Happy Hour Harmonica Podcast

Juzzie Smith interview

• Neil Warren • Season 1 • Episode 71

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Juzzie Smith joins me on episode 71.

Juzzie is an Australian who has a one-man band act with the harmonica pivotal to the sound. He has had over 200 million views of his online videos, starting out when a passer-by recorded him busking at the Edinburgh Fringe festival. 

Juzzie started his one-man band after playing as the harp player in a blues band, and then teaching guitar and harmonica. This gave him a great foundation to lay down the rhythms for his self-penned laid-back bluesy folk. He plays up to six instruments at a time, including percussion juggling balls. Juzzie has been a regular at music festivals around the world and has produced his own music and video content in his home in Ocean Shore.

   
Links:
Juzzie’s website:
https://juzziesmith.com/

Percussion juggling balls;
https://www.chukachuks.com/

Press Play and Blow Away tuition course:
https://juzziesmith.com/store/67-harmonica-lessons-mp3/


Videos:
Grolsch Festival YouTube with 11 million views at time of writing:
https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=juzzie+smith+harmonica&sp=CAM%253D

Edinburgh Fringe Festival appearance:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RcrujO7lKsA

Juggling percussion:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=opRp6Em0vXg

Keep Life Simple Beatbox harmonica:
https://youtu.be/nXhS231_iJ4

Jamming video:
https://youtu.be/dmA_zUC8__8

Juzzie’s ‘My Coolest Harmonica Solo’:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fmOb76IuyRc

Taking Time Out:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nhiXwAD_Pxc&t=19s


Podcast website:
https://www.harmonicahappyhour.com

Donations:
If you want to make a voluntary donation to help support the running costs of the podcast then please use this link (or visit the podcast website link above):
https://paypal.me/harmonicahappyhour?locale.x=en_GB

Spotify Playlist:
Also check out the Spotify Playlist, which contains most of the songs discussed in the podcast:
https://open.spotify.com/playlist/5QC6RF2VTfs4iPuasJBqwT?si=M-j3IkiISeefhR7ybm9qIQ

Podcast sponsors:
This podcast is sponsored by SEYDEL harmonicas - visit the oldest harmonica factory in the world at www.seydel1847.com  or on Facebook or Instagram at SEYDEL HARMONICAS
and Blows Me Away Productions: http://www.blowsmeaway.com/

Support the show

SPEAKER_00:

Josie Smith joins me on episode 71. Juzzy is an Australian who has a one-man band act with the harmonica pivotal to the sound. He has had over 200 million views of his online videos, starting out when a passerby recorded him busking at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. Juzzy started his one-man band after playing as the harp player in a blues band and then teaching guitar and harmonica. This gave him a great foundation to lay down the rhythms for his cell-penned, laid-back bluesy folk. He plays up to six instruments at a time, including percussion juggling bowls. Zydle Harmonica Hello, Jussie Smith, and welcome to the podcast.

SPEAKER_03:

Hello, good to be here.

SPEAKER_00:

So you're talking to us from Australia, Eastern Australia?

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, that's right.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, great. So you're in a place called Byron Bay, is that right?

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, it's just a bit north of Byron Bay, a little town called Ocean Shores. So a little coastal town, but yeah, it's a beautiful spot.

SPEAKER_00:

Sounds beautiful with a name like Ocean Shores, and probably reflects your approach to life and music, which we'll get into. So... So what's the music scene like in Australia and around where you are? I think you're near Brisbane, aren't you? So is there a good music scene around there?

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, we're about an hour and a half south of Brisbane. Yeah, and there's a lot of talent in this town here. It seems to just bring a lot of artistic people in all different walks of life. And yeah, it's very inspiring, that's for sure.

SPEAKER_00:

So you're a one-man band. You've had a lot of success on social media, haven't you? You've had 200 million views on social media. Is that one of the ways you've managed to kind of launch yourself?

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, I think it was very rootsy my whole career because I started street performing busking When my daughter was born, and that was like 19 years ago, I just went out there as a one-man band because I figured I was coordinated. I could make a beat while playing guitar and I strapped a rack around my neck. Back in those days, I put a green bullet mic. It was so heavy. But I just wanted that dirty sound. I've never seen anyone put a microphone on their thing so you could play guitar and sing. Yeah, just with traveling and all the playing I've done on the streets, all the people that capture the videos and just it's been quite amazing watching how they do stuff. Yeah, like one video I think had 80 million views just in itself. It's crazy.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, it's amazing. Yeah, so you managed to use that much to your advantage. So you were busking to begin with. I read somewhere that you were busking at a festival. They then sort of signed you up to play the next year. Was that kind of one of your first gigs or were you gigging as your one man band before then?

SPEAKER_02:

I started out playing lots of markets and doing the street performing. And then, yeah, sometimes I go to festivals and I didn't apply to be in it, but I just said, oh, can I sit up on a corner and just do what I do, street performing? And yeah, this Broadbeach Blues Festival, I remember they just loved my show so much. They just said, oh, you're back on the stage next year. And I was there every year for the next 10 years.

SPEAKER_00:

And so obviously you made your name in Australia, but you have certainly travelled abroad now. I know you've been to the Edinburgh Festival, yeah, amongst other places.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, Edinburgh was amazing. Just went there once for the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. It was really quite an amazing experience. experience because you play for 30 days straight i think i had one day off edinburgh weather is not the best weather i think it rained about 22 days out of the 30 yeah and it was just so good because there's so many amazing performers and i just they had a rule that you couldn't play through an amplifier like bigger than your hand so i had these tiny little microcube amps just one for my harmonica and one for my guitar my lap slide guitar that's the only guitar i brought because i just had troubles trying to bring everything on aeroplanes So it was very minimal. And that was actually where the video went viral. The one that had 80 million views was busking on the street in Edinburgh, and someone filmed it.

SPEAKER_00:

Fantastic, yeah. Great stuff. And have you played in many other countries since then?

SPEAKER_02:

I've played lots of countries, yeah. I've been to Canada about six or seven times now, and so many places. New Zealand I've played, even played in China, did a festival there. Yeah, I just come back from Germany. I took my son over there. We did a little tour.

SPEAKER_00:

Obviously, this is a Harmonica podcast, so you're a one-man band. I know you play, I think, about six instruments, don't you, as you're performing?

