November 25, 2025 · Episode 48
1 Hr, 28 Min, 54 Sec 

Summary

In this episode of Pain In The Arts, Lyndon and Breallyn sit down with Brett Wood, one of Australia’s finest blues guitarists and a longtime collaborator with Pete Murray. From his teenage days writing fan letters to acoustic legend Tommy Emmanuel, to spending fourteen years rocking with Electric Mary and contributing to iconic tracks like “Dumb Ways to Die,” Brett has built an incredible legacy as a premier session and touring musician.

Now, he’s stepping into the spotlight as a solo singer-songwriter with his debut single “Real Piece of Work.” Brett opens up about the vulnerability of releasing his own music, working with legendary Stevie Ray Vaughan drummer Chris Layton, navigating a late ADHD diagnosis, and the crucial mindset shift required to trust his own creative vision. It’s an honest, deeply musical look at mentorship, artistry, and life inside the Australian music scene.

Connect with Brett Wood
Website: www.brettwood.com
Social Media: @brettwoodmusic (Instagram, Facebook, TikTok)

Love this conversation? Get exclusive podcast episodes on our Patreon and support the show!

Transcript

Lyndon: Now I want to go back to the Pete Murray thing.

Breallyn: Yes.

Lyndon: But let’s do an official start.

Breallyn: Oh, do a start? Yeah.

Lyndon: Should we do that?

Brett: Yeah.

Lyndon: Why not?

Welcome to Pain In The Arts, where the pursuit of meaningful art meets the unpredictable demands of real life.

And you are here with Lyndon

Breallyn: and with Breallyn.

Brett: and… Brett Wood. Thanks for having me, guys.

Lyndon: Yes. Mr. Wood is here.

Breallyn: Thanks so much for coming, Brett. We just appreciate that you would come and be on our podcast ’cause we’ve got so many questions for you. So thanks for being here.

Brett: It’s a pleasure. It’s nice to see you guys.

Brett: It’s been years.

Lyndon: I don’t know where to start.

Brett: Yeah.

Lyndon: I do know where to start.

Brett: We’ve known each other a long time.

Lyndon: Yeah.

Breallyn: So where did you meet?

Brett: We were just talking about it before. Was it in Highett at the art center there?

Lyndon: Yes.

Brett: There was a guitar competition run by the beloved Ron Lee.

Breallyn: Oh, good ‘ole Ron’s music school.

Brett: Ron Lee’s music. Yeah.

Breallyn: I remember we used to head on down there and Lyndon would just be drooling over all the guitars and that we had 2 cents to pay our electricity bill and he couldn’t get anything.

Lyndon: I think he was the closest music shop. They had some nice guitars, but they had a lot of entry level stuff, but he was very clever how he had you walk through the shop to get to the

Brett: teaching rooms.

That’s right. Yeah.

Breallyn: Smart.

Lyndon: But,

Breallyn: and then he organised competitions and stuff?

Brett: Yeah, there was a Guitar Master Challenge. I think it was called the Ron Lee’s Music Factory Guitar Master Challenge.

Lyndon: Yeah.

Brett: At the Kingston Art Center.

Breallyn: Okay. Yeah.

Brett: And the Kingston Art Center was run by a lovely woman named Susan Cooper.

Lyndon: Wow. You’re good for remembering all this stuff.

Brett: Yeah. And she was a great supporter of mine after a couple of years or so of going into those contests and she helped me put on my first couple of solo shows there. Yeah, she was really sweet.

Lyndon: Amazing.

Breallyn: So cool.

Brett: Yeah. But yeah, that’s where we met. And I remember, I just always remember the devilishly handsome

Lyndon: This is

Brett: the singer songwriter.

Breallyn: Yeah.

Brett: Who played way too cleverly on the guitar for just any old singer songwriter.

Breallyn: There you go.

Lyndon: I don’t remember that at all. I just remember, ’cause I remember feeling like the old guy. And I remember feeling like the old guy and then there were these young guys, you and Andrew Wrigglesworth.

Brett: Yeah.

Lyndon: Absolutely.

Brett: And Steven McKay.

Lyndon: Yeah. Who were just smashing it. And I was like, man, oh, these guys. Yeah.

Brett: Now they know what it is.

It’s ADHD. Somebody just give the kid a guitar and stand back.

Lyndon: Yeah.

Brett: Give him a basketball and let him go. Or give him just something to keep him occupied.

Breallyn: Something. Yeah. Something to focus in on.

Lyndon: It’s so interesting.

Living with ADHD: A Late Diagnosis

Breallyn: Oh, it is. I know. I almost feel like everyone we have in the studio goes, my ADHD made me do this.

Brett: It’s the fault.

Breallyn: Yeah.

Lyndon: That’s… but you wouldn’t have known at the time.

Breallyn: Didn’t have.

Brett: No. I still don’t even know now, to be honest. I was only assessed for it about six to eight months ago. And it was just upon, my beautiful partner Carla started to spot a few things that made her think. And she’d probably been clocking it for years, but it must have just occurred to her. Maybe should we maybe just get checked for that? ‘Cause there’s maybe some medication or some stuff that might help.

Breallyn: Yeah, things that might help. Yeah.

Brett: I saw an amazing clip yesterday that somebody posted or sent me that was, I think it was from Steven McKay, one of the other young players that was at this. Steven posted a story and I was in stitches late last night on the couch watching it. It was a guy fixing a ride-on lawnmower. And he’s like, I need a 13 eighth spanner. I need 13 eighth.

And he’s walked off and he goes into the garage, 13 eighth, 13 eighth, 13 eighth. And he comes out a nanosecond later with a whipper snipper in hi-vis ready to do another job. Oh, that’s right. The whipper snipper’s there. Oh yeah. Go and do the edges.

It’s that’s what, that’s my life. And you know what? That’s also my dear dad. My dad, Ronnie Wood. Cool name for a musician.

Lyndon: Cool name.

Breallyn: Yeah.

Brett: He’s Ron Wood, the fireman, but yeah. Ronnie Wood, he’s got the same thing. He’ll be halfway through pulling an engine apart and then be mowing the lawns. Yeah, so funny.

Breallyn: Maybe it might be time for you to go get that assessment, Lyndon.

Lyndon: Yeah, I don’t know what to think about it all. ‘Cause I keep getting accused of,

Breallyn: and three out of our four children also have said diagnosis. There’s a reason to think that.

Lyndon: Yeah, I was in the pediatrician’s office and what did he say? We’re there with our daughter.

Breallyn: Oh yeah. So we are going through the, yeah, appointment with our daughter. I’ve got copious notes in my filing cabinet in my head of all these things. She’s,

Lyndon: I didn’t even want to be there.

Breallyn: Severe disabilities. So there’s a lot to talk about.

Lyndon: I hate being in those rooms. They’ve got fluorescent lights and air conditioning and not natural airflow. And I’m like, ugh, how long do they have to be in this room for? But anyway,

Breallyn: and I’ve been waiting months for this appointment, so I’m like, I’m raring to go.

Brett: Yeah.

Breallyn: And he printed out a height and weight chart of our daughter and handed it to Lyndon while we were talking. The next thing he said to me is, oh, you didn’t tell me your husband has ADHD.

And I’ve looked around and Lyndon’s there like making a paper airplane with all the notes that he’d been handed.

Brett: If you’re gonna do that, I’m gonna do this.

Lyndon: What else are you gonna do when you hand it, perfectly

Brett: Good bit of paper.

Lyndon: A bit of A4.

Brett: Yeah.

Breallyn: I’d be taking it home and putting it in my file, but

Lyndon: I honestly just thought he handed it to me to not hand it to my daughter, ’cause she would probably screw it up. And I thought, I’ll just turn it into something that’ll keep her amused while he’s talking to you. But he’s just like looking at me and then goes, how long have you had ADHD? Or something. And I’m like, what?

Brett: Wow. Look, I think that it’s an interesting one for me, ’cause being 45 and finding out that this is something that I’ve dealt with. And as you both would well know, and anybody else that’s experienced an assessment later in their life, is that the people all around them go,

Breallyn: Yeah.

Brett: You just get that. It’s

Lyndon: Yeah.

Brett: And or they go, yeah, welcome to the club, because they’ve got. So it’s just, I think it’s an interesting perspective.

You would probably find as parents, I don’t have kids, but friends of mine who have got youngsters that are potentially leaning towards that, or whether it’s on spectrums of autism or whatever it is, I think it’s probably a really valuable thing to clock it at a young age and then just be done with it and go, this is just how I live.

Breallyn: Yeah.

Brett: And then the letters wouldn’t be such a big deal.

Lyndon: Right.

Breallyn: Yeah.

Brett: Not that they’re a big deal anyway.

Lyndon: But what is it that diagnosis now for you? What does that mean? Are you gonna change anything or

Brett: Yeah, you definitely, I feel like I have to learn, not coping mechanisms, but better day-to-day habits. Like I really can’t skimp on sleep. And that’s a hard thing for a traveling musician because quite often, as you well know as yourselves, there’s the late night finish and then an early lobby call for an early flight.

Breallyn: Yeah.

Brett: Sometimes you’re operating on three and a half, four hours sleep. And two of those might’ve been quality.

Lyndon: Yeah.

Brett: And the others might’ve been on the edge of, oh, I’ve gotta wake up soon, I’ve gotta wake up soon. ‘Cause you don’t wanna be late.

Lyndon: Yeah, exactly. So the anxiety that comes with all of that.

Yeah.

Brett: Absolutely. And so I’m learning some better day-to-day preparations and habits so that I’m able to, ’cause the first two months of being told that this was something that I’ve been dealing with was the weirdest I think I’ve ever been in my own head in my life.

Because it was like me going inside my head going, you’re doing it again. ‘Cause I was going to change strings on a guitar and then I found a screwdriver that I’d been looking for three days that I was meant to use to take the rear bumper bar off my car.

Breallyn: Yeah.

Brett: ‘Cause it’s a specific size head, Phillips head screw. And I’m like, oh. And then so halfway through a string change, I’m doing that thing that the guy in the parody was doing, and then your voice in your head goes, see, you’re doing that thing that they said you had again, and you’re like, shut up.

Breallyn: Yeah.

Brett: So the first two months was probably the weirdest, and then,

Breallyn: It’s like ’cause such a reassessment of all of your actions based on that new diagnosis.

Brett: Exactly.

Breallyn: Yeah. Yeah.

Brett: So you become hyper aware.

Breallyn: Yeah. Yeah. Absolutely.

Lyndon: Is there a part of you that kind of goes, I’ve made it this far.

Brett: Absolutely.

Lyndon: And like

Brett: In whatever form and fashion I have.

Lyndon: Yeah.

Brett: Like a bull in a China shop.

Breallyn: I’ve hurtled through life until now.

Lyndon: There is that.

Brett: I didn’t kill anybody yet.

Lyndon: Yeah. Like on one day you can feel like musically you must go, I’m killing it today. And then the next day you’re like, what am I doing?

Brett: Oh, totally. Yeah. Up and down.

Lyndon: Yeah.

Working with Pete Murray: Twenty Years of Friendship and Music

Brett: That’s one of the things I admire the most about Pete Murray. My mate who I’ve worked with for 20 years is his level of evenness, his even keel-ness.

Breallyn: Oh.

Brett: I would liken it to perhaps like a champion athlete.

Lyndon: Yeah.

Brett: That it’s like the downs don’t get you so down and the ups don’t get you so up.

He’s still a happy appreciative human being, but he’s just got this even keel thing.

Lyndon: That zen thing. Is he a surfer?

Brett: He’s, yeah. He doesn’t do as much of it these days ’cause he’s got two young girls. And they’re pretty busy making sure they’re all sorted, but he’s a surfer at heart. He loves the water.

Lyndon: Yeah.

Brett: And loves the beach. But yeah, I don’t think he’s been doing it as much more recently.

But yeah, his even keel-ness is something that I’ve always tried to learn from. But now knowing what I know about, okay, so the joke I’ve been laughing about with my friends is that at the end of the assessment, it’s three hours. The guy, the psychologist, or psychiatrist, I never know which ‘ist’ does the stuff, he just wrote in red text: 97 out of a hundred.

Breallyn: Oh my gosh.

Lyndon: That’s good, isn’t it?

Brett: I said, so I aced the test. And he goes, no. That’s what I think you’re probably gonna come out with regards to where you might be on the scale of this thing.

Lyndon: Yeah.

Brett: And I was like, oh, wow. Yeah.

Lyndon: Wow. That’s, yeah.

Brett: That was a sobering moment. And it was meant to be three hours. I scooted through and did it in about two hours and 40 minutes because I’ve got no patience. And he kept saying, do you want a toilet break? I go, no. Just give me the next puzzle. I hate puzzles. Just do the next one.

