It started in 2020…
When Perth finally realised that COVID was a real thing and we couldn’t avoid it, many arts organisations cancelled the entire year of performances and commissioned work. I had been working with an amazing composer called R.E., who I knew from the band the Shallows but also composed for WASO and Perth Festival, on various songs of my own featuring strings. It was the just before the government had announced they would support those affected by the COVID lockdowns and many of my musician friends, including R.E. were wondering how they would pay their mortgages and bills. I had a little money saved up and decided I would commission some of them to make string quartet arrangements for my own songs for the future. I then had the idea instead to use them to put on a show of another artist with string quartet arrangements. I was a big fan of Ghostcare (they’d recently played a backyard party for me) and was talking to Tanaya Harper and asked if she’d be keen to play the show. Tanaya sent me some recordings of how she played her songs solo and I sent them on to my friends, who in turn ended up giving some of them to other friends. Turns out many musicians who were used to being very busy weren’t coping with not playing so this gave them something to work on. Some were friends that had never composed for strings before.
2020 Wembley Backyard
With fingers crossed we hoped we wouldn’t go into lockdown and the show would proceed in our backyard in Wembley. Tender is the Night was named after the Triffids song (not the book) and there was a quartet version of the song created (but it’s only been performed twice). A few quirks of the show were born out of those original shows. One is that we never do full rehearsals. I send the demos to the composers, they send compositions back that I send to the strings (many who play for WASO and PSO) to play along to the music and check they work. Then at soundcheck we test the start of each song and maybe any bits flagged by composers or strings and that’s about it. We don’t run songs in full. This has become a feature of Tender is the Night and means the show is not only a surprise for the audience but is totally new for the artist as well. It gives genuine, raw reactions and lots of nerves and makes the show very intimate. It also keeps the string players on their toes and gives the show a more relaxed contemporary vibe rather than a more perfectionist classical vibe. All the shows we run are BYO picnic vibe because we weren’t going to setup a bar and it was outside. We also have shows on Sundays (though we do some Saturdays now) because the Wembley neighbour did pigeon racing on a Saturday and was worried we’d scare his birds off when they came to land. The fake plants came from the fact I couldn’t grow real ones and these were easier to move. They now live in my classroom when they aren’t being used for shows.
The first show with Tanaya was incredible. Honestly I was not prepared for how beautiful it would be. I was getting lots of advice from composers and string players as I was very naive to the classical field. Part of me was terrified it would be a disaster. But it was incredible, I couldn’t believe it was happening and to this day (touch wood) we’ve never had a set that hasn’t worked with the strings. Maybe the occasional song has mistakes but often the strings hide them so well no-one knows. So on the back of that show we decided to do one in December with Sean Gorman of Salary- another incredible success.
2021 - Town Halls
Unfortunately our first real lockdowns and my relationship with the Wembley housemates did not survive so the next show in March was performed at the Leederville Tow Hall featuring Jane Azzopardi of Calmly and Alexis Naylor (this was the first show where my own band Chuditch wasn’t the support).
We had decided to try and do a show the first weekend of every new season (this has since changed to just being around the change of season as so many first weekends are long weekends or have other festivals happening).
I love old halls & fondly remember the school concerts & Christmas celebrations that took place in the country town I grew up in. But putting the show on in a hall was challenging because I had to move everything in, setup, do the show and then move it all out in one day. I often couldn’t get access to the hall until after midday as other community groups had them booked and frankly most councils dont want concerts in their halls because they are scared of getting noise complaints (even though its a string quartet I tried to explain an unamplified bagpipe or brass band would be louder than us but they didn’t care). It also added more costs on with hall fees and insurance required.
I wasn’t sure if the show would last past our June 2021 show (at Guildford Town Hall featuring Michael Savage). Even though I knew we were onto something special (Alexis, Jane & Michael’s sets were devine) we were finding it hard to get the word out about the show & ticket sales weren’t coming close to covering the costs. Luckily a friend and soundie who helped on these shows passed on a video of the show to Pete Stone, then Creative Director for the City of Melville.
2021-2022 - Melville
June 2021-Sept 2022- Pete Stone & I caught up for a chat and he showed me a beautiful space behind Garden City- Melville Main Hall. This became our home for the next 5 shows from Sept 2021-Sept 2022. Simone and Girlfunkle, Ben Protasiewicz (Pat Chow), Leah Grant and Sam Carmody performed in the stunning hall, and with Melville’s help the show was really starting to build.
I often say at our shows how lucky Melville residents are to live in such an arts focused community as their support really kept the dream alive for me with help with costs, provided the venue for free, people to help run the show as well as helping to advertise through their newsletters etc. But their continued advice & positivity has been the most valueable contribution. I was also lucky to get further funding from the Department of Local Government, Sports and Cultural Industries (DLGSC).
There were some amazing people who I constantly lent on for advice with the strings side of things. The whole TITN concept was born through conversations with R.E. & Mia Brine, both composers are incredible creatives but also great humans and friends who understood the contemporary world I came from and didn’t stick up their noses at my naivity! & Anna Sarcich was always great for a chat & letting me know what was realistic & fair, as well as leading our string section.
These shows we were able to use last season’s headliners as supports. We also eventially moved off the stage to the floor to keep with the more intimate vibe of our early shows (and so the picnicers didn’t break their necks to look on stage!)