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, well, I've got different guitars, which I like, depending on the song. I have a cigar box guitar, which is very acoustic but also punchy sort of sound and then I've got a normal little small body acoustic guitar or electric guitar depends I might either take one of those when I go traveling and then I've got my lap sly guitar which is a sort of beautiful smooth electric sound or it can be a really dirty bluesy grunty sort of sound depending on the song

SPEAKER_00:

so as well as the guitars then what you're playing percussion singing yeah

SPEAKER_02:

so my feet they're like my rhythm section so my left foot controls the beats so I'm sitting on a boxed drum. A guy in Melbourne here makes these ones that I really like because they kick pedals on the outside and it's called a wood skin and it's also got a pedal for the right if you want to have that snare sound. On my right foot I made my own little shaker thing which gives it sort of that clap sound and sounds so good when you mic it up and also have a tambourine for that brighter sound depending on the song.

SPEAKER_00:

So what were the first instruments you learned?

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah I remember when I was 13 I wasn't really into music but I was watching television and a television commercial came on and was it jeans west or just jeans and i can't remember but it went we got half past jeans and it was harmonica the sound that i was listening to and i went wow i just fell in love with that sound and pretty much the next day i went to a music shop and asked for harmonica and i got a key c and it was i think i still got that harmonica yeah it just changed my life and my brother was playing guitar so he taught me a few chords on guitar i kept learning

SPEAKER_00:

from the beginning were you playing harmonic on a rack with guitar

SPEAKER_02:

no that came later i just it I learned harmonica just from, I think it was like a book that came with a cassette back in those days, and it just taught you little melodies, and then it had a little blues section at the end. And then I was learning guitar. My brother was teaching me ACDC and songs like that, three-chord powerful songs, and it was so much fun. It wasn't until later that I got a rack for the harmonica and worked out how to play harmonica. I was actually teaching because I started teaching when I was 16. That was my way of making income. So I had 10 students straight away, and I was teaching them guitar and harmonica. I just learned that I could teach them harmonica if I gave them backing. So I'd play the harmonica part that I was teaching and then they'd be able to jam along with the guitar too. That's where I realized I really got good coordination because I spent 10 years teaching music. I had to be able to play guitar underlying myself teaching the harmonica. Yeah, so I think that was really a big stepping stone for me being the one-man band that I am today.

SPEAKER_00:

Great to see, you know, that kind of one-man band thing is really using it on the rack as well. So I think before this, you were playing in bands as well, were you, before you started your one-man band?

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, I was in bands and I remember when I was 16, my brother's I had good friends that had a blues band. They were a lot older. They were like in their 30s, but not many people played harmonica. And when they heard about me, they just dragged me along to all the venues, snuck me in the back door, and I had so much fun. Because when I finished school, I... I applied to go to university, but I missed out. So I had a gap year. So I just played with this blues band when I was 17. And that sneaked me in everywhere, of course. But I just learned so much from them because they were just really passionate about playing great blues music. And I just remember the guitar player, Dave Blanken. He would give me heaps of CDs and stuff to listen to. And I just love it because it was so much. He had a collection of about 10,000 CDs. And it's like, whoa, every blues album you can imagine. It was like my homework. He'd give me this stuff and I'd go, wow. And then I'd be back there the next week, we'd be jamming. And I just remember playing so much harmonica, gosh, that my lips would bleed sometimes at the gigs. Who do

SPEAKER_00:

you listen to in the harmonica at this point, your influences?

SPEAKER_02:

It's a funny thing because I listen to so much harmonica. I like to listen to other things to inspire me for harmonica lines, like trumpet players, any good melody. And I try and find that on the harmonica and just get a different feel. If you hear the way a trumpet plays, It just has a different tone and you can sort of get these tones if you shape your mouth in ways and do your breathing in a different way.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, the last episode I did was with Ricky Coole and he's done this great series of videos called Mississippi Saxophone where he looks at saxophone solos and playing those on harmonica for exactly the reason you've said. It's going to give you the new ideas and the different approach to how you play the harmonica. He did include one trumpet solo, a Lee Morgan solo. At this stage, you're playing with these blues bands. You were the harmonica player, yeah? You were you weren't playing guitar and not singing?

SPEAKER_02:

No, I was just playing harmonica in this blues band, yeah. And they had a saxophone player too, so I had to learn how to play horn lines with a saxophone. It was cool because you could treat the harmonica like a horn. The sax would be doing the horn line and I'd be playing the same notes or similar and just it was so cool because you could get such a big sound and then you could also do your harmonica solos and you can make the key sounds so you could pretend to be like a keyboard just playing the octaves in the background. Yeah, really fun to play in band.

SPEAKER_00:

The saxophone and harmonica actually sounds really good together, doesn't

SPEAKER_02:

it? Yeah, and you can do chord responses, so great. Same as guitar, you know, the harmonica and guitar chord response, it's so fun. And that's another thing I learn a lot, like you hear guitar players and you learn the way they do phrases is quite different to a harmonica player, so it's really nice to be able to be a good guitarist as well and then be able to find all those in-between notes and go, wow. And a lot of bending to get the precision of the notes that you're looking for.

SPEAKER_00:

So you played in a band a few years and then sort What made you decide to start the one-man band?

SPEAKER_02:

So I went to uni and I did a music course, which went for four years up in Lismore. So that's just near where I live now. That's what brought me up to the area I am today. And I was still playing lots of blues bands then, but then I became a father and I went, wow, you know, okay, you can make$150,$200 a night. That's not really much to keep a family going. You know, you have to do a lot of gigs. And then I just went, I'll just go busking and I'll get a suitcase put a kick pedal to the suitcase I just was a bit creative and I was just trying to work out ways of making a beat and I thought a suitcase you can put everything inside it so you could just carry the suitcase to the markets and I just remember going to my local market and opening a suitcase pulling out two little ants I actually had a Dobro guitar so it didn't need um micing when I first started busking I just had a little pig nose yeah you could open up this amp so you could if it was closed it was really distorted and if you open up the back it made it cleaner but it had one knob on it and that was it and I just used to plug my bullet mic into that and I'd just play really fun blues and I got more into sort of listening to things like Moby and how Moby would approach blues as like repetitive sort of grooves and how you could just repeat it and then just the 4-4 beat and I just went it's so fascinating you know it's just and it went down so well like I remember just first time I played I sold 10 CDs which was like$200 in half an hour wow I just ran out so I had to make 20 CDs the next time and then I sold out and the next time I went and then I just kept doing that. And before you know it, you're selling 150 CDs a day. And it's like, wow, such good money. And it was just so fun.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, fantastic, yeah. I mean, I remember that Morby album you mentioned. He came out. It was play, wasn't it? I had that album. Yeah, play. It was very blues-based, wasn't it, with kind of ambient sounds and the mixing and stuff like that. It was a great album, all sort of kind of based on blues, wasn't it?

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, it was amazing for its time. And you could tell, like, people loved it because I think it was the most sold album in that time. And it was like, wow, people just love that soulful feeling. But then they loved that groove. And I just went, well, I'll just do that live on the streets in my own sort of way

SPEAKER_00:

That was quite an inspiration for your one-man act, was it, initially, that Moby album?