Lyndon: I would be the opposite. I reckon I’d

Breallyn: You’d be trying to procrastinate it.

Lyndon: I’d be taking all day. ‘Cause I wouldn’t wanna get something wrong. If you took that test home to Bri’s mum, she’d wanna know what happened to the other 3%.

Breallyn: Yeah, that was all my school thing.

So I’ve got an A.

Brett: Is that right?

Breallyn: Why an A?

Lyndon: Be like, I got an A.

Brett: Why? And why did that happen?

Lyndon: Yeah. Where, why did you get the 100?

Breallyn: She’s a school teacher. I had to make sure I was on top with the school.

Brett: Wow. That’s a lot of pressure.

Breallyn: Yeah. Not that I was that great a student, but yeah, that was the comments when my test came home.

Brett: Wow.

Lyndon: We need to backtrack a little bit to just say exactly who you are, what you do, where you came from.

I was thinking about this last night. I think you are one of the best blues guitarists in the world.

Brett: Oh wow. That’s a heavy,

Lyndon: Yeah. No, seriously.

Brett: Wow.

Lyndon: And you are, I feel like you’ve done it all musically. You’ve been a sideman or a touring musician with Pete Murray for a while.

Brett: Yeah.

Breallyn: A long time.

Lyndon: That’s been a long time collaboration, hasn’t it?

Brett: Yeah, nearly two decades. Yeah.

Breallyn: Wow.

Lyndon: I feel like that’s underselling it too, because I know you’ve been involved in the actual albums and all kinds of things, haven’t you?

Brett: Yeah, I’ve been lucky enough that he’s trusted me in the demo processes of working on, especially the Blue Sky Blue record.

I had a lot, I had my grubby mitts all over that record.

Lyndon: Yeah.

Breallyn: Great.

Brett: I got two co-writes on that between the two of us. That felt very much like a collaboration, that record for me. It was a foray into working a lot of hours with Pete in the demo process. And he came, he flew down to Melbourne and we did some stuff at The Base Studios for that record.

Lyndon: In South Melbourne.

Brett: Yeah. And yeah, and there’s this amazing photo of the two of us that I’ve lost. Where he and I are sitting with acoustic guitars in the hotel room in Hollywood, just about to go into Sunset Sound. And we are talking and he’s talking about something and I’m holding my hand in a weird way, and I keep asking him where that photo is. ‘Cause I can’t find it in any of my hard drives.

Breallyn: Oh, you’ll find it when you’re looking for a screwdriver.

Brett: Yeah. The ADHD rabbit hole find. Oh, that’s where that photo was. And then, what was I doing again?

Lyndon: It’s next to the mower.

Brett: But yeah, you’re right. And I appreciate you saying so. We have a really deep relationship over the years. Friendship, but a working relationship that goes a lot deeper than just he books me to play guitar for him.

Lyndon: Yeah. That’s right.

Brett: So it’s, yeah, it’s nice to recognise that. I don’t actually think about that often, to be honest.

Lyndon: Yeah. I guess too, music is who you are and it’s your whole life, isn’t it? And like those relationships and the gigs, it’s all.

Brett: It’s part of it.

Lyndon: It’s part of it, it’s all one and the same.

Brett: Absolutely.

Lyndon: I guess so.

Brett: Yeah.

Yeah. You spend more time together as humans on a bus or on a plane or hanging out, waiting to do the gig, spending time together. How’s the family, all that stuff. You spend more time doing that than you do playing music over a 20-year period.

There’s more time just together as people.

Breallyn: And it’s an interesting dynamic there because there’s a lot of people in the world that have long working relationships with one another, but it’s almost like that closeness and the connection that you have personally, it translates to the way that you are able to play together on stage or in

Brett: Oh, that’s a nice thought.

Breallyn: Yeah. Like

Brett: Absolutely.

Breallyn: It seems to, I don’t know. I always feel like that comes through, that when musicians play together, it’s like they’re talking to each other and it’s this real soul connection type thing. So

Brett: That’s cool. I love that.

Lyndon: And it should be like that too. And it does, that does translate to an audience.

Breallyn: Rather than just playing your parts type thing.

It’s a yeah, it’s this.

Session Work: From Dumb Ways to Die to Studio Sessions

Lyndon: That’s the thing. ‘Cause you are involved in session work as well, obviously.

Brett: Yeah.

There’s, I played on Dumb Ways to Die. That’s probably

Breallyn: Our kids’ favourite.

Lyndon: I only learned that a couple of months ago.

Breallyn: There you go. That’s the best.

Lyndon: I had to laugh.

Breallyn: I’ve ever heard.

Lyndon: I’ve gotta tell my kids because they were

Brett: Dumb Ways to Die. Yeah, that was my moment.

Lyndon: That

Breallyn: So cool.

Lyndon: What was that a campaign for? Was it

Breallyn: Safety around the trains. Yeah, don’t do this, don’t do that.

Brett: Yeah. Vic Metro. I think that was probably.

Breallyn: And it was like an app, like a game app on your phone you could play. Yeah.

Brett: Yeah. They made an app for it.

It went pretty, yeah. Pretty ballistic. But after the campaign that it was written for, I think Ollie McGill from, is it Tin Pan Orange? It was his song, and yeah, I signed my waiver and got my, I don’t know what it was, 300 bucks to go and play with Danny Farrugia on drums and Gavin Pierce on bass.

This was the three of us in a room together, just trying to look at the chord charts and go, okay, so what have we got here? We’ve got C, G, A minor. Make something happen. Cool. Done. I’ve still got the guitar that I played that onto.

Lyndon: That is so cool. It’s such a left of field,

Brett: So random.

Lyndon: It is the same.

Brett: I probably won’t tell too many people that I did that, but it’s too late now. And you know what, I’ve been lucky enough, like some of the studio work that I got through The Base in South Melbourne was

Lyndon: Right. Yeah.

Brett: Was really random too. Like sometimes it’d be go in and play for Darryl Braithwaite who was trying to do a couple of slightly different things. Not use his touring band to play on a couple of tracks. And which is Welly who was one of my heroes. But I played on a couple of Darryl Braithwaite tracks there.

And I forget the name of that record. I think it was about four tracks I played on. And Welly was on the rest of the record, as he well should have been. And that, like random stuff, like 360, I played on that Falling or Flying record that won all those ARIAs.

Lyndon: Oh yeah. Yep.

Brett: So Run Alone and Boys Like You, and I can’t remember the names. I think I played on four or five tracks on that record too.

Lyndon: Yeah. Okay.

Breallyn: That’s so great. Yeah.

Brett: Yeah. It was just, it just, people, the engineer Phil would call up and go, hey man, I need you for an hour or two. I’m like, okay, cool.

Lyndon: Yeah.

Brett: Go and have a plonk.

Lyndon: Is Phil still there?

Brett: I hope so. Yeah. Phil. Yeah. We call him three, four, three. Phil three four. Yeah. But yeah, I believe he’s still there. I could be wrong, but it’s been years since I’ve been in there.

Lyndon: Yeah.

Brett: That’s Paul Gildea’s place from Ice House, I believe.

Lyndon: Oh, really?

Brett: Yeah. I think Paul, I believe Paul owns it anyway.

Lyndon: Yeah. Okay.

Brett: Yeah, it’s cool.

Lyndon: Amazing.

Brett: Yeah. Good studio if anybody needs a studio with a good space in there.

Breallyn: Wow. So you’ve done so many different musical things. How do you balance all those different parts? Do you go, oh, this project’s come up, I’ll just do that? Or do you have it planned out, like I want to do such and such, I’m just gonna find a way to get into that particular thing?

Brett: That’s a cool question. The word balance is a good one. That’s the operative word. That’s what I’m looking for all the time. Gotta find it.

Lyndon: I’ve given up.

Brett: Yeah. Yeah. There’s no, yeah. Trying to find the balance.

Lyndon: Yeah.

Brett: It’s, I think the answer to that is, I noticed your phone number had the 04 double one.

So is mine.

Lyndon: Yeah.

Breallyn: Oh.

Lyndon: Nice.

Brett: And so I think there’s a thing about our vintage of musician is, like my mum said, just never change your phone number. That way it’ll spread around.

Lyndon: Oh, okay.

Brett: And people can always recommend you and they’ll never have the wrong number. That was, thank

Lyndon: That’s such interesting advice.

Breallyn: That’s good advice.

Brett: Yeah. That was my mum. She always said keep the same number.

Lyndon: But I keep my phone on silent, so if anyone’s calling, I wouldn’t even know.

Brett: That’s a, you’re a smart man. And so yeah, I think the balance of what to do when has never been up to me.

Breallyn: Okay. So it’s like taking the opportunities when they arrive type thing?

Brett: Absolutely.

Breallyn: Yeah. Okay.

Brett: And then having anxiety when things overlap.

Breallyn: Yeah. Okay. Yeah.

Brett: An opportunity that I’m still not quite supposed to talk about yet. That was going to happen right at the back three quarter mark of the 60-date tour that Pete Murray and I just did.

And it was something that I really wanted to do, but I knew. Like one, two shows in, the way it was working, even though Pete was largely playing on his own. And I was doing the opening slot at doors open with my songs.

Lyndon: Yeah.

Brett: And then Rachel Faim was doing her slot after me and she was wonderful. And then I would just get up and play six songs with Pete at the end.

So you think that wouldn’t be such a big deal, but he and I liked that connection thing that you were talking about. When it was just the two of us on stage, I was enjoying it.

Breallyn: Yeah.

Brett: But I had this moment on the second show of the tour where my gut sank mid-set of our little six song set.

Yeah. And I went, oh, no one else can do this.

Because of how we play together.

Breallyn: Yes. Yeah.

Brett: And I felt it and I’m like, oh. And it was emotional. I was like, and I remember thinking, oh, this other thing that I really want to experience and go and do, I don’t know if I’m gonna. I dunno how that’s gonna work.

And I was frantically trying to get into my own head about it. Anxiety.

Lyndon: Yeah.

Brett: What do I do? What do I do? What do I do?

Breallyn: Yeah.

Brett: Who am I gonna get? How am I gonna train them? What’s gonna happen? Gotta make sure that they’re familiar with Pete and sort, just

Lyndon: ‘Cause you didn’t wanna let him down.

Brett: Like never want to. Never. That’s the last thing I want to do.

Lyndon: Yeah.

Breallyn: Yeah.

Brett: And what I had to do was I had to park that stress and just say, I’m gonna have to deal with this when it gets closer to it happening.

Lyndon: Yeah.

Brett: If it happens.

Breallyn: Yeah. Yeah.

Brett: And then luckily for me, as it turned out, the phone didn’t ring and the opportunity is still laying in wait.

Lyndon: Yeah.

Brett: Which is lovely.

Lyndon: Yeah.

Brett: But I was so relieved. Like when it came to the crunch time of the timing of where I was told it might land, nothing came through. And so I just stayed quiet. I was just like, I’ll just wait. And we got to the end of the tour and I was so relieved.

Lyndon: Ah.

Breallyn: Yeah.

Brett: I was like, okay, I don’t have to juggle that one.

Breallyn: Yeah.

Brett: That’s great.

Breallyn: That was smart to just go, I’ll wait. I’ll just hold off those decisions and the action until it’s necessary, because yeah. Otherwise,

Brett: A rare smart moment.

Breallyn: You’ve learned over the 20 years.

Brett: Yeah.

But you know what, I tried to live in one of my favourite Tom Petty lyrics, in a song called Crawling Back to You, which is on the back end of is it Wildflowers?

Lyndon: Wildflowers, I think. Yeah.

Brett: Yeah. And it’s one of the most beautiful songs, and it has this really special spot in my spirit as a human, not even just as a guitarist or a songwriter. And in some of my darkest times in my life, that song has saved me a few times.

Lyndon: Yeah.

Brett: I’m like, that’s, and that’s the beauty of music, isn’t it?

Lyndon: Yeah, that’s right.

Breallyn: Yeah.

Brett: That connection that we can have to it, of, I remember when everything was falling apart and that song got me through.

Lyndon: Yeah.

Breallyn: Yeah.

Brett: And there’s a line in that song where he says, most things I worry about never happen anyway.

Lyndon: Yeah.

Breallyn: Yep.

Lyndon: And I was like,

All: Ooh.

Brett: Yeah.

All: I keep crawling back to you.

Lyndon: It’s a great song.

Brett: Yeah. It’s a beautiful song.

Lyndon: Yeah.

Brett: And the band, you can hear they’re on the floor together.

Lyndon: Yes. Yeah.

Brett: And I think that’s why I’ve always gravitated back to that song.

