For Rockhampton musos Thomas Busby and Jeremy Marou of Busby Marou, the environment in which they surround themselves is imperative to their creative process.
Whether they’re visiting Jeremy’s hometown of Murray Island in the Torres Strait or visiting their favourite spots across Great Keppel Island, 15km off the coast of Yeppoon in Central Queensland, the duo revealed that it’s these trips that provide an endless source of inspiration for their music.
“We love going back to all our favourite environments; there are the beaches of Dive Rocks, Great Keppel Island, we head out to remote countries, and we’re going back up to a place called Stanage Bay soon, which is just remote and unique,” Thomas explained.
Jeremy added, “We love Murray Island – it’s where my family’s from, my dad was born there. It’s possibly one of the nicest islands in the world, the water is perfect, you can literally walk down the beach put your ankles underwater and pull out three-metre sharks and can swim with them as well. It really is amazing. The people are beautiful, so welcoming – it’s almost spiritual.”
Continuing their love for our local environment and the inspiration it creates, the pair have joined forces with Wild Turkey Bourbon for their latest campaign, Music 101, which will see artists embody the tagline “Trust Your Spirit” as they perform from an intimate stage held located in the wilderness – and you can become a part of it by entering here.
“We’re very excited,” Thomas said of joining Wild Turkey’s Music 101 programme. “It’s such an obviously iconic brand and it just really sits well within our own brand and who we are as humans. It’s very exciting.”
The innovative new campaign sees fans get up close and intimate with their favourite artists for one-take sets in the wilderness, with the first event April 27 which saw seeing soulful singer Matt Corby perform in the serene and intimate setting of the great outdoors.
“For us, sitting around a campfire, plant chains with a small number of people is what Busby Marou is all about. So this show is our bread and butter and we cannot wait,” Thomas explained.
As for what fans can expect at the show, Jeremy added, “We love intimate settings, we’ll be breaking it right down.”
“We love to be – I don’t want to say self-indulgent – but we do like to be a little bit self-indulgent in a setting where we can totally be ourselves. Singing is what makes us feel good and when people thrive off that, it makes us believe in ourselves.”
“So we will be going with the raw acoustic, two blokes sing harmonies with two acoustic guitars with a backing band, if we even need that, but you’ll basically see us doing what we love doing.”
As for Wild Turkey’s tagline and how it resonates with them personally, Jeremy mused, “I think I think for me as an Aboriginal Torres Strait Islander man, ‘trusting our spirit’ is really a cultural thing. Music is our culture and being in touch with our spirit is something that all musicians do naturally, in one way or another.”
Music 101 is a platform for bold storytelling, where artists big and small shine and hero music in its most undiluted form as fans enjoy the experience with a Wild Turkey in hand.
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