'I’m An Astronaut' Of Music

The muso, who began performing solo, will be presenting a new configuration at Queensland’s Earth Frequency Festival, with multi-instrumentalist Andy V (“he plays keys, saxophone, sings and loops it all alongside me”) and, for the first time, bassist Evan Tweedie, formerly of Husky.

"I don’t want to be one of those artists who repeats themselves…"

Stanford grew up in the boho suburbs of St Kilda and Elwood – “long before the yuppies came in and commercialised the hell out of it.” In Grade 3, he discovered music. “Blood Sugar Sex Magik [the Red Hot Chili Peppers’ 1991 blockbuster] came out and that was my jam!” Stanford would subsequently get into everything from “cheesy dance music” (that was while living in Italy for three years), grunge, punk, reggae, metal and jazz. By the end of high school, he was raving. “There was a point in time when I was nineteen [where] I was in a funk band, a hip hop band, a reggae band, a jazz band and a metal band – I was doing acoustic sets in pubs, and I was MCing with DJs over house and breaks. I basically cut my teeth in as many genres as possible.” 

Stanford releases his own music, including 2013’s crowd-funded album, Theory Of Harmony, through the indie Convoy Unltd and has an extensive merchandise line – his whole operation is run by school pal and manager Cade. “I’ve never been opposed to working with labels, but they never approached us, so we decided to make it happen ourselves.”

Stanford lives in a tree house in Victoria’s Dandenong Ranges. “I love being out in the forest. The air is amazing and I have a natural spring at the bottom of my road, which is ridiculously awesome!” Nonetheless, Stanford tours widely for most of the year, England his old base. (“To be honest, my heart is in the UK.”) And Stanford is recording another album. “I’m kind of struggling with what to do next,” he admits. “I don’t want to be one of those artists who repeats themselves… Let’s see what happens.”