The Ethan Farmer Band has been invited to headline this year\u2019s Black Mountain Unplugged (BMUP) music festival in Far North Queensland next month.<\/p>\n
Making the trip over the Queen\u2019s Birthday long weekend (June 8-10), the band\u2019s 19-year-old Torquay-based frontman Ethan Farmer says his three-piece blues ensemble is gaining promising traction both locally and interstate.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe played at Pistol Pete\u2019s in Geelong a fortnight back which was an awesome time with a great turnout. We played the Elephant and Castle in Geelong shortly before that,\u201d says the Torquay local.<\/p>\n
\u201cI played in Melbourne on Sunday May 12 at the Gasometer with a different artist to release his album, and the Sunday before I was up in Footscray playing in a little stripped-back soul duo where I play guitar alongside another singer.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ethan, who moved to Australia from England in 2009 when he was nine, says he began learning the electric guitar \u201cseriously\u201d in the summer of 2012 after watching a video of the Crossroads Guitar Festival on YouTube.<\/p>\n
\u201cI have always found that playing the guitar has been a passion and a challenge that I enjoy and that gives me a deep sense of satisfaction,\u201d Ethan says.<\/p>\n
\u201cI only began singing relatively recently. I am enjoying being able to front a band and to lead our shows in the direction I can get most enjoyment from.\u201d Brothers and fellow band members Kane (drums), 20, and Sam Watts (bass), 18, befriended Ethan at a blues guitar challenge in 2015 in Bendigo.<\/p>\n
When the siblings made the move to Melbourne a couple of years ago, the dream to start a blues and soul band was within reach.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe love to borrow from what makes us feel good \u2013 those classic chord progressions, grooves like the blues shuffle, and beats from Motown, Stax and Sun Studios,\u201d says Ethan.<\/p>\n
\u201cLike all contemporary artists, we use the influence from the world around us to create music that is original and relevant.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ethan says the band is thrilled to be journeying to the 2019 BMUP festival next month.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s an amazing feeling to be invited interstate to the festival. To know that there\u2019s love and support for us and our music is something we never take for granted.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re super excited for the opportunity and looking forward to taking our music well out of our normal stomping grounds.\u201d<\/p>\n
Upon returning home from the festival, Ethan will be flying out to Boston in the United States on a scholarship from the Berklee College of Music.<\/p>\n
\u201cTravelling to the US is going to be a really unique and awesome experience for me.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s going to be a huge challenge, but I\u2019m hoping to get a boost in knowledge and inspiration from it so that when I get back, I can take my band and its music to the next level.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Ethan Farmer Band has been invited to headline this year\u2019s Black Mountain Unplugged (BMUP) music festival in Far North Queensland next month. Making the trip over the Queen\u2019s Birthday long weekend (June 8-10), the band\u2019s 19-year-old Torquay-based frontman Ethan Farmer says his three-piece blues ensemble is gaining promising traction both locally and interstate. \u201cWe […]<\/p>\n