Jamie Thomas and his family migrated north several years ago and settled in Lismore to raise kids and blend working life with performing in a rock band. Jamie met with Sara Browne to talk about early rock years and finding a place in Lismore’s music scene.

I was born in Canberra, Ngunnawal country, and I lived there til I was about 10 and then my parents moved to Picton, south west of Sydney. My dad decided to run a pub there after being a public servant for a bunch of years. I lived there until I was about 17. I thought I wanted to be an actor but then the rock and roll bug got me when I was about 16.

I played my first pub gig at 16 at the Crossroads Hotel in Liverpool. We were paid fifty bucks and a case of beer. We told the publican we were under age - it was a high school band – the Juicy Texas Melons, which is a really bad name. I was the front man. I can play other instruments, a little drums, a little keys. I can play guitar ok – I write on guitar. But I don’t feel comfortable playing guitar live, I feel very inhibited. I like to supplement my singing ability with my ability to get in people’s faces. There’s a dual talent there and I like to take advantage of that and my ability of not caring about people think when I’m getting in their face.

I’ve always been a generally pretty explosive human, generally an extrovert. I’ve got an inherited dodgy serotonin regulator/cortisol regulator so I can overdose of serotonin and cortisol. I get more than most people. It means that I need to keep my emotions in check, which is fine.

At 17, I found a band that was way cooler than my high school band. It was full of people who were listening to the cutting-edge stuff of the time. This was the early 90s so its was the advent of some really great rock and roll coming out of the States and the UK, some of it with a heavier bent. There was some great heavy metal. Heavy metal was coming of age in the early 90s. I said to my Dad, ‘Dad Dad I’ve joined a new band.’ He said, ‘Not while you’re under my roof!’ And I said ‘ok!’ and I moved out of home.

I left Picton and moved to south west Sydney, Campbelltown. Back then it was the outer, outer suburbs. My parents weren’t at all supportive of my rock and roll life. My mum moved to a Christian commune after my parents split up when I was about 14. I was falling over myself to be weird at that time – teenagers smell and they’re weird. That was interpreted as satanic by the organisation that my mum connected to. It’s funny that I’ve had really negative experiences with Christianity and it’s not something I’ve rejected. I’ve really faced Christianity and absorbed it on my own terms and I think that’s a clever thing to do with religion. I most definitely consider myself Christian. It is by far the myth of choice when it comes to what I want to etch on to my soul.

I would say