"The Art of Live Performance"

I get the feeling that a lot of the people who subscribe to my Substack (all 20,000 of you!) are creatively inclined in various endeavors — whether that be writing, music, entrepreneurial pursuits or visual art. With that in mind, I think many of you will be excited about this announcement because it’s possibly the way a lot of you came to know my music: through live performance.

I’ve been touring for 15 years now (can you believe it?) and have always wanted to share more about my love for live performance — the most sacred part of what I do. So when Soundfly asked if I would be interested in teaching a course on this exact topic (some of you may remember I taught a course on Vocal Production with Soundfly a few years ago) I answered with a resounding YES.

The video above goes deep into of why I feel this upcoming course titled “The Art of Live Performance” will be so helpful for artist who work in this space.

Today I thought I’d also share a little about my personal entry points into live music.

My father took me to my first concert when I was 14 years old. It was a festival headlined by Australian band, Silverchair. Daniel Johns (the lead singer) was my favorite songwriter at the time (along with Jeff Buckley, Stevie Wonder, Beyonce and Amy Winehouse — yes I’ve always had diverse tase.) Amazingly, I later got to write and perform with Daniel on multiple songs for my second album, The Golden Echo.

For those interested, I made a 6 part mini documentary about the making of this record! What a flashback. Part 2 features the moments I spent with Daniel Johns at Eldorado studios in Los Angeles — honestly some of the best moments I’ve ever had making music. The documentary is a fun way to re-live this album if you’re a fan of it!

Live music always activated me in a way that nothing else could. The freedom, the abandon, the outright irreverence for rules, the embrace of risk and resolution in ways that, quite frankly, felt closer to a spiritual experience than any church I’ve walked into.

My second concert was a festival in New Zealand called “Big Day Out.” The line-up included my other favourite band at the time. The Mars Volta. I cried when they came out as my torso pressed against the front barrier, fizzing with excitement, prepared to tolerate the verging collapse of my lungs all for the chance to see Omar Rodriguez-Lopez decimate the stage with his whining guitar solos and Cedric Bixler-Zavala screaming like Aretha on acid one minute then wailing like Robert Plant the next — flailing his limbs in perfect synchronicity with the bombastic Jon Theodore and the late Ikey who screeched on the organ in dissonant, triumphant drones.

Omar also performed on The Golden Echo for a song called Slum Love (here is video footage from our session together) — one of my fav songs I’ve released which combines basically everything I love about music in one song. Abstract rhythm, R&B hooks and strangled guitars that weave and morph in and out of chain-gang vocal samples and splintering high hat dribbles.

The third big concert I attended was Interpol at the St James Theatre in Auckland and from that moment onward I decided that I, too, wanted to evoke these kinds of cathartic experiences for people. The experience of transcendence. I wanted to take inspiration from the more obscure bands I liked — who admittedly sat quite outside of my own style — and use their influence to inject experimental elements into my own style.

As I began to perform more live (I’d play small pubs as a 16 year old — Dad helped me get in to them) then later go on to opening for my friends bands with my original songs and covers by The Carpenters, Jeff Buckley and even Gotye, isn’t that crazy?!) I developed a style that started to push outside of the safer sound of “acoustic singer-songwriter” and soon dropped my guitar, bought loop pedals and built a band (who were also very influenced by The Mars Volta — if you want some serious prog madness, check out the band they were in at the time: The New Caledonia — their music is WILD).

This course will speak most to passionate musicians and creatives at any level who have the curiosity and courage to approach the stage with not just a mindset of craft and skill but also a mental fortitude, determination to manage the self-doubt and a deep respect for how live shows can genuinely change peoples lives.

The 4-week course will include weekly talks on Zoom where I’ll be sharing on various aspects of building a live show, inviting you to participate in exercises, workshops built to challenge you and engage in discussions on Discord where I’ll answer questions and provide support along the way. If you decide to join me, you’ll get to meet a whole cohort of other motivated musicians which is such a great way to learn and get inspired.

It all starts on Feb 10 and you can reserve your spot right now. All information can be found here. Maybe you also have a friend who would love to build their chops as a live performer. Make sure to share this post with them!

But here’s the best part…

As a token of my gratitude for the people supporting me in this community, I am offering my paid subscribers 30% off the course price. If you’re still a free subscriber, this could be the perfect moment sign up to either the $5 a month tier (or a yearly subscription) so you can get access to special opportunities like this one and more in the future! If you’re feeling called to invest in yourself in this way for 2025, you can sign up here and use the following coupon code…