Ed Kuepper

Ed Kuepper

Over the course of the last 40 years Ed Kuepper has been a stalwart on the Australian music scene, having been a part of The Saints, Laughing Clowns and an extensive solo career. Tonight and tomorrow Sydneysiders will have an incredibly rare and unique opportunity to see Kuepper take to the stage for a solo show, by request.

When asked if he ever imagined having such a long career, Kuepper replied: “If you had of asked me in my teens I would not have been able to put a length on it. I probably would have thought I’d be involved in music for the most part of my life, but even then I always just looked to the next record.”

Having been involved in the industry for some time, Kuepper could be forgiven if his motivation levels suffered the occasional dip, but he has developed a method of working which he believes has prevented burnout.

“When I’m motivated, I’m very motivated,” he explained. “When I’m writing songs for an album it’s as important to me as it’s ever been. I can’t [be] blasé about it, so if I feel like I’m not putting everything into it I pull back and stop.”

For these two special shows Kuepper will be reviving his by request show, which he hasn’t performed in some time. He explained that he created this show initially as a way of “making it a sort of interactive art experience rather than a standard musical performance”. The by request show has only one condition, in that the songs requested must be songs that Kuepper has performed in the past.

Despite the fact these are all songs Kuepper has played before, he says there have still been occasions when it all went awry: “A couple of times I had songs requested and started playing but about half way through realised ‘oh fuck’ I don’t know how this goes anymore so the song ground to a stop and I had to apologise.”

Looking ahead to the future, Kuepper is unable to see a clear path at the moment, even though he is always working on projects, so you really should take advantage of this week’s shows whilst you can.

“As far as what the future holds I’m not sure, I’ve been doing this for a long time so I’m going through a reappraisal stage in terms of where to go after this run of shows.” (JA)

Dec 22–23, varied performance times. Camelot Lounge, 19 Marrickville Rd, Marrickville. $37.90. Tickets & info: www.camelotlounge.com

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