DARREN HANLON

Darren Hanlon grew in a place described in tourist brochures as: "the town that saved Queensland". The grandiose statement refers to the discovery of gold in Gympie in 1867. The house overlooking the river in the Southside of the remote village contained his parents his sister and their ample record collection but it seemed the two discs played continually were Kenny Rodgers "Greatest Hits" and "Slim Dustys", "This is Your Life" which they'd all listen to from their rooms at bedtime "We might even get to hear side 2 if dad stayed awake long enough to get out of bed and turn it over" he remembers. Scarily, his musical education could have started and ended there if it wasn't for a music teacher from a rival school who lived on his street. Owning a record collection that spanned 3 double arm lengths and 4 shelves high it was from this stack, miscellaneous enlightening gems would be plucked at random on the afternoons Hanlon would arrive uninvited. Whether or not the teacher put them on to actually educate this inquisitive rural nerd or simply shut him up was unimportant. He would sit there bug-eyed hearing everything from the Sex Pistols to the Smiths for the first time (and that was just the selections under "S"). The pestered neighbour eventually moved away but Hanlon found his new address by simply asking another teacher. Fleeing Queensland after high school to Music College in Lismore the eyes were opened wider. If one would visit the town now it's hard to imagine that at the time it was a hotbed for original music and creative energy. From a long list of local bands, the 7 or so venues would fill their chalk boards most nights of the week, Hanlons favourite being university art-pop combo, Playground. He slowly got to know them by loaning them his guitar leads and was soon asked to join as guitarist, was fired on grounds of being "too country" and then joined again in time to record their first EP under new name 'The Simpletons' and with them he toured Australia for the first time. Over five or so years, standing stage right of songwriting genius Shane Gelagin, he was happy to embellish tunes rather than build them. "To witness Shane working out songs was equally awe-inspiring and intimidating. He had limited musical background so therefore had no pre-conceived ideas on harmonic or melodic theory. He made his own rules. I wouldn't dare try and compete" But songs did slowly materialise over that period, mainly written for friends and parties, some of them intended to be played once at the most. By the time the Simpletons dissolved messily at the Plantation Hotel in Coffs Harbour, Hanlon had a small but growing rucksack of tunes that he started performing on low-key early weeknights in venues around Sydney. After a brief stint touring as guitarist/keyboardist for Simpletons’ label mates the Lucksmiths and the Dearhunters and a year with Weddings, Parties, Anything leader Mick Thomas, Hanlon was finally convinced by Candle records mogul Chris Crouch to commit some of his songs to tape. Getting the "Early Days" EP out of the way quickly and heading to America for a whistlestop greyhound bus tour, radio at home picked up on an unlikely banjo driven last-minute track called Falling Aeroplanes that meant he had some kind of career to return to. "I'm as surprised as anyone" he was heard muttering at the time. During the recording of "Hello Stranger" in 2002, Hanlon collaborated with drummer/instrumentalist Bree Van Reyk on a couple of tracks and a musical partnership was formed which came to full fruition when the pair travelled to Tucson, Arizona to record 2004's "Little Chills" amid fairly constant touring splattered throughout Australia and the rest of the globe it belongs to. An easily distracted pinball/crossword addict Hanlon now lives wherever and walks the streets with empty notebooks. "I find buying note books more inspiring than writing in them. They're just so perfect and pure, like a blank canvas or unflavoured tofu. I don't want to ruin it by writing in them."