'Creatives Don't Want To Come Here': KLP & The Rubens Talk Sydney Scene at NSW Music Inquiry

Artists in the Sydney music scene have given statements at the NSW State Government music inquiry yesterday. 

Appearing on a panel with artist manager Greg Carye and Nicholas Pickard from APRA, KLP and The Rubens drummer Scott Baldwin, slammed the lack of government support for the scene in their opening statements.

"The next generation is deprived of motivation, inspiration and the culture around to pursue a career in the music industry," KLP said.

"Many successful musicians move overseas as well, because there's not much left here to nourish a creative career. It's not only hard to make enough income, but there's just a lack of that inspiration and support systems in place to really progress and make a mark on an international level."

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Baldwin shared KLP's sentiments saying, "It's kind of disappointing because the live music scene is just, it's definitely dying and it sometimes seems dead."

"I used to teach drums as well. I used to use a little bit of an excerpt to inspire [students] and to dream big and stuff. And hearing back my students say, 'There's no point', they'd rather go into other fields and they're giving up their dreams to play music and their parents also say it's a dying industry. It's quite upsetting to me.

"When we started out touring, we were in a fortunate spot where these venues were open to us and we luckily got some support from triple j and we started having people show up to our shows. We went on to grow and go overseas... we could be in small international cities and they are just buzzing. I've been on the road since 2011 and when you come back to Sydney you can see the dynamic, how much it's changed. A lot of people talk about it overseas. It's a big thing. A lot of creatives don't want to come here."