Neil Boland: a Musician Working in Melbourne
I’m a Melbourne-based guitarist and vocalist who has played and does play across several genres.
Please enjoy the following bio, which somehow turned into a mini musical memoir below.
State of Origin: Neil Boland
I was born and raised in Wollongong NSW, a steel city that was a regional Australian epicentre for grunge and punk in the 90s as well as a place to either dropout and surf or learn to become a fitter and turner.
Being uninterested in both of those things, I picked up a guitar in my early teens and started a decades-long love affair with the instrument, learning everything I could by 80s metal artists such as Metallica, Megadeth, and then onto rock-to-fusion-to-blues bridging artists such as Nuno Bettencourt, Gary Moore, Stevie Ray Vaughan, Steve Morse, Albert Lee, Eric Johnson and Frank Gambale.
I have also had a big passion for 70s and 80s pop rock such as Steely Dan, Huey Lewis and the News, and a not-so-closeted love for late 80s pop metal acts such as Winger (Reb Beach, I mean come on), Lynch Mob and Mr Big.
I think this was a subconscious influence via osmosis, having AM Top 40 radio playing in my parents’ car constantly. I was predisposed to prefer more polished, arranged and produced music, heavier on the soul, lighter on the angst.
Needless to say, I didn’t have many musician friends to play with through the 90s while everyone was stripping things back to a few power chords, a fuzz pedal and the truth.
However, one highlight of the time was getting to the state finals of a band competition in 1994, being run runner-up to a little band from sister steel city Newcastle who became Silverchair (the Innocent Criminals at the time).
That was with a thrash metal band called Atomic Butterfly – perhaps the prevalence of ‘samey’ young thrash metal bands like us at the time (Metallica’s Black Album infiltrated every young muso’s garage rehearsal from 1991 to 1993) and the band name played a part in our journey’s end not long after.
Musical Turning Points
After high school, I sought further musical education at Goulburn TAFE (NSW), after becoming ‘harmony-curious’, having sat in with the BHP big band (and failing spectacularly) and hearing Miles Davis’s ‘Kind of Blue’ for the first time, as well as the music of Australian acid jazz outfit DiG (‘Directions in Groove’).
At Goulburn, I discovered the two guitar players that would become my benchmark for excellence in technical execution and emotional delivery – Larry Carlton and Robben Ford, with the Last Nite and Talk To Your Daughter albums becoming respective desert island discs for me. I also put a blues band together (‘Blusion’, can you believe it?) and played regularly at the local Tattersalls Hotel, as well as the Australian Blues Music festival (Goulburn).
Now that the fire was lit—and I met the love of my life, my partner Veronica Lamb—I continued the journey at Southern Cross University (NSW) in 2000, under the strict tutelage of Australian session guitar and jazz fusion legend Jim Kelly.
There, my musical world opened up for what I listened to and for how I understood it. I dived deep into the works of John Scofield, Dexter Gordon, Mike Stern, Charlie Parker, Jim Hall, Wes Montgomery and others, as well as even deeper into Robben Ford, Larry Carlton and Scott Henderson.
At the time, I played regular gigs at Lismore’s Wednesday night jazz club Maggie Moore’s with my fusion band ‘Five Part Solution’, jazz duo gigs with vocalist Janelle Rowarth, country music gigs with Queensland singer Michael King and covers gigs with Byron Bay-based band Very (‘Very bloody ordinary’, was the common heckler catch cry; it was a bit of fun, and a funny first taste of the road).
I also supplemented my income by teaching at a music store in town and via the ITAS (Indigenous Tutorial Assistance Scheme) initiative on campus.
Music in Melbourne
Veronica and I moved to Melbourne in mid-2003 to pursue music and fashion.
For the first 5 or 6 years, I was working various casual day jobs, teaching guitar and gigging, and playing for anyone, from blues projects like Andrea Marr to a Hammond combo with organist/bassist Kim Kelaart, playing repertoire from the likes of John Scofield, McCoy Tyner and Joe Henderson.
I also had a new fusion band, Skink, playing originals as well as repertoire by Mike Stern, Larry Carlton, The Yellowjackets, Crusaders, and material previously played in Five Part Solution.
And around this time, I played modern R&B gigs (covering Stevie Wonder, Mary J Blige, Jill Scott etc) with Kim and vocalist May Johnston.
I also returned to Goulburn to play for Tasmanian blues vocalist Kate Meehan.
The Music Break
Struggling to pay bills in the big smoke, and deciding early on that weddings and corporate functions weren’t for me, I put music on the backburner for a few years while I worked on getting out of retail work and into more stable and financially viable employment.
