Stellas Kitchen

I play bass with my brothers Daniel, Carlo and Jon in Stellas Kitchen. We got together in 2007 at Daniel's to jam some of his many original songs.  We'd all been involved in music and playing our instruments over the years but never played together as a rock band.  The catalyst for this was really the emergence of Jon on electric guitar. And can he play! I think when the Hondo II was still alive, Jon came to me and asked me to show him how to play the bass guitar, to teach him (HAH!).  So I showed him some basic finger positions and finger plucking technique along with the little bass bit at the start of "Another One Bites the Dust". And that was it. He then went away and studied the instrument and practiced. 
With the Hondo II  dead .. no actually it just had three strings on it but no output!!! -  I bought him  a basic Yamaha RBX170.  Although Jon is a 20 times better bass player than I'll ever be, (thankfully) he is even better a guitarist!  He picked up the electric guitar and studied and practiced even harder than he did on bass.  He is a true student of music and the guitar.  So now Jon plays lead guitar with us in Stellas and is our "Norton's Anti-chump" filter for the band! 


When I took up trumpet many many years ago - Carlo's choice was the drums. Like Jon he took to the drums naturally and was soon playing better than the eggs who actually learned music at Perth Modern School.  I think he jammed with Mark Lizotte's (Diesel) band/crew - even one morning before school in the school's auditorium.  With us establishing Stellas Kitchen I think Carlo has become even better as a drummer and even more into drums. Like Jon, he is a true aficionado of the instrument, its legendary players and his drum toys! ( I think he has bout 12 snare drums now?).  


Daniel, now he is the driving force behind Stellas, its heart and soul!!  Lucky for us .. and himself  - Dan can't keep still and is  so motivated and loud (he was separated as a baby from the other babies in the maternity ward when he was born for being so) - I think this helps him keep up with all the shit he takes on for the band while trying be its lead singer and work 9-5.  Not to mention how he can create  (most) and learn all the lyrics for our songs. We're all becoming more involved now in the song writing for the band. Forming Stellas Kitchen really has made us all lift our games and for me it was also kind of a turning point in bass guitar too.