THE BAND
Carey Simms - Guitar, Songwriter
They say you are a product of your environment and no truer words can be said for Carey Simms. With an early upbringing by a couple of ‘cool musical cats’ (aka his parents), he was destined to be a musician and songwriter. With early influences like Grace Jones, Carmen McRae, Ella Fitzgerald, George Benson, Gino Vanelli and Stevie Wonder there’s no wonder music runs deep in Carey’s veins. All of his siblings are musical too, so there was definitely something in the water at the Simms' house.
Although Carey learnt music at school he is largely a self-taught musician with thousands of hours of noodling, creating and perfecting (if that is actually possible) his art on guitar. He’s a strong believer that you don’t have to read music to be a musician but can easily collaborate with those that do. At no time is this more evident than when Jason (keys) and Carey’s cogs mesh in the rehearsal room and studio.
Carey has worked for many years as a social worker providing guidance to some of Adelaide’s less fortunate youth. We're sure this has been the source for some writing material or maybe it’s his ever-youthful (some might say child-like) outlook on life. What ever it is let’s hope there’s plenty more in the creative tank! Carey’s songs rarely speak of love and loss, but are more about invoking imagery, creating a sense of theatre and escapism. As Carey says; “Life is full of music, deep with thought and challenges”, so why not get lost in the imagery and create your own story.
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Dean Edwards - Drums
Dean’s fascination with drums started at around age 5 - he remembers watching in awe as his uncle sat perched behind a kit in the lounge room, earpiece in, playing along to the hits of the day on the black and white TV in the corner. For his 12th birthday, that same uncle gave Dean his first pair of sticks and a practice pad, much to the chagrin of Dean’s father - Dad was a musician too but no fan at all of the chaotic noise of a kid learning drums! Dad was also a massive Aussie rules fan and given Dean clocks in at 6’4” in the old scale and makes a room go dark when he stands in the doorway, his old man had him pegged early as an SANFL great. Unfortunately, Dean really couldn't have been any less interested in footy, not helped in the slightest by a complete lack of natural talent and never making it past the under 12's C grade...
Now, what Dean lacked in sporting ability, he had in timing, rhythm, focus and dedication. In the early days, he would practice for hours, inspired by Neil Peart from Rush & Stewart Copeland from the Police, eventually building up the kit to match. Now THAT was Dean’s kinda sport! Early in his music career, he had success with local bands such as Spell Why & Big Things Flying, headlining at SkyShow, supporting numerous top 10 national acts & playing ‘live at the wireless’ on Triple J.
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With his love of music came a passion for how it was made and it wasn’t long before his obsession become a full time career. For over 28 years, Dean has educated up and coming studio engineers and whilst doing so has honed his craft and skills as an engineer and producer in own his space - ‘Blessed is the Reverb’ Studio (BITRS - see ’Studios’). BITRS is a real jewel in Dean's crown! It is a creative, collaborative environment that Distempo are proud to call their song writing home.
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Steve Milne - Bass
In his early years Steve was the cool kid, listening to the cool tunes whilst in a ‘not-so-cool‘ cover band with Greg (vocals) and Carey (guitar). Thankfully he added an element of hip, to what was not a very fashionable outfit. In fact, in the early years they actually did promotional gigs for a large soft drink manufacturer (no not Pepsi) with dancing girls and promo people...not very 'rock and roll' at all. They soon learnt to play Roadhouse Blues by the Doors, which was the tonic to pacify even the most unappreciative crowd. There are many a story of close calls and near death experiences (think Blues Brothers and chicken wire), but as someone famously penned; ‘everything is good for you if it doesn’t kill you’
Steve is the Rhodes Scholar of the band. He's university 'edgumacated', highly intelligent and has a photographic memory. His dry sense of humour and quick wit is often the balance required to keep things on a even keel. He's a man of few words, but when the band are looking for that deciding vote it's Steve that they turn to.
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Milne is a quintessential outdoors kind of guy and his day job as an Environmental Consultant has taken him far and wide across South Australia and indeed the country. He doesn’t mind dipping a line in the water either and one of his (many) claims to fame was catching the largest Snapper ever from the Venus Bay jetty. Steve is also well known for being dedicated and task focused and never was this more evident on the afternoon that he landed the ‘whopper’ at Venus. Picture this if you will; it’s Armageddon like, bitterly cold, with rain nearly horizontal as a storm whipped up from the Great Australian Bight speared right through Venus Bay. The local fishers (who were far wiser) were now in the pub, sheltering from the storm and keeping well hydrated when Steve and his very understanding wife pulled up at the jetty car park in their Kombi Van. Steve, leaning at 45 degrees as he walks down the jetty gets a glimpse of a dark mass passing under the jetty. Being a keen angler he recognised this as a large school of snapper and after a lengthy battle between man and beast, well the rest is history. Next time you’re in the Port Kenny Pub check the wall for Steve’s photo with his infamous catch.