To start our third year of shows, we decided to have two new artist per show to hopefully sell more tickets & speed up growth. We ambitiously asked Carla Geneve and Lincoln MacKinnon to perform & was surprised they had heard of our show. Carla wrote a bunch of songs especially to be premiered as part of the show, an incredible privilege for us
2022 - Growing
In August and October 2022 we were lucky enough to be part of a couple of festivals- Fremantle’s Hidden Treasures (one of my favourite music events in WA) where we did a showcase in Customs House with some previous artists. We were also invited to play as part of Pigeonhole Flock Festival, a fantastic month of many different artistic genres, where we debuted a set for Jack Davies with the string quartet. It felt like we were starting to reach beyond our friendship circles and people were realising how special these shows are.
Our list of composers was growing, having started with just a few. R.E. introduced me to the amazing Jared Yapp & Mia Brine got me onto Tim Newhouse. My friend & long time collaborator Erin Gordon took up the challenge of composing for the first time for the show. Through various people our our composer list has grown so that most songs in the show were arranged by different composers (12+ each show) giving a variety of voices and styles (which is different to many classical shows). These new composers included Aaron Wyatt, Simon Kruit, Laurissa Brook and Candice Susnjar. I’m very greatful for the time & creativity these people put into their work, it has made our show very special.
With Perth moving on from COVID it was trickier to get the regular Tender Strings quartet of Madeliene Antoine, Emma Buss, Alix Hamilton & Anna Sarcich but this has meant making new friends & often new composers.
Tanaya Harper released an EP of a few songs from her set and donated the digital sales to bushfire relief- raising $800, and as the B side to her Montreal EP on vinyl.
With the Melville Main Hall undergoing renovations for a large part of 2023, a decision was made with Melville to return the show outside in the warmer months at Goolugatup Heathcote. This stunning venue overlooking the Derbarl Yerrigan (Swan River) felt right given our beginnings as outdoor picnic concerts (not that the picnics had stopped). It posed some new challenges keeping the strings out of the sun but has proven a hit with our audience. We debuted the incredible Grace Barbè there in Nov 2022.
2023 - Trying New Things
2023 felt like a huge step towards our goal with some bigger artists & very special performances.We continued our partnership with City of Melville, Joni in the Moon and Natasha Shanks of The Little Lord Street Ban performed at Goolugatup Heathcote to our biggest TITN crowd so far.
In the cooler months we moved to the Tivoli Club (which I had wanted to perform at since getting swing dancing lessons there), beginning in May with Brendon Humphries and Todd Pickett of the The Kill Devill Hills. We tried our first paid livestream and though it was watched by hundreds it was soured by some technical issues and complaints of bad language (I did say they should put a disclaimer on the ticket!).
In July we release a vinyl with recordings from our first season of shows with Stock Records in an ex church in Fremantle. I had previously tried releasing tracks under a TITN label but it was way too much work, so it was great to work with some pros.
In August we did another showcase, this time for South Perth’s Evolve Festival at Old Mills Theatre to a sellout crowd, with Simone and Girlfunkle & Sam Carmody (we joked that maybe the crowd thought it was going to be Simon and Garfunkle!). We also had three fresh performers at the Tivoli: Joe Caddy, Angie Colman and Beau Torrance of Ghost Care. Joe’s brother Ben Caddy played viola and composed a few of his arrangements which was really special for the show.
We finished 2023 with the incredible Abbe May and Oceanique at Goolugatup & some huge plans in the works for 2024
2024 - More Experiments
2024 has been a huge year so far with many firsts, beginning with an extra concert in January featuring our first internationally acclaimed artist Emily Barker and a show with Dan Howls and Albert Pritchard (New Nausea) in March- both at Goolugatup Heathcote.
In late March we embarked on probably the most ambitious show we’ve undertaken- Strings in Subi which was sponsored by See Subiaco. 10hrs, 7 artists, 4 locations, 2 string quartets. It was hectic. We had a PA setup on a couple of trollies and pushed our way between our venues- Subi Farmers Market, Postal Walk, Storehouse Subiaco and Subi Night Markets. It was a fun day and such a lovely way to promote our music with strings with all performances free to attend.
In early May we embarked on our first shows outside of Perth, travelling to Arts Margaret River and Bunbury Regional Entertainment Centre with Abbe May and Dan Howls. Your never really sure how people are going to react when put in a van together, especially when the idea of touring for rock n roll and classical are pretty different but it was the most beautiful and harmonious weekend. Everyone got along famously, friendships were forged and the shows were magnificently received.
In July we played to our biggest ever crowd (250ppl I’m told) at WA Museum Boola Bardip as part of the To the Moon exhibit. Fittingly Joni in the Moon lit up the stage with Angie Colman supporting.
Its always good to have new genre challenges for our composers within our regular Melville season. In late May we featured punk rockers Mitch McDonald (The Love Junkies) and Nici Ward (Lonesome Dove), August with hiphop legend Mathas and soulful Alexia Parenzee and November the jazz/soul Odette Mercy duo and indie newcomer Boox Kid, all supported by City of Melville and DLGSC. We finished the year with a special colab show at The Bird with Angie Colman releasing a strings coated single Out of the Headlights, our first show in a pub!
A hectic but very fulfilling year!
