The Meme Wars Band

The 'Meme Wars' band name refers to ‘Meme' culture, which dominates our social and political discourse. The music of the band reflects both a critique and an adoption of Meme culture. The live sets are made up of a non-stop 'feed' of music with each song flowing into the next, many times in an unexpected way. The band has it’s own take on a range of song styles and vibes, ranging from ballads to jazz/funk fusion and freestyle Hip hop, the lyrics of the songs primarily deal with the emotional vacuum and social pressures that online culture creates.

The band is comprised of a mixture of established and emerging Sydney based jazz musicians: Karl Laskowski, Jason Bruer, Liam Hogan, Steph Russell, Simon Ferenci, Chris Fields, Dave Quinn, Yutaro Okuda and Hip-Hop MC, P Smurf. Although the material is primarily written by Gavin Ahearn, the band has a collaborative approach with many of the band members contributing material. Over a period of two years, with regular sets at Lazybones Lounge Marrickville, the Meme Wars has gone through a process of shaping the material into an organic and innovative sound.

For more info and sounds please visit the Meme Wars page.

Briana Cowlishaw Collaboration

I have been working in collaboration with the great Vocalist and Composer, Briana Cowlishaw since 2013. Our projects together have been many and varied. Our first collaboration was with Singaporean photographer Chia Ming Chien, the “Wires Project”. The Wires Project is a mixed-media performance based collaboration. The project features an international pool of contributors based in Sydney, Singapore and Malaysia. The Wires Project has performed at prestigious festivals such as the Melbourne International Jazz Festival (2014) Vivid Sydney (2014), Urbanscapes Kuala Lumpur (2013).

Briana and I have toured extensively in various setups including stints in Europe and Asia. A highlight was opening the 2015 Hemnes Jazz Festival in Norway with a suite of music called the Helgeland Suite. We wrote this music with Gary Hoffman a great trumpeter/composer and New Orleans expat who lives just below the Arctic Circle in Norway. We also recorded an album in Norway which was released as the album Fjord in 2016.

Currently we have a Sydney band featuring Nic Cecire and Karl Laskowski, playing gigs and developing new material. We are also working on a project to bring our musical improvisational ideas into creativity workshops for non-musicians.

Gavin Ahearn Jazz Ensembles

Over the years I have presented original jazz music in a number of formats and bands, from duo to larger ensembles. At various times the groups have contained: Nic Cecire, Jonathan Zwartz, Brendan Clark, Karl Laskowski, Jason Bruer, Toby Hall (Australia based). Mike Dopazo, Christian Coleman, Chris Riggenbach (U.S. based). Raphi Giller, Juraj Kalazs, Gary Hoffman, Jacek Kochan (European based).

I have had a fruitful and enjoyable long term collaboration with NY based drummer Christian Coleman and we have released 3 albums together, Flight of The Arctic Tern (feat. Mike Dopazo), Distances (feat. Dale Barlow) and Cooper Ridge (feat Jon Irabagon and Sam Minaie) which was distributed by the famed Danish jazz label, Steeplechase.

Sideman

Since starting to play music professionally in 1991 I have had the opportunity and luck to play with many great performers including; Ingrid Jensen, Tina Harrod Electric Band, Katie Noonan, Normie Rowe, Briana Cowlishaw Band, Toby Hall Band, Neilsen Gough Group, Adrian Meares Quartet, Sussurro and many more.

Currently I play in Sydney with Simon Ashton’s funk/fusion powerhouse RAMBO and have recently recorded the incredible (and challenging!) music of The Tundra Ensemble. I also recently recorded funk/latin tracks for Melbourne multi-instrumentalist, Shaun Evans. Over the years i have played numerous gigs with The Sydney Jazz Collective.