MY NAME IS NOBODY

My name is Nobody uses the lush textures of the pedal steel guitar, the endless sonic possibilities of the keyboards and the hypnotic properties of the drum beat to create sounds to get completely lost in.

Featuring:

    •    Ben Vanderwal – drums,  samples   
    •    Tom O’Halloran - keyboards   
    •    Lucky Oceans – pedal steel, lap steel guitars

  
Ben Vanderwal   

    •    Ben is one of the most in demand Jazz drummers in Australia. In 2015 Ben received the WAM “Best Jazz Artist” award. Ben has performed around the world including tours of the U.K., France, Ireland, India the U.S.A., China, Korea, Taiwan, Phillipines. Japan, New Zealand, New Caledonie, Indonesia, Hong Kong, China and Thailand. He has played with John Scofield, Charlie Haden, Joe Lovano, Vince Jones, Howard Levey, Madeleine Peyroux, Guthrie Govan, Gilad Hexelman, Thirsty Merc, James Morrison, Chris Potter, George Garzone, Kate Ceberano, Walter Smith III, Sandra Bernhard, Camille O’sullivan, Mark Murphy, Joel Frahm, Wil Vinson, Ernie Watts, Lionel Rose, David Campbell, Rhonda Birchmore, Nigel Kennedy, Don Burrows, Deborah Byrne and Normie Rowe. 
     
In 2011 and 2012 Ben was the drummer on the highly successful “Tim Minchin vs the Orchestra” Australian tours. He performed on Minchin’s “Come home Cardinal Pell” song which is up for nomination for APRA song of the year (2017) 
In 2014 ben played on the Hank Marvin release “Hank” which went to number 8 in the UK charts. Ben has toured three times nationally with Thirsty Merc frontman Rai Thistletwayte to promote their EP’s “Escargot” and “April Skies”.  
    •     

Tom O’Halloran – 

    •    Tom O’Halloran leads his own original jazz piano trio outfit and conducts orchestras from time to time, composes new classical music, plays wild old analogue synthesizers and even rock guitar.  
    •    His overseas performances have included the Houston International Jazz Festival, the IAJE festival in New York, Villa Celimontana in Italy, Dubai, UAE where he played with the Dubai Philharmonic Orchestra, and club dates in New Zealand. Tom has two jazz trio records to his name, released through the Sydney based Jazzgroove Records label. His latest album We Happy Few won the 2009 Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) Limelight Magazine award for best jazz achievement. 
He plays a myriad of styles, and recently arranged all the music for the concert series JONI – a Joni Mitchell tribute that was staged at the Sydney Opera House, Melbourne and Brisbane, starring Katie Noonan and Wendy Matthews. He has also worked with other industry names such as Pete Murray (Sony), James Morrison, singers Tina Harrod, Ilan Kidron (Potbellez, Universal), Max Sharam, Geoff Duff, Josh Quong-Tart (Home and Away, All Saints), Hugo Race (Bad Seeds), David Campbell, Deni Hines (Sony BMG), Mark Sholtez (Verve label), Rick Robertson (DIG), and other jazz musicians of the caliber of James Muller, Simon Barker, Kristen Berardi,  trumpeter Phil Slater, bassist Cameron Undy and 20th Century Dog, Dan Barnett’s Big Band – and has performed at other Australian jazz festivals including the Melbourne Jazz Festival, Newcastle, York (WA), Manly and Coolah Jazz Festivals. 
    Tom O’Halloran leads the Jazz Piano department at the Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts (WAAPA) at Edith Cowan University, and also lectures in jazz composition and improvisation. He is a regularly commissioned composer, and currently holds a Master of Music in classical composition from the Sydney Conservatorium of Music and a Bachelor of Music (Jazz Performance) from WAAPA. 
         

Lucky Oceans –  

hardly needing an introduction, Mr Oceans is a fixture on the world music scene. He co-founded and named the group Asleep At The Wheel, playing pedal steel guitar with the group for most of the 70s, and winning two Grammy Awards (1978 and 1993) for Best Country Instrumental with them. He is listed in Hugh Gregory’s book, “1000 Great Guitarists” and has been called ‘one of the most influential steel guitarists of his generation.’