Ex-engineer turns to music full-time after social media success

A LOCAL saxophonist has several weddings booked in Europe and the United States after his wedding performance videos went viral across social media late last year. 

To date, Deus Sax’s most viral video is of a groom’s bottle smash followed by a remix of ABBA’s Gimme! Gimme! Gimme! (A Man After Midnight) on the sax which has 8.2 million views on his own TikTok page. 

Harry Godfrey is the man behind the brand whose videos have amassed more than 30 million views across his own TikTok and Instagram and those of Pubity, Cabronazi, Barstool Sports, and comedian Niall MacMillan. 

Six months ago, Godfrey was a few years into a civil engineering career working on subdivisions at Total Property Developments in Bendigo, and doing gigs, mostly DJing or weddings, at the weekends. 

After gaining more recognition through local events, word of mouth, and social media posts, Godfrey decided to take the plunge into doing what he loves full-time. 

“I started playing some random gigs and during lockdown I learnt how to DJ, so pretty much just from there, picking up some random events, playing at some clubs sometimes in town, and then people started getting on to me about weddings,” he said. 

Godfrey said following his passion and putting lots of energy into achieving his goals has very much worked in his favour so far. 

“I suppose I’ve always just been ‘if I’m there, I’m going to just do it go hard’,” he said. “If people are giving back the energy, then you kind of want to match it. 

“I never really fit quite into engineering, but coming from that business mindset, and then I was also a musician, so I was trying to use those two worlds and start my own business.” 

This financial year, Godfrey said he has 60 weddings booked, about two to four each week. He said some months are more favoured than others. As well as that, he also books in DJ sets when possible. 

“March is the busiest month in general for weddings, it’s meant to have the best weather,” he said. 

During the upcoming northern summer, Godfrey will be flying over to perform at weddings in Croatia, France, Italy, possibly Spain, and the US. 

While he said he has lots on his plate now, he wants to get onto even better and bigger things in the future. 

“I know it sounds weird to a lot of people, but I’d probably see that as a bit of a failure if I’m still just doing the same thing that I’m doing now in the long-term,” said Godfrey. 

“I’ve always got that mindset of what’s going to be next, so I suppose Europe for me is the big thing I’m trying to focus on. 

“But I suppose beyond that, when can I try to release some music, book some festivals.”