The UNBELIEVABLE Musical Journey of 8 Ball Aitken

Life With No Anchor

Join us for an intimate conversation with 8 Ball, one of Australia's most authentic blues and roots musicians, as he shares his incredible journey from growing up in a family of 11 kids on a North Queensland tobacco farm to touring 20 countries and spending nine years in Nashville and Austin.  In this candid interview recorded in Darwin at the Railway Club in Parap, 8 Ball opens up about his unconventional upbringing - living in a tobacco shed with his brothers, jamming with guitars while sharing space with pythons, rats, and bats.  He reveals how a chance encounter with a Koori elder changed his life trajectory, encouraging him to leave the banana farms and pursue his musical dreams.  Discover the fascinating stories behind his busking days in Melbourne and Sydney's King's Cross, including memorable encounters with actor Glenn Robbins (who played Russell Coight) and an unlikely friendship with a local street worker.  8 Ball shares wisdom gained from years of hitchhiking across Australia with just his guitar, learning that if you can captivate drunk strangers on the street, you might just have what it takes in the music business.  Learn about his unique daily ritual of not turning on his phone until he'd written a song (now adapted since becoming a father), and how this discipline shaped his prolific songwriting career.  He discusses his collaboration with Taya Chani on their new album "Nightbird," explaining why writing with a partner brings fresh energy to his craft after penning over a thousand songs in his time.  The conversation covers his remarkable achievement of setting up the Mount Coot-tha Songwriters Festival and running it for 21 years - what started as a fake TAFE assignment became Brisbane City Council's longest-running acoustic music showcase, featuring over 150 songwriters.  He shares his philosophy of creating music experiences "without the bells and whistles," focusing on authentic connection between artists and audiences.  8 Ball reflects on his transition from touring internationally to establishing his recording studio on the Sunshine Coast, where he now helps emerging artists while hosting intimate backyard gigs for 100 people and studio sessions for 40.  He discusses adapting to industry changes, comparing it to tobacco farmers pivoting when their crops became obsolete.  Throughout the interview, his humor shines through with closing pearls of wisdom like "Stop killin' volcanoes to make lava lamps", and stories about his famous three-string cigar box guitar that audiences demand at every show. Despite owning quality instruments, it's this handmade piece that truly connects with crowds.  This conversation offers rare insight into the life of a musician who chose authenticity over commercial success, community over fame, and fun over everything else.  8 Ball's story embodies the spirit of Australian roots music - resourceful, genuine, and deeply connected to the land and people that shaped him.

Transcript

00:00G'day, it's Matt here from Life with Nalanka and we have got a very special guest that we'd

00:05like to introduce you to. One of the renowned musicians that we've come across on the Gold

00:09Coast. He's always down there playing the Rhythm and Blues Festival. He's touring around Australia

00:13now with Taya Charney on the back of coming home from the United States promoting the album

00:17Nightbird. Let's have a chat with 8-Ball.

00:308-Ball, welcome to Darwin, mate. Thank you. Great to be back. How long has it been since

00:53you've been up here? Three years, yeah. I used to come every year and I once came three times

00:58in one year. Did they get sick of you? Luckily, not yet. They haven't told me.

01:03You've described your ritual as far as how you start your day, where you don't turn your phone

01:08on until you've written a song. How does that fit into your musical routine?

01:13I was like that for many years. These days, I've got a two-year-old, so life's a bit different

01:18and I haven't been able to write songs in the morning. I still don't turn my phone on straight

01:22away. I like to get my brain warm up, but there's sometimes when I have to, you know,

01:27when things have to happen. But before I had a kid, I would leave my phone off and write songs

01:31first thing in the morning. That was an old ritual for a long time. And I recommend it.

01:36If you don't have a kid jumping on your head, getting ready for the day, if you've got the

01:39time and space, don't let the technology control you. That's the moral of that story. And there'll

01:45be a time again one day where I will wake up and write songs, you know. Right now, lately,

01:49I've been writing songs with Taya Charney, who was playing tonight with me. And we're touring

01:54Australia for the rest of the year together with our joint album. And we write songs after

01:59the gigs and before the gigs and whenever we're on tour. So you've got to adapt as life

02:03changes. And that's what I've been doing lately.

