Live Music and Studio Recording with Jayden Bowley (AU-NZ Music Podcast)
Welcome to the AU-NZ Music Podcast, where Reuben (GYMjot) dives into the Australian and New Zealand music scene with industry guests, sharing insights on music news, standout tracks, and artist development.
Episode 8 features Jayden, who has played guitar on many different scenes. He currently plays lead for Mim Jensen, and also manages the music tuition system, Monster Music.
- 📰 News Fix: Venues: Seven New Music Spaces, Geelong Stadium, Closures & Techno World Record
- 🎶 Song Spotlight: Sidekick - Mim Jensen
- 🦾 Artist Development: Studio Recording Experience
This podcast is presented by GYMjot: Get Your Musical Journey On Track, an artist development service based in Melbourne. If you are ready to unlock your inner artist, then get in touch today to get a
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Below is an auto-generated transcript of the episode, which you can stream on YouTube or a podcast streaming service
Hello people. Episode 8 of the AU NZ music podcast. Welcome back. [Music] Today we're hanging out with Christ Church's very own guitar wizard. That's Jaden Bowley. How are we doing, brother? >> Good, bro. Don't know about guitar wizard, but a devil. >> I I know about it. I know about it. Let's hear a little bit more about Jaden. Over the years, he's lit up stages with a whole bunch of acts. most recently Mim Jensen, Amber Cari Williams, The Hoots, and Pretty Sto. On
top of that, he manages Monster Music, a hugely popular music education system. He's even cruised the Seven Cs, playing seven days a week to audiences on board a cruise ship. And back in the day, Jaden and I, yeah, we ran a little cheeky guitar sample business called Licked. That was good times. We've got some cool little ideas in the bank store. Yeah, he's a longtime friend. Uh, an all round top bloke and I'm stoked to have him here. Jaden, welcome. How is the house? We're good.
>> We're good, mate. Thanks for the the glowing intro there. Very kind of you. >> Oh, yeah. We got to We got to butter you up, don't we, brother? Hey. Hey. All right, let's uh let's hear it. You know how it goes. cuz we get that silly fun fact from a guest every episode. So, hit us something unrelated to music. What do you got? Oh, unrelated to music. Um, well, this is kind of a a wacky a weird one maybe. Uh, so I'm a I'm a fan of eggs. I eat eggs every day. Um, that's
not the fact, by the way. Um, well, it is a fact, but it's not the silly one. Um, yeah. So, when you eat a food every day, you kind of like start getting a bit creative on it and throwing all sorts of bits and pieces. Um, you know, spices and different approaches and stuff to, you know, just to spice it up a bit. You know, sometimes it's like onion and garlic powder and some chili oil or something like that. Um, recently I got into the raw honey game. So, I've been throwing some raw honey on it. And
that's been a good staple for past couple of months. But as of a couple of weeks ago, I dabbled in the honey, the scrambled eggs, and then topping it off with peanut butter. Yeah, I'm with that. I'm with that. Are you scrambling it all together? >> Oh, no. I'm not. So, what I'm doing is uh I've I've just doing just doing the eggs, doing a couple of bits of toast, slapping the honey on the toast, um eggs on top, and then just like slapping the peanut butter on the very top,
right? Like a dollop of peanut butter or you squeezing peanut butter? >> Squeezing it. I got the squeezy stuff. >> All right. >> Yeah. >> That makes more sense. Yeah. >> Yeah. >> No, that takes me back. That does take me back. I used to do something even even more outrageous in my university days. What, 10 years ago? We're talking budget white bread. Toast that bad boy. Scramble those eggs up. Put the peanut butter. Spread it on. This was before you could get squeezy peanut butter, I
guess, or before it was popularized. So, I'm spreading that peanut butter on the toast. Scrambled eggs on top. This is my last snack of the day, just maxing protein. But then I needed that sugar hit. I didn't go for honey. I went for barbecue sauce hit me. Oh, bro, that's hectic. I don't know if I'm quite ready for that yet. I'm glad you're an you're you're on my side with the with the peanut butter and the eggs because um people have definitely screwed their
face up at it. So, I haven't done it for a long time, but I know that it works. I mean, peanut butter, there's not many things it doesn't work with. I'm pretty happy to to give it a go. I've got enough data in the system now where uh peanut butter has reliably worked with everything. I'm talking like I'll put peanut butter just on carrots, eating carrots, eating bananas. Delicious. I mean, that's that's a bit of a bit more common combo. >> Mhm. >> Um,
>> how about PB is the goods. >> Dipping a wee bit of dark chocolate in there. >> Oh, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. We could get around that. Yep. >> Yeah, that's a goodie. Yeah, bro. I'll even just have a spoon now and then. >> Yeah, I'm about that, too. All right, enough about peanut butter. I'll be here forever. Music. We're in the news from Christy Eliza perhaps. Not sure how to say her last name. She's with music.com.au and wrote this piece on the 7th of
August. It's entitled Venues, seven new music spaces, Jalong Stadium closures and techno world record. The appetite for live music entertainment continues with new music venues opening and more moves happening across the country. First, Jalong moves are a foot for GMHBA Stadium, home of the Jalong Cats, to host more major concerts and compete with Melbourne's Marvel and Rod Labor arenas. Operations are looking to increase capacity from 40,000 to 48,000 hoping to attract the bigger superstars.