Lyndon: Yeah.

Brett: Because you and that record in general, you can actually hear that they’re playing together and it’s like, but it still sounds so slick.

Breallyn: Yeah. But it’s just, it is a beautiful record. Yeah. Amazing.

Lyndon: I think it’s still Benmont

Breallyn: It’s a family.

Brett: Yeah. It’s,

Lyndon: isn’t it, on the piano?

Brett: That’s right.

Breallyn: Yeah.

I think that was on,

Brett: Yeah. There’s a beautiful Leslie guitar sound that Mike Campbell plays with on that song. It’s just a pretty track.

Lyndon: Yeah.

Brett: It’s a really pretty track.

Lyndon: That whole album’s so tasteful.

Brett: Oh, incredible.

Lyndon: Yeah.

Brett: And there’s a great documentary that I’ve saved into my YouTube account. I’ve downloaded it.

Lyndon: Oh yeah.

Brett: That talks about that whole process.

Lyndon: Yeah.

Brett: And there’s all these great behind-the-scenes footage, like where Tom’s talking, he starts playing Honeybee.

Lyndon: Yeah. Yeah.

Brett: And it sounds killer.

Lyndon: Yeah.

Brett: But he’s in the room with his microphone playing his electric and he starts playing the riff and it’s so good.

Lyndon: Yeah.

Brett: And he goes, hey, we gotta do something about this sound here. Sounds acoustic in here.

And they’re like, hey, that’s ’cause you got your mic so hot. And then you could hear Mont go, man, that was swinging.

He was like, why did you stop? Because that was cooking.

Lyndon: Yeah. Those studio moments. I’ve seen part of that documentary and I was like, oh man, I’ve gotta watch this whole thing.

Brett: Yeah, dude.

Lyndon: Yeah, it’s just fascinating.

Brett: It’s a good one. I love that one.

How Brett Wood First Met Tommy Emmanuel

Lyndon: So tell us about how you first met Tommy. Let’s go back there. ‘Cause people might not know this about you, but you started in the industry really young, didn’t you? Like, so how did that all come through? Those first shows at the art center, was that where it started for you? Or was it something non-related to, because was the

Brett: Frankston Art Center.

Lyndon: Yeah. ‘Cause was Ron Tommy’s manager at the time?

Brett: That’s right. Yeah.

Lyndon: Yeah.

Brett: And so that old guitar shop that we hold in such high regard in our souls, which used to be a lawnmower shop up there.

Lyndon: Yeah. Yep.

Brett: Before he turned it into a guitar shop. That’s where Tommy used to teach out of those back rooms.

Lyndon: Is that right?

Brett: And I think he wrote some of Determination in those

Lyndon: Stop it.

Brett: back rooms.

Lyndon: I didn’t know that.

Breallyn: The Tommy, for the non-musos among us that are listening, is Tommy Emmanuel.

Brett: Tommy Emmanuel.

Breallyn: Everyone knows, everyone loves.

Lyndon: Is he a Sir Tommy yet? He should be.

Brett: He’s CGP, that’s for sure. Yeah.

Lyndon: Yeah. Certified.

Brett: Certified Guitar Player. Certified Guitar Player.

Lyndon: Yeah. Yeah.

Brett: And yeah, and I was there. I was luckily enough, I was sitting right next to Chet Atkins when Tommy was about to be bestowed

Lyndon: No.

Brett: his initials.

Lyndon: Really?

Brett: Yeah. I was sitting there and Chet kept fiddling with his little, I think it was a brown paper bag, and I was wondering if there was a bottle of wine in it or something.

Lyndon: Yeah. What’s in there?

Brett: Yeah. And it looked heavy. Whatever it was, it looked like he was just checking it and it wasn’t moving.

I was like, is that a bottle of something? What is that?

Lyndon: Yeah.

Brett: And then he got up on stage and I’d already played that night. I’d gotten up and played a couple of songs with Tommy and then one song on my own.

Lyndon: And it’s crazy. You look so young. Like I see the footage of you back then.

You look so young. Yeah.

Breallyn: How old were you at that point?

Brett: I think 18 or 19.

Breallyn: Wow. Yeah.

Lyndon: Yeah.

Brett: And I’d only known Tommy maybe four years at that point.

Lyndon: And he’d taken you under his wing, hadn’t he?

Brett: Yeah. He’s just, I always think of him as like the Pied Piper. He has a magnet that draws people to him. And he’s an open human being. He’s very open to people coming into his orbit and putting their hand up, let’s say.

Writing Letters to Tommy Emmanuel: How a Teenage Fan Got Noticed

And I think what happened with myself and Tommy was I used to write him letters.

So when I first

Breallyn: Really adorable.

Brett: Yeah. When I first got into the guitar, I got into, like everybody, just trying to learn as many songs as I could, Stairway to Heaven and all the stuff that you learn. And then, I can’t remember who, but somebody, it might’ve been mum or dad, bought me his Determination album.

Lyndon: Yeah.

Brett: It was a CD and inside the liner notes, inside the jacket, was an address that you could send, I think it might’ve been 15 or $20 to join his newsletter.

Lyndon: I joined it.

Breallyn: Oh, wow.

Brett: Yeah. And you get the little A4 updates.

Lyndon: Oh, you’re kidding. You’ve got some?

Yes. Love Tommy!

All: The photo, the signed photo.

Brett: Unreal. That’s so cool. And I’ve got one that’s a coloured version, I think.

Lyndon: Yeah.

Brett: And it’s, that’s the

Lyndon: Yeah, that was awesome.

Breallyn: And so he’d send you out a photo along with the newsletter, like in the post to your address?

Lyndon: Yeah.

Brett: Exactly.

Breallyn: So cool.

Brett: And I got a nice note from, I think his wife at the time, his then wife, Yayna, who’s a Dutchie, I think. She was organising the fan club stuff.

Lyndon: Yeah.

Brett: And so I got this, I think I just reached out to the PO box, and then they sent back a, like a pre, what do they call it? A return envelope.

Lyndon: Oh, yeah.

Breallyn: Oh, yeah.

Brett: Where you could send your money back if you wanted to join. And the joining form had all these things and you say, what’s your favourite song or whatever. You just answer a little form and you’d give them the address.

Lyndon: Yeah. But on the side of the joining form or whatever the details were that you sent out was a little personal handwritten note. I didn’t know it was from his wife.

Breallyn: Yeah.

Brett: But it was like, thank you so much for your letters. I’ve given them to Tommy.

Lyndon: Yeah.

Brett: Here’s the enrollment form for the fan club.

And so me being a 14, 15-year-old kid or something at the time.

Lyndon: Yeah.

Brett: I was like, he got my letters.

Lyndon: Yeah, because you wouldn’t know.

Brett: And I tried to write Michael Jordan when I was a kid. I tried to write anybody that I was inspired by, I tried to reach out to them.

Lyndon: Yeah.

Breallyn: Wow.

Brett: And obviously you’re never gonna hear back from Michael Jordan ’cause he’s just the biggest thing on planet Earth back then.

But as talented as Tommy was, he was still trying to build something. Unbeknownst to me, now that I look back on it, I can see that. They were doing their due diligence to try and find his people.

Breallyn: Yeah.

Brett: Do you know what I mean? They were, and they were holding up their end of the bargain.

Breallyn: Not just from a marketing

Lyndon: Interesting.

Breallyn: point of view though, but also because they’re lovely and they wanted to connect with the right people.

Brett: Exactly. Exactly.

And then so the next little thing that happened was I wrote him about, I probably must have written him another 20 letters in the next year. Where did you get your straps? Those leather straps? And what about this? And how do you get that electric sound? And I was just like a rabid dog going, what? How do I do this? What do you do? How do you do it?

And one time I wrote him, I think I was in hospital and I’d been going through like a bunch of bronchitis and some asthma stuff. And I wrote a letter and the handwriting was a bit shaky ’cause I’d been on so much Ventolin.

Breallyn: Yep. Know the feeling.

Brett: And my mum had to put a little, I think she put a little note saying, if you can’t read his handwriting, I apologise, but he’s adamant that he wanted to write you another letter. And so Tommy was probably a little bit worried and he called the house. I think I used to put my phone number on there.

Lyndon: Yeah. Why not?

Brett: The landline.

Lyndon: Yeah.

Brett: And I’d been back at school a few days, so I’d sent the letter off and a couple more days in the hospital and then a few more days at home, and then I was back at school. And I would sometimes be allowed to skip classes to go and play guitar. So dad came down to the school to try and find me at maths, and I wasn’t at maths and I was in the music department.

And so I’m in the music department practising and dad goes, hey, when you finish school, don’t jam with your mates. Don’t set up a jam and stay here for another hour. You gotta get home. ‘Cause Tommy Emmanuel just called our house looking for you.

Breallyn: Oh my gosh.

Brett: And I’m like, what? What are you talking about?

He goes, yeah, he just called the house. And like, dad had this look on his face like, he called our house. Like I don’t,

Lyndon: Yeah.

Brett: And I was like, okay, cool. I won’t stay back and jam. I’ll come straight home. So as soon as the bell went for school, I was like straight to my locker. I’m outta here.

Lyndon: Yeah.

Brett: And I went home and he rang the house and he went, hey, is this Brett Wood? And I’m like, yeah.

Breallyn: That’s amazing. I love the thought of Tommy having to wait till, oh, I gotta ring Brett when he’s back home from school. Oh wow.

Brett: So that’s how we got connected, was through the proper channel, his fan club.

Lyndon: Yeah.

Breallyn: Yeah. His actual channel. Yeah.

Meeting Tommy Emmanuel in Person for the First Time

Brett: And then when we finally met, was at a gig that he did in Warburton. He was doing two shows solo acoustic, and by that time I’d already seen him

Lyndon: Yeah.

Brett: a dozen times with his band.

And he would do the band bit and then do the solo acoustic bit.

Lyndon: That’s right. Yeah.

Brett: And then do the band again. And anyway, so I was really excited to hear him do just a solo acoustic show. And Warburton is like about an hour and a bit away from our house. So we drove there and he was playing the afternoon show, and I could hear it outside the theatre ’cause we scoped out where the theatre was and then mum and dad and my sister were gonna go get some food and I was meant to go get the food, but I heard he was playing.

And I said, you guys go. And I stood in the rain and listened to the first gig. Like I tried to find a spot, there was no coverage.

Lyndon: Yeah.

Brett: And I was like, oh. So I just pulled my jumper up over my head and I’m standing there at the side door listening going, oh wow. Listen to that.

Lyndon: Even though you’re gonna be seeing him.

Brett: Yeah. Yeah.

Lyndon: At the very,

Brett: He was, and he was cooking too. Like he was literally cooking. And I was like, I couldn’t leave.

Like mum and dad were like, just listen for a bit and then come over to the pub. And so I’m like 14 or so at the time, or 15 or something. And then they come back and he’s finished the gig and we go and get our seats inside and I’m like warming up and thawing out my hands. And he gets on stage and just cooks again, like lights the joint up. And it was maybe a hundred people there.

Lyndon: Yeah.

Brett: Small little theatre.

Lyndon: Yeah. Perfect.

Brett: And then he signed afterwards and he met mum and dad and we met him, actually we met him after the first show.

Breallyn: Oh.

Brett: I was walking around and he saw my t-shirt and I was a bit, yeah, I was a bit drenched. Mum and dad had got photos of this. And I was wearing a Maton t-shirt and the weirdest thing ever, he looked over towards me and he goes, Woody? And I went,

Lyndon: Yeah.

Brett: And he goes, come over here. And he was signing for someone and then so we had a nice little

Lyndon: So he just knew.

Brett: We had a moment, a chat. And I asked him about, I said, you played a Strat on the song Night Sky on Up From Down Under.

Lyndon: You nerd.

Brett: And he goes, nah, no, I only played a Tele. And I go, I’m pretty sure Night Sky was a Strat. And then he started signing some other things and he just stopped. He goes, you know what? You’re right. I broke a string and the engineer had a Strat.

Lyndon: No way.

Brett: So I played it on a Strat. And I said, yeah, on the Mark Nola setting. He goes, that’s right. And the look, I remembered the look on his face was like, oh, okay.

Lyndon: Yeah.

Breallyn: You are serious about your music.

Brett: Yeah. Okay. And I remember, and so we were talking and talking after he’d finished signing for some people and he goes, I hope you enjoyed the show. And I go, yeah, I did. But we’re coming to the next one. He goes, you bought tickets to two? And I went, oh no, I just, mum and dad got here early and I just stood outside in the rain and listened to your first show.

Lyndon: He’d love that.

Brett: Yeah. And he was like, oh. He goes, enjoy the gig. I go, I guarantee you I will. Yeah.

