Ethan Farmer Band CHIPS THROUGH GLASS CEILING

The Ethan Farmer Band has been invited to headline this year’s Black Mountain Unplugged (BMUP) music festival in Far North Queensland next month.

Making the trip over the Queen’s Birthday long weekend (June 8-10), the band’s 19-year-old Torquay-based frontman Ethan Farmer says his three-piece blues ensemble is gaining promising traction both locally and interstate.

“We played at Pistol Pete’s 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,” says the Torquay local.

“I 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.”

Ethan, who moved to Australia from England in 2009 when he was nine, says he began learning the electric guitar “seriously” in the summer of 2012 after watching a video of the Crossroads Guitar Festival on YouTube.

“I 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,” Ethan says.

“I 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.”

Brothers and fellow band members Kane (drums), 20, and Sam Watts (bass), 18, befriended Ethan at a blues guitar challenge in 2015 in Bendigo.

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.

“We love to borrow from what makes us feel good – those classic chord progressions, grooves like the blues shuffle, and beats from Motown, Stax and Sun Studios,” says Ethan.

“Like all contemporary artists, we use the influence from the world around us to create music that is original and relevant.”

Ethan says the band is thrilled to be journeying to the 2019 BMUP festival next month.

“It’s an amazing feeling to be invited interstate to the festival. To know that there’s love and support for us and our music is something we never take for granted.

“We’re super excited for the opportunity and looking forward to taking our music well out of our normal stomping grounds.”

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.

“Travelling to the US is going to be a really unique and awesome experience for me.

“It’s going to be a huge challenge, but I’m 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.”