I wanted to enter last year’s Department of Rock, so I asked three friends in my branch to start a band and compete in the competition. They separately declined for various reasons, but perhaps I had planted a seed, as I asked them again this year and they all said yes!

I met Sam when he replaced me in a work team many moons ago, and we later discovered I knew his wife from the old Phoenix Bootlegs days (how Canberra!). He’s currently the bass player for The Rain Gauge, with my old Faux Faux Amis bandmate Darren Atkinson (even more like Canberra!). We’ve been talking about working on something together for a couple of years now, and this competition proved the nudge we needed.

Emma, Marivi and I were all working in the same team last year. Emma picked up the guitar nine months ago – one of the first times we talked we realised we were both at the same Badly Drawn Boy concert in 2003 so I knew she had good taste. And Marivi used to sing along sweetly to Ariana Grande at her desk. I collected and filed that away for later use!

So Sam and I were somewhat old hands, but neither Emma or Marivi had played in a band before. My feeling was the easiest and fun-est music to play would likely be that sweet spot between garage rock and soul – which purely coincidentally happens to be some of my most favourite music in the world! Our set soon coalesced, comprising renditions of Dusty Springfield’s Spooky, The Gories’ Sister Anne, The Detroit Cobras’ Cha Cha Twist, and The Jesus & Mary Chains’s Sometimes Always. The latter, a duet, marks my first time singing and playing drums at the same time – something I wasn’t even aware I could do prior to this band! 

We rehearsed weekly for a couple of months, splitting our time between my place and Redsun Studios. Emma and I also went on a reconnaissance mission to the Department of Rock heat the week before our own – the mixture of polished and not-so-polished performers was reassuring.

Our heat was a blast, with a stacked crowd from work who had come to cheer us along. They laughed at all my banter, and immediately clapped along or sang when implored – it was a tremendous boost to our confidence. We held our own against some other great bands, and miraculously the judges deigned to send us through to the semi-finals! It’ll be interesting to see how we fare at the semis, but just performing this gig was my goal – everything else has been icing on the cake.