Lyndon: Yeah. I just had a preview.

Brett: It was the best. And then he said afterwards, he goes, you know why I do these shows, mate? And I’m like, what do you mean? He goes, just these solo acoustic shows. And I go, nah. And so you gotta remember I’m 15.

Lyndon: Yeah.

Brett: He goes, so I can make some money.

Lyndon: Yeah.

Brett: Because he goes, when you see me with all the lights and the big rooms and the PA and the band and everything, he goes, I’m just losing money.

Lyndon: Losing.

Breallyn: Yeah.

Brett: He goes, these are the ones that I make the money on.

Lyndon: Yeah.

Brett: I’m like, ah, okay. So

Breallyn: Even from then, he’s like teaching you the music business.

Brett: The dose of reality.

Breallyn: Yeah. Really goes down. Yeah.

Brett: Hey, nice to meet you, man. Guess what you’re gonna have to do?

Breallyn: Yeah, that’s it.

Lyndon: Pretty much. Yeah, pretty much.

Breallyn: That’s very cool.

Lyndon: Here’s an aside. We walked down the aisle to a song off of the Determination album. Yeah, we did.

Brett: Oh, that’s beautiful.

Breallyn: Yeah.

Lyndon: Da…

Brett: Oh, The Journey.

Breallyn: The Journey.

Brett: Oh wow. Wow. You’re, and the journey you’ve been on.

Lyndon: Yeah.

Breallyn: That’s it.

Brett: That’s amazing.

Lyndon: So that was,

Breallyn: And we, previous to that, we’d been travelling around Australia and yeah. I think that album along with the many others was like our soundtrack for that.

Brett: Is such sound.

Lyndon: There’s nothing,

Breallyn: Yeah.

Lyndon: Nothing better than travelling Australia listening to Aussie music. Yep.

Brett: Yeah.

Lyndon: Like that was one, The Oils.

Breallyn: Yeah, The Oils. Even John Williamson.

Lyndon: John

Breallyn: Williamson.

Lyndon: John Williamson.

Breallyn: Yeah. That’s the other one. Yeah.

Lyndon: Yeah. Absolutely. And actually on that trip we saw Phil Emmanuel in Darwin playing a little

Brett: Fantastic.

Lyndon: A little pub there.

Brett: That would’ve been great. The Wiz.

Lyndon: The Wiz. Yeah.

Brett: We call him The Wiz ’cause he could do anything.

Lyndon: He could. Yeah.

Brett: Yeah. What a special cat.

Lyndon: In fact, I think, was he playing with Tommy? We saw him a couple of times at some weird place down in Cranbourne. It was like a

Breallyn: That’s right. Yeah.

Lyndon: Convention Center or something. Do you remember that?

Breallyn: Yeah. I can’t remember what was,

Lyndon: You might’ve even gone and seen him if you were gonna see him all the time. Somewhere out that way.

Brett: During the Terra Firma tour?

Lyndon: Yeah.

Brett: When they were doing that.

Lyndon: Robbie Little on bass.

Brett: Yeah. Kevin Murphy, or was it,

Lyndon: Yeah.

Brett: Or was it Jerry on drums?

Lyndon: I think it was Kevin.

Brett: Yeah.

Lyndon: Anyway, but yeah. And he has

Brett: Rex Goh on guitar.

Breallyn: Yeah.

Lyndon: It might’ve been, yeah.

Brett: Or was it Hosie?

Lyndon: No, it wasn’t Hosie. No.

Brett: He just went and filled in, my band. Hosie, you filled in for me on the last Electric Mary tour.

How’s that for full circle?

Electric Mary and the Close-Knit Australian Music Scene

Lyndon: I was gonna ask you about Electric Mary.

Brett: Yeah.

Lyndon: Because I think I first saw them when Irwin was playing.

Brett: Oh, me too. Yeah.

Lyndon: Oh really?

Brett: Absolutely. Yeah. Pete Robinson and Irwin.

Lyndon: Yes, that’s right.

Brett: That was a special band. That was a special lineup of guitars.

Lyndon: Yeah.

Brett: Because they’re both so complementary and so different to each other.

Lyndon: So different. Yeah.

Brett: And both virtuosos. Yeah. I love being in a band with Pete Robinson. It’s been, that’s been one of my guitar, that’s one of the biggest feathers in my cap as a guitarist,

Lyndon: Really.

Brett: To have been able to share a guitar band with a guy that good. ‘Cause Pete’s incredible. He’s a great guitarist.

And I think in large respect, maybe underrated as

Lyndon: I think so.

Brett: One of the best in the country.

Lyndon: Yeah. ‘Cause he’s not a name on everyone’s lips, is he?

All: Perhaps

Brett: Not as much as say

Lyndon: In a general household.

Brett: Yeah. Should be.

Lyndon: In the industry for sure.

Brett: Yeah.

And he’s a homework guy. Like I’ve booked Pete Robinson to come and play in multiple different style things and he just shows up and it’s just like the record, every

Lyndon: Is that

Breallyn: Wow.

Brett: He’s just the guy that you just know it’s gonna be like, it’s just gonna be bang on. Just like the record.

Lyndon: That’s incredible.

Brett: And killer time. But Irwin as well, like Irwin’s got the Southern Suns background, but I discovered Irwin’s playing, or Jack Jones.

Lyndon: Yeah.

Brett: Jonesy, as I call him and have always called him.

But through that Terra Firma record that you were talking about with Tommy and Phil. ‘Cause there’s a solo on the single that doesn’t sound like either of the brothers.

And I was like, who is that?

Lyndon: I’ve forgotten about that.

Brett: And I looked at the liner notes and it said, Jack Jones, AKA Southern Suns.

Lyndon: Yeah.

Brett: And then I asked Tommy about it.

Lyndon: Yeah.

Brett: And I said, dude, who is that? The guy who sings for Southern Suns? And he goes, yeah, mate. And I was like, no kidding. He goes, yep. I go, that sounded like Hendrix from another planet.

Lyndon: Yeah.

Brett: He goes, yeah, I know. Yeah. And he said, you know what’s really gonna

Lyndon: He gave him a little cameo. That was nice, wasn’t it?

Breallyn: Yeah.

Brett: And he goes, you know what’s really gonna kill you is that was his first take. And he didn’t even know we were recording him. He was just getting a sound, just plugged in.

Lyndon: Yep.

Brett: A couple of pedals, turned on the Marshall or whatever amp he had. Yeah. And just whittled out a solo. Yeah. And Tommy being Tommy gets on the talkback and goes, thanks, mate. And then Jack’s like, no, bro, I was just kidding. And he goes, no, mate, you’re done. Come in, have a listen. That’s it. And Jack’s the kind of guy that’ll go, no, I could do it 1,700 different ways. Let’s try a few.

Lyndon: Yeah, I bet.

Brett: And Tommy was like, that’s perfect. That’s what I want on my record.

Lyndon: You’re done.

Brett: Pack up your stuff. Like the tubes weren’t even warm yet.

Lyndon: There was nothing better than seeing him just cutting loose in Electric Mary.

Brett: Yeah.

Lyndon: Because it was so different to what we’d known him for. In Southern Suns.

Brett: Yeah. It’s a totally different vibe.

Lyndon: Yeah, a hundred percent. You’re like, whoa.

Brett: Yeah.

Lyndon: But that must be so fun for you playing in.

Brett: It’s been a great, yeah, it’s coming to a close now. We’re only a few weeks away from the last show.

Breallyn: Oh, wow.

Brett: Yeah.

Lyndon: Because the last ones were in Europe, weren’t there recently?

Brett: Yeah. The tour in Europe.

Lyndon: Did you, were you part of that?

Brett: No, that’s the one that Hosie filled in for me.

Lyndon: Oh, okay.

Brett: Yeah. And yeah, Hosie did a great job. They loved him and I’m sure.

Lyndon: That’s Simon Hosford, is it?

Brett: Simon Hosford, one of Australia’s greats as well.

Lyndon: I’m not sure, Breallyn, whether you came with me or whether you’d remember, but the first time I think I saw Simon Hosford was in Funk Fiction.

Yeah.

Brett: I got the feeling in that band a few times.

Lyndon: Did you really?

Brett: Soul with the capital S. I remember some of the songs was great.

Lyndon: Yeah, what a great band.

Brett: Yeah. They used to do a residency at the Evelyn.

Lyndon: Evelyn.

Brett: Yeah.

Funk Fiction. Janine Maunder. Kevin Murphy.

Breallyn: Oh yeah, I do remember that.

Lyndon: Remember?

Brett: And Rod Davies.

Lyndon: Rod Davies. Yeah.

Brett: Some great vocals. Maybe Michelle Sarat sang in that band as well. Fantastic band.

Lyndon: Yeah.

Brett: So much fun. Robbie Little was the bass player from that band, I think.

Lyndon: Yeah.

Brett: Good fun. Unbelievable. And that’s Hosie. Yeah. Hosie used to, yeah, he can do it all too.

Absolutely. He was in Little River Band for a while and they loved him in that. And I think he even had stints with my mate Jason Singh from Taxi Ride. I think he played in Taxi Ride when they were doing some of their biggest shows,

Lyndon: Yeah.

Brett: Supporting Tina Turner at Wembley Stadium.

Hosie was in that.

Lyndon: Oh my gosh.

Brett: Hosie was in that band. So he’s done some rounds as well.

Yeah.

But it’s, that’s a beautiful thing about the Aussie music scene. It is so tight knit. Like just a week and a half ago, Danny Spencer, who’s another one of Australia’s greatest guitar players, had something happen with family and someone needed to have a surgery and everything. Everyone’s okay. But he couldn’t do a job in New Zealand with Jon Stevens.

And it’s a funny thing because I’ve probably bumped into John backstage at festivals maybe three or four times and been introduced, but he would have no reason to remember that because it would’ve just been a friend of a friend, oh, my drummer’s mate Brett, or blah, blah, blah.

And so in John’s mind, he didn’t know who the hell I was and was probably, I don’t wanna speak for anyone else, but he was probably a little bit anxious going, is this guy gonna be able to play these songs? But it’s like the tight-knit Melbourne or Australian music scene is that we all know each other and have known each other for years.

So I’ve known his lighting guy, his front of house guy, and his whole band for most of my career.

Breallyn: Yeah.

Brett: And I was luckily enough able to be friends with Chet, with Stuart Fraser through Tommy. Yeah. So I had a direct connection to the original guy from Noiseworks.

Lyndon: Yeah.

Brett: And when Danny, and obviously Timmy Henwood, who plays in John’s touring band, it’s not normally Danny’s gig, but Danny was filling in for Tim. ‘Cause Timmy Henwood was out with Suzi Quatro.

So you’re talking about which gigs do you do?

Breallyn: Yeah. Which one? Yeah. Everyone’s doing it.

Brett: Yeah. We all just play musical chairs. And so I was happy to help out, happy to give them a hand. And it was also nice because I got to have

Breallyn: That’s a great call-up to have. Really? Yeah.

Brett: It’s a great call.

And I was there anyway ’cause Pete was on the same bill.

And we were doing a duo thing, and so I was gonna be there. So the musical director, Tony Coutts, just called and said, man, would you be able to give us a lift on this gig?

And I was like, yeah, for sure. I’d be happy to. And I got to have a little communion with Chet, with Stuart Fraser and listen to those old original Noiseworks records and go, what did you do there, buddy?

Lyndon: I love those albums.

Brett: So yeah, I had a moment too because then I was bouncing between, they had a live recording that I could check the arrangements that they do live and I could hear how the band is approaching it now.

Lyndon: And are the keys the same or have they had to lower them?

Brett: I think the keys are the same. Yeah.

Lyndon: Okay.

Brett: No, they’re the same. I think John’s on, John’s

Lyndon: He’s on fire.

Brett: Yeah, he’s cooking, man. And he, yeah, he smoked this gig too. It was great. And but yeah, it was great to hear how Timmy Henwood was playing the guitar parts.

‘Cause he’s getting a great sound and the live stuff sounded incredible. And then I was going back and just roughly loosely checking things that may or may not be different between how Tim’s doing it live. Because things change when you’ve done 80 shows or 150 shows. Yeah. And arrangements shift and stuff.

And Timmy Henwood was pretty much on the dial, like on the dot of what Chet did. Right up that alley from our ilk.

Lyndon: Yeah.

Brett: Our age. And he knew Chet too.

Lyndon: Yeah.

Brett: So that, yeah. But it was, it almost felt like Tim’s guitar sounded bigger and wider than

Which is cool.

Lyndon: Yeah.

Brett: Like it was like, oh man, I don’t know if I’m gonna be able to get it to sound that big.

Lyndon: Yeah.