Then we have seven new spaces that have opened their doors. Sydney Hills District has just opened Bella Live with a capacity of 1500. It will also serve as a place for comedy, business meetings, conferences, launches, product displays, and sports events. Darwin's picturesque Fort Hill Parklands is officially christened as a festival location with Guy Sebastian and Lib playing there as part of the Darwin festival. A 300 seat venue at the Italian forum in Sydney's Inner West called Diatro will
showcase productions that played on Broadway and London's West End supporting a new generation of musical theater stars. the New Orleans inspired basement bolt hole alligator bar that showcases music 7 days a week and stays open until 3:00 a.m. for you Brisbane heads. New South Wales Hunter Valley has a new honky tonk country music venue called Full Throttle Ranch. And finally, Waywood's Ballroom relaunched late last month at the Bank Hotel in Newton with a brand new entertainment spread covering
live music, cabaret, comedy, and community events. So, that's our live music venues. And I'll quickly give you a little bit of a ding-ding for a new record. Yes, Tik Tok headlines once again, boasting mass numbers with # tomorrowland. While Belgian's Tomorrowland just confirmed it will bring its core stage to Australia next year. Very exciting for us. Tik Tok drew 74 million viewers to its live stream. According to Tik Tok, this marks a 363% increase from the 16 million who dialed in in 2023.
So live music it's making itself known not just here but globally. What do you make of this Jaden? The new venues some venues closes closing. Any insights to the live music scene where you are in Christ Church or uh any other thoughts about live music hit me. >> Cool, bro. That's epic. Um new venues. Uh I saw recently was there uh I could be totally wrong but was there some some venues closing down in Melbourne? >> Definitely some tinkering with the idea. Yeah, some definitely a lot of
struggling venues here in Melbourne. >> I'm sure there's some closing down. I know there's less live music venues back when we lived here together from 2018 to 2020. Um, it was once upon a time the live music capital of the world with the lo most live music venues uh per capita. Um, but yeah, I know that the scene is struggling, but it's nice to hear that there's places opening too and um keeping keeping our artists engaged, fans satisfied. >> Yeah. like uh speaking from from here,
Christ Church where I am. Uh from my perspective, I reckon the the scene is humming. Like I I reckon it's great. Um we don't have a a large um portfolio of venues to play at. Um strictly speaking about original music. Um if you're doing covers, like yeah, that that's a whole another kilish. There's plenty of plenty of cover spots around the city, but um here in Christ Church, we've kind of got Space Academy, dark room, loons. Um and I could be I could be wrong, but I did
hear something about Flux was closing down. I think they might have even had their like farewell uh last night. Um I'm not a flux goer. Um it's just not really my scene. Uh but my my brother's my brother's a avid flux attender so um he's probably pretty gutted. I have played there. I've played there with Mim. Um a cool spot. Cool spot. But yeah, I I I think I saw something about that closing down. Um I'm I'm not heaps on the socials, so uh I'm a bit out of the loop.
>> Yeah. So from for here in Christ Church like >> um yeah sure maybe we don't have that many venues like uh putting on original music but the ones that are they seem to be like consistently doing gigs um like Space Academy Dark Room they always got music on um which you know that's a good thing in itself. It's like, you know, if we had seven new venues just pop up um just around Christ Church, just around the city, it's like that would be great, but that'd probably
all I don't know if they'd survive, you know? Like >> not sure. >> Yeah. Like you don't think they'd fill it up enough if there enough people to even see the original music? >> I think it would just spread it out too much, you know? Like >> I don't think that the extra venues I mean extra venues would be cool to spread it out but like I I play with Mim and I I don't think if if we had seven extra venues. I know the the article is not about seven seven venues opening in one
spot but um just just spitballing here. I know that Mim wouldn't be hitting each one of these seven venues in a month. You know what I mean? Like >> it just >> Yeah. Yeah. Well, it's got to be It's different. It's different audiences that you want if you're playing different venues. >> And Christ Church still isn't the biggest city really. Like if you're playing a show in Rollerston, not to say that there's a venue there down south of Christ Church compared to uh Littleton,
I mean the fan bases that you're trying to pull to those concerts, it's the same it's the same fan base. >> That's exactly right. Yeah. >> Um what do you think about the the online live stream concerts? Have you ever done this? >> Oh, um, no. I don't even know that was still a thing. >> I kind of thought that was just >> Me and then I seen this thing about Tik Tok. >> Yeah. >> Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Me, too. But I guess it's still happening.
