Barefoot, genre-confused and shaking a fishing tackle box – Hussy Hicks rewrites the rules of live music

WITH soulful vocalist Leesa Gentz rattling a fishing tackle box as an improvised percussion instrument and Julz Parker powering the sound with her roaring guitar riffs, Hussy Hicks has built a reputation for high-energy performances over the past two decades.

Often barefoot and joined by longtime collaborator Tracy Stephens on bass and Ali Foster on drums, with Parker’s father Greg frequently adding harmonica at local gigs, they are clearly at home on stage and give every performance their all.

“We have both been playing music since we were children so it’s a really comfortable place,” Parker said. “It’s where we express what we do and we really get to be in the moment. It’s a really happy place for us – there’s no point in holding back. I always end up dripping with sweat after a gig. Then I usually hug about 100 people.”

Their passion for music extends off stage as well, with Parker revealing that when they’re jamming with friends, Gentz will sometimes disappear into the kitchen before returning with a rice container to use as one of the makeshift instruments she has become known for.

“It’s just a different element of our sound and it’s always fun to see a crazy woman up there shaking a fishing tackle box,” Parker said.

They formed Hussy Hicks in 2006 when Gentz accompanied Parker on a US tour.

“We’d both been playing in different bands and both just got back to Australia at the same time, so we were footloose and fancy free,” Parker said. “Then I was heading to the US for a tour and I don’t really like playing on my own, so I asked Leesa if she wanted to come.”

At the time, Parker had been jokingly referring to their friends as “hussies”, and the name stuck.

The pair are also life partners, with Parker revealing they are fortunate to have found someone who shares the same passions.

“We’re lucky we really love to travel, making music and experiencing different things around the world,” she said.

Hussy Hicks have had a long connection with the Northern Rivers region. Gentz grew up in Lennox Head, while Parker moved from Sydney’s Northern Beaches to the Gold Coast hinterland with her family at age 12. The duo has maintained a studio in Lismore since 2015, relocating there from Burleigh Heads in 2020.

“It’s a super friendly area, and you always feel relaxed when you go into town,” Parker said. “We get enough of that big-city hectic energy when we’re touring.”

The band has achieved considerable success, with their 2025 album Swimming in Uncertainty reaching number one on the ARIA Jazz and Blues Chart and the AIR Independent Album Chart.

With songs exploring adversity, relationship struggles, resilience, and raw emotional snapshots, their sound blends Americana, folk, blues, country, rock and roots.

“Leesa grew up in the country scene, then she got into jazz and soul,” Parker said. “I grew up with Neil Young and things that my dad liked and then went into more hard-core guitar stuff. We try not to pigeonhole ourselves when we make an album – we just try to make the sounds that we like. I guess that’s why we’re such a genre-confused band.”

Their latest single, I’ve Got an Ache, was written at the tail end of the COVID lockdown era and explores the strong sense of helplessness and loss that comes from situations completely beyond one’s control – a theme that still resonates today.

While it had been circulating in rehearsals and songwriting sessions for several years, the track took shape late last year when the band was in Alabama, sharing whiskey and songs with friend Kristy Lee, who suggested she had an idea that could fit with it.

“It’s our first collaboration with her,” Parker said. “It’s five minutes long but it leans into that live energy that we have as a band.”

I’ve Got an Ache will be released digitally via their website and on limited edition 7″ vinyl on May 15, ahead of their gig at Blues on Broadbeach the following day.

For more information and to hear the single, visit hussyhicks.com