Brett: How many amps was he using? And it was at the end of,

Lyndon: And it’s amps on stage as well. Is it?

Brett: Oh yeah. It was a JCM like a hundred watt Marshall.

Lyndon: Yeah.

Brett: And it was literally 90 degrees pointed across the stage.

Lyndon: Perfect.

Brett: At John.

Lyndon: No one’s escaping that.

Brett: And the boys were like, I was like, I turned it up and I’m like, is this too loud? And they go, if you’re not that loud, he’ll get you to turn up. I’m like, okay, cool. This is how loud we are.

Breallyn: That’s what’s happening.

Lyndon: Yeah.

Brett: It was daunting.

And I’m used to playing loud in Electric Mary, and we actually play loud on Pete Murray stages as well, but it was a smaller room, so we ended up having to turn down. But I played that game of going, okay, when I turn it down, because it’s a big quad box.

Lyndon: Yeah.

Brett: Starts sounding a bit thin.

Lyndon: Yeah.

Brett: So I walked over to where John’s spot was and went, ah, I’m not gonna have a great sound where I’m, I went and changed the EQ on the amp so it’s a bit woolier. And then I walked over to John’s spot and went, yeah. That’s the way it sounded to me before. Okay, cool.

I’m just gonna have to stand in a bit of thick

Lyndon: Yes.

Brett: Guitar mud.

Lyndon: Yeah.

Brett: To make sure that it’s good in the middle.

Lyndon: Yeah. That’s interesting that you did that.

Brett: Yeah. Little plays that you have to make sure that other people are more comfortable than you are.

Lyndon: Yeah. Yeah.

Brett: But yeah, it was nice to get the call to do it.

And that’s the thing about our scene here in Australia, is we all know each other and care about each other. It’s a lovely thing. Yeah.

Happy to be able to help out. I know I’m not stealing anyone’s gig.

Lyndon: Yeah, that’s true.

Brett: Just trying to do a good job and hold up my end. Yeah.

Breallyn: Yeah.

From Sideman to Solo Artist: Releasing Brett Wood’s Own Music

Lyndon: And have you found the, I guess it’s been somewhat a transition from being there for everybody else to then doing your own material. I imagine it’s been a, was a long time coming ’cause you released, was, did you release your first single, it was this year, wasn’t it?

Brett: Yeah, the first singing one.

The first.

Lyndon: Okay.

Brett: Because technically I put out a record when I was like 19. That was an instrumental guitar record.

Breallyn: Oh, great.

Brett: Yeah. Called Turn It Up. And but yeah, I released the first single off this new project where it’s me singing, they’re my songs. It’s called Real Piece of Work.

And it came out, I think in March or April. And then I had all these plans to do the song order that I thought was gonna work.

Lyndon: Yeah. Yeah.

Brett: And then once you start to talk within the industry or a publicist comes on board and they’ve got real industry experience, like the PR company On The Map that I was really grateful to work with

Lyndon: Oh, yeah.

Brett: For promoting myself on Pete’s tour. They also promoted the second single, Eyes. And it’s, yeah, they’ve got real world industry experience from having been a part of Sony or different areas of the recording industry over the last 20 or 30 years. So I took what they said seriously and was like, oh, should I get these other songs ready.

But what that ended up doing was almost burning me out because the songs that I had ready to go got pushed to the back.

Breallyn: Ah.

And then I had to

Brett: start working on songs that I hadn’t planned on putting out as singles.

Breallyn: So

Brett: I was doing a lot of work in the back of Kia Carnivals on a laptop and headphones, and the laptop would heat up on my lap. ‘Cause it’s an old 2013 MacBook.

Lyndon: Yeah.

Brett: And then after a while I’d have to hold it up to the air vent.

Lyndon: Oh my gosh.

Brett: Yeah. Remove the hard drive, save everything, and then hold it and get it to cool down and put it back on my lap again.

Breallyn: That’s crazy. Yeah.

Brett: Yeah. So it threw a tiny bit of a spanner in my workflow.

Breallyn: Yeah.

Brett: But not for the worst. It’s a funny thing, as you well know, writing songs, the ones you think might be cool or the ones you think are the best ones, other people might not even register on them.

Yeah.

As a potential single or, do this, do that. That’s probably been the weirdest thing, is to get a first front row seat into how other people experience the music that I’ve made, because I never made it with anyone else in mind. I just did it ’cause I thought it was cool.

Breallyn: Yeah.

Brett: And because I did it in lockdown I wasn’t even really bouncing anything off anybody.

It was just like keeping it all to myself going,

Breallyn: Yeah.

Brett: It’s like rubbing the hands, going, being really proud of myself and not telling anybody. And then once you start sharing it with people, you find out which ones stick their head up and people will tell you, oh, I like this song.

Or I like that song. Oh, okay.

Lyndon: And were people going, I didn’t even know you sang?

Brett: Yeah. There’s been a bit of that. Yeah. A lot of Pete’s fans were like, you could hear the penny drop sometimes halfway through my set. I would say, ladies and gentlemen, you might’ve seen me playing over there on that side of the stage while Pete’s in the middle, because I’ve been Pete’s guitar player for 19 years. And you’d hear the whole room go, oh, that, yeah.

You could actually hear pennies dropping. Oh, yeah. So

Breallyn: That’s where I’ve seen that guy before.

Yeah. Oh, is it,

Lyndon: That must be such a weird feeling.

Brett: Yeah, it is. Yeah. It’s, I’ve been here this whole time. And then I said, but this is the first time I’ve been allowed on stage unsupervised.

Lyndon: Yeah.

Brett: And no grownups, just me.

Lyndon: But the, I’m really interested to hear how the album came about because I know some of it was done remotely.

Brett: Yeah.

Lyndon: But the songs, the ones I’ve heard, how many have you released? Two or three?

Brett: Only two so far, mate. Yeah.

Lyndon: Yeah. And they’re fantastic.

Brett: Oh, thank you.

Lyndon: They’re really good songs. And I think I even sent you a message saying that the sound of the songs, the recorded songs themselves, sound incredible.

Brett: Wow.

Lyndon: So the songs are great. The recordings are awesome.

Breallyn: Yeah.

Lyndon: And I think I may have mentioned something about that. They just sound world class.

Breallyn: Yeah.

Lyndon: They could have been recorded in the best studios and they just hold up. I know I’m gushing a little bit.

Brett: That’s really humbling to hear. I really appreciate that.

Lyndon: But really, and so yeah. So how did they actually come about? You’re writing them on your own and you’ve written, you know that they’re good.

Yeah. Or that you really like ’em.

Brett: I do. Yeah. I can honestly say I really like the songs and that was my mission statement, was if I can make these songs good enough that I believe in them, then I know I’ll actually put the next foot in front of the next foot and do the hard work.

Lyndon: Yeah.

Brett: Because being a touring session sideman and or a member of a band for 14 years with Electric Mary, I know what it looks like to go out and pedal the songs on the road.

I know how grueling it is.

Breallyn: Yeah.

Brett: And I know I’m gonna be up for a bunch of solo acoustic touring and maybe playing to three people.

Lyndon: Yeah.

Breallyn: Yeah.

Brett: Or 30 people, or, there’s no guarantees that it’ll work, but I know that I would have a crack at the next bit if I believed in it.

Lyndon: Yeah.

Brett: So I just slaved as hard as I could to write music that, it’s a really simple idea. I played the what if game.

I was like, what if I had a song that, I didn’t actually think this of Real Piece of Work. A lot of people reference it to Cold Shot.

Lyndon: Okay. Yeah.

Brett: Because it’s a blues shuffle in A minor. Yeah. But that what if game was, a friend of mine sent me the riff for that song, which was like a jam. And I heard that and I was like, that’s pretty funky. That’s cool. And he said, yeah, but maybe it’s a bit too Cold Shot. And I was just like, I’ve had enough of this. I’m so sick of that mentality.

Lyndon: Yeah.

Breallyn: Yeah.

Brett: Yeah. I’m like, you know what? And I just hung up the phone. I go, bro, I’m gonna call you back.

Lyndon: Yeah.

Brett: This is my mate, Dale Winters, who’s a great player as well.

Lyndon: Oh yeah. He’s brilliant.

Brett: He’s a ripper and got a great voice, and

Lyndon: Yeah.

Brett: He’s one of my best mates. And so I hung up the phone. And an hour and a half later I had the song and I wrote it about the people that think that way.

Breallyn: Oh, there you go.

Brett: Yeah. Real Piece of Work. It’s, oh god dammit, you’re a real piece of work. I don’t need this anymore. And I’ve heard recordings of Stevie Ray telling someone they have to leave a gig. While he was playing a Hendrix tune, like he was in the middle of playing Little Wing or something.

Breallyn: Yeah.

Brett: And you just know by the way that Stevie talked to this individual

Lyndon: Yeah.

Brett: That some guy was standing there with his arms folded

Lyndon: Yeah.

Brett: Shaking his head in the middle of the room going, you shouldn’t be doing this.

Breallyn: Yeah. Like, how dare you?

Brett: And Stevie just goes, man, I’m sorry, but you’re gonna have to leave.

Lyndon: Wow.

Brett: He’s, I’m enjoying this.

Lyndon: That’s ballsy.

Breallyn: Yeah.

Brett: I’m doing this ’cause I enjoy it, so I’m sorry, man. But you gotta go, you gotta get outta here.

Lyndon: Yeah.

Brett: And so I’ve started to embody that as my biggest inspiration from Stevie in the last sort of four or five years making this record. It’s like I’m not letting anybody stick their finger in my face and tell me nothing.

‘Cause you know what? There’s a hundred thousand songs going up every other day.

Lyndon: Yeah.

Brett: Who cares if I’ve got songs that sound like or feel like or do this, as long as I’m speaking my truth on top of these vibes.

Lyndon: That’s right. Yeah.

Breallyn: Yeah.

Brett: I’m gonna do that.

Lyndon: Yeah.

Brett: And yeah, so I played the what if game.

Like what if I had a song that was like Hendrix, but it does this and does that. What if. And I just didn’t let anything get in my way.

Lyndon: Yeah.

Brett: I just went, all right, there you go. And then all of a sudden, bang, there’s 15 songs and we’ll whittle it down to 10.

Breallyn: Yeah.

It’s amazing. And having those inspirations and almost tributary type vibes in a song, fans love that.

It’s amazing if you’re a Hendrix fan or whatever, and then you hear your music, it’s oh, I dig this immediately. I love it. It’s just,

Lyndon: It’s paying homage.

Brett: Can only hope. Yeah.

Lyndon: You know.

Brett: Can only hope that.

Lyndon: To the greats.

Brett: Yeah. I feel like, if you mean it, that’s my whole thing.

Is like, somebody asked, a lot of people asked Jimi Hendrix who inspired him. And I think, but it was less and less, I think, so if you look at the eras, Jimi got asked more so, what’s life like for you? Because he was like an enigma.

Breallyn: Yeah.

Brett: Burning his guitars and playing with his crazy fuzz tone.

Lyndon: Yeah, that’s right.

Brett: He had so much charisma. Not only that, he had songs. But I think he almost popped out of obscurity. But he’d also been in the Isley Brothers and he’d done Little Richard, he’d done his session work as well.

Lyndon: That’s right. Yeah.

Brett: But it was almost like he was such a comet that he didn’t get bothered so much about that. But when Stevie came along, everyone was going, you sound like Hendrix.

And he had to deal with all of the, I just, I’m just trying to do the best I can with what I could learn from him. And luckily enough, over time, people let go of that stigma. But it was there for a long time.

Lyndon: Yeah.

Brett: And a lot of guys gave Stevie a hard time for ripping off Albert King ’cause he would literally rip him off note for note.

And I even asked Whipper about this. I was lucky enough to get to know Chris Layton, the drummer from Stevie Ray Vaughan and Double Trouble, when he worked on my songs. And I said, what did he say when he came back from those sessions for Let’s Dance?

Lyndon: Yeah.

Brett: The, and China Girl and the stuff that he played on for Bowie.

And he goes, man, he just came back to Austin. Like he flew down to New York for a day and he came back straight to the Blues Club and they were like, how was it? And he goes, man, I just sprayed Albert King all over that.

Lyndon: Yeah.

Brett: Effer’s record. He called him a name or something. He said, I just went in there and sprayed Albert King all over it because he’s thinking it’s going out on the radio.

I’m just gonna put Albert King licks on it.

Lyndon: That’s crazy.

Brett: Yeah. And you can hear it. It cuts so bad. No, so good. I should say.

Breallyn: Yeah.

Lyndon: Yeah.

Brett: But it’s like those notes that he stung. Like he really stung the strings on that record. Yeah. You can hear it like in the Top Gun sequel. There’s a scene in the bar where Maverick goes to see Penny. She’s running the bar.

