Gareth Liddiard

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Australian musician

title: "Gareth Liddiard" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["living-people", "australian-male-singer-songwriters", "musicians-from-victoria-(state)", "people-from-port-hedland,-western-australia", "year-of-birth-missing-(living-people)", "21st-century-australian-guitarists", "atp-recordings-artists", "21st-century-australian-singer-songwriters", "bang!-records-artists"] description: "Australian musician" topic_path: "arts" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gareth_Liddiard" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0

::summary Australian musician ::

::data[format=table title="Infobox musical artist"]

FieldValue
nameGareth Liddiard
imageGareth Liddiard of The Drones.jpg
captionLiddiard performing live with the Drones at A Day on the Green, Hunter Valley, March 2013
birth_placePort Hedland, Western Australia, Australia
originPerth, Western Australia, Australia
current_member_of
past_member_ofThe Drones
::

| name = Gareth Liddiard | image = Gareth Liddiard of The Drones.jpg | caption = Liddiard performing live with the Drones at A Day on the Green, Hunter Valley, March 2013 | birth_name = | alias = | birth_date = | birth_place = Port Hedland, Western Australia, Australia | origin = Perth, Western Australia, Australia | death_date = | genre = | years_active = | label = | current_member_of = | past_member_of = The Drones | website = Gareth Liddiard is an Australian musician, best known as a founding member of both the Drones and Tropical Fuck Storm. Musically active since 1997, he also released a solo album titled Strange Tourist in 2010.

Early life and education

Liddiard was born in Port Hedland, Western Australia.

His family lived in south-west London before returning to WA, where he started school in Perth. Initially his musical interest lay in jazz, and he began playing the saxophone, but he eventually found his way to rock and roll music. He started playing in bands during his high school years at Duncraig High School. As a teenager, Liddiard listened to the music of artists such as Led Zeppelin, Jimi Hendrix, Black Flag, and John Coltrane.

At the age of 18, Liddiard gained employment with a concert lighting firm in Perth and remained in this role for seven years, working with festivals such as the Big Day Out and bands such as Kim Salmon and the Surrealists. Liddiard said in 2013: "Everything came together slowly and organically. It was only when Rui Pereira (high school friend) and I moved to Melbourne in 2000 that we thought of trying to make some money out of music. Before that I'd never considered the idea of being an entertainer."

Music career

Liddiard was a founding member of both the Drones and Tropical Fuck Storm.

He formed the Drones with Pereira in 1997 and then relocated with the band to Victoria in 2000. The Drones have released six studio albums since 2002 and have toured throughout the world, including music festivals.

Liddiard released his debut solo album in 2010, Strange Tourist The album earned him a nomination for a 2011 ARIA Award for Best Male Artist.

He has been praised as a songwriter, and the Drones song "Shark Fin Blues", penned by Liddiard and Rui Pereira, was voted by the band's contemporaries as the greatest Australian song of all time in 2009.

Together with Pereira, who left the Drones line-up, Liddiard contributed to the production of a self-titled album by Perth band Gutterville Splendour Six in 2013. He played guitar on 14 songs, in addition to undertaking mixing and recording. All of the album's songs were recorded on an ADAT eight-track machine and the album was released as a vinyl record on Spanish record label Bang! Records.

In 2021, Liddiard recorded and performed live with Jim White of the Dirty Three and Chris Abrahams of The Necks as Springtime.

In collaboration with Dan Luscomble, Liddiard co-wrote the score for Warwick Thornton's 2021/2 vampire TV series, Firebite. Jim White, drummer of The Dirty Three, joined them to perform the music for the series.

Musical influences

Liddiard has cited Dimitri Shostakovich, Igor Stravinsky, The Stooges, North African music and Olivier Messiaen as musical influences. He has named Dylan Thomas, Flann O'Brien, W. B. Yeats, Carl Sagan and Kurt Vonnegut as influences on his lyricism. Regarding his own lyrics, Liddiard stated in 2013: "I read but I'm not that widely read. I don't know. They're just words for songs. That's all they are. Yeah, they're sometimes funny. You've got to be funny; life's funny."

Personal life

As of May 2019, Liddiard is a vegan and resides in the rural town of Nagambie, Victoria, Australia with Drones bassist Fiona Kitschin and two fox terriers. Prior to Nagambie, the pair lived in the rural Victorian town of Myrtleford. The Nagambie property, next to the Goulburn River, was the recording location for the 2013 Drones album I See Seaweed. Liddiard explained the location's attributes in a media interview: "It's as good as anywhere for writing, but the main thing is it's cheap, [...] There's a huge amount of room. We have a billabong, there's a swampland, a creek, we're on the river. It's nice."

Liddiard was living in the same area as the Black Saturday bushfires of 2009 and subsequently obtained a 75 series Landcruiser Troop Carrier vehicle in the event of such an incident in the future. Liddiard explained in 2013 that "it's basically our ticket out of the next bushfire. In the last fires we had a 1990 Ford Falcon which wouldn't have been much use once a tree fell across the only road out of our valley."

