Cutting your teeth in dark, smelly, clubs is a surefire way to build character as a performer. There’s a certain mythos around this stage of a musician’s life. From hecklers and drunks, dodgy bookings and being your own roadies, it can be a hard life.
This is a world that Jeremy Davidson is all too familiar with.
We caught up former Snowdroppers frontman Jeremy Davidson to chat myths, dive bars, struggles, and success.
The Snowdroppers’ first show was in 2007, playing the music for a burlesque show titled Good Drugs and Bad Woman. This would set the tone for their blues rock stylings and for Davidson’s rebellious edge.
Davidson’s love of performing and being on stage bleeds into everything he does. When performing with The Snowdroppers, Davidson would put on his stage persona like a favourite jacket. The larger than life Johnny Wishbone would amp up the charisma and take his performances to the next level.
But stories and facades were a part of Davidson’s life long before he walked into the spotlight.
“One of the first books I was ever read as a child, I think it was called The Song of Hiawatha. He got so upset at his mother in law that he threw her into the sky, and he threw her so hard that she landed on the moon. She landed so hard… you know the dots on the moon? That’s where she landed.”
With the success of The Snowdroppers, Davidson also knows what it’s like to step away from the dive bars and take on the world stage. After some international travels including a tour of the USA playing SXSW in Austin, a few movie soundtrack features and an ARIA number one single, Davidson has plenty reason to trust the road less travelled.
“Rebelliousness for me, just in terms of songwriting, is simply having the guts to; A, put it out there and B, just be completely happy within yourself, that that’s what you want to express at that point in time.”
What really makes a truly original and talented artist is the confidence to step away from the norm and cut your own path. By forging his own legend, Jeremy Davidson has cemented his place as one of Australia’s premier creatives, and has burned his mark upon the music industry forever.
“Never let the truth get in the way of a good story. I think myth is so bound up with mystery, you know what I mean? The intersection of truth and untruth is what myth means to me.”
You can hear more of Jeremy’s work in his new band JD and the Hunger Men.
As It’s Told: Myths & Stories from the Creative Fringes was created in partnership with The Kraken Black Spiced Rum. Watch the full series here.