Lyndon: Yeah.

Brett: An old flame or whatever. And that song’s in the background.

Lyndon: Yeah.

Brett: And it’s low. Yeah. But Stevie sounds loud. Like the track is low, but Stevie cuts through that mix so bad. It’s oh my God, that was so strong.

Lyndon: Yeah.

Brett: So you can tell he just went in there and went, yeah, you want me to play on a current record? I’m gonna put some Albert King licks on it. Yeah.

Lyndon: That’s so cool. That was actually the song too that piqued my ear to Bowie.

Brett: Nice.

Lyndon: Yeah. Obviously I knew of David Bowie, but that was a song where I’m like, man, I recognise this.

Brett: Nice.

Lyndon: I just had to investigate it further.

Brett: So cool.

Lyndon: And I was like, ah, there it is. I couldn’t believe it.

Brett: Yeah. Yeah. And it’s got some really raw guitar playing on it.

Lyndon: Yeah.

Brett: It’s amazing.

Lyndon: It’s magic.

Brett: But so yeah, I think if anybody hears whatever they want in what I do, I’ve learnt now that it’s not necessarily, it’s never a bad thing, but it’s also kind of nothing.

So it’s whatever you hear. Some of the feedback that I’ve had on certain songs will be, oh, that sounds like such and such song from that band. And I’m like, oh, cool. Never even knew. And I go and check it out and go, it does too.

Breallyn: Okay. Yeah.

Brett: Never heard that song before.

Lyndon: Yeah. Yeah.

Brett: I’m like,

Breallyn: It’s probably ’cause they’re inspired by you playing some other thing.

Brett: They stole it from you.

Breallyn: Yeah, they did.

Brett: No, it’s, it is like stuff from the seventies and things that were before my time. But it’s a funny thing. How are we gonna invent anything new unless everybody ends up sounding like Frank Zappa.

Lyndon: Yeah, that’s right.

Brett: Nothing’s gonna, you’re not gonna come up with a new combination of

Lyndon: Yeah.

Brett: I remember being in LA and seeing bands at the Roxy or somewhere, one of those, the Whiskey or something, like one of those typical eighties rock pubs, and there was like, you’d play a 10-minute set.

And then be another band.

Breallyn: Wow.

Brett: And there was like six or seven bands booked for this night.

Lyndon: Really.

Brett: It was like a Wednesday night. Yeah. So it was a bunch of original bands.

Breallyn: Like speed dating with music. Like band

Brett: Speed banding.

Breallyn: Yeah.

Brett: And Pete and I were there having a couple of quiet drinks when we were recording over there. And so we’re like, just go and check out some bands.

Breallyn: Yeah.

Lyndon: Yeah.

Brett: So we went, I think it was the Whiskey, actually Whisky a Go Go. And I’ll never forget it. They sounded like they were all trying to be the next Chili Peppers, but

Breallyn: Right.

Brett: But totally different combinations of things.

Lyndon: Oh.

Breallyn: Yeah.

Brett: Oh, so the Chili Peppers are like psychedelic meets funk, meets rock.

Lyndon: Yeah.

Brett: Meets punk. Oh, let’s just join a bunch of, and I was like, all these bands were trying and it was like, bless ’em for trying, but it all sounded like gibberish to me. I was like, this isn’t, maybe one of these bands is gonna pop. And I remember thinking probably not likely though.

And I remember there was one guy who was waiting for his friend’s band to go on, three bands towards the end, yelling at the guys that were taking too long to set up. And he goes,

Hurry up and suck.

I thought that’s the worst.

Lyndon: That’s champagne comedy.

Brett: That’s such a nasty thing to say to a band that’s trying to just get their amps on stage and just get a sound. Hurry up.

Lyndon: It’s just,

Brett: Hurry up and suck.

Lyndon: Taking the wind out of your sails. So awful.

Brett: Yeah. Before the wind even got in. Like we haven’t even got the sail up yet.

And I was like, I just remember thinking, my beer came outta my nose. I was like, what the hell? Yeah. It is, it’s a tough industry. Hurry up and suck.

Hurry up and suck.

Lyndon: It’s gonna be a long night.

Breallyn: I’m gonna make t-shirts with it.

Brett: And suck. Yeah. Although it could be taken a few different ways. You might need to make a disclaimer, hurry up and be a terrible band.

Breallyn: Yeah.

Brett: But yeah, it was like that. They were all very confused trying to cross-pollinate styles and I respect the effort and the energy.

Breallyn: And they’re obviously taking their inspiration from bands they love like Chili Peppers or whoever, and

Brett: Yeah.

Breallyn: Wanting to be inspired and create their own thing. But yeah, it

Brett: Sometimes.

Breallyn: Very competitive.

Brett: And you know what? That might’ve been great and who knows, maybe one of those bands is absolutely huge now, and I just couldn’t remember that I saw them.

Lyndon: Yeah. Yeah.

Brett: But I don’t think so.

Lyndon: No.

Brett: But I saw Gary Clark Jr. when he was probably about 19 or 20.

Lyndon: Yeah, or maybe early twenties. Yeah. He was killer. Yeah, absolutely.

Brett: And loud. He was loud.

Lyndon: Is he a lefty?

Brett: No, he’s a righty.

Lyndon: He’s a righty. Okay.

Brett: Yeah. But he’s, yeah, he’s a bad motor scooter. He’s really good.

Lyndon: Yeah.

Brett: Yeah, he was already good even in his early twenties, I remember thinking.

Lyndon: Yeah.

Brett: And loud.

Lyndon: Sensational.

Brett: Yeah.

Recording the Debut Album and Working with SRV’s Drummer Chris Layton

Lyndon: And what was the biggest challenge for you recording? I guess you’re still recording your album, are you? But it’s,

Brett: I am, yeah. I’ll be going home to do a bit of work today. The biggest challenge I can tell you right now is having to do it on your own the way we do things now in the biz.

Lyndon: Yeah.

Brett: Sometimes being scared of going past perfection.

Lyndon: Okay. Tell me more.

Breallyn: Interesting concept. Yeah.

Brett: Yeah, like that whole thing of okay, the demos that got sent to Whipper, Chris Layton, over in Texas

Lyndon: Yep.

Brett: Weren’t finished enough for them to be released with his drums. And there was a mismatch when you hear the drums and they come back and they’ve not only been played brilliantly, and I love how he played. Like my partner Carla, when she first heard the drums, she said, it sounds like he had fun.

And I’m like,

Breallyn: Yeah.

Brett: He sounds like he’s having a good time and he’s having a hit.

Lyndon: Yeah.

Brett: Like he had a proper good day in the studio and he played like it.

Lyndon: It’s a good aural observation.

Brett: Yeah. And I love that she got that feeling from his energy. I’m like, that’s right on. I was like, good on you, honey.

And so trying to get the vibe to stay true, but make the guitars sound more finished, recorded properly

Lyndon: To match that.

Brett: To match the quality of the drums that I got.

Lyndon: Yeah.

Brett: That’s been the hardest thing.

Breallyn: Wow.

Brett: And the vocal too.

Breallyn: That’s a good problem to have. Like rather

Brett: A good problem. Yeah, it’s actually made me level up. Yeah. Amazing.

Lyndon: Did you send him like program drums or something or?

Brett: I played drums.

Lyndon: Oh, did you, have you got a kit at home?

Brett: Yeah. Carla, my partner, she’s got Tommy Emmanuel time. I call it like just natural time, like Carla. And I’ve got buddies in the music game that I’m the same with, like when I jam with Ben Edgar on guitar, who’s one of the greatest players I know. He’s got Tommy time where it’s like the metronome is right there in

Lyndon: Yeah.

Brett: In their strumming hand and everything they do. Carla’s quite the same. So she’s got a drum set because she loves rhythm.

Breallyn: Amazing.

Lyndon: Wow.

Brett: And yeah, and I remember when she bought it, a little bit after we’d first started living together, she bought a drum set.

And she was gonna go pick it up in a Commodore sedan. I was like, no, I’ll bring the wagon.

Lyndon: Yes.

Brett: ‘Cause it’s a drum kit, kick drum and stuff.

Lyndon: Yeah.

Brett: So I played the drums on that drum set.

Lyndon: Doing the shuffle.

Breallyn: Wow. That’s cool.

Brett: I tried and I had to apologize in advance and he was such a sweetheart about it.

He goes, no, I think you played the right thing.

Lyndon: Yeah.

Brett: And I’m like, oh, thanks man. The right thing. I’ll take that.

Lyndon: Yeah. That’s enough for him to listen and go, I know what you want.

Breallyn: Is your next t-shirt ‘kind of the right thing?’

Brett: That was exactly, yeah. That was his guide anyway.

Lyndon: Yeah.

Brett: And he smacked it out of the park.

I tell you, I was emotional when I first heard them. ‘Cause I’m like, wow. I’ve been listening to that guy play drums for so long.

Lyndon: Yeah.

Brett: There it is. And his persona, his personality as a player, must be a reflection of him as a human.

Lyndon: Yeah.

Brett: He didn’t want charts. He’s like, no, I don’t do it that way.

He just learns the songs.

Lyndon: Perfect.

Brett: He would just go out to his little drum room. He doesn’t have a recording set up at home, but he would go out to his space and he would put the tunes on and play. And just get them in, digest them and go, oh yeah, he’s going here, he’s doing that.

Yeah.

Cool, cool. And he said, all I need is your vocal and it doesn’t have to be a finished vocal.

I just need to know kinda what the song’s doing and your rhythm guitar. And that’s all I really needed.

Lyndon: Really.

Brett: And a click track.

Breallyn: Wow.

Brett: And I’m like, right on, dude.

Lyndon: And then where does he record it? At a studio?

Brett: Yeah. He went to a friend of his, Chris Bell, who is an engineer in Austin and he’s reputable. He’s worked with Erykah Badu and Don Henley and I think he’s even mixed Eagles records and stuff.

Like he’s a mixing engineer slash recording engineer. And I’m sure he’s a great producer as well. But he had a little new room in his house that he was setting up as a drum booth and he hadn’t tested it out yet. And Chris was lovely. Did it for a really good rate. And Chris Layton, so it was two Chrises, Chris Bell and Chris Layton.

And yeah, Chris just wanted a project to do. He’s like, is there something I can do?

Breallyn: Yeah.

Brett: And so Whipper just called him and said, hey man, I’ve got this guy from Australia, he’s got these songs. Do you wanna do them? He goes, yeah. And so it was on.

Breallyn: Wow.

Lyndon: So how many has he played on for you?

Brett: Five.

Lyndon: Awesome.

Brett: Yeah, which is cool.

Breallyn: Great.

Lyndon: And will there be more, or

Brett: I hope so. I would love to get him to play on a couple more. But you know what the dream for me is, and you’re never supposed to tell people your dreams, but I would love to go to Austin to record the second album.

Lyndon: Ah.

Brett: Which is

Lyndon: Why not.

Brett: Getting ahead of myself.

But that would be the dream, to go over there and actually share the space with him and play live together.

Breallyn: Oh yeah. That’d be great.

Brett: Because after doing it this way, I don’t think I want to do it this way ever again. I would rather be in the room.

Get it right.

Breallyn: Yeah.

Brett: Live. With anything that’s on the cusp of a mistake or not a mistake, and overdub anything that has to be right.

Lyndon: So have you found, doing all the tracking yourself at home, that you’ve, what, you’ve been trying to polish it too much or over,

Brett: Yes.

Lyndon: Doing 50 solos and then trying to agonize over which was the better one?

Brett: Yeah. This is like music therapy.

Lyndon: I remember you put up a couple of, I think you put up, this would’ve been months ago.

You’re like, okay, this is the solo that I didn’t go with.

Brett: Yeah.

Lyndon: And I’m like, that’s a pretty awesome one to reject.

Brett: Yeah. Was that the Electric Mary one maybe?

Lyndon: I’m not sure.

Brett: Yeah. But there’s a,

Lyndon: Oh, could’ve been.

Brett: Yeah. See, I had two video clips that went a little bit accidentally viral.

And one of them was, you don’t see me in the clip, you just hear this honking amp setup that’s just really super loud. And I don’t know what the algorithm picked up on. I have no idea what it was. But I had two videos that Rusty from Electric Mary took of us re-amping my solos. So I did a lot of the solos at home on that particular Electric Mary record.

Lyndon: And

Brett: Then we had a fun day where I took like all of my favourite amps to the studio, Ricky Ray’s, and we just sent my signal out to all of my amps.

Lyndon: Nice.

Brett: And just went, oh, that one sounds good. Let’s just record that one.

Lyndon: Yeah.