Don't know if it ever caught on heaps in New Zealand or Australia, but uh yeah, 74 million viewers into Tomorrowland. >> That's wild. >> Yeah. >> Out the gate. >> The big one that comes to my mind, and it's not even a live streamed concert. It was when I remember when Marshmallow played uh on Fortnite, and that was a massive online concert. >> True. Yeah. Right. >> Yeah. I can't remember when that was, but it was would have been this decade, like last five years sort of thing.
>> Yeah. >> Probably during co >> Yeah, that that's where my brain goes as well. Um because when you talk about like online live stream concerts, um the one the only one that's sitting in the front of my mind, I know I've watched plenty more, but the only one that I can think of is the the war on drugs. I think they did a a Tiny Desk, Tiny Desk from Home Edition. >> Um that's one that jumped out to me. That was great. >> Yeah, true. >> There was a bunch of Tiny Discs from
home. home concerts. >> Um, but it also like projecting into the future makes me think about how all of this metaverse uh AI goggles and stuff are going to contribute to that space. How how well is that going to translate? And how many well it's more like how many years before a live concert through uh an immersive technological experience is is engaging enough to replace a live concert? Is it just a matter of time or will there always be just that human draw card to be in the physical space?
Which I like to think that the latter is is true, but then I don't know. They just can't predict these things, these advancements. It's crazy. >> Yeah. Well, I I don't know, man. I I like to think the same as you, like in the latter there. Um cuz I mean, >> but we could be old. >> Yeah, but bro, like you can watch an Ed Sheeran concert on YouTube right now or an Oasis concert or something. People are still going. They're the those artists are still selling out stadiums,
right? Um, >> true. >> So, it's still there. It's still there. You know, >> there's something that people like about experiencing something as it's happening. It's the same with sport. Like, people want to go to the or even watch the game. They want to watch it live from home. >> They're less enticed to watch the replay, I think, unless they're dieh hard fans. And it's much the same with concert. Um, I don't I I don't know many people that
watch replays of concerts. Um, but what about when that is an immersive live experience that's that's truly like synthetically similar to the physical space? >> Yeah. Well, I I guess that's like I mean I I saw I went to a Coldplay concert in Tokyo a couple of years ago and that was insane. Like >> that's a whole show. That's a whole show, you know? Like >> Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. A full display, right? >> Yeah. >> Not just the music. >> That's right. That's right.
>> Anyh who, that will bring us to the end of part one. So, we're bringing in the song of the month is from Mim Jensen herself, who you play with as the guitarist. This song is called Sidekick. So, we're going to let you listen to a snippet of that. It's coming out mid September. >> That's right. You got it. >> So, it should be out by the time this this podcast airs. We're recording here at the end of August. We'll be back soon with part two and a little bit of a chat
about that song. Cha cha. I want to get clean. I don't want to sink. I want to be all inside your face. Feel like I love me. [Music] You say the show's on me. I don't like the sound of that song. [Music] >> Sidekick from Min Jensen. Brand spanking new. Now, this is the first time we've had a song of the month with a guest who's actually participated in the song. Um, most standout thing for me in that track that really uh caught my ear or ears I should say is the stereo placement of
the guitars. They completely left and right. Is that Mim playing one guitar and you're playing lead guitar? >> That's right. Yeah. >> Yeah. Yeah. So, is 100 is it 100% each side? It almost sounded like it was 100%. >> Yeah. Yeah, I think so. Love the solo, dude. Loved the little lead parts in verse two. The call in response. It's nice to hear, always nice to hear Mim get to that climax with her upper range, really sending it with some bigger notes at the end. I mean, she's a
just amazing voice. Love it. Songwriter. It's cool. It's a hook. It's stuck. She does it again. Mim, why you do this to us? Yo, tell us a little bit about the process with that song. Cool. Um, well, first first thing that I'll just jump in and say, um, so we're recording this at the end of August. Um, and the song's coming out midepptember. And obviously for the listening purpose, we uh we're listening to a mix right now, not the not the mastered finished copy. Um, the the listeners are going to
hear the the master, but Ruben and I are listening to the the mix. and what he was talking about with the with the pand uh I don't know if that actually made the the final master cut. So it might it might sound a little bit different and >> um that >> thanks for >> might not even be in there. >> Sorry, bro. It just it popped into my head after you said it. I was like, "Oh, that's right. I don't think that >> it could be." Let's find out. I wouldn't
