Gareth Liddiard Shares Secrets Of Weirdness & Unorthodox Success During WAMCon Keynote

After a short welcome address from WAM CEO Mike Harris, The Drones frontman Gareth Liddiard, looking relaxed, gave a keynote discussion with triple j’s Gemma Pike.

The session began with tails of the early day exploits of Liddiard’s music career and insight into his views on music and popular culture. Humorous anecdotes of the Drones’ early days playing in dingy bars for no money on school nights and in North suburb.

Liddiard explained he never had any intention to become a full-time musician, until moving to Melbourne with Drones co-founder Rui Pereira. “It took a leap of faith…if it all goes to shit, you know, it’s not the end of the world,” Liddiard casually explained. 

Given the audience was occupied by mostly up and coming musicians and promoters looking for guidance, Liddiard’s honesty and humble words gave reassuring direction on what to expect being an Australian musician. "Good to have things in your songs that haven't been in songs before” and "there are no guarantees...look objectively at music history...don't follow the trends” were examples of the originality rhetoric that Liddiard professed to be the right way to get noticed and remain true to your artistic values.

“Get off the beaten track and find something that’s weird, and write about it — people will find it cool.” 

The audience were transfixed on every word, throughout the session; his charisma and pragmatic delivery made the hour-long interview an intriguing and insightful event and a great welcome start to WAMCon 2016.