.’’

He takes pride in being a mentor for the next generation of musicians. He loves getting kids excited about brass and woodwind instruments and enjoys showing young people that there are lots of different musical career paths they can explore,

“You can have a career and do fun stuff with instruments,’’ he says.

“It’s about making your own opportunities. You’re not limited to what you see others doing. I sort of worked that out as I went along, really – so it’s nice to be able to share that knowledge.’’

And fun is certainly something that the award-winning performer explores through music – creating a sense of excitement for himself and for his audiences.

And he’s got plenty of gigs coming up over summer to keep him busy – he’s heavily booked for weddings, and his high-energy duo with fellow Hobart musician Hugo Bladel is also in high demand (they will play at the St Albi New Year’s Eve party on December 31.

Leighton is providing entertainment at Big Bash League games alongside DJ Cane for the Hobart Hurricanes again this season (the next WBBL match at Ninja Stadium will be on Saturday, November 22, while the first home game of the men’s roster is on Tuesday, December 16).

He will also perform at Taste of Summer (December 27 – January 3) with a band called Kitty and the Rockets.

He’s excited to be working with Clarence Jazz Festival from February 19-22 (more details will be announced about his involvement soon), and he will also play at the Tasmanian Wine Festival at the Royal Tasmanian Botanical Gardens (February 8 and 9).

Leighton has performed as a support act for various high-profile artists in Tasmania and interstate – he accompanied Dami Im at the Festival of Voices Big Sing Bonfire in 2019 and has supported Crooked Colours, John O’Hara, Mark Trevorrow (Bob Downe), Mighty Duke, Henry Waggons, The Melbourne Ska Orchestra and The Wolfe Brothers, among others.

Despite his many and varied achievements, Leighton admits he doesn’t often take the time to stop and reflect on his journey – although he’s aware that while plenty of kids grow up playing instruments and enjoying music, very few manage to do what he’s done and carve out a successful career as a full-time musician.

“I probably don’t take as much time to sit and think about that as I should, or reflect on that,’’ Leighton admits.

“Each year I do a big poster of my goals for the year and I tick them off as I go and then say ‘okay, which one’s next?’.

“I guess I’m constantly trying to think of what’s next. I think reflecting on the past and seeing how far I’ve come is a really good thing – I should do it more. But I’m always chasing what can I do next, that’s what pushes me. I’m always chasing that end goal that doesn’t really exist. As a musician you’re always going to want to perform better or play better or write better music. I’m always striving to push myself to that next level.’’

But, regardless of whether he’s playing swing music on sax in front of a live audience, or is swinging kettlebells at the gym, one thing is certain – Leighton feels like he’s on the right path.

“That mindfulness that I get from both of those things in my life – I guess it’s something that screams to me: ‘You’re doing the right things’,’’ he says.•

For updates on Gus Leighton’s upcoming gigs and musical releases visit gusleightonmusic.com or follow @gusleighton on Instagram.