I started as a marketing coordinator at Melbourne-based musical instrument retailer Allans Billy Hyde (after 4 years in the shop, barely resisting buying everything straight off the delivery truck). And during this time, I returned to academia, studying writing at Box Hill TAFE – this planted the seed for a career in digital, copywriting and now SEO (Search Engine Optimisation).
I didn’t do many gigs during this time; I was happy to be a punter for a while.
The Rebirth - Street Funk to Glastonbury
Whilst at Allans Billy Hyde, I was asked to join street funk outfit Deep Street Soul, by organist and music store colleague Monique Boggia.
This began a stint of several gigs around Melbourne, playing on the ‘PBS funk’ circuit, and a tour to New Caledonia.
Around this time, via the Deep Street Soul community, I was asked to play for the concept show by Chelsea Wilson, Women of Soul, backing several Melbourne soul and R&B vocalists, as well as for Chelsea herself, gigging to support her recently released debut pop soul album.
In 2015, I toured with Chelsea to the UK and France, starting with two sets at the Glastonbury Festival, then onto gigs at London’s Jazz Café and Paris’s Bizz'Art club.
I was also asked to play for other Melbourne R&B and soul acts such as Lisa Faithfull, with regular gigs at the Royal Hotel in Mornington, and modern R&B outfit Fade to Black, with a residency at Acqua e Vino Yarraville.
During this period I also joined blues band Cold Snap for a short time — several pub and festival gigs around Victoria, and then it was on to being a bandleader and co-bandleader
Pickpocket to Hawker Heights (and Whatever Else I Had Trouble saying No To)
Overlapping with Deep Street Soul and Chelsea Wilson, I met Scottish bassist Craig Strain, and joined his newly-forming instrumental jazz funk outfit Pickpocket, with Craig writing the majority of the music, taking influences from the likes of Joshua Redman, Snarky Puppy, 70s Herbie Hancock, Prince and Hiatus Kaiyote.
Pickpocket recorded two full length albums and three EPs before going on hiatus in 2022. During Pickpocket’s 10-year tenure, we made Melbourne jazz club the Paris Cat our regular home, and played various venues and festivals around Melbourne.
And whilst in Pickpocket, I wrote an album’s worth of original blues material in the vein of Robben Ford, Keb Mo and Little Feat, and in 2017 recorded an album under the stage name ‘Neil Hawker’ — South by East.
After gigging under the stage name for a while, and then feeling uncomfortable with it, I changed it to the moniker Hawker Heights, which has been gigging in various configurations, from a full band to Hammond combo and more.
The project was on hold during and a couple of years after the covid-19 pandemic—as well as being put on ice whilst gigging for singer-songwriter Zevon Lee and Def Leppard tribute show Rock of Ages—it was relaunched as a vintage R&B act in 2024.
More about Hawker Heights here.
The ‘Working Musician’ - Continued
All along the way, I have maintained mostly full time day job employment, having worked at several places, including Officeworks as an SEO Lead, and taking further studies in HTML/coding.
From 2023 to the present, I have balanced all this out (somehow, God, I’m tired) with playing in the house band for the Stingo Blues jam session and feature acts at the Yorkshire Stingo Hotel in Abbotsford. I joined renowned saxophonist Kellie Santin’s band, returning to Paris Cat and Wangaratta Jazz Festival playing 70s and 80s funk fusion and associated TV music.
And during this time, I’ve sought more opportunities to sing more, and again, relaunch Hawker Heights.
Also, in the middle of all that, I have played the Corner Hotel with Stop Making Sense, the Australian Talking Heads show, and filled in for Big and Horny, the long-time-running adult contemporary soul-rock revue with legendary bassist Roger McLaughlin.
How/When I Teach Guitar These Days
As far as teaching goes, I’ve done very little since moving to Melbourne, with the exception of those who approach me at gigs, curious about ‘the jazz chords’.
For them, I do a short stint of lessons in harmony on the guitar, leaning heavily on Jim Kelly’s teachings in dominant chord theory.
And I have offered snippets of this info for free via my Instagram and YouTube channel ‘Blues Guitar Snacks’.
Folks can also contact me directly to sharpen up their guitar chops with jazz harmony, phrasing and more in a 1-to1 lesson plan.
2024-25+ Musical Things
God, who knows? Hawker Heights is back up and looking for more gigs, and well, that might be enough for a while.
Having said that, I am still responding yes to one or two things that tickle my ears. Watch my personal socials and band socials.
