- Naarm/Melbourne, AUS
- saxophone
- electronics
Stevie Richards is a Saxophonist, Modular Synthesist and Sound Artist based in Melbourne, Australia. Primarily self taught, his earliest influences came through lessons with Tenor Sax legend Mark Simmonds whilst living in Sydney in the 80s. He was part of the Indie rock scene in Sydney and garnered an appreciation for improvisation and electronic music during this time. In 1987, he completed a Jazz Theory course through Sydney Conservatorium of Music. Moving to Melbourne in the late 80ss he played with more rock bands but began to discover a burgeoning Funk Scene, playing with ‘Blow’ featuring Dave and Danny Dhurumasena, DJ Peril, Cameron Newman and Nui Te Koha. Live sets with Blow led to gigs with DJss that helped pay the bills. Concurrently, he was playing Jazz in smaller ensembles for small gigs and corporate functions.
Around 1993, he started to play with legendary Rock/Noise band Ray of Creation who were part of the excellent scene at the Great Britain hotel around that time. After Ray of Creation disbanded he continued to work with guitarist Mike Sill forming a synth / guitar duo called Imperial Leatherman. Around 1994, he recorded on several Trance and Techno releases by Melbourne electronic music legend Ollie Olsen on the Psy Harmonics label. He later played with rock band Dumb Earth recording and touring with them around 1996 until meeting Spencer P. Jones in 1998 and playing Baritone Sax in the legendary 11 piece rock band Spencer P. Jones and The Last Gasp. Also playing with Spencer P. Jones in offshoot, small group Cow Penalty. He became involved in Make It Up Club around 1999, performing in many Solo and collaborative Free Jazz and Improvisational ensembles.
In 2000, while living across the road from saxophonist Tim O’Dwyer; he was asked to participate in Melbourne International Jazz Festival performance Space Is The Place: A Tribute to Sun Ra. He performed on Tenor Sax in this 11 piece ensemble. In 2001, he joined Bucketrider Big Band at Wangaratta Festival of Jazz to perform an interpretation of Meditations by John Coltrane. He continued to play Funk and work as a Soloist with Melbourne’s Top DJ’s and in 2004 was headhunted as Sax Player for Melbourne House Music live band Dirty Laundry with whom he played and toured with extensively throughout Australia and the Asia Pacific region until 2012.
Meanwhile, he has been Sound Engineer for Make It Up Club for almost 15 years, continuing to perform as part of larger ensembles and as a soloist. Developing skills in Audio Production, DIY Analog Synth building and tutoring Ableton Live. On Modular Synth, Stevie has been performing live since 2011 under the monikers cleaninglady and SL Richards. He has toured extensively throughout Asia, Europe and the US performing Analog Synth performance and collaborations with musicians from countless genres and musical disciplines. He has built 9 full Serge analog modular panels, a TTSH Arp 2600 clone, a Buchla Music Easel clone and dozens of Eurorack DIY modules.
Recently, he has been developing a completely Acoustic No Jazz trio called Richards/Palliser/Wadley, live recordings of which can be heard here.
Instagram: @noiseelectronique