During last week’s NSW State Government music inquiry, various iconic Aussie musicians banded together to discuss the jeopardised state of the current Australian music scene.
Drummer of The Rubens, Scott Baldwin, knocked the NSW government for its complete disregard for the arts in Australia as the largest contributing factor for artists failing to succeed internationally.
Last week’s music inquiry saw KLP and members of The Rubens criticise the Australian government for its overall lack of support of the live music industry.
In a fiery testimony, KLP blamed the excessively strict rules and regulations set in place by the government for the decreasing number of Australian musicians seeing success in the industry.
“The next generation is deprived of motivation, inspiration and the culture around to pursue a career in the music industry.”
“Many successful musicians move overseas as well because there’s not much left here to nourish a creative career. It’s not only hard to make enough income, but there’s just a lack of that inspiration and support systems in place to really progress and make a mark on an international level.”
Baldwin also slammed the music inquiry for the lack of opportunity and success in the industry, which is inherently deterring young creatives from pursuing careers in the field.
“I used to teach drums as well. I used to use a little bit of an excerpt to inspire [students] and to dream big and stuff. And hearing back my students say, ‘There’s no point’, they’d rather go into other fields and they’re giving up their dreams to play music and their parents also say it’s a dying industry. It’s quite upsetting to me.”
Baldwin reflected on Australia’s fast-growing reputation for the decreased support for the industry as the reason international artists aren’t coming to the country to tour.
“When we started out touring, we were in a fortunate spot where these venues were open to us and we luckily got some support from triple j and we started having people show up to our shows. We went on to grow and go overseas… we could be in small international cities and they are just buzzing.”
“I’ve been on the road since 2011 and when you come back to Sydney you can see the dynamic, how much it’s changed. A lot of people talk about it overseas. It’s a big thing. A lot of creatives don’t want to come here.”
Via The Music.