SPEAKER_02:

It was, yeah, because I'm not really a traditional blues player because I think I overdosed on just playing like 12-bar blues and stuff and singing blues because I'm like this skinny white boy that surfs. I don't really have the blues, if you know what I mean. But I love those guys because they're just the real blues tradition because it just comes with so much feeling and I just love that. But then, yeah, to hear this guy just put... these blues licks and things into a song and just keep it quite simple.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah. But you weren't trying to put kind of electronic aspects in though, like as he

SPEAKER_02:

was. No, not back then. I was more like just making beats with my, you know, my box suitcase, you know, four on the floor with that. So it was really, really rootsy. And that's what was fun. It was like dance music, but with no electronics at all.

UNKNOWN:

Yeah. Thank you.

SPEAKER_00:

how you developed that sound you know it sounded like you you started adding in more more instruments and more layers to your sound as you progressed

SPEAKER_02:

yeah that's right just over time just because because I did so much street performing like sometimes I play eight hours a day you know and you just have that repetition of doing the same similar things or just just always alternating a little bit and just changing it around and just having fun and just seeing what you can do but I think all that playing just allowed me to you know be solid with my guitar playing and then just be able to focus on the melodies and the grooves that I'm doing on the harmonica and bringing in the different rhythms with my feet without really thinking it's more just your whole body becomes music and you can just feel what you want to do next.

SPEAKER_00:

And what's the busking scene like over there you know you say you were busking in markets and things is that obviously the weather's good in Australia is one thing that helps but it doesn't rain like Edinburgh all the time but yeah so is it quite a strong busking scene over there?

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, I don't do it anymore, but it used to be amazing. It was just all I did for 19 years because I don't really stay up late since I became a father. I don't drink either, so I didn't really want to go out. It's late nights and not being a drinker, it's just a different sort of feeling when you're playing in pubs. So I think that was one of my... probably the best things ever that happened for me is I decided to wake up at 3am and, you know, I'd drive three hours to play these amazing markets and spend a weekend like on the Sunshine Coast and play at places like your Mundy Markets, Caloundra, Redcliffe. And then I'd come home and I'd have the week off so I could just be with the kids. So it was a really beautiful rhythm. But the funny thing was, is I'd wake up like at three to get there at six to set up my own sound system and, you know, to set up for the day. So you start playing at 7.30, 8am sometimes and then finish at about one or two. And then you'd be finished, you know, jump in the ocean at the end of the day and have a little snooze and then have some dinner and then do it again somewhere. Just, yeah, so it was really, really, really special for me because that type of rhythm allowed me to play a lot. but then also have a really lovely lifestyle so that I could be with my family and my kids growing up a lot.

SPEAKER_00:

Were these tourist places you were going to play?

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, well, Yamundi Markets, that's one of the most famous ones in Australia. Just this little town, it's beautiful. that just draws like 10,000 people. I don't know where they all come from, but it's just such a creative market. It used to be the rule was you had to make it, sow it, or grow it to sell there. So it was just everyone made their own stuff, and it just had the biggest fig trees that were just so beautiful to set up under. So it was just all around, just a great environment and crowds. Wow, you played it. You'd just play, and you'd have 200 or 300 people around you, and then you'd stop. They'd move on, and the next half an hour you'd play, and you'd have 200 or 300 people around you go wow you're just playing thousands of people it's a great way because that was when cds were popular so that was really good for me because you could make a living really well

SPEAKER_00:

yeah you were selling the cds and we talked about a lot on here the sort of death of selling cds and i take it that's what you said you don't busk anymore anyway yeah but was it part of the reason because you weren't able to sell as many cds as streaming came

SPEAKER_02:

because i did so much i sort of i'm feeling you know as you get older it's just takes a bit of toll doing all that playing and setting up and I just love being in the studio and just seeing just where else I can take music so these days I do a lot in the studio and I'm sort of like thinking about the world too I don't want to drive too much I just want to be a bit conscious of how much fuel I use and just be gentle on the world I keep the online presence going I've had a little break from that just recently but I've always just loved to get inspired and try new things and just I find music's one of those amazing jobs where you just keep growing and there's so much you can learn and that it's just like you always feel like a kid. It's so much fun stuff to do. It's just a matter of having the time to do it. So I feel really fortunate to be in that position where I can be in my own studio and just try all these things and go, wow, can't wait to share it

SPEAKER_00:

with you. Fantastic. Sounds like you're really loving it, which is good to hear. So one very cool thing you do, Josie, which is you've got juggling percussion. So I'm also a juggler myself, so I'm loving this juggling percussion that you do. So tell us about that.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, that's... Amazing. That's another thing of playing at lots of busking festivals because you meet amazing performers. So one of the most amazing things that happened for me is a good friend of mine. He was just over today, Joel Salem. He invented those chukka chuks. So they're shakers. They're a juggling ball, but they make grooves. The latest ones he's created are three different tones. So you've got, like, smaller ball bearings in one. So it's more like a– related to a drum kit. So it's more like a snare, like– Then you've got the middle ones, which is more like a high hat. It's like... And then you've got the bigger ball bearings and the low one. That's more like a clap. So you've got... So you can do all this stuff while you're juggling, but it's like being a drum kit. And it's just, for me, I had a dream about doing this when I was a kid. So when I met Joel, he was doing it with just little egg shakers when we first met. And I was like, oh, man, we're just really good friends. And because we're just so passionate about it all, we just... yeah, always get together and just be creative and just get so inspired talking to each other.

SPEAKER_00:

Kind of next stage on from the egg shake, are you able to get, like you say, these different sounds out of them?

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, well, the latest one's called pitch benders. You can actually push them in and they get... while you're shaking. So it's next level, just creativeness of what you can do. And visually, it's just amazing. I remember the first time I took them out, it was just like people just don't know what to think, but it just goes down so well live.

SPEAKER_00:

I've got to get myself some of these. As I say, I'm a juggler. They're called chukka chuks. Are they available to buy then?

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, they are. Yeah, so his website would be chukka chuks.com.

SPEAKER_00:

I'll put a link on the website. I'm going to buy some.

SPEAKER_02:

So a common one is you're holding the yellow ones, a mellow one. So I'm holding that one in my index and thumb finger, like... But I've got the white one, which is a hi-hat sort of one, bouncing on the offbeat while holding the other one. So this is all in my right hand. So you go... And then you've got your left hand to do the two and four beat, you know, so you go... You can have that 2-4 big. And then you can do all the fancy stuff where you're bouncing in between each other, throwing it behind your back.