Going Viral: Recognition from Guitar Legends

Brett: And so we re-amped all of my solos. And so yeah, those videos, for some reason, a lot of people thought it was Stevie and I got some,

Lyndon: Oh, is that right?

Brett: That’s, yeah. And one of the videos is a solo that never made the record.

Lyndon: Oh, okay. Maybe that was it.

Brett: It might’ve been that one.

Lyndon: Not sure.

Brett: Possibly. But Rusty feels bad about that because he didn’t pull rank. But basically a couple of the other guys in the band felt it was too much like Stevie. And I said, yeah, that was the idea.

‘Cause I didn’t wanna play a solo on this song.

Lyndon: Ah.

Brett: And I tried to win the war, but I lost every time. I said, I don’t wanna do a solo. I don’t wanna do a solo.

Lyndon: Yeah, you didn’t think it needed it. Or

Brett: I felt like it was a bad choice for the production of the song. I said, this is a snappy little pop tune. And I want our band to level up.

Because I want, when we go overseas next time, I want to make a little bit more money and let’s make it a bit easier and a bit more comfortable. Let’s get a song that might go somewhere.

Lyndon: Yeah.

Brett: Have some legs. Let’s not put two guitar solos on. Let’s just put one. Let it be. Pete Robinson smoked it.

Lyndon: That’s right. ‘Cause it often is trading solos in Electric Mary, isn’t it?

Brett: Electric Mary. Yeah, it’s

Teenagers.

Lyndon: Yeah.

Brett: More guitar. And so I wanted less guitar on this track and I lost, so I was like, if I’m gonna play a guitar solo, I’m gonna try and have a communion with one of my heroes, and I’m gonna try and make it sound like,

Lyndon: Yeah.

Brett: I had this little envisaging, imagine if I could just give him a little potion, a little bottle, and just bring him through the studio door and he just plays one solo.

Lyndon: What would he do?

Brett: And then I’ll give him a massive squeeze and pat him on the back, go, love you man. And then he can go,

Lyndon: Yeah.

Brett: Back to heaven or wherever it is.

Breallyn: What a fun way to approach a solo.

Brett: The other

Breallyn: Realm. I love that.

Brett: I was like, what would it sound like?

Breallyn: That’s so cool.

Brett: What might it sound like if I was able to channel that with all of my heart? Could try as hard as I could.

Lyndon: Yeah.

Brett: And I found a couple of takes that I did that made the hair stand up on the back of my neck.

Lyndon: Yeah.

Brett: And went, okay, I think I’ve got one out of these two solos. And I joined them together at one point, and that was the solo that didn’t make the record.

‘Cause it freaked everybody out a little bit. And I’m like, but that’s what I wanted to do.

Lyndon: Yeah.

You channeled it and

Brett: And I got a message from Doug Aldrich on that, and that’s pretty much perfect, bro. Like Doug Aldrich from Whitesnake. That made a comment. Crazy, amazing. That’s pretty much perfect.

Lyndon: Yeah.

Brett: Steve Stevens from Billy Idol’s band. What’s the guy from Mr. Big?

Lyndon: Is this all through it being viral?

Brett: Yeah. Like I got, I’d wake up every other day, when these went up on Instagram and I was, I think I had 2,000 followers at the time.

And all of a sudden I’m like seeing, like I’m looking at the phone and the red alerts were like,

Lyndon: Oh yeah.

Brett: 188 new followers.

Lyndon: Yeah.

Brett: 253 followers. Every day I would check every other hour and it was just going up and up.

Breallyn: Yeah.

Brett: And I was worried I’d been spammed. I was trying to figure out what’s gone wrong.

Lyndon: Yeah.

Brett: And then I started getting little messages, like comments you can go through and read. Steve Stevens said something like, badass.

Lyndon: Take that.

Brett: That’s badass. And I’m like, yeah, nice. I was like, oh, thanks Steve Stevens. And I got a nice DM from Paul Gilbert who said, man, that’s some of the best blues playing I’ve heard in years.

Lyndon: Yeah.

Brett: And I was like, man, all these guys are recognising a solo that never made a record.

Yeah. Didn’t even make it onto the album.

Lyndon: Yeah.

Breallyn: Crazy.

Lyndon: That’s incredible, isn’t it?

Brett: Yeah. And then I was getting messages from just random Stevie lovers. I think there must have been something in the water of the algorithm. I do believe. I remember thinking, I saw that Pedal Show doing something like, they thumbnail it in a really vomity way. How to, Can You Sound Like Stevie Ray Vaughan.

Lyndon: Oh yeah.

Brett: And I’m just so sick to death of all that crap.

Breallyn: Yeah.

Brett: It’s, if you can’t make it sound like whoever you’re trying to sound like on a guitar that’s not even plugged in

Lyndon: Yeah.

Brett: Then shush. Don’t even come at me with that stuff. Yeah. If you can’t sound like Django Reinhardt on an electric guitar that’s not even plugged in, you’re not gonna sound like Django Reinhardt on Django’s acoustic.

Lyndon: Yeah, that’s right. Yeah.

Brett: You’ve gotta be able to make it happen on string.

Lyndon: Yeah. Yeah.

Brett: Wood and string.

Lyndon: That’s it.

Brett: Skin, wood, string.

So anyway, I think that the algorithm picked up on a bunch of Stevie boffinism and then just threw it out there and I didn’t know what was happening.

Breallyn: Yeah.

Brett: But that’s the unhealthy thing of social media.

Then thereafter, you’re trying to figure out how do you do that again?

Lyndon: Yeah.

Brett: And it wasn’t even me, it was just,

Lyndon: It wasn’t anything you did necessarily. Yeah.

Brett: No, I think it was a timing thing. And then I was thinking, then I’ll just do all the bluesy stuff straight away.

And just get that outta the way.

Lyndon: Oh.

So it did influence what you,

Brett: It influenced my thinking on the release strategy. And then lo and behold, you start talking to, obviously Pete Murray has been a good confidant and he was listening to my acoustic set going, that song and that song I think are your best songs, are they ready?

Should put them out.

And so it just upends where your thinking pattern was.

Breallyn: Yeah.

Brett: But that’s life. That’s, you learn as you go. Yeah. And that’s what I’m trying to do. Yeah.

The Mindset Shift: Trusting Your Own Creative Vision

Breallyn: Sounds like a very different process to obviously the other things that you do, where you come along as the collaborator and the person to add to someone else’s project, and now all of a sudden you are like driving your own things and having to listen to those other collaborators and other opinions and yeah.

Like how’s the headspace been to manage that shift for you?

Brett: That’s an excellent question and a good observation. It’s very much a different headspace.

And I am slowly trying to get clearer. I don’t show too many people anymore. What I’ve realised is I can only have a couple of people in the sanctum.

Breallyn: Yes.

Lyndon: Oh, the inner sanctum.

Breallyn: Inner sanctum, yep.

Lyndon: Yeah. Nice.

Brett: If I’m producing it, I reckon I have two or three other co-producers or executive producers that will oversee when I feel like I’ve got something done, I’ll go, are we done?

But I don’t do it with as many people anymore.

Because you do find you’re getting other people’s lens.

Breallyn: Yes. Yeah. Absolutely.

Brett: And I’ve gotta try and stay with mine.

Breallyn: Yeah.

Brett: Which is tricky.

Breallyn: Yeah. ‘Cause other people’s, obviously the people that you would be asking have a good lens. Like they’ve got

Brett: Fantastic.

Breallyn: Yeah. You trust them. But making that shift to trusting your own instinct on it, on something, and just going, no.

This is how it’s gonna be done.

Brett: Exactly.

Breallyn: Yeah. A different thing.

Brett: And I’m lucky that my manager, who, it seems like a silly thing to say, he is one of my best friends on earth, Jai Forster, who we grew up together from teenage years.

Breallyn: Yeah.

Brett: Both have a massive passion for all the music that we love. And

Breallyn: So cool.

Brett: He plays a little bit of guitar and his dad’s a bass player. And so his old man will listen to some of the stuff too and be really supportive. And then other times Jai’s dad will go, why? What’s he doing? Why is he overcooking it, it was done.

Lyndon: Yeah.

Brett: That stuff. And so you get little tidbits of help along the way.

Breallyn: Yeah.

Brett: And I think certain people’s lenses are an interesting one. ‘Cause some people might say, oh, sounds a bit old, sounds a bit done before, quote unquote, like it’s a bit typical. And it’s, this is what I wanted to make, so I don’t take offence to any of that.

Breallyn: Yeah.

Brett: And I certainly don’t want to mould it and add sounds or flavors that aren’t what I was envisaging would be on the project.

Breallyn: Yeah.

Brett: And that was a thing with Whipper too, that he said, look, I’ve done this before. When he was one foot in, one foot out of saying yes to playing drums on my record.

‘Cause that’s a big call. He’s in the Hall of Fame.

Still tours and plays with Kenny Wayne Shepherd, who are coming out next year.

Breallyn: Amazing.

Brett: Yeah. Still does a lot of big shows in America on the Experience Hendrix Tours with Eric Johnson. Doyle Bramhall still has his band with Doyle.

He’s a big cat.

Breallyn: Absolutely. Yeah.

Brett: He doesn’t,

Breallyn: A world class player.

And yeah.

Brett: He said willingly, I don’t actually have to do anything anymore that I don’t want to do.

So send me the tracks and if I’m into it, I’ll do it.

Lyndon: Yeah.

Breallyn: Yeah.

Brett: And I was scared as hell after that. Because I was, I knew, I was like putting it out there and I’m like, ah, damn it.

Lyndon: Yeah.

Brett: It felt like hitting the spacebar on the email was a bit like pulling a pin out of a grenade. It was like, ah, stand back and wait for the response.

Breallyn: Yeah.

Brett: But he was really kind about it. And I think his response was really short too. It was like, cool tunes, Brett. Yeah. And I was like, oh, okay.

Lyndon: So you’re gonna do it?

Brett: Yeah. I didn’t know exactly, and but when he was one foot in, one foot out, he was like, look, I’ve done this before. He’d said that he wanted to play on them. He’d said he liked the songs, but he was worried about, how is this gonna end up? Because he’d done this type of project before.

Lyndon: Yeah.

Brett: Where he’ll play on something and then it comes back and it’s got a horn section.

Breallyn: Ah, yeah. Yeah.

Brett: And it’s got Hammond over here and piano over here. Three guitars. And it’s just

Lyndon: Something weird done to his drums.

Brett: Yeah, probably.

Lyndon: Yeah.

Brett: He didn’t say that, but you could well be right. People have messed with his drums.

Maybe.

Lyndon: Maybe.

Brett: I didn’t touch him. Yeah. I said, dude, whatever you play, you are the boss. Yeah. And I’ll fit everything around you.

Yeah. And I said, no, I won’t add anything. Like it’s not gonna be extravagant. I’m just gonna build up the actual sounds that are there.

Breallyn: Yeah.

Brett: And make them more quality.

And that’s when he went, oh. Oh, okay. Okay. We could do that.

Lyndon: He’s more comfortable. Yeah.

Brett: And then he said, hey, I hope you don’t mind. This isn’t the same conversation where I thought, oh, this could go either way.

Breallyn: Yeah.

Brett: But after about 10 minutes of explaining to him that I promise I’m not gonna add a million other instruments.

He then says, yeah, okay, that sounds cool. We could do that. That sounds, I’m up for that. Hey, I hope you don’t mind, but I played your songs to Doyle Bramhall II.

Breallyn: Oh, wow.

Brett: And I’m like, you say that again. He goes, yeah, I was at dinner last night. He goes, I was out to dinner at a restaurant and I saw Doyle with his family.

And I said, hey, you gotta come outside and have a listen to this. I’ve gotta show you this.

And he showed him a couple of the songs and I said, oh, do you remember which songs? And he goes, oh, I don’t remember the names yet. And I’m like, oh, okay. That’s cool, man. And I was like, I was still in shock that he just said what he said.

Breallyn: Yeah.

Brett: And it was quiet. And then I said, can I just ask, did he say anything? He goes, yeah, I’ll tell you what he said. Are you ready? And I’m like, oh no.

Breallyn: Geez.

Brett: It’s gonna be bad or something. I love that you’re doing the accent as well.

Oh yeah. I love, yeah. And he goes, I said, yeah, go man.

He goes, he said, that’s a vibe.

Breallyn: Oh, cool.

Brett: And I was like, oh, right on, dude. That’s so cool. And he goes, yeah, and you know what? He wanted me to send him the songs. Like he was like, yeah, send them to me. I’ll finish ’em up. And I’m like,

Lyndon: What?

Brett: I think they must be in a songwriting circle. They must have a circle of people that share songs around.