02:06You grew up in a family with a lot of kids. Was it 13 kids?

02:09That sounds better than 11, but let's not ruin a good story with the truth.

02:17Why not? Why not?

02:19Once you get past six or seven kids in a family, it's just a lot of people.

02:25So you grew up jamming in a tobacco shed.

02:29What happened was we were living on this farm when I was in my teenage years up in North Queensland.

02:35And there was kids coming thick and fast at that point. And the house was too small. So my stepmom

02:40says to us, teenage boys are out. You're in the shed. So we ended up in this tobacco shed,

02:46which sounds worse than it was because teenage boys with the freedom to play drums and guitars

02:51all night and drink sneaky bourbons and smoke pencil shavings. It was like, it was a great thing,

02:57you know, but we did find like, I'd found a massive rat under my pillow and there was pythons.

03:01We'd find a python skin that was like six foot long and still getting bigger living next to the

03:05barren river where they have them big 20 something feet pythons. And so we had bats that would come

03:10in out. There was no window, like the glass was busted. So the bats would be coming in and it was

03:15fun times when no one died, you know, there's just, just a bit closer to nature. So that's what life was

03:21like back then. And I feel lucky to have been able to put music as the focus through my teenage years

03:26cause I would play all weekend and my mates would come over and we'd just get into the music. And

03:31my brother was there, Dillian, he's still in my band, but that's all right. Cause I write half

03:35the songs on his albums with him. So we're, we're still like that. I guess we formed that musical

03:40bond and the brotherly bond. It seems like the universe has almost played some sort of poetic

03:45joke, I suppose, with the cigar box guitars and that part of your history. Is there a story behind

03:50the connection there? No, I mean, I was on a farms on tobacco farms, but, uh, right as I was in high

03:56school, tobacco was getting phased out and they were planning coffee. I guess they needed something

04:00to drink with their cigarettes, but they lost the contract and they were making tobacco cheaper and

04:05growing it in cheaper in South America. So after 50 or something years, Mariba was no longer growing

04:11tobacco as the main crop. They started mangoes and lychees and all sorts of other things. A lot of those

04:16farmers were growing other types of smokeable things and getting busted at that time too,

04:21cause they were losing their farms after they had to adapt. Same as the music industry. Now we've got

04:25to adapt as, as the game changes, you pivot. So, uh, that was that time. Your discipline and your focus

04:32on staying true to your music and doing what you're doing. There was an interesting story I read about

04:36where you got some advice from Macquarie Elder about being focused and not letting your talent go to waste.

04:41Yeah, that's a, that's a story from a long time ago, but I guess it's still relevant

04:46because, uh, we were working on the banana farm and that rural life is a whole lot of hard work

04:52all week and then Friday drinking your paycheck. And, uh, if you're still lucky enough to be still

04:57drinking breakfast beers on Sunday and you haven't run out yet, um, you know, you're going to sober

05:02up Sunday night and have a feed and then start work on Monday on the farm again. So that's, that was really

05:07good times of life. You know, I really enjoyed being outdoors, but there wasn't a great future in it,

05:12especially for someone like me who was obviously going to be a musician. I was playing at smoke.

05:17I was so dedicated. So yeah, this guy said to me, uh, he was an Aboriginal elder from Townsville

05:22whose family was in Mareeburn came up and he said to me, look, I'll be disappointed if you,

05:26if I come back next to you and you're still wasting your talent drinking and smoking and,

05:31and you're still here. Cause I, he's like encouraged me to go to the big smoke and follow my dream.

05:35And I was sitting there thinking he's right. I'm going to get out and do something. And

05:40I'm glad I got going. And you did get out and do something. Your journey took you over to the

05:44States. You were in Nashville for nine years. I was in Nashville and Austin, and I was in, uh,

05:49220 countries. I definitely feel like I'm a guy that's gotten out and had a go at life. And I just

05:56encourage young people to travel and, and work on your craft, take your, what you do seriously,

06:01but don't take yourself too seriously. But really you got to focus and you got to believe in it.

06:06You got to believe to achieve and the things that you get to experience when you're out there on

06:11purpose and the people you get to meet and the friends you make is like, it's a, it's a good life.

