About 40 days ago, Nicolas Jorquera got started on a pretty epic plan: be a part of 80 gigs in 80 nights in the bustling Melbourne music scene. It goes to show just how much amazing live music there is out there… but such a task is no easy feat. But we think it’s an awesome idea – so we got in touch with Nicolas as he reached the halfway mark and saw how things were going….
Hi there Nicolas, thanks for chatting to us at the AU review. We’ve been paying close attention to your blog, http://80gigsin80days.com – of which you’re about halfway through now. What brought on the idea to put this project together?
The idea came about through two situations…one music related and the other not at all… Me and my brother Ricardo found out late last year that our mum had advanced cancer and so we both quit our full time jobs to look after her.
During this time we thought alot about our lives and we both had a passion for live music and hearing of the closure of The Tote we thought would be great to come up with a project to highlight all the great venues in Victoria.
Apart from the obvious “around the world in…” reference, is there any particular reason you chose to 80 days?
Well we thought it would have to be a number which would personally challenge us…and in hindsight i wished we made it 50! haha. But also there are so many venues and bands in Victoria we wanted to make sure to include as many as possible.
What have been the highlights so far?
Wow it’s been so many shows already so that’s a tough question to answer. All the random surprising moments have been the highlights. Playing in Gisborne was heaps of fun, Purepop Records with The Bon Scotts and The Good China and non music related but bumping into the Chilean Cycling team after a gig and joining their team for The World Cycling Championships by day and playing gigs by night that will be a few weeks of my life that i will never forget! And lastly busking 20 songs in 20 locations in the CBD for our halfway show will be a day i won’t forget!
What are you most looking forward to?
Definitely most looking forward to Day 80 at The Tote! I never thought we would actually even make it this far! So making it to day 80 will be surreal and i can’t wait for that feeling up on stage!!
It looks like venues are the ones who are helping you out on this front? Was it easy to bring them on board?
The venues have been so understanding and have supported us heaps throughout our event! The ones who we approached and the ones who approached us have been incredible. Our event was always going to be tough and full of logistical issues and without the support of bands and venues we could not have done this!
Everyday a new challenge arises with sometimes a night falling apart and we have to think quick to come up with a solution.
Can you have too much of a good thing? Surely this is starting to effect your day job? … if you have a day job that is.
A daytime job would be impossible i think. What a lot of people don’t realise is that this event is run by two people in all aspects. Me and Ricardo do all the bookings, promotion, website design, managing every night, video recording every night and performing every single night and at times doing the sound on nights that need it. We also incur all the costs involved out of our own pockets to the extent that starting next week i have to start working part time during the day to continue financing the event. Having said that, it’s definitely worth it!
What have you learnt so far from the project? Has anything surprised you?
I have learnt a great deal already. I have a much higher knowledge of the music industry from band bookings to venues, promotion, sound systems and i have listened to so many great bands.
The biggest surprise has been how many great undiscovered bands there really are in Victoria…some are completely unknown and others are finally getting the recognition they deserve.
What do you hope people who are watching your task take away from it?
I guess this event first and foremost was about living life to the full and doing things that make you happy and trying things that are different regardless of the outcome. I would love for people to be inspired to give their ideas a go. It’s a cliche but life is terribly short and even if things go horribly wrong and we fail at least we tried our best and we took a detour from the standard nine to five and took a stab at something that makes us happy.
And finally, what does live music mean to you?
After doing all these shows and listening to so much music i have realised that live music means everything to me. It’s a great form of artistic expression and doesn’t discriminate, everyone can enjoy it as it comes in so many forms. And Victoria is lucky enough to have the bands, artists and venues to showcase so much music!
