Steve Towson: Easy Rider.

Steve Towson plays the Gabba Hotel on Thursday and Souths Leagues Club on Friday.

    “I recorded with a guy from Cherry Cherry & The Export Data. It was recorded basically all in one take just to capture that old blues feel you know like John Lee Hooker his early recordings or like Billie Holiday. Most the music these days is so over produced it doesn't really have much of a feel to it,” starts one-man band and solo artist Steve Towson.

    “A really good thing about being a solo performer opposed to being in a band is that when you get a drink rider it all yours. I played a gig once and they had like a carton for me, I was like 'Oh my God a carton!' I ended up just giving beers to everyone in the pub. I was already drunk before I got to the pub, so if I had of drunk the carton as well I would have been rotten and besides it's no fun to drink by yourself when everyone else is sober. That's the only time I think that you're really at an advantage being a solo performer,” Steve laughs.

    How do you feel about the comparisons you get to Billy Bragg all the time?

    “Funny. It's flattering but I'm not really a fan of his latest stuff.”

    Who would you be more likely to compare yourself to then? Or maybe better yet, who are your influences?

    “Arthur Lyton, he plays this Hawaiian sort of really early 1950's stuff. There's two of his albums that are just really chaotic, there's a four-piece they have a double bass, microphones all these instruments. Some of his albums are really bad though. There's South American music which I really like the rhythms and the sounds I also like your punk stuff; like the Dead Kennedy's, The Ramones, The Clash. Then you got the whole pop side 1960's pop then like classical music to a certain degree. It doesn't what people are influenced by as long as it's for the right reasons. Not like 'Well I really like The Ramones but I only have one album and that's the best of'. If all you can quote is Blitzkrieg Bop then you have to really question why they like The Ramones. The music I play and my album it's more of a combination of mainly blues and punk basically.”

    What's Steve Towson all about?

    “Music I reckon. I really like music. I started playing the guitar when I was in grade one, when I was five or six and I hated playing guitar for about eight years and when I got to grade nine I refused to play for about a year and lost everything I ever learnt, which after eight years was surprisingly almost nothing. Then after about a year I started listening to The Ramones and a lot of punk rock and that really influenced me to pick up the guitar again. I just wanted to play guitar all the time and just write lyrics and stuff all the time then. So really music and social issues.”

    What's an important social issue that you think people should be more aware of?

    “The concept of compassion and peace. It seems to be something that people quickly forget, like when people feel slightly threatened by other people they feel that the easiest way to protect themselves is to go beat somebody up that's weaker than them or innocent completely. Even if someone does something wrong they not necessarily doing it 'cause they want to be harmed by someone. Most of the time it's just because they don't know any better or they're just misled.”

    What are you out to achieve with music? Where do you want to go?

    “Anywhere. I wouldn't mind going overseas, which I'm looking at doing at the moment. To a large degree I'd like to be able to play music and live off it, not to necessarily make millions of dollars from it just enough to eat, sleep, travel and play music really. Just basically I'm very interested in seeing where I can go, I want to go as far as it will possibly let me and at the same time try to challenge people's perceptions of things like... just the world around them in general.”