imagine I wouldn't imagine the master changes that the master normally just sprinkles it across uh different mediums and increases volume without clipping and um emphasizes certain frequencies from what I know of mastering and I'm no sound engineer by any means. >> That's Yeah, that's absolutely right. But what I mean is I sent you mix number one. Ah, and it's it had we've had tweaks before it went over >> tell me about that process. What how many mixes did you go through to get it
ready for master? >> Good question. Um, I believe there were two. So, um, yeah, I'm just trying to rack my brain, um, whether we took out the the panning or not. >> Um, because [Laughter] >> um, >> leave the pans behind. Let's move forward. >> Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Um, anyway, we'll talk about the what was the initial question? talking about the recording process. >> Yeah. >> Yeah. So, we Yeah, we did the recording at Round Head Studios, which is in
Oakuckland. Um, we had Mr. D. Stevens, he um engineered and produced it. Uh, he's great, lovely guy, awesome human being to work with. Um, just yeah, it went really smoothly. It was probably the the best recording experience I've had. Everything was just smooth and chill. There was like no no big big amounts of pressure, which was great. We did everything live. Um, so nothing's really We did a couple of overdubs, but everything that you just kind of listened to was um was live. Obviously
the vocals were overdubbed um and you know some percussion and stuff but all the the core band stuff was all live. Um and yeah, I got stupidly sick um the day that we went up to the studio or no, the weekend before we went up and then so first day in the studio I was like slapping the codrrals like just trying to like get through and um that was the first song we recorded and you brought up the solo um Yeah. And Mim kind of wanted me to go for like a um a Big Thief um kind of like vibe. Um specifically like more
kind of like there's a song called Paul. Um and the solo is kind of like that. um a bit out there and minimal. And yeah, that kind of like solo just kind of fell out of me in the first take. And then we did a couple of more takes. We probably did around maybe 8 to 10 takes per song, maybe, maybe 12, not sure. Um you're recording the whole song as one collective. Yeah. Um, yeah. And that was the first solo that made the that made the cut. So, >> yeah, my >> uh my fever induced brain worked in my
favor >> cuz I was just >> worrying more about wiping my nose than I was what notes I was playing. It It was quite a feverish solo now that you mention it. >> Cool. Um, can you speak please tell me if this is outside of your realm of knowledge, but do you know when the song was written? Um, no. I don't know when it was, >> but um, working with Mim man, she just pumps out the songs. Like, I wouldn't be surprised if she happened to write that a couple of months before we went and
recorded it. >> Yeah. Right. Prolific. She's just she's just constantly kind of writing and pumping out the music. So, um I wouldn't be surprised if it was this year, but um I could be very far from that, Mark. >> And do you have a favorite moment in that song? Um, yeah. I really love uh like I mean the chorus just feels great. The chorus feels great. Um, but speaking of Yeah, talking mostly about like what what I contribute to the song. Um, I I really love that chorus line um that I'm
playing. Um, yeah, it's just my vibe, you know, just very kind of minimal. Um, it's got a bit of a like a ' 90s vibe. Um, which I think M was kind of trying to go for. >> Yeah. >> Great. >> What about you? >> Cool. >> Yeah, it's got to be the hook, but the me the vocal melody and the chorus. Yeah, it's still sitting. It's still brewing in my head, still echoing. So, yeah, that's nice. >> Yeah, that's what you want. Um, >> didn't go so much into the song feedback
today, folks. But if you are looking for a service of that nature, you can head on over to jimjot.com.au, AU, a free service we provide to get one page worth of notes about your song. Or you can upgrade the service to get an indepth full analysis of that song. And who knows, maybe your submission will end up right here featuring as the song of the month on the AU NZ podcast, AU NZ music podcast, I should say. And feedback is one of the most important artist development tools. You can't have
enough of it in my opinion. And it's where Jim Jot actually thrives artist development at large with our tried and tested development course. You can unlock your inner artist and find your musical direction all within the context of your situation. So zoom over to our website jimjot that's gym mjot.com.au to book a free 30inut consultation right now. And we're just going to keep spinning along that arm of artist development here and maybe we can wrap this up al together. This recording uh
experience you've had with MIM and it was an EP if I'm correct. Yes, >> that's right. Yeah. Maybe we could keep it all relevant and ask for one thing that comes to mind in terms of your personal artist development that occurred during that process of recording that EP recording phase with Mim. >> Say that again. Sorry. one slither of artist development that you encountered something that um made you grow as a musician, an artist, a guitarist, uh a songwriter, a band member um that you can reflect on now