SPEAKER_00:

You're playing harmonica on a rack when you do this, of course.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, so that's

SPEAKER_00:

the

SPEAKER_02:

other thing, just a repetitive cool groove. It's like... And then you go... and then you do the breakdowns so it's all going on inside my body but it all just comes out and this is so fun when it all works and you've got the groove because you have the beat as well with the left foot because that just comes in now and then too just add that the pulse to the song and then you've got if I'm sitting down doing it I can have the two and four happening with my right foot so there's a fair bit going on

SPEAKER_00:

obviously watch the video of you doing this so I'll put a link onto a video so people can check you out so I could Talk about juggling all day, but we'll move on a little bit. So back to the harmonica, you know, kind of how important is the harmonica to your, you know, what your one man band show?

SPEAKER_02:

For me, the harmonica is probably my main instrument because I played so much and it just, it feels like I'm just breathing. So harmonica is probably the instrument that I'm most comfortable with. That's pretty rare, really, because a lot of people just play harmonica, you know, just add a little bit extra stuff. But for me, the harmonica, I can just play a harmonica song and I know that will just be just such a treat at a show because it's such a great instrument. instrument and you can just do so much. I think that's the other thing. I remember playing a show, did a harmonica jam song. This was a long time ago and my friend filmed it. And yeah, it's had crazy amount of views on YouTube too, like 12 million or something. Pretty wild. And that was just me improvising. And then, and it just came through good. Like I was just playing a low F, a Lee Oscar back then, but just all the sound you just get from a harmonica into just a normal microphone. It's just really special.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, fantastic. And there's one of your live songs, which is One Man Band Live. It's a good song where you kind of talk through, you know, how you're kind of layering in the different instruments you use. But in this, you talk about how you, you know, you kind of first started playing the harmonica with the guitar by, you know, a four or five head shape.

SPEAKER_01:

This is the easy part. Playing the harmonica, that's a different story while doing all this at the same time. And the way I learned how to do it was really simple. Just suck on two notes and shake your head, and that's enough. And then add everything in one at a time. Sound like this.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, now that's right. I like to explain what I'm doing because it's really nice to interact with the audience. Because then they can get to feel everything that you're doing, not just look at you and go, wow, that's pretty hard. But then you actually say, oh, I'm just going to introduce my one-man band. First member, my right hand. Sets up the groove. And people get to hear the right hand by itself just making a cool groove, you know. And then you say, now it's going to connect to its brother, the left hand. Then you put the melody with it, the little groove. And it's like, cool. Then here comes a beat. Two. and then here comes a two on the four on the right foot so that's four members so far

SPEAKER_00:

so you talk about not you know you're not you're not playing sort of full-on blues all the time although it's having it's kind of a bluesy kind of folky or your music you probably describe it so you know what are you playing on the guitar you're more about laying down kind of rhythms than necessarily playing chord structures are you you know how do you approach that

SPEAKER_02:

i play yeah just sort of laying down grooves but it's just more simple chord structures that you can you know you can like for slide guitar for example example you can just strum the whole thing or you can pick it and you can mute it with the right hand so it's more softer there's all sorts of elements that make the song but it's more dynamics that probably make it work really well so that's why i like to have different guitars for depending on the different songs because yeah sometimes on the skybox guitar you might play the bass line with the right hand finger while playing the melody with the left hand and then playing like nice long chords on the harmonica so it's just got this really nice beautiful open sound and there'll be delay going on for the notes on the scarbox guitar so it just drifts out there it's really lovely when you play things like that live and people are always fascinated because they go wow there's so much going on

SPEAKER_00:

you do quite a few instrumentals don't you so you kind of you know with maybe just a few kind of vocal interjections so you got this kind of like like you say you know relaxing melodic music coming

SPEAKER_02:

out That's the stuff I love to listen to is quite melodic, beautiful, easy listening sort of tunes and slide guitar is great for that. Yeah, I do love playing instrumentals and just music with a lot of space. I find it's just like listening, having space just for your ears to relax and that's really nice in these days where it's so busy. You go out on the highways, wow, it's so busy everywhere and then you come home and you just go, wow. I'm just going to finger pick this little chord and that's it. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

It's interesting because, you know, a lot of people who are approaching playing the harmonica in this case, you know, they'll try and play something fast and impressive, you know, but you kind of take this approach of lay it back and nice and slow and kind of punctuated harmonica riffs without trying to sound too fancy a lot of the

SPEAKER_02:

time. Yeah. Well, I learned that maybe my guitar teacher back when I was like 15, 14, I think was maybe the first time I ever got up on stage. He was a really good harmonica player as well, my guitar teacher. Yeah. I used to have to travel from one side of Canberra because that's where I was brought up was in Canberra and it was just so inspiring but he just taught me music it's just like you don't have to play all the time it's just like what you play is so important because I remember the first time I played with him I just shook on holes four and five and just did that for a whole song it was like and the next time he saw me he said okay I'll explain a little bit about how you play but I always thought of music as like a conversation you don't want to talk too much but what you say it's got to be you know really connect to people I just love playing just what feels right and not overplaying. So I'm always aware of that.

SPEAKER_00:

And when you're playing live, you played to some audiences, big audiences, you played at festivals, you know, how do you carry the audience as a one-man band? I think you've probably explained that in what you've just said already just in the last few minutes, but, you know, some people might be intimidated as a one-man band.

SPEAKER_02:

It works really well for me because I think being a one-man band is so different. The way I sort of introduce myself and build up songs is quite unique and interesting. So it just captains So you can have them just really there. And I think coming from street performing so much where you've got to pull a crowd from out of nowhere, you learn that to actually play in a festival is quite simple because they're all waiting for you, you know, and you've got this big sound system. It's like, wow, this is the easiest gig in the world. So I think street performing is a great way to learn how to perform to audiences because people– If you're the best musician in the world, you don't look at the audience, you don't talk to them, they'll just walk away. But if you connect with them and, you know, you're just really honest and just be yourself, I think people really love that and it does something special that lets people really connect to you and even connect to themselves more and just be more open.

SPEAKER_00:

So let's talk a little bit through your album. So I think you've released four albums in total. Is that right?

SPEAKER_02:

I had a couple of earlier albums, yeah, but I just stopped selling them. But yeah, I've had... So maybe seven or something, yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

So the ones which are available on Spotify, which is what I use to put the tracks on, the first one of those is Taking Time Out, which is, I think, released in... 2010 so just picking out a few songs on there you've got La La which is something you definitely get audience participation in you get them singing in and you get sort of children singing is that your own children singing on that song?

