Musicadium Blog

Whyte Zebra’s distinct calling card is a vividly unique sound created in the genre of alternative folk rock. Based in the Central Queensland region of Australia, this five-piece band consists of lead vocalist and lead guitarist Andy Stanhope, drummer Louis Parish, bassist Steve Quinn, violinist Rebecca Romeo and vocalists Jackie Perryer.

Sarah from Musicadium had a chat with Andy and talked about the Central Queensland region and what it’s like for regional artists.

1.    Whyte Zebra have been around for a few years now, and always seem to having something on the go, what’s the secret to your longevity?

Over the last couple of years we’ve released an album and a 4 track single/DVD and both of these releases have been funded by the RADF (Regional Arts Development Fund). Each project as somehow involved other community members or local businesses. I think doing things in conjunction with the local artists and community has helped develop a name and drive more business for Whyte Zebra. We’re all very passionate about music and strive to create even bigger ventures for our regions artists.

2.    You have supported many large Australian act such as, The Living End, Spiderbait, The Butterfly Effect and The Herd. Has there been a stand out favorite, or any interesting stories to tell?

We were lucky enough to perform at the Coconet Classic at Boyne Island last year and it was an awesome feeling to play on the same stage as some of Australia’s best. It would be the biggest festival we’ve played at to date. I think a stand out favourite would be the Yeppoon Village Festival. They get some great artist to perform and it’s a really ‘chilled out’ gig. We all have different stand out favourites however collectively none of us could forget playing after The Fumes and Mammal’s stand out performance at the Classic.

3.    The band is mainly based in Gladstone, did you find this helped or hindered you when you were first starting out? And do you think these regional areas have had any influence on your music?

Starting out it was probably easier to get the standard 4 hour pub/party gigs as there wasn’t too many cover bands in the Gladstone area, but for original music there are limited venues compared to that of the big cities. In the last 24mths our region has seen an explosion of really amazing original artist, many of which have developed further opportunities to play original music, like The Coconet Classic.  In this day and age with social networking sites you could be a “fan” of an artist who plays a world away so the exposure is not limited to just Gladstone. That’s what makes touring all that more exciting.  I think the region has had a large influence on our music evident in our film clip to ‘Double or Nothing’. Without the support from the local community and artists we certainly wouldn’t be having this much fun.

4.    You have mentioned that you are really keen to host a number of workshops throughout Australia in the coming year, what will these involve?

This year we’ve had the pleasure to work with some really cool young and old muso’s at local events, festivals and even remote gigs. We’re looking forward to the festivals later in the year to run some more workshops.  We run a few different workshops including song writing, alternate guitar tuning and a musician establishment workshop to help people get a kick start in their career by providing them the info they need to get an ABN, set up a website and book gigs etc…

5.    To all new listeners out there, where would you say the perfect environment to listen to your music is?

Probably on the back veranda with a quite ale or two on a Sunday afternoon. “Music for fly-swatting back-porch days” as described by Anna Angel, RAVE Magazine March 2010.

Check out WHyte Zebra’s music on or at their MySpace!

This entry was posted on Wednesday, June 16th, 2010 at 6:06 pm and is filed under Featured Artist. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.