06:15It's not going to be easy. You know, when you've, when you're out there working and moving and

06:19traveling and following a dream, but it's so worth it, you know, cause you'll never, you'll never die

06:25wondering. And, uh, now that life's changed pace for me, being a father and having a recording studio,

06:30I feel like all that time I spent in the States working on my craft. Now I'm the guy on the

06:34Sunshine Coast, helping the people that come to me. So I spend a lot more time in the studio and at

06:39home and with other people coming to me to help them along their musical journey. And I wouldn't

06:44be able to help them if I didn't get out there and learn from all those other people along the way.

06:48So it's just a new time, eh?

06:50So that feeds in really nicely to the Mount Cootha songwriters group that you set up. Is that

06:55something that's still close to your heart?

06:57Yes. We've just celebrated our 21st year and it's a Brisbane city council funded event.

07:05I started it as my TAFE assignment when I was at music business TAFE and it was a pretend

07:10grant application. So like, here's your assignment, pretend you're writing a grant,

07:14make something up. So I happened to go up to Mount Cootha for a picnic and saw the bandstand. I was like,

07:19this would be so great to have a big gig up here with all the songwriters doing our thing. And,

07:24and I applied. That was the time. So I wrote this pretend grant. The teacher said,

07:28hey, that's pretty cool. Why don't you think about actually submitting it? So I did.

07:32And 21 years later, we're going into our 22nd year. We've showcased over 150 songwriters from

07:39Brisbane and surrounds and touring acts that come through. And it's all about this. It's a festival

07:44without the flashing lights and the big fancy technology. It's about people with an acoustic

07:50guitar or a piano or strip back stuff, getting up there and singing their songs to a crowd that are

07:56hanging on the every word, listening to the melodies. And a lot of my buddies that are

08:00dads and parents, they're like, I never appreciated this festival until I had a family and I could lie

08:06there and let my kids experience what a song is with an acoustic guitar. And they can run off and

08:11chase an ibis and climb a tree and you don't have to worry about them. And that's what, it's funny,

08:15the simple things in life, the real living, when you're just out there in the sunshine,

08:18you can curl up on a blanket with your loved ones and eat a bit of cheese.

08:22I didn't say, I almost said wine and cheese. I mean, watermelon and cheese, but you can have

08:27like snacks and chill, chill time. After this busy life we live, just to lie there and hear people

08:33sing songs and to have the Brisbane City Council actually fund and support the event with a grant,

08:38I know we're winning. And to be going for 21 years, I guess at some point it's going to be going

08:43longer in my life than it wasn't going pretty soon, you know. So having the right intentions to

08:48showcase original music without the bells and whistles, it's a mission that we've stayed true

08:54to and I hope it keeps going for a long time. I hope that one day when I'm too old to run it,

08:58I can hand it over to someone and we can have that little established in, actually I haven't counted

09:03it back, but established in 2005, must have been the, 2004 must have been the first one.

09:09So that wouldn't have been too long after you did your first backyard home gig, would it?

09:14No, I didn't own a house back then. I might have played at someone else's house,

09:20but maybe I was invited, maybe I just turned up. I started touring as a hitchhiker in the year 2000.

09:27I left Mareeba with my guitar in my bag and I went to Melbourne and I was busking down the street

09:32and I remember, I don't forget the name of the actor, but the guy, Russell Coit,

09:36what's his real name? Aussie legend. I know the bloke you're talking about.

09:40One of my favourite actors of all time. And the reason he's my favourite actor is,

09:44I was busking in Melbourne and he came, he drunkenly wandered down the road from the ESPY

09:49and handed me his money and just chucked his, emptied his wallet into my coins,

09:53not like massive amounts of bills or anything, but, and he's like, man, you're great.

09:57And it was, and I'm like strumming away. I'm like Russell Coit, or I don't even think

10:01he was Russell Coit back then. Glenn, name forgets me. We'll chuck it here.