Lyndon: Oh, okay.

Brett: And I think Doyle thought that these were like potential songs that he might be able to work on.

Lyndon: Yeah.

Breallyn: Oh, wow.

Brett: And I said, dude, if he wants to record one of the songs, you just tell him he’s welcome to. I don’t even care.

Lyndon: Here’s my number.

Brett: And he goes, no. I told him they were your songs and blah, blah. I told him, I’m like, okay, you can tell him again if you want. Tell him it’s all right if he wants to track one. But

Breallyn: That’s cool.

Brett: That never came to pass. But it was like, I thought that’s a really nice compliment. That one of

Breallyn: Absolutely.

Brett: ‘Cause he goes, do you listen to Doyle Bramhall a lot? And I’m like, yeah, I do. And he goes, yeah, ’cause you kinda remind me of him. And I’m like, yeah, I said, that’s a huge compliment, man, because I’ve heard him speak about Doyle in really high regard.

Breallyn: Yeah.

Brett: Like he gets put on the spot sometimes in interviews to go, who’s the guy? Really? Yeah. And that’s a hard spot for him to be in because obviously he works with Kenny. Yeah. And he’s worked with everybody.

Lyndon: Yeah.

Brett: He’s played with every guitarist under the sun, but he always singles out Doyle. It always ends up floating back to Doyle.

Lyndon: Why is that, do you reckon?

Brett: Ah, that’s a good question. I wouldn’t be able to answer that.

Lyndon: Because he wears many hats too, doesn’t he? Doyle.

Brett: True.

Lyndon: Yeah.

Brett: Yeah. He’ll be the side guy for Eric Clapton or

Lyndon: Yeah.

Brett: He’ll do his own thing. And he’s played on Sheryl Crow records.

Lyndon: He’s produced Sheryl Crow albums.

Brett: Yeah. And he’s played on and produced Erykah Badu records and anything and everything.

He’s a very clever guy.

Lyndon: Yeah.

Brett: And this, I can’t speak for Whipper, but I think that the connection that he had with Doyle’s old man.

Lyndon: Okay.

Brett: Who wrote songs for Stevie Ray and Double Trouble.

And the fact that they brought young Doyle out on stage a few times with Stevie and Double Trouble.

Breallyn: Wow.

Brett: To play. I think that connection is just deep, that’s,

Lyndon: It’s too strong. Yeah.

Brett: That’s a deep spiritual connection. Yeah. And I’m sure that Chris, and I can’t speak for him, but I’m positive that he would rate Kenny Wayne Shepherd as well. ‘Cause I’ve seen Kenny live and it’s a special,

Lyndon: Yeah.

Brett: That’s a special experience. To be in a room full of arms folded. You show us what you got.

Lyndon: Yes.

Brett: And he comes out and literally rips the room in half.

Lyndon: That’s incredible.

Brett: And it’s, you instantly go from arms folded. I never went with my arms folded. I knew that he was gonna be a bad boy.

Lyndon: Yeah.

Brett: But it was better than I thought it was gonna be. I was like, oh, okay.

Lyndon: It must be a bit of a cross to bear, for so long, I’m thinking about Kenny Wayne Shepherd, but for so long, having to front up to do gigs to audiences that are there with that attitude going, okay, show me what you got.

Brett: Yeah.

Lyndon: It’s like not such a generous attitude, is it? Like the people that,

Brett: I think it probably happens more here in Australia, whereas in America I think Americans just celebrate good stuff.

Lyndon: What a shame.

Brett: Yeah. We’ve got a little bit of tall poppy here that is just never gonna leave our mentality.

Yeah. Trying to extract it is almost like trying to give yourself a phlebotomy. We’re just so trained to self-deprecation.

Breallyn: Yeah.

Brett: And don’t be, don’t get too big for your britches and all that stuff. That’s the Aussie thing.

Lyndon: Yeah.

Brett: But I had remembered looking around at back then.

When did I see Kenny Wayne Shepherd? It must have been around the Blue on Black era.

Lyndon: Oh yeah. Yeah.

Brett: And it was at the Palace that burnt down. Remember that next door to Luna Park there?

Breallyn: Yeah. Yeah.

Lyndon: Yep. Yeah.

Brett: It was at that venue, which was a cool venue. Great rock and roll venue.

Lyndon: I think I saw Primus there.

Brett: There you go. That would’ve sounded wicked there.

Lyndon: Yeah, that was crazy.

Brett: That’s a cool room, right?

Breallyn: Yeah.

Brett: Yeah. And so Kenny came out and literally like just walked out all over the stage, ripping as hard as he could and like squeezing the guts outta the neck. And he just laid it all down in the first 30 seconds, as if to say, if there’s anyone here yeah,

that’s gonna have a problem with doubt, this is what you’re in for. Like, this is how the evening is gonna go. And it was like, and I was just laughing going, yeah, bring it. Let’s go. And I remember looking around and seeing dude’s arms go from that to, oh, hands behind their sides and now tapping their leg.

And I’m like, okay. He just won over an audience. Well done.

Lyndon: In the first thirty seconds.

Breallyn: That’s how it’s done.

Brett: Yeah. That’s how you do it. You just come out there and give it a whack.

Breallyn: Yeah. That’s very cool.

Brett: Yeah. It’s nice to know that people that I respect, and especially Whipper, that’s a massive one.

That’s been amazing.

Breallyn: That’s like such an endorsement of your work. And yeah, be great.

Brett: I still have to pinch myself and just go, really?

Breallyn: Yeah.

Brett: Did that really actually happen? Or did I just dream that? So I’m a very lucky fellow. Yeah.

Breallyn: No, that’s amazing. It’s a credit to you and what you’ve done.

Obviously you’ve been like such a generous collaborator in the industry for so long and now having other people come back to you with your stuff and go, we’d love it and we are prepared to do this with it. That’s just very cool. And yeah.

Brett: Thank you.

Breallyn: Definitely a credit to you.

Brett: Yeah. It’s a note to self thing. It’s nice to be reminded of that.

Breallyn: Yeah.

Brett: I don’t have to be reminded. Yeah. But it’s so much, when you’re working on something, you can get lost in the rabbit hole of work.

Breallyn: Yeah. Yep.

Brett: So it’s nice to know that, yeah.

That it was at least across the line with one of my heroes, or a couple of them.

Breallyn: And it’s hard to, like, it’s always more, it feels more like you’re gonna doubt your own stuff, or feel a bit more, oh, is it what I want it to be, when it’s your stuff? Rather than you adding to somebody else’s original thing.

Yeah.

Brett: A hundred percent.

Breallyn: Yeah.

Amazing.

Lyndon: I hope yeah, I’d really hope this album goes well for you, mate.

Brett: Thank you.

Lyndon: It really should.

Brett: I appreciate it.

Breallyn: Absolutely.

Brett: Thank you.

Lyndon: And I expect the songs will be around just in 10, 20 years time. I think that,

Brett: Wow.

Lyndon: So far the ones I’ve heard, I just think there’s,

Brett: Thank you.

Lyndon: A timelessness to them. And I think that’s something too about the genre that you’ve really chosen to, it speaks to you and that you are playing in it, it has that timeless aspect to it. I think.

Breallyn: I think so too.

Lyndon: It’s not like a flavor of the month thing, it’s not like a pop thing that can come and go and is all about what’s fashionable at the time or what’s trending these days on TikTok or something.

I think you’ve embarked on this, on a musical journey, for want of a better word, and a style of music that will always be fashionable.

And will always be around. And I think your songs deserve to be an earworm for years to come. So

Breallyn: For all the right

Lyndon: Reasons.

So I look forward to hearing the actual album when it’s released.

Breallyn: Absolutely.

Brett: Can you guys just come over to my house and tell me that every night before I go to sleep?

Breallyn: Just put this podcast on repeat.

Brett: Bring my anxiety down. Yeah.

Lyndon: Yeah.

Brett: Thank you very much.

Lyndon: You’re very welcome.

Brett: I really appreciate it. I appreciate the chat and it’s so nice to catch up with you guys after all these years.

Breallyn: Yeah, absolutely.

Brett: It’s been such a long time.

Breallyn: Well, maybe you’ll come back when the album’s launched and tell us how it’s all going.

Brett: I would love to.

Breallyn: We’d love to hear it. Yeah.

Lyndon: Brea, put out more chocolate and bickies and

Brett: That’s such a good spread.

The vanilla, the dark chocolate with vanilla. I’m gonna tell Carla about that.

Breallyn: Yeah, I hadn’t seen it before. Yeah, it’s a winner.

Brett: Good.

Lindt are getting an advertisement.

Breallyn: That’s it.

Brett: Yeah.

Lyndon: Alright. Thanks mate.

Brett: Good on you guys.

Where to Find Brett Wood: New Music and Upcoming Shows

Breallyn: Before we go, do you want to let people know where they can reach you, where they can follow you and that kind of thing?

Brett: Yeah. My website is brettwood.com, so www.brettwood.com, which is where they can go to support and buy merch if they want to do that. Yeah, have a little plug. And there’s, I think you can even watch a couple of videos of some live footage there. And there’s obviously Instagram and Facebook and TikTok, which is all at Brett Wood Music.

Breallyn: Okay.

Brett: It’s boring old, but they’re all the same. Need to find

Breallyn: Yeah. Perfect.

Brett: At Brett Wood Music. And

Breallyn: Yeah.

Brett: Feel free to drop me a line, guys, if anyone’s listening. And you’ve just gotten interested. I’m always keen to meet new people and I usually try to message everybody back.

Breallyn: Yeah.

Brett: And,

Lyndon: You’re thinking of doing the old school mailing list, like Tommy and,

Brett: We have started that. Did the newsletter.

Breallyn: Oh, bring it back.

Brett: I’ve gotta get the press shots done though. I’ve gotta get the, get there, from Brett.

Breallyn: Yeah. Oh, that’s awesome.

Brett: That’s a name that’s retired now. There’s not many Bretts anymore.

Breallyn: Brett.

Lyndon: Oh, that’s interesting. I have a cousin called Brett. Yeah, he’d be your age.

Yeah. True. There aren’t many Bretts.

Brett: Tommy’s a William Thomas. That’s the other thing too, is his name is actually William. I used to call him Billy for a while, but yeah, he’s a William Thomas Emmanuel. So my middle name’s Daniel, but I just rolled with Brett because I had the mistaken assumption that some of Pete’s audience would’ve recognised it, but I found out that they didn’t even know I was there the whole time.

So

Lyndon: They’ve only got eyes.

Brett: I could have. Yeah. I could have rolled out the Daniel Wood if I wanted to, but too late now.

So I’ll just, yeah, just Brett. Brett Wood Music. And yeah.

Lyndon: Perfect.

Brett: Yeah. For all your free music needs. Yeah.

Breallyn: Indeed. And a photo in your newsletter if you sign up.

That’s so cool.

Brett: Yeah, that’s right. Yeah. I do have a, when we hit 500 subscribers to the mailing list, I’m gonna do

Lyndon: A nude shot.

Brett: No, they’re, yeah. Go get some press shots done. No. I’m gonna do an online Zoom chat with anybody that wants to jump in and do a little acoustic performance for

Lyndon: Oh, gold.

Brett: For all the people that have signed up.

Lyndon: Yeah. Good idea.

Breallyn: Wonderful. Yeah.

Brett: And then there’s a couple of lovely ABC presenters around the country and a couple of Triple M presenters that got onto my second single. I’m gonna go and do shows in those areas ’cause I know that they’ll help push the show a bit.

Breallyn: Yeah. Perfect.

Brett: I’ll head back to Dubbo and see Cam Hughes from ABC in Dubbo.

Lyndon: Nice.

Brett: Yeah, there’s a bar there called the Crossroads Bar that I’m gonna go play. So yeah, so I’ve gotta try and start making inroads to lining up my own headline shows next year.

Lyndon: That’s great.

Breallyn: Yeah.

Lyndon: How cool.

Breallyn: Very cool.

Brett: For better or worse.

Breallyn: Something a little different, but yeah.

Gosh, it sounds like you’re so well positioned to do it and you’ve just done so many amazing shows for everyone else. So hopefully everyone will come and enjoy your music and yeah,

Lyndon: Get out and see live music.

Brett: That’s very kind.

Breallyn: Yeah, absolutely. We’ll certainly come along and thanks heaps for joining us today and all.

Brett: Thanks for having me.

Breallyn: All the best with the album.

Brett: Yeah. Lovely to chat. Thank you so much.

Lyndon: Thanks mate.

Brett: Woo.

The gallery goes wild.

Breallyn: That’s a wrap.

Brett: That was awesome.

Breallyn: Yeah. Very cool.

That was so much fun.

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