looking back at that recording process and say, "Yeah, that was extremely valuable." M um yeah, great question, bro. I reckon um just the Yeah, just give me a minute. >> Yeah, brew it. It can be something that you just learned. >> Something you just learned in the process, too. something that you you realized you hadn't given enough credit to or something that you're like, "Oh, I've got to do that next time." Like, I learned that I should definitely turn my treble up to
10 on my amp, right? Um, yeah. Cool. Okay. I've I got a couple of things actually. >> All right. >> Um, >> hit me. >> You're talking about the turning the treble up. Uh, I'm not going to say that, but I feel like just um just trusting your own gear and trusting your own sounds. Um, I feel like a lot of a lot of musicians, myself as well, like you go to a fancy studio, you pay for studio time and you're like, give me, you know, give me the these cool guitars that are
hanging on the walls and stuff like give me the top-of-the-line stuff. Um, but pretty much the whole EP is my like my guitar with my pedal board. I'm obviously using a studio amp, but it's very similar to the one I have here. Um, I did use other guitars and a few other pedals, but the guts of it was always my stuff. Um, which I think is cool. And yeah, I'm I'm >> I'm with you on that, bro. I'm with you. E, >> yeah, >> got to trust your gear. I did that once
for a live show or twice I've borrowed other people's guitars thinking, you know, how bad can it be? But it just feels it it just takes away my fluency of the language. You know, >> guitars like they all bend a little bit differently in terms of strings. Um, they all have a different feel of fretboard and spacing and like slipperiness of the neck. uh you don't quite know how to adjust tonal features that you've already got a good feel for on both your pedal board and on the guitar. Yeah. And
I had a like I borrowed a guitar for a gig once and the string got caught under a broken fret and then that I I didn't I was so lost in the gig that I didn't even notice and I was like what is happening with this string? Yeah, trust your dude. >> Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I definitely used other guitars and stuff uh during that studio session for for different bits and pieces. Um a couple of really nice SGs, which I usually play a strat. Um so an SG was like a a nice nice break, but a different sound. But um yeah, like
most of the EP is my own guitar, which is pretty epic. Um and then just the second little slither um that I think is also what probably more important is just the um the team the team mentality. Um, I think why it the whole recording session just went so smoothly and uh we all had such a good time is like our band is like a we're like a team, you know. um which I've felt elements of before in other bands doing recording sessions, but this one was like I don't know, it was like different
and it felt like uh we were all on the same team inclusive of the the producer D like um Mim's management were hanging out as well and we just it felt really like community vibes, you know, like Yeah. Yeah. >> Yeah. I'm happy you alluded to actually the the full spectrum of the team as well, not just the band members, but how important it is to be in that same team atmosphere with the producer as well and all those other people that are passing through. They might not be there the
whole time, but you know, management coming by just bringing some fresh energy into the studio and everyone's welcoming that into the space. I mean, it could even just be enough just to break a moment to be like, "Yo, have we eaten?" Even, you know, that that's a valuable voice. That's that's an important voice in the team cuz if we don't eat, we ain't recording uh for very long. If we ain't sleeping right, if we're getting too silly, you know, and there's different there's no right
way to record. I'm not saying that it has to be all optimized health scheduling to do the recording, but you know, all these different voices, they are what makes up your team. It doesn't mean it's just the band. >> Totally. Totally. >> Yeah, that's cool. So, uh, have some faith in your own gear despite the caliber of gear on offer. And don't forget the value of a team when it comes to the recording process at least. I like it. I'm with it. Nice. Um, that brings us to the end of part two as
well. So, thanks for tuning in, folks. We're going to let Sidekick play out um while we do these closing little parts. Jaden, anywhere you'd like to direct people? >> Uh, direct people. Can you elaborate? >> Any socials, any artist pages they should be following? >> Oh, right. Yeah, sorry. Um, yeah, check out Mim Jensen. Um, yeah, Mim. I do a bit of work with uh Amber Karly Williams as well. She's great. Another local Christurch gal. Um yeah, >> if your kids are looking for some music,
get into that monster music platform. >> Oh >> yeah, get the shout out. >> Oh, good. >> Yeah, monsters. Great. All right, thanks for joining me, Jaden. And um I look forward to seeing your face in the flesh, not through the live goggles. Take care, team. Ciao. Peace.