recording/web services

Box Office (ticket sales, show times, enquiries):
301 High St Northcote VIC 3070
Ph: (03) 9486 1677
open Monday - Saturday 2.00 - 6.00pm
info@northcotesocialclub.com

Jason Harwell

Singer/songwriters are everywhere these days, but how many of them have competed nationally at Meat Judging and Evaluation? Though one may be tempted to guess none of them, Jason Harwell would be quick to correct you. He says, 'I had reached the peak of my athletic abilities – sitting the bench and chasing foul balls in the parking lot – and thought that maybe it was time to seek greener pastures, so to speak.' Growing up on a cattle farm in rural Georgia, he need look no further than his local Future Farmers of America. Soon after, Jason found himself in a giant meat locker in Kansas City placing carcasses in order from best to worst. 'It was a wonderful experience. Meat judging isn't something you letter in, I suppose, but I got to wear a hard hat and miss a week of school. It's not what most people do in high school, but it seemed to fit me,' Jason says.

Doing things differently has been a hallmark of Jason's life. Now 28, Jason has long since given up the glitz and glamour of meat judging for a career in music, and he continues to take the road less traveled. He says, 'but I just couldn't shake the feeling that I wasn't truly living the kind of life I was intended to live. The more I thought about it, the more I had to find out what that meant.'

This search for true life eventually bore fruit with the Alive in the Fall album, a wide-reaching collection of alterna-folk songs incorporating shimmer-pop piano flourishes and alt-country washes of steel strings that, according to Flagpole Magazine, 'brims with sincerity and soul'.

'Alive in the Fall' also introduced Harwell to an international audience, with its track 'Declaration Song' winning the Americana/Roots category in the 2005 International Music Awards, and garnering Harwell the Top Prize, making him the International Acoustic Artist of the Year.

'With Alive in the Fall', Jason says, 'my goal is to share these experiences in the hope that they will find someone in a similar place and, ultimately, offer them something real. Something that didn't come out of a computer. I feel that's my responsibility as a songwriter.'

www.jasonharwell.com

Kim Beales

Kim Beales released his first piece of the recording pie in 2002. The self released A Day In The Dream caught the attention of the local music world, one such was Neala from Beat Magazine, who suspected that Beales may one day have "a cult following all of his own in the future". The release of this EP coincided with the formation of Melbourne indie collective, Tien An Min along with acts like Broken Flight and Tamas Wells.

After a 3 year hiatus of gigging in some of Melbourne's favourite band rooms and travelling the globe, Beales thought enough was enough, and recorded his first full length album, The Whispers. If an artist can be gentle and yet upfront at the same time, Beales is that very thing. Alongside songs of everyday life, Beales engages intelligently with Australian refugee issues and also interacts with the poetry of a prisoner in Nazi Germany. One thing Beales could never be accused of is being shallow! His passionate and intimate words are set across the backdrop of a variety of melodic soundscapes.

The Whispers deliciously tips its hat to a variety of musicians, including the soothing sounds of Nick Drake, Damien Rice and Glenn Richards, and the energy of artists such as Jeff Buckley, The Police and Ani DiFranco.

www.myspace.com/kimbeales