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"From the age of nine my mum fed me a high fibre diet of Cat Stevens, Neil Diamond, John Lennon and The Bee Gee's”
www.justinmurphy.com.au
As a young child my earliest recollection of music was the constant droning of Bagpipe music (No thanks to my Scottish father) playing full boar around the house, but this all changed once my parents separated. It was at this moment that my mum eradicated any evidence that bagpipes ever existed and took control of the music that not only influenced me then, but even still to this day.
From the age of 9 my mum fed me a high fibre diet of Cat Stevens, Neil Diamond, John Lennon and The Bee Gee's and my ears after the pipe violation craved for more. I remember for a while there my mother was hooked (Pardon the pun) on this new Album that came out called "Hooked On Classics" where they had combined symphony classics with contempery beats, it was this album that really stayed in my mind throughout the years and probably gave me my first understanding of style combining. My first Album that l purchased myself was Adam and the Ants "Prince Charming" which I would play until I was TOLD to stop.
From there till the age of 13 I went through the Culture Club, Madonna and Prince phases like most teenagers were at the time until I came across a rock band by the name of Bonjovi that were about to take the world by storm and influence me and countless other teenagers at that time to pick up an instrument and play. My Grandmother had just past away and had left me a small amount of money. My mum had told me that my Grandmother wanted me to buy something special for myself with this money, and it was then that I got my first guitar. She was a Valencia standard classical guitar and man did I love to play her (I still have that very same guitar hanging in my studio today)
From 13 through till I was 16 I looked at all styles of rock through to metal in search of a style that I enjoyed the most. I found that out of all the many styles of rock that were emerging in the late 80's, my biggest connection seemed to lie with the "Hair Band" sound. Whenever I could get the chance I used to plug in this old microphone to the stereo system that my mum had and sing along to the latest songs that I wanted to learn, but unfortunately this ended quite suddenly when the older neighbors complained to my mum. They had accused me of swearing into the microphone after I got home from school every night and mum wasn’t at all happy. Mum quickly confronted me with their accusations only to find out that my 60 old year old neighbors had mistaken the words to "Funky Town" for...well you can guess the rest (God bless the elderly).
After that incident, mum was forced to make me find another way to practice my new found passion. Mum suggested that I make use of the old shed at the rear of our house that faced our other neighbors. It was there, that I would spend endless amount of hours late at night belting out my favorite tunes at the top of my lungs. This became a bit of a headache for my other neighbor and best mate Kelvin, due to the fact that I was also trying to compete with the new guitar and amplifier that I had recently purchased and his bedroom window was no more than 10 meters away (Kelvin and I often laugh about those nights even to this very day). The time spent out in the shed allowed me to not only start looking for other players to jam with but also the confidence to start writing my own original songs.
I had met a group of kids at the school that I was attending at the time (Aquinas College) that were putting a band together called "Kiss this" and were looking for a guitarist. I had become a better singer in my eyes than I was a guitarist but accepted to take the position I guess due to not wanting to miss out on being in a band. After all the time that I had spent practicing alone in the shed, I wondered what it would be like to jam with others, so joining a band seemed like the next logical step for me to take.
The first time that we got together as a band was a few days later during lunch time recess. The room that we jammed in was used for drama and had a small vocal P.A and a few old amps that the school had lying around for musicals. This lasted for 20 mins with us ripping out our own versions of "Boe River"(Cold Chisel) "Stairway to Heaven"(Led Zep) "Smoke on the Water" (Deep Purple) and "Wild Thing" (The Troggs). There was already a lead guitarist so luckily for me I was able to hold my own as a rhythm player and as far as the other guys were concerned, I was in. These jam sessions only lasted for a few weeks in the drama room until we found a place that was owned by the church in the local area that funnily enough was the number 666 on that road (Go Figure). The first time that we were scheduled to rehearse there, the singer fell sick and wasn't able to turn up. I had been writing some new original tunes and saw this as an opportunity to put them forward to the band. Looking back at the songs they were very basic and catchy rock songs so the guys were keen to play them, all that was missing was the vocals.
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