10:06Yeah. Anyway, he came by and then I went up to King's Cross and I was busking up there and this

10:11is no joke. I still laugh at this story. People at the bottom help each other. Like there's a hooker

10:16standing on this part of the street in King's Cross and I'm strumming away and the backpackers are

10:21coming out of the pubs. English backpackers would always get really drunk and give you their money if you

10:25can sing a few songs and you didn't even have to know the whole song. You could just strum a bit

10:29of it or play a bit. And this hooker says to me, do you mind moving up the road about five meters?

10:34This is where I've stood for the last 18 years. And I said, all right, I wasn't going to argue

10:39with her. This is her spot. So I move up the road and the customers come and go and she comes back

10:44with some money and she buys me a toly in a paper bag and gives me a beer for shifting out of the spot

10:50so peacefully. And yeah, then she's like dancing around and the next customer comes along and life

10:55is like, you realize you just got to work with people and you got to do your best and got to be

11:00professional. You got to deliver the good. So I'm just strumming away there and that was how I got

11:04started. Like you figure out if you can do something that is compelling enough that a drunk person can

11:09wander down the street and stop what they're doing and give you a few bucks and then they can wander off.

11:14Then maybe you can do something in the music business. That was like a starting point,

11:19number one for me, just basking. So now you're touring. It's the Nightbird album,

11:24yourself and Taya. You've chosen to collaborate instead of going out and doing your own album.

11:29Tell us more about that journey and that choice. Well, yeah, it's fun to have one of your best mates

11:35as your touring partner. And Taya sang backups on three of my albums and we started working together

11:40and during lockdowns and lockouts and whatever, I was still in America. I was in Nashville.

11:44And my brother who'd known Taya for many years, he suggested, oh, you need some female backing

11:49vocals on a particular song, contact Taya. And we just hit it off online. We were sending files

11:54back and forward and working. And then when I came through Sydney, when I moved back to Australia,

11:58we spent a night just strumming songs on the balcony. We'd started writing songs and we put out a duet

12:04called Only Guiding Light. And people were like, we want to hear more. And it just naturally happened.

12:08So five years later, after we started working together, we got our first collaboration album.

12:13We're sharing the lead vocal. We write songs together instead of partying after the gigs,

12:17we go write songs in the motel or wherever we end up. And we're really focused and dedicated.

12:22And we love the music we make together more than the music we make separately. Like it just works.

12:27And it's just fun. And I kind of feel like writing songs alone after writing like a thousand songs

12:33or something by now, you just sort of feel like you're rehashing yourself and you get a bit

12:37lonely or bored writing alone. Unless it's an inspiration that just hits you and you're like,

12:41bam. If I don't sit there and work on it alone, because I'd rather work on it with your mate,

12:47because then it's like hanging out. So it's just fun. And we get a result. We really follow through.

12:52So we've got seven or eight songs ready for another album. And we're only just launching this one now.

12:56So we're going to keep going. And it just seems to work. And it's fun. I love singing harmonies.

13:02And I'm happy when she's singing lead and I'm singing harmonies. And she's a great rhythm player.

13:07She's solid. So getting to work around all that is really fun. I think we've got, I think our best

13:13is yet to come. And launching this Nightbird album has been really cool. We're only about a month or

13:18so into the run. And we're going to hopefully take it to America next year as well. So we'll get around

13:23Australia everywhere we can for the next six months and see what we're going to do with it over here.

13:28And we'll be time to go over there again. I've heard you describe your life as being

13:32full of blessed moments and never a boring moment. And it sounds very much like you're

13:37still on that very fulfilled journey. What advice could you offer someone who's looking to chase

13:41that same spark in their own lives? My life feels effortless because I'm on purpose. I do what I

13:46love. And I really, I'm a people person. I love the energy of going places and meeting people and

13:52hanging out and fun. And I've never been really motivated by, I should say what I am motivated.

13:58I'm actually motivated by fun. I love a good laugh. I love a good joke. I love being silly.

14:04I'm not here to be cool or be beautiful or being needed or anything. It's like, I just love having

14:09fun. And so that's makes it easy to know what you're here for. So if we can get on stage tonight

14:15and bring a bit of joy and peace and love and fun to the world, we can make people laugh. And we have

14:20some sincere moments too. We sing from the heart too, but I know what I'm here for. And that's to be the

14:25guy that has the most fun though. Is there a particular song that you find yours or someone

14:29else's that really strikes a chord for you? It's different all the time because I don't

14:33stick to the same set list. And the song that people keep coming back for, there's a couple of

14:39them. Mama's cooking. It's a song about food. There's that many love songs out there. People want

14:43to hear songs about eating. It's the world's worst vegetarian blues song, but it's like peace and love

14:48is the song that struck home. Every bogan that ever comes to my head wants to rock out.

