Festival favourite CAROLYN OATES fields some of Tony Cummings' questions.

Carolyn Oates

Tony: Can I have a potted biography, particularly addressing the imponderable mystery of how an Aussie ends up in England?

Carolyn: I grew up in Melbourne, Australia. Music was a part of my life from very young. Started piano lessons when I was six and did the grades thing up to grade seven. Along the way I picked up the guitar and started teaching myself and also started writing songs. Played in a few bands while I was at high school, all good training ground and fun to look back on. Final year of school started an acoustic duo with my fellow school captain as a way of getting around having to speak at school assemblies - we sung instead! The duo kept going and along the way we met some people one being Roma Waterman. We actually went to school together but she's a few years older than me. I started playing for her and touring with her. Also became more and more curious about the studio side of things and started hanging out at a studio in Melbourne and started working under Andy Sorenson and David Carr, two musos and producers I grew to respect and learn a lot from! Between gigging and studio interests I did other part time work to keep bill paying regular, some of that was with John Smith's (the God Squad guy) organisation. I would go into schools and be a musician/seminar presenter on various topics on life values. Along this journey I had the opportunity to play guitar for Sue Rinaldi on her second tour in Australia over the millennium which at the time was a great experience - to work with another woman (and Caroline Bonnett) in the industry of which there aren't many! About a month after that I got to be support for Delirious? for their Melbourne date (I'd already bought my ticket to go see them play!). Then only a few months after that I was playing for the worship team at Soul Survivor Australia which was being led by Martin Layzell. At the time I had no thoughts of moving to the UK. About six to eight months later - I was sitting in church one day and just had this sense that God wanted me to go to the UK. I spent some time trying to process this thought with friends and mentors just to make sure I wasn't living in la-la-land. We all came to the conclusion it must be a God prompt, so then proceeded to start knocking on doors. It turned out Sue needed a guitarist for Spring Harvest 2001 so she offered me the job for that five days.... I asked if I could come over for six months! That is how I arrived here. I had never even been out of the Australia before I came over here! I'm still doing work with Sue as well as spending some time working on my own stuff, and that is the brief history...

Tony: I think Cross Rhythms once wrote that you were the world's best female Christian didgeridoo player. Are you the only one?

Carolyn: I can't think of any other women I know who can play the dij. In Australia I have to be careful where I play because certain aboriginal tribes don't allow women to play the dij and I would be in danger of offending them.... That's often the reason women don't play the dij.

Tony: Since relocating to the UK, what have you been doing?

Carolyn: Stuff with Sue, which has been great. Sometimes we have had an all girl band... I'm not saying that to be sexist, I'm saying it because it's such a rarity and it excites me to know that there are more female musicians out there. I've released this EP and trying to get some of my own gigs in the pub scene around London but that's quite a tricky one... It's not what you know but who you know and I don't know anyone! So I'm back at square one over here.

Tony: What's your favourite song on your EP and why?

Carolyn: At the mo it's probably "All Consuming Insignificant". I enjoy the guitar idea and the use of a sub-bass bass line with an acoustic song. I find myself remembering the title of that song in many situations where it seems that my life is being taken over by things that don't really count for anything.

Tony: What plans do you have for the future?

Carolyn: Location is up for grabs at the moment. I'm definitely in this for the long haul as a singer/songwriter and hope that I will continue to keep writing and releasing stuff for a long time yet.