Steve is the glue that binds the rhythm section and the melodic elements of Distempo together and he seems to do this mostly asleep. The other band members marvel at Steve’s ability to play bass while being in a semi-state of slumber…it’s quite a talent.
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Jason Hammond - Keys, Backing Vocals
Jason is a musician, a music educator and he’s extremely passionate about both. Music for Jason is like breathing, there’s not a moment of his life that isn’t consumed and motivated by music.
Jason attended one of Adelaide’s specialist music schools and as fate would have it he now teaches there. It would be best to describe Jason as a jazz pianist, but he’s somewhat of a chameleon. His early ‘rebellious’ years were learning the classical greats like Bach and Beethoven. We say rebellious because his older brothers were listening to everything but the classics. They were into Pink Floyd, Queen, ELO and Supertramp. The brothers had a cunning plan though! To make Jason just a little bit ‘hipper’, they bought him two music volumes with the sheet music for Elton John and Billy Joel’s greatest hits.
Well, he locked himself away in his room and played those two volumes cover to cover. Jason played all of the dots and even started improvising around them…this honed his improvisational skills and was the start of his jazz sensibilities.
One of the reasons Jason loves music is the people he meets along the way. The large musical tapestry of life is what keeps getting him out of bed in the morning. Whilst playing for a professional music theatre show he met Rosie (guest vocals) and her partner Greg (vocals) and they got on like a house on fire. As fate would have it Greg was putting together an original music outfit and they needed a keyboard player. Talk about the planets aligning! Greg lured Jason into a rehearsal session with some throw away line like; “we’d loved to hear what our songs sound like with keys” and that (as they say in the classics), was that!
Whilst Distempo has been a bit of a sideways movement for Jason it has been an amazing experience. It’s clear that creating and recording original music has added another string to Jason’s musical bow and he wouldn’t have it any other way.
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Greg Collins - Lead Vocals
Greg always dreamed of being in a band, even from an early age. Whether it was playing Beatles songs like Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da in primary school on a nylon string acoustic (way cooler than playing the recorder) or going to fancy dress parties as Gene Simmons (complete with glittered guitar made from plywood) he always had lofty musical dreams and ambitions.
When he was around 18yrs old he met Carey (guitar). Both were pallbearers at a mutual family friends funeral. Later that day at the wake they discovered their mutual love of music and decided to start a covers band. With Carey’s little brother on drums another couple of friends on lead vocals & keys and Steve Milne on bass, something clicked that would ensure the core of that group would remain great friends and music collaborators in some way shape of form, for years to come.
Initially it would be fair to say that Greg was happy being a rhythm guitarist/vocalist, but early in the rehearsal phase, with an unreliable lead vocalist frustrating him, he muttered the words ‘I could sing better than that’ and the remainder of the band elected him to lead vocal duties at that moment.
Fast forward a few years (maybe decades) and Greg decided to start an original music outfit…only problem was he needed a songwriter, oh and a band! He decided to have a coffee with the more critical thinker of the group; Steve (bass) to see what he thought of the idea. After all if Steve was keen, then his next targets should be much easier to get on board. The next ingredient required was a songwriter, so the next chat over a frothy cappuccino would be with Carey (guitar). One of the first sentences out of Carey’s mouth was “who going to write the material” and he soon discovered that job had been assigned to him. Dean (drums) and Jason (keys), both accomplished musicians were lured into the band by Greg’s promise of quality red wine at rehearsals. They must have liked what they tasted and Distempo was born. Add quality guest vocalists like Rosie Hosking (Greg’s partner of many years) and the sweet icing that was needed to complete this musical Neopolitan was the ying to their yang.
Greg’s working life has always kept him close to the music and performance scene with a number of years in the audio equipment distribution game. He’s travelled the world pedaling his wares, had the opportunity to perform in front of large crowds for corporate events and collaborate with other artists on stage. A good entrée for things to come.
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Brenton Trott - Engineering
It all started with a crystal-set radio and his mum’s green frog cakes - Brenton’s life-long fascination kicked off as an eight year old, headphones on, tuning dial in one hand and shovelling cakes down with the other. He would scour the AM radio bands for hours searching through the crackle and buzz to tune to every music broadcast he could find coming in from who knows where.
 Into his teens the passion grew, fuelled by the ever-expanding music collections of his two older brothers. They all shared one room so it eventually turned into the war of three turntables - who could get their rig fired up first to play the others their latest discovery.
Fast forward a decade or so and Brenton decided to take music to the next level with hopes of turning it into a career. By then he’d decided to take drum lessons and learn audio engineering. This is where he met Dean when he found himself in Dean’s first class of sound production students back in the days of recording to tape and editing it with razor blades. Brenton did go on to full time work in location recording and post production sound but maintained his strong personal focus on music and its production. He’s been a very positive influence over the years and has proven an invaluable contributor and member of the Distempo production team.
Brenton’s creative work can be heard on almost all of the band’s releases plus the additional instrumental “alternate” versions of tracks he produced that are available on SoundCloud. Highlights of his other production work include releases from Adelaide artists Schickel, John Oldman and Les Goolies.
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