Australian Tour continued…

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After our saved night from the murder den by staying at the venue we played at, we decided to recover from our late night celebration by heading to Blacksmith cafe in Redfern or Surry Hills. Those two suburbs confuse me as they’re right by each other. We then headed down to Central station to do some sightseeing. It was Jack’s first time to Sydney so we decided to take him and his freshly painted nails around town.

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And from here began our exhibition of ‘Pimp and Hos’ where I would pose in a masculine/ghetto way as my two behemoth ladies posed in their best provocative pose. It gets better don’t worry. Here, we asked an Irish builder to take the photo for us and he and his colleague were just chuckling at our strangeness.

The Sydney Opera House Edition

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Decorations for Chinese New Year

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The Sydney Harbour Bridge Edition

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The Circular Quay Edition ft. Waves

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Sunburnt Country

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We then decided we would go and catch the Australian Chamber Orchestra perform at the Sydney Recital Theatre. We booked last minute tickets but then realised we had nothing to wear. All the clothes we had brought were inappropriate for such fine occasions. We embarked on a second hand op-shop hunt in our afternoon. We went to the first one, a finely curated vintage store in Glebe and realised it was out of our budget. We then headed into Salvo’s which had nothing in store for us. We wandered along to find another second hand store that had amazing items for women with a price tag and maybe half a rack for men. We then struck gold with Vinnie’s. We made a joke about how it would be hilarious if we got everything we needed in one store, and then we did. The best part was we all managed to find something in a similar colour palette.

Addams Family

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After the amazing and inspiring performance of the Australian Chamber Orchestra alongside Joseph Tawadros who plays the oud. We met the viola player, Sascha outside who invited us to join for beers with the crew. It was so refreshing to meet such high calibre artists who are down to earth and friendly. The boys continued the night, heading to Sascha’s house to jam with him and another jazz pianist. I wish I could’ve been there but with losing my voice, I was struggling to keep it alive during late nights and knew I had to check out. I then caught my first Uber ride back to the hostel, and I had a Lexus that is usually part of a limousine fleet. How fitting to wrap up the night!

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Our next stop was Newcastle where we played at The Cambridge Hotel alongside local singer/songwriter Audie and The Reversals.

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Thank you to Robert Bailey who was also sound engineer that night for the amazing photos! Here’s one below.

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Our next stop after that was Adelaide. We had to catch a plane over and Jack and I were pretty excited being first timers to the little town. We hired our car, went to sound check and then took a much needed nap in our new hostel home.

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Our first gig in Adelaide was at The Publisher’s Hotel where Georgia Germein of The Germein Sisters opened for us.

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The Reversals were finally reunited with their band and they did a kick ass performance.

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With James Murphy at Three D Radio doing an acoustic performance with Joe and interview

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The Reversals playing paparazzi.. we were sleeping and I heard Matt’s voice so we all popped our heads out!

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We then went for a wander around Adelaide Botanical Gardens. What a beautiful space. Adelaide is definitely a gorgeous town to roam in. It has a lot of post colonial influences mixed in with a country town atmosphere while still maintaining a little metropolitan.

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The Adelaide Edition

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Such gorgeous buttress roots – and I’m not talking about Jack and Joe’s haha.

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We then headed to ABC Adelaide to go into the Tardis to be wired through to ABC Darwin. Which meant, we were in ABC Adelaide going through ABC Sydney to then talk with ABC Darwin. Confusing and amazing. It was odd as we were talking and playing in this little box with no one watching us. At the end of the interview as one of my songs were playing he says “Thanks Deena for doing the interview. I’m about to lose this -.” And then it was silent.

We were so confused as whether that was it, or we were going to be on air again.. so we sat in silence for a solid 15 minutes. Occasionally whispering to each other as to what was going on. Finally a technician came in and said, “Guys… you’re finished.” Haha apparently all the ABCs around Australia have to book in a time with Sydney (as they are the main telecommunication hub) and once that time was finished, you lose connection.

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Today was the day I released my album. Black Cat on Friday the 13th. I thought the 80’s clock at ABC looked so cool.

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Our final gig in Adelaide was coinciding with the opening of Adelaide Fringe Festival. We were lucky to play at the newly opened Vinyl Bar alongside local act Tom West and of course, co-headlining with The Reversals.

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We then had the big leg of driving from Adelaide to Melbourne. After a group discussion we decided to go inland. There were some interesting stops along the way. This hall was next to public toilets. I love how they maintained the original gate even though the fence and gate doesn’t really do much anymore.

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Another stop along the way was Pink Lake. It was a salt lake alongside the highway that you could walk on as it was just so salty. I said to the boys that I wanted to taste it and I was met with disgust. 10 minutes later, I saw them all trying it. Hahaha.

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It was such a beautiful sight to behold. I had never seen a thing like that before.

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Family photo

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We then continued the drive enjoying the beautiful country scenery

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I thought it was adorable that this random patch got left alone.

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My shoes became covered in salt

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Our car was so packed to the point that this was as much as I could see of Luke in the back seat.

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The Giant Koala Edition

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Another stop along the way was the Giant Koala which was kind of creepy rather than cute haha

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We stopped off for dinner at Dadswell’s Bridge where we had Indian.

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As we trudged along, we realised we would be able to hit Melbourne by night so decided to start looking for accommodation. The combination of Valentine’s Day and some England cricket game made it impossible for us to find anything within Melbourne and even as far out as Ballarat. I had to pull a favour with Chris from Bkode to house us all. Thanks to him and his parent’s generosity we finally found a place to rest. We met up with Chris at Bkode Studios to pick up the key and also have a little bit of fun playing basketball, dancing, rollerblading and playing ping pong. In the morning his parents had made us breakfast which was way way waaaay too kind. Thank you so much for extending your hospitality to my band mates too, Oray family!

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The next day we went on a bit of a food tour around Melbourne. I showed the boys some of my favourite budget places to eat. Coincidentally, it was also the Lonsdale St Festival for the Greek community so we got to enjoy some entertainment as well.

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It was then time to rock it alongside Lauren Glezer (Melbourne), The Solicitors (Melbourne) and The Reversals once again!

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Anthony – bassist of The Reversals

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Matt Green joined in – keys & vocal of The Reversals

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And then Nathanael crashed in – guitar & vocals of The Reversals

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Lauren Glezer’s heartfelt acoustic performance

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The Solicitors rocked the stage in their formal attire

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We were blessed to be a five piece for the very first time. I invited Brendan O’Neill who mixed our Black Cat album to rock it on stage with us. I figured he sang the back up vocals on the CD so why not do it live as well! We had an absolute blast! Best part was that we got to stay upstairs of the venue at The Worker’s Club where they kept two band bunk bedrooms for traveling musicians.

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The next day I had a radio interview with 97.9FM out in Melton. I don’t know what I’m doing with the guitar hahaha.

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Thought I’d end this journal entry with a rap squat. Not only has the boys improved their slut dropping dance moves and hip popping poses – I got to polish up on my ghetto grip. Or maybe I should changed musical genres.

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