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah I remember recording that just in the studio that I'm in at the moment that's so cute because I used to wake up really early before the kids woke up to record like four in the morning and just record for a couple of hours before they wake up. And I remember they came down one time and they said, oh, and I was working on that song, La La. And I said, oh, you guys want to sing? It was so cute because their headphones were like bigger than their heads, you know. And it was really sweet to capture their voices.

SPEAKER_04:

I'm now a father with a beautiful family. Another

SPEAKER_00:

one is the title track, Taking Time Out. So, you know, this is very much in keeping to what, you know, you've got a theme going through. And like you say, you want to enjoy life, slow things down, you know, relax, you know, and appreciate things. And, you know, quite a laid back song in that mood.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, it was fun. I was just playing around with keyboard and piano chords and just working out little sounds and just jamming around with them. And at that time, I was like, man, you've really got to take time out for yourself. Otherwise, you're just going to get too run down.

SPEAKER_00:

And then you released a live album at the Zamio Theatre in 2012. So yeah, some good harmonica songs in here. One of them called Harmonica Jam. so you're kind of whooping and things on this is that sort of showing sunny terry influence

SPEAKER_02:

yeah i used to love sunny terry and just the way you do that and how you'd cup and stuff and just make all these cool effects And I used to just experiment and like Roy McLeod, how he did it. And, yeah, they're just so great and just so inspiring. So, yeah, I just would always add that because it's like a cool thing to build up. Like Harmonica Jam is a great song that I use to start off my gigs because I walk out and there's just one microphone there. I stay standing up and I just play Harmonica Jam because it has this nice slow build up and it just cooks and just warms up the audience so well. that you've got them for the rest of the gig.

SPEAKER_00:

And then you do another one, which is the old tricker called Harmonica Belt, where you basically just play a different diatonic to change the key through.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, that's funny. Gosh, I just think I had all these harmonicas and people would always ask me about the different harmonicas. And I just, I figured it'd be cool to show everyone how they all sound in one song. So the lower ones to the left and as I go through all my harmonicas, they go up in key. So you got your highest. So there's eight harmonicas there. So I'd start on like cruisy groove. And then just every time I change, I've got the tempo that little bit. That's a huge winner when you play gigs. But geez, it's a huge head spin as well.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, it's interesting. Quite a simple but interesting trick where, you know, you just change the key of harmonica. People go, wow. It's obviously been done in other songs as well. But, you know, it's a great idea sort of to showcase a harmonica, isn't it?

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah. And you change the styles for different harmonicas. Like I think when I get to the C, I play more country stuff. But it's all cross halves still. so the keys are changing nicely yeah and at the end you're just going as fast as you possibly can so it's like it starts off really low and cruisy and cool and by the end you're just cooking with the hoots and everything in there as well so it's yeah it's a workout

SPEAKER_00:

and then your next studio album Rise and Shine 2015 so this is progressing on with this idea of kind of having these blues beats you know over a nice groove

SPEAKER_03:

yeah I play a little melody on my harmonica

SPEAKER_00:

You recorded this in your home studio again, yeah?

SPEAKER_02:

Oh, I did, yeah. I did them all, actually, but except for the live one that was just mixed down at a friend's place.

SPEAKER_00:

And you've got Keep Life Simple on here, which is a beatbox harmonica.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, that's right.

UNKNOWN:

Keep Life Simple Bye.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, that's been a really popular song, that one. It's used a lot in reels. I think it's just because of the theme, Keep Life Simple. People love it for the simple things that they do in life.

SPEAKER_00:

So what about the beatboxing and the harmonica? We have heard other people do this, but did you start beatboxing around then? Was it part of your one-man show? I

SPEAKER_02:

was playing around with beatboxing, and I was just trying to work out how to involve a harmonica at the same time. So I was just doing the beat and then just going... Trying to get that nice tone of sucking, just so you've got a chord. And just playing around with the rhythms, going, wow, that's so cool. And just working on making the beat sound clearer and then making the sort of, you know, that sort of clap sort of sound. And then keeping the harmonica nice, nice tone. So, yeah. And then. I was just playing around with lyrics and I wrote that song. And that's a real fun song to play live because it's, you know, it's got great lyrics. Plus it's just me and my harmonica. So it's so simple because it's just one microphone's all I need.

SPEAKER_00:

And again, I think, you know, with the beatboxing and the rhythms and the percussions that obviously you've used, it really shows, doesn't it, that you knowing to play, you know, the guitar and the percussions, it really helped you, you know, and influence your harmonica playing a lot as well. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, that's so true. I always tell people they should learn more than just one instrument because it all helps everything. Like if you learn percussion, that's going to help all your instruments because guitar playing, your right hand's all about rhythm and percussion. So for me, harmonica playing, I'm beatboxing, playing harmonica, but then I can just... going to these cool beatbox breakdowns. It's just because I know the sound I'm after. You can be quite free when you're doing a show and try new things and just surprise yourself.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, and on the Keep Life Simple and on a few other songs, you're not playing the harmonica on a rack or you're holding it in your hands, I think, on some songs, aren't you?

SPEAKER_02:

For some songs, yeah. Yeah, I've got it in the rack for a lot because they're just live recordings, so I just plug everything in and just go for it. Yeah, no, a lot of them I've got in my hands.

SPEAKER_00:

And there's another song on this Rise and shine album called superhero which you released certainly on spotify as a single so um another instrumental so So who's the superhero in this song?

SPEAKER_02:

Oh, so that's the instrumental, yeah. So superhero. That was me just playing live in my studio on a recorder. I went, oh, that's a lovely song. But then... I put lyrics to it. That's the one that's released later. So that's superheroes. It's got the S at the end is the one with lyrics. So superhero is like instrumental and superheroes is the one with lyrics. And that's inspired from just when you see people in life that just bring you up and just make you feel, just make you feel warm and you feel inspired to love life. They're like superheroes to me because they just make you want to really look after the world and look after friends, look after, yourself and just bring out just the most amazing parts of you and I find children do that to me a lot because they're just so playful you know everything they look at is just gold to them like it's so interesting and they just will skip down the street you know they're just floppy and just free so I just see all this stuff and then I just see people that hold on to a lot of stuff and they're tense and they're angry and it's like wow just need that more that reflection of more superheroes like just people loving life and you know that's great because it can bring people out of just going and I just don't want to be frustrated and angry anymore. I just want to be like a kid again. And it's only up to ourselves to do that. So that's what that song was about, just superheroes.

SPEAKER_00:

That's beautiful, man. Yeah, and obviously you're enjoying life with the music and life over there in Australia. So yeah, fantastic, yeah. So you release another live album in 2020 with some of the songs from the early album, but some new ones as well. Red Cliff, that's very chordal, you know, kind of playing big chords.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, well, that's my son playing ukulele in the background for that. My boy, Rumi, because he used to come to the markets with me and just started playing ukulele for a few songs, and that was one of them. So he's featured on a couple of the songs. One's called Cloundra. So they're both markets that we used to play at. That's why we called the songs Cloundra and Redcliffe. We did YouTubes of them just recently, and they came out really well.

