Artist Profile

The Genie

It all started way back in 2003 some time, when Ollie and Will had a late night jam somewhere out in the Melbourne badlands. Ollie happened to be playing an old grandma organ called "Genie", and so a legend was born. Ollie liked the idea of being the keyboard-bassist as well as the keyboardist, having much bass-playing experience from his long stint in Melbourne band "Past Ollie's Bedtime", but soon decided against that idea. Ryan soon joined the band, which still only really existed in the minds of those who thought it was a cool idea. Later that year, Ollie and Ryan had a sleeping-pills-and-Tiger-Beer-fueled brainstorming session on a flight from Singapore to London, and, in between boughts of hysteria, laid down some generally awesome ideas for what the band could do musically. It was a long list, and we're still gradually getting through it. On October 1, 2003 we all gathered at Ollie's house to record what would become "Jam 1", which turned out better that any of us expected. It became the blueprint for what would eventually happen at the live shows: start off with a song we know, then gradually let it run off the rails and then jam the fuck out for an hour, with occasional tightly arranged fusiony material. The first gig didn't come until around about June 2004, supporting The Conglomerate (another fine band that Ollie is in) at 303 Bar. It went down okay, the general consensus being that "the audience may not have actually enjoyed that as much as we did!" We played 303 whenever all three of us were in town (ie not often), and Genie gigs became a once-every-four-months deal. Until January 2006. Five times in a month. We weren't sure whether to take six years off or keep rehearsing. Rehearse we did. We've also recorded a whole heap (about five days) of stuff now, and are SLOOOWLY editing it into something cool that you'll all be able to wrap your ears around soon. Until then, check out our first jam ever (Good Bits) and various live bits and pieces as we put them up. "Cuba Jam" is the first bit of stuff we've (tentatively) finished for the album. Enjoy. Whispering Jackson on vocals.

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