DISCOVERY - EARLY THINGS
Cam Giles couldn’t recall a time when music wasn’t front and centre in his life.
Picking up the bass and singing from the rebellious age of 15 in three-piece band 1-2-3 Memory. The band received radio support from 3TripleZ, and supported many popular Australian bands including The Divinyls. Giles, underage at the time, would carry equipment and present himself as a roadie before taking the stage. Later, joining the popular local act, The Mindsweepers, they embarked on a tour of South-east Queensland and Northern New South Wales, including a converted support spot at Brisbane’s Festival Hall with Perth band Moving Pictures, themselves hot property with their number one single, What About Me.
Moving to Sydney in 1983 /84, Giles joined Castles In Spain, made up of elite musicians from Sydney and New Zealand later signing a publishing deal with the Warner Chapel Music.
At this time, Giles began to embrace new technology, programming music on the computer, thus becoming an early convert
to midi application. Giles said, “I had all sorts of drum machines and synthesisers, allowing me to sync music to traditional
tape, and for this reason to become quite useful in various studios.
During this period, INXS were recording their album KICK. A seamless evolution of creative minds developed between Giles and colleague Kirk Godfrey working with the late Michael Hutchinson at Rhinoceros Studios including the unreleased Nail It Down.
Always one to embrace a challenge, Giles worked behind the scenes on a number of music scores including the award-winning Satisfaction soundtrack. He collaborated with pianist Daniel Robertson and Steve Sedergreen (Points In Time)
and performed at Bennetts Lane, The Paris Cat, Stonnington Jazz Fest, Melbourne International JazzFest and many more.
Calling on his deep respect for the jazz genre, with its willingness to be progressive in nature whilst harnessing influences from the greats– such as Tony Bennett and Frank Sinatra – Giles fronted jazz band, The Glass Moon.
They played nightly at the International Jazz Festival whilst creating a classic jazz songbook leading to the current release, Cam Giles - A Jazz Tribute To INXS, a modern jazz tribute to the road left behind, a tall shelf lled with everlasting memories, celebrations, deep loss, mistakes, and life-long friendships.
Cam and the band have just performed a Devonport Jazz Festival July 2019.
Cam is a composer, engineer and partner in Gusto Studios Melbourne.