Have You Heard: Dave Arden

When did you start making music and why? I got into trouble when I was younger and got locked up in Torana; it's a young boys' prison in Parkville, Melbourne. I ended up having a lot of time on my hands and there was a music teacher at Torana. I started learning how play music and my first song was Bobby McGee for my mother. So when I got out of Parkville I would sing her favorite song and it was Bobby McGee because it reminded her of her brother and so I started to play and sing that classic song to her back in the late '70s. 

Sum up your musical sound in four words? Indigenous soul, spirit and family.

If you could only listen to one album forevermore, what would it be and why? No Fixed Address - From My Eyes. It was the album that I started to learn more about my Aboriginal heritage and identity when I was living in the Collingwood commission flats in the early '80s.

Greatest rock'n'roll moment of your career to date? Travelling to Alice Springs in '86 for a Bush concert watching Bart Willoughby, Warumpi Band, Shane Howard and Coloured Stone, then having the chance to play drums on a few songs with them. That was a deadly moment in my life.

Why should people come and see your band? To hear a Gunditjmara Kokatha songman and storyteller of four generations and our deadly band and music.

Next gig: Sunday 7 February in Multicultural Arts Victoria's Fairfield Summer Series at Fairfield Amphitheatre. 

Website: multiculturalarts.com.au / davearden.com