SPEAKER_00:

You've got a couple on which are kind of more raunchy, hard-driving blues songs, The Line and...

SPEAKER_05:

Yeah,

SPEAKER_02:

B-Love's off the Taking Time album, but then just when you play it live, it's different. Yeah, so when you record a studio album, it's always going to be a little bit different to what you do live. And I love to get that really dirty, swampy, bluesy sound on my lap-slide guitar and then just a four-on-the-floor kick. And that's just all about just being yourself again, that song. So it's pretty funny because you've got this really dirty, bluesy song that's all about just, yeah, like I said, being in love, taking footsteps in your own time, yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

And then you play, of course, throughout your albums, you play the famous Australian song, Waltz of Matilda. It's got to be done. I take it that always goes down very well in Australia, doesn't it? it yeah it's really lovely

SPEAKER_02:

that's i really like that melody that's because i don't play any covers i've never played any covers and that was the only cover song i ever did but i sort of made it my own sort of version because i just really like that melody i haven't played that for a long time but it's really lovely

SPEAKER_00:

So we talked at the beginning, you know, I'm through this, obviously, you know, you've had a lot of exposure on social media, you've had millions of views and, you know, that must be amazing to get that. I don't know if that ever turns into actual ready money for you, but at least it gets you the exposure. So, and recently, I think you've been looking at, you know, as you say, like creating videos that you can release on social media, that's something you've been, you know, sort of concentrating on, is it?

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, well, my son, he's been writing to filming and we just have a studio downstairs. So I painted the back wall black and we just got some good lights and he's got the good cameras. So we just and I've got the studio down here. So we've just been playing around, plugging in and making songs and little clips and. And I was just over in Indonesia and in Bali just recently and we put a little road mic on and I was playing ukulele and harmonica just walking down this cool street. And just it's so fun. Yeah, people seem to really love it. It just goes so well on social media. I think, oh, that's the other thing. I went to Germany. and I played at a festival that I had played at there, and my son, he got down to the front because it was quite busy. It was a really busy festival. It must have been 3,000 or 4,000 in the crowd. So they have all the photographers in the front row, and he was there, you know, as part of the team. It was pretty fun for him. And, yeah, he captured this really cool clip, and we posted that on the YouTube channel, and that's gone really well too. So you do make pretty good money if you get a lot of views, but you just want to be on your channels, not on other people's, which most of them You know, a creative set of my views are on different people's channels. But still, I've done really well out of it, so I'm pretty happy. very fortunate.

SPEAKER_00:

And then there's a really great video of you, your song Jamming, which is on your album, but you've done a video where you're playing, it's kind of six of you playing the different instruments of your one-man band.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, that was a lot of fun making that video because I had the idea in my head and I had this old blues suit. My friend, he's just a really good filmer and he had a widescreen and I said, is it possible to have six juzzies jamming together? And he goes, I don't know, but we'll work it out. And literally half a day we did I just had to imitate to myself and pretend that I knew what I was looking because it looks like I'm just looking. myself and all the dance moves at the end are all in sync so I had to remember which beat to move left foot first and the right foot just so I was all when you put it together I was going oh my gosh I can't believe that worked that's been really popular that one that video's classic

SPEAKER_00:

yeah it looks great and funnily enough Tony Erz who is your fellow Australian he also has produced some videos where he's got three of him playing you know three different harmonica parts so it's obviously an Australian thing to have multiple cells on the camera great no but yeah they're that's a fantastic video yeah and then you've got another one which is a live clip called the coolest harmonica solo so and so this is just you know capturing some of that live show yeah

SPEAKER_02:

coolest harmonica solo yeah that's when i do the one man band and i just ask the crowd would you like to hear my coolest harmonica solo and of course the crowd goes yeah and i always attempt to try and do the coolest harmonica solo i've ever done that was the one that i was saying really captured and that's done really well like on youtube

SPEAKER_00:

yeah is that the one in germany was that the germany one

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, that was in Germany.

SPEAKER_00:

Grolsch Blues Festival, yeah. You've got a little section on your website, and I'll put a link on where you've got some of these produced videos as well, you know, they're kind of filming rather than live shows, and you're sort of taking time out to think another one of those.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, yeah. As

SPEAKER_00:

well as getting you some monetization, I guess this keeps your exposure up, keeps you getting invited to festivals and things.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, yeah, no, it definitely gets out there, and just the amount of views, when you look at statistics, it's quite crazy, like, it's just trying to keep up with the world of online because it seems like you can connect to the whole world these days you've just got to know how to and just be consistent and just have quality whatever it is that you do because it's like cds have stopped but you know you just got to go okay we go with the time so now it's like you can create a song and not have to produce a thousand cds and post them out and sell them so in some ways that's pretty cool you just got to get people listening to it like on things like spotify itunes which can be quite tricky but when it works i've got friends that make close to a million dollars a year and it's like wow that's amazing and you know it's just not from not even have to produce anything so there's no hard pressed stuff which is less waste for the world I suppose you could look at it that way so it's good things and it's just like yeah it's just trying to keep up with the times it's an amazing world we live in and that's for sure.

SPEAKER_00:

Well you know it's interesting you say that exactly that you know because I talked a lot on here about the kind of death of CD sales and you know and lots of and in a way obviously the reduction in gigs as well but it's good to see you know someone like yourself you know with social media there's other ways isn't there to progress and to make money and keep it going as a musician it's great to see.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah there is you know And I'm fortunate because I make a living offline just now and it blows me away. It gives me a lot of freedom to keep creating and I never thought I dreamt that would happen but um just to be able to do that and just not have the stress of going out there and working it just gives me a lot of freedom to be creative and take the time to work on the next project so yeah there is ways like you just got to be clever with it all

SPEAKER_00:

another thing that you put together is a is a teaching course yeah so you've got a press play and blow away is the name of your uh your teaching course which is a 67 lesson course yeah

SPEAKER_02:

yeah yeah that was that was a lot of fun making that because I just finished university so I was quite young but I'd been teaching for 10 years and I had just all these great tips and I thought wow when I put all my lessons as many lessons I can fit onto a CD and I think CDs went for 80 minutes back then so it fit 67 lessons and it's just me teaching from the start you know how to breathe how to you know make grooves using your tongue and then I'd put the guitar back in so it was very much like having a lesson one-on-one with me but I thought how awesome would it be to make this just like$20 CD where you're You've got like six months worth of lessons and you can just learn. But anyway, that took off. That was so, so successful. I just put on MP3 now just so people can just download it for$15 and still have it. And, yeah, it still trickles along. It's so nice to hear feedback of people learning how to play harmonica. At one stage there was truck drivers that loved it. They were playing to each other on their CB radios. This is the day when they were selling CDs, but lots of music stores used to sell them. One music store said, I don't know what's with your music, but all these truck drivers keep pulling up here. So it must have been one truck driver doing these cool harmonica licks. And all the truck drivers go, hey, do that. And he go, well, just go to this music shop and you grab this CD and it'll teach you how to do it. And it's so funny, but I just love stories like that.

SPEAKER_00:

Wow, that's amazing. I'm not sure we've had anyone else who's sort of spread the harmonica through the truck driving community before us. Yeah. You've got Australian truck drivers all around the country playing the harmonica. Fantastic.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, just hopefully they're not playing while they're driving, eh?

SPEAKER_00:

A question I ask each time, Jussie, is if you had 10 minutes to practice, what would you spend those 10 minutes doing?

SPEAKER_02:

Quite often, most of my practice is just 10 minutes because sometimes you're so busy with life and those 10-minute moments are the best ever because you just go, it's all I've got, so I'm going to just go for it. So if there's a song I'm working on, I'll just sit down, plug everything in and just work on that one song as well as I can. Or I'll just... Sometimes listen to a song and get an idea and then just try and work out that because then it's like you're always learning something, something new. And if you learn something new, it just sort of just takes your music to different directions and different ideas and you never get stale. So you always feel like you're growing. And it just is more exciting than ever if you just feel like you're growing musically. Yeah, probably just set up my one-man band if I had 10 minutes and just go for it, just play songs that I love.

SPEAKER_00:

And so we'll get into the last section now, which is talking about gear. Do you play any chromatic harmonica at all or any other types of harmonica besides diatonic?

SPEAKER_02:

I remember the first song I ever tried to learn was Rhapsody in Blue by Gershon.

SPEAKER_00:

Oh yeah, that's a tricky one to take on early on.

SPEAKER_02:

Oh man, first song. It took me like six months because I notated all the notes by my ear. I'd like to try and work out like ten notes a day. Now that song goes for like 15 minutes. It took me so long, but it was really fascinating to try and work out all those notes and the trills.

SPEAKER_00:

This is the Larry Adler version. Yeah,

SPEAKER_02:

yeah, Larry Adler.

UNKNOWN:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02:

So I had a chromatic, so I thought, why not learn that song, which was a pretty hard song to learn first off.

SPEAKER_00:

It certainly was.

SPEAKER_02:

But I finally got it, but I couldn't do it now. So I don't really play so much chromatic, no, just because I have it in the rack a lot, the harmonica, and because I'm so comfortable with just blues and the minor and the... They're just a diatonic harmonica.

SPEAKER_00:

You know, something like a kind of bass harmonica might work with you. Have you ever considered anything like that?

SPEAKER_02:

True, yeah. Well, I've got the low tone harmonicas. But I haven't, yeah, bass, harmonica. It's interesting because I try and the more I have stuff, the less I want to have for like when you go on the road. Like when I was just in Bali, I just took a ukulele and harmonica and just my little harmonica rack and, man, it was just the most inspiring time because this is all I had. I just had to make music so I'd play a lot of my songs already new but in different ways. So I played on ukulele and harmonica and it was just so good. Some of those low-tone harmonicas, like I've got side Ls, they've got really good low-tone harmonicas. love that

SPEAKER_00:

yeah as you're saying you're playing with the rack obviously playing the low tone ones allows you to kind of get the bassy notes anyway doesn't it and bass harmonicas are big you couldn't you couldn't put those in a rack although Suzuki do this really cool one which is like a chromatic bass harmonica which I'd love to get one but I haven't got one yet they're apparently they're really good and you know you sort of play them like a I think a chromatic harmonica but it's all bass notes so yeah

SPEAKER_02:

if anything I'll probably just do bass with my voice

SPEAKER_00:

yeah

SPEAKER_02:

you know because you can do drop the voice down an octave or you could put like a down an octave and do the bass through that I'd probably do that for ease things for my show that is anyway but I have heard people do like the harmonica quartets and stuff are so good when they're all doing that.

SPEAKER_00:

So you're using effects pedals quite a lot then, obviously, in your show. And one of the things, though, you're talking about dropping down things an octave. You're using pedals to do that, are you?

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, I just use one pedal now, but it just does my voice and my guitar. And I use the same pedal for my harmonica just to get the guitar settings and get the dirty... The good thing with technology now is you can save presets. So if you've got a song and it sounds really good, you just save it. It's there for whenever you want to play it. So when you do a gig, you don't have to press all these buttons. You just go, that's that song. I just get the best compliments from sound guys because it makes their job so easy and the sound is phenomenal.

SPEAKER_00:

So what is that pedal you're using for harmonica?

SPEAKER_02:

It's TC Helicon, but it's called a Voice Live 3 Extreme. They're a bit of a brain strain to get into and work it out. But once you understand it, it's just amazing. Yeah, like the possibilities of what you can do.

SPEAKER_00:

You're using that pedal for guitar and voice, so it's the same pedal?

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, it's the same. And the good thing is they link together. So if you put the tempo in for the delay, it does it both for guitar and voice. vocals and you can set up things like it's called a hit button so that means if you hit it it might go into a chorus part of the song you might just double your voice or you might just add more distortion to your guitar for that part so there's lots of cool things about it yeah save you having to have lots of because I see a piece of like racks of pedals and all this stuff it's like oh man that's a lot of real estate down there i didn't think i could you know fit that all there

SPEAKER_00:

you must have enough setup as it is in the one-man band obviously you got your guitars when you're playing you know live shows i know you like to travel a lot you know you got guitars you got your percussion you got your harmonica you got you got your juggling balls so you're already carrying a lot of stuff for your shows yeah so

SPEAKER_02:

yeah there's a lot of stuff and just to get the top quality there's you know i work a lot of that just to work on my sound and just i probably spend more time doing that than i do playing which is crazy but true because i just really want that perfect sound because when you have that and you play live it's just such an easy gig

SPEAKER_00:

yeah so you spend a lot of time at home really sorting out your sounds and

SPEAKER_02:

yeah crazy amount of time

SPEAKER_00:

Cool. And harmonica-wise then, I think you're a Seidel endorser, yeah?

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, I'm with Seidel. They're great. I really like those guys.

SPEAKER_00:

So which of their harps do you like to play? I'm playing the classic 1847

SPEAKER_02:

and the noble, the low tone ones.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, and which of the 1847s are using the wooden combs?

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, I think they're wooden, but bamboo, one of the two. They're really, really well made. I look at it and go far out. They just put a lot of work into making it just smooth and just the finish on those harmonicas just

SPEAKER_05:

yeah

SPEAKER_02:

it just looks so pretty i

SPEAKER_00:

noticed on your website for your lessons you're selling the harmonica through your website you know what harmonica is that

SPEAKER_02:

yeah so that's um a no-name harmonica but that's like the best one i could find because i just went through his harmonicas to try and find a good harmonic for people to learn how to play and that actually sounds really good so and it's all in tune so it's really nice to be able to give people a harmonica just to start off with that doesn't cost too much just to and to know that it's easy to play and it's all in tune because i know a lot of people it's nothing worse than giving someone a bad harmonica to start off

SPEAKER_00:

and so when you're playing then um obviously what your one month show again do you do you use different tunings you know to fit with different songs or is it all standard rip to tune diatonics you're using

SPEAKER_02:

i've never really gone down the minor harmonicas but it'd be pretty cool to do because i just i just played third position if i went minor yeah so your whole four is your root note inhaling so yeah i just Like, think of it like that. So one harmonica can, you know, be three harmonicas in a way. You've got a straight harp, you've got a cross harp, and then you've got the third position. I do like first position for just the folky sort of stuff. And if I just want to get more melody, just that simple sort of playing harmonica. Yeah, most of it's in second position that I play.

SPEAKER_00:

And do you have any particular favourite keys of harmonica that work, or does it just depend on the song?

SPEAKER_02:

Oh, it depends on the song, but I do like low... like around the key of low F is a nice range because it's not too high, not too low, but it's just really, that'd probably be my favorite key. Once you go above C, they get to be too high, but they're really good for playing fast and they're great for certain things. But then once you get below like low F, D, it's like real low, you know. It's so good for certain things. I've got all sorts.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, I've got a low A and it's so low. When you're playing with other people, it's hard for them to cut through. But I guess when you're playing in a one-man band, that's another advantage, isn't it? You can make sure that that beautiful low sound comes through.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, so if I was playing low A, I wouldn't play with a band because it's just, you need the band to drop right down. You could do that, like have a real drop-down part. So you play a normal A, then bring them right down, drop down. So it's just like really quiet. then you'd play in those really cool bluesy low tone harmonica sounds that would be cool and then as they bring up you just go back to your normal A that would work for me yeah

SPEAKER_00:

Do you use any overblows?

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah a little bit but not too much no I've never really explored too much of that

SPEAKER_00:

What about your embouchure are you puckering tongue blocking?

SPEAKER_02:

Puckering but then just on the tongue for the octave sort of things yeah

SPEAKER_00:

So what about amplifier wise and equipment so you talked about using a bullet mic on a rack and I know a I think recently you're using the racket by Greg Heumann, aren't you?

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, Greg's great. Wow, he makes such great harmonic mics. And I use one of his Ultimate 57s for singing through as well because I like these Ultimate 57s so much I end up buying three of them. just so I would always have the spares. I've got one down on my tambourine too now because I like it. I think I've got the volume knob on them. The bulletini is so cool. I love that mic. And that's what I use for when I'm just playing harmonica, like a cool bluesy harmonica song because I do that now because I have such a good blues sound that I can pull that out and just do a harmonica solo. I can loop stuff and make a cool groove and then I can just play harmonica over the top and just have this really good quality bluesy sound.

SPEAKER_00:

So when you're playing on the rack now, you're usually using the racket with the bulletini mic, are you?

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, yeah. So I've got two bulletinis. So one free, so I can just play it. And then one on the racket. Yeah. So that's what he's made is a racket in version two. Farmer, Seidel, they've got the Gecko rack. They're really cool. I think that's one of the most amazing designs I've ever seen because you can adjust it in so many ways so that it just fits to your lips in the right position. And the best thing about it is that you can just set it up so you lock it. So once you find the spot that you like your harmonica to sit on the rack, you just have this little thing there where you just go, okay, that's the spot where it locks and then you just can put it in the same spot. It won't ever slide out or, you know, some racks, they can just fall down and you just nearly break your neck trying to play harmonica and then you have to stop your show to pull it up and twist it on and tighten it

SPEAKER_00:

yeah

SPEAKER_02:

yeah so that's really really good

SPEAKER_00:

and so what about amplifiers when you're playing harmonica are you using a tube amp to play some some more distorted sound or is it

SPEAKER_02:

well all the amps are in my um effects so the sounds are so great these days that i don't even need an amp because you just go straight into my computer

SPEAKER_00:

so you're getting your harmonica sound through for your tc helicon yeah pedal

SPEAKER_02:

yeah yeah yep Yeah, I've got all my sounds through there now. It's great.

SPEAKER_00:

And again, with all the gear, all the instruments you're carrying around, obviously it helps if you don't have to lug around an amplifier as well. Yeah, so it makes it.

SPEAKER_02:

Well, I can fit three guitars in one case now and then all my drum stuff into another case, my box drum. So it's pretty cool. I can just get on an airplane and not have to pay a huge overweight fee. But it's taken ages to refine that. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

And so, yes, it's a final question then. So what about your future plans? What are you working on now? You got any tours coming up, any gigs?

SPEAKER_02:

I'm not booking anything at the moment because I'm just really enjoying being at home because my kids have probably only got a couple of years left living here. It's a really beautiful time just to be in the studio and hanging out with them. Great for me because I just feel like I'm just going to grow in the next two years musically. can't wait to share that and who knows in two years time i just organize a what just a world tour just go for around the world for a year playing i'll just see how i feel but for the time being i'm just going to work on more online projects and just set that up just so i know you know the rest of my life is sort of sorted so i can just do all the fun things around it And yeah, that's my plan, really. Just keep it pretty simple for the next two years.

SPEAKER_00:

Sounds great. I think we're all massively envious of your idyllic life over there in Eastern Australia and maybe inspiring us to do some of the same. So thanks so much for talking to me today, Jussie Smith.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, no worries, Neil. Lovely to talk to you.

SPEAKER_00:

Thanks to Zydle for sponsoring the podcast. And be sure to check out their great range of harmonicas and products at www.zydle1847.com or on Facebook or Instagram at Zydle Harmonicas. Thanks so much to Juzzy for joining me today. His joyful life is so infectious and it really shines through in his music. And thanks again for listening. Please check out harmonicahappyhour.com and if you wish to make a donation, that'd be much appreciated. I'll leave you with the audio from Juzzy's song Jamming. Be sure to check out the great video where he appears as a sextet.

SPEAKER_05:

Woo! Woo!