Greg Sheehan brings Life of My Time to Lismore stage

GREG Sheehan’s rhythmic journey began with an upturned bucket, a couple of twigs and the belief that the drummer he had just watched was a magician.

“When I was four years old, my parents took me to see a band and all I remember is the drummer and I thought that drummer was a magician,” Sheehan said.

“When I got home that night, I turned the bucket upside down and broke some twigs off a branch and just started playing.

“That same feeling is still with me all these years later, so it must have been a passion I was meant to explore all my life.”

That fascination soon became an obsession, with Sheehan constantly tapping out rhythms as a child despite frequently being told to stop.

“My first drumsticks were knives and forks and so I was being forever told to shut up and I got in trouble a lot at school, even got belted for it, for tapping, but just nothing really stopped me,” he said.

“By the time I was 11, I was in four different bands and by the time I was 17 I was a professional.”

Today, the performer, teacher and recording artist is leading a new Northern Rivers neo-jazz project, Life of My Time, which will make its second live appearance this August at Lismore City Bowling and Recreation Club.

Sheehan said the ensemble was born after he returned to the Northern Rivers following a decade away.

“I lived up this area for over 25 years and I moved away to grow kids and I was away for 10 years and I’ve just moved back, and one of the first things I did was get in touch with some of my musical mates up here and put a band together,” he said.

The band’s name traces back to a trip to Ireland.

“When I first went to Ireland, I wrote in my diary, ‘I’m having the time of my life’, then realised I was actually having the life of my time,” he said.

“So, I’ve always liked that phrase and I thought it would be a good name for the band because we’re playing my rhythm and melody ideas.”

Featuring Harry James Angus on flutes, trumpet and vocals, Steve Berry on guitar, Connor Alexander on keyboard, Linden Lester on bass, and special guests Mia Bloom on vocals and percussion and Charlotte Sagewood on bass, the group embraces improvisation as its defining feature.

“It’s almost like we’ve just got the basic blueprint for the tunes and then we flesh it out live on the gig,” Sheehan said.

“I actually quite often call out different ideas or changes as we go because we’re not a band that has made any arrangements really and we don’t have charts, we just have some ideas of what each piece is and then we just improvise on the spot.”

“Once we have the ideas for the tunes, then it is a cooperative in the sense of people putting their different ideas of how things should play out,” he said.

“So, it’s very much a group thing and it’s a learning experience for us all.”

Sheehan said former Cat Empire member Harry James Angus had become an important mentor within the ensemble.

“He brings a wealth of experience, a beautiful tone on his instruments and he’s so well versed in music that he really helps mentor the band in a way,” he said.

“We’ve got a couple of amazing young musicians in the band, and Harry is a wonderful mentor to them.”

Sheehan said the exchange of knowledge flowed both ways.

“Us older musicians get a lot from playing with younger musicians, so it’s definitely a two-way thing,” he said.

Life of My Time, presented by Lismore Jazz Club and featuring Greg Sheehan, will perform at Lismore City Bowling and Recreation Club on 2 August from 2pm.