14:53My gig wants to rock out to she's going to Mexico. I'm going to jail. Somehow that just stuck and I

14:58bang it out. It's usually the last song of the set and smash a gear and then leave them wanting more.

15:03But there's another one to skydive when I do that little three string guitar. It started off as a joke,

15:08just smashing together as many songs as I could into a medley on three strings. And years later,

15:14it's like people just don't let me get away without doing it at a gig. So it's like,

15:18you can have a fancy Gibson or a nice Fender guitar to play, but they really want to hear

15:23your little three string cigar box that's like falling to pieces after all those years and

15:28carrying it around the world. And a buddy of mine in Ballina, he just built me a new guitar to replace

15:33the old cigar box that's had the second box placed on. He took all the specs and rebuilt it for me

15:38because some of those cigar boxes are pretty thin, you know, like they get destroyed over time.

15:42Now I have the newer version of the old faithful and three strings can do a lot of damage,

15:47you know, like you've got enough octaves there. If you keep going up and down,

15:52I have a lot of fun with that thing. Just you work within the limitations. If you've got three,

15:56three strings, you haven't got a lot of octaves to stay in the same place. So you're jumping around

16:00and if you really work on your intonation to keep your slide in tune, when you're flying around the

16:04neck, going up and down. I remember your 21st backyard gig, when you broke that out,

16:08your neighbor was not going to let you get away with quitting early. He nearly fell off the roof,

16:12dancing on his porch there next door. That was funny, yeah. He had his dog up on the roof too.

16:18His dog was up there with him. Wow. I couldn't see that from where we were, but yeah.

16:22Look, he was having fun and I like to think that, you know, I brought a little bit of life to

16:28the Glasshouse Mountains. It's a pretty little sleepy pineapple growing town. When you look at the other

16:33towns around the sunny coast, there's a lot of ones that attract a lot of tourists that they sell

16:38bath bombs and t-shirt, t-towels with like names on it and whatever. Glasshouse is still pretty

16:43down to earth. If you go to the shops, it's basic stuff that you need, that a regular family would

16:48need and it's not cluttered with like fancy stuff that only tourists buy, you know. So it's still

16:55a nice place to live and I'm pretty settled there. The backyard gigs, now I've started the studio gigs

17:00in my studio where we have 40 people, where we have acoustic songwriter stuff. So the backyard gigs are

17:06like 100 people on, usually on public holidays or Sunday sessions. And we have bands and guests

17:12out there. And the studios are now usually Friday nights when we have whatever friends of mine are

17:16touring through. We can just get the acoustics out and sing the soft stuff and different kind of

17:21magic, you know. It's like the laid back or stripped back. And you've got your own type of

17:25magic. Talking about bath bombs and t-towels, I burst into tears laughing with some of the t-towel

17:31quotes of wisdom that you shared from stage. Have you been working on any new t-towel

17:35quotes of wisdom? Nah, thoughts. Can you leave this with a good one?

17:40Oh, just stop killing volcanoes to make lava lamps. Stop murdering ducks to make duct tape.

17:49Charity projects from the Have Some Fun in Darwin Tonight Association. Get behind a good charity project.

17:56Well guys, you've been listening to 8Ball with the pearls of wisdom he's been sharing.

18:00Mate, thank you so much for your time. I know it's a busy whirlwind time for you at this stage.

18:05Man, it's all good. I'm relaxing out here in the garden. Thank you for what you do,

18:09spreading the word about musicians and your travels. Just nice conversations and

18:14man, we're just blessed to be part of a creative bunch of people and community. So

18:19thank you for being here tonight with us. Pleasure, mate. Looking forward to the set.

18:22We're going to get rocking and have a good time. We are. See you on the next one, guys.

18:37Bye.

18:39Bye.

18:41Bye.

18:43Bye.

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