Discography

Studio albums

::data[format=table title="List of studio albums, with selected details"] | Title | Album details | Strange Tourist | Bong Odyssey: Recordings 1993-98 (with Rui Pereira) | Springtime (with Springtime) | Night Raver EP (with Springtime) | |---|---|---|---|---|---| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | ::

Awards and nominations

APRA Awards

The APRA Awards are presented annually from 1982 by the Australasian Performing Right Association (APRA), "honouring composers and songwriters". ! Ref. |- | 2014 | "A Moat You Can Stand In" by the Drones (Stephen Hesketh/ Fiona Kitchin/ Gareth Liddiard/ Dan Luscombe/ Mike Noga) | Song of the Year | | |- | 2019 | "Paradise" by Tropical Fuck Storm (Erica Dunn / Gareth Liddiard / Fiona Kitchin / Lauren Hammel) | Song of the Year | | |}

ARIA Music Awards

The ARIA Music Awards is an annual awards ceremony that recognises excellence, innovation, and achievement across all genres of Australian music. |- | 2011 |Strange Tourist | Best Male Artist | |-

Australian Music Prize

The Australian Music Prize (the AMP) is an annual award of $30,000 given to an Australian band or solo artist in recognition of the merit of an album released during the year of award. The commenced in 2005. |- | 2010 |Strange Tourist | Australian Music Prize | |-

Music Victoria Awards

The Music Victoria Awards, are an annual awards night celebrating Victorian music. They commenced in 2005.

! Ref. |- | rowspan="1"| 2018 | Gareth Liddiard | Best Male Musician |

rowspan="2"
rowspan="1"
Gareth Liddiard
Best Male Musician

| |-

National Live Music Awards

The National Live Music Awards (NLMAs) are a broad recognition of Australia's diverse live industry, celebrating the success of the Australian live scene. The awards commenced in 2016.

|- | 2016 | Gareth Liddiard | Live Guitarist of the Year | |- | 2018 | Gareth Liddiard | Live Guitarist of the Year | |-

References

References

  1. Mathieson, Craig (2009). Playlisted: Everything You Need to Know About Australian Music Right Now. St Leonards, NSW: Allen & Unwin. {{ISBN. 978-1-74223-017-7.
  2. Dekel, Jon. (12 Sep 2003). "Jonathan Dekel Interviews Gareth Liddiard, Guitari".
  3. Craig Mathieson. (1 March 2013). "Renaissance of the Drones". The Age.
  4. Krakow, Steve. (6 September 2019). "Dystopian Australian scuzz-rockers Tropical Fuck Storm sharpen their slow burn on Braindrops".
  5. (4 September 2018). "A Conversation With … Tropical Fuck Storm".
  6. (29 May 2017). "Members of the Drones & High Tension Form New Band Tropical Fuck Storm".
  7. "Mushroom Publishing Gareth Liddiard Biography".
  8. MCMILLEN, ANDREW. "The Drones: "I'm not addicted to love"". The Vine.
  9. Madigan, Damien. (16 March 2011). "Gareth Liddiard's solo album Strange".
  10. Aaron Diaz. (23 November 2010). "GARETH LIDDIARD + LOENE CARMEN – OXFORD ART FACTORY (20.11.10)". Heath Media & the AU review.
  11. (14 October 2011). "And the ARIA nominees are ...".
  12. Jonathon Moran. (16 October 2011). "Liddiard: Arias a cocaine-filled joke". The Telegraph.
  13. (21 August 2018). "An exploration into Gareth Liddiard, Australian music's oddball revolutionary".
  14. Carter, Jeremy Story. (29 January 2018). "The Drones' Gareth Liddiard on why it's not the time to write political music".
  15. (6 October 2010). "Gareth Liddiard – Strange Tourist".
  16. Mathieson, Craig. (30 September 2010). "Not just made in a Minotaur so".
  17. Sadler, Denham. (29 December 2014). "Shark Fin Blues by the Drones – a brutally honest account of depression". The Guardian.
  18. Bodenner, Chris. (25 October 2015). "Track of the Day: 'Shark Fin Blues' - The Atlantic".
  19. "A Canary, Singing Through the Gas: Gareth Liddiard's Strange Tourist".
  20. (2013). "Gutterville Splendour Six – Gutterville Splendour Six". Discogs.
  21. (26 May 2021). "Introducing Springtime, the new band from Gareth Liddiard, Jim White and Chris Abrahams". Beat.
  22. (16 December 2021). "New TV Series To Showcase Aussie Artists To Millions Worldwide".
  23. (2012-02-14). "Gareth Liddiard".
  24. (31 August 2013). "Lunch with Gareth Liddiard". Sydney Morning Herald.
  25. Adam Fulton. (22 September 2013). "How I unwind: Gareth Liddiard". Sydney Morning Herald.
  26. (2010). "Strange Tourist (DD)".
  27. Zuel, Bernard. (14 October 2011). "Review of the week.".
  28. "BONG ODYSSEY : Gareth Liddiard & Rui Pereira - Recordings 1993-98 - 2LP - BANG! RECORDS - Forced Exposure".
  29. "APRA History". [[Australasian Performing Right Association]] (APRA) | [[Australasian Mechanical Copyright Owners Society]] (AMCOS).
  30. (15 April 2014). "Nick Cave, Boy & Bear Lead APRA 2014 Song of the Year Shortlist".
  31. (27 March 2019). "2019 APRA Awards nominees announced". noise11.
  32. "Winners & Shortlists".
  33. "Previous Nominess".
  34. "Previous Winners".
  35. (2016). "Nominees 2016".
  36. (2 October 2018). "NLMA announce 2018 nominees and Live legend".
  37. (December 2018). "Winners of the 2018 NLMA".

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living-peopleaustralian-male-singer-songwritersmusicians-from-victoria-(state)people-from-port-hedland,-western-australiayear-of-birth-missing-(living-people)21st-century-australian-guitaristsatp-recordings-artists21st-century-australian-singer-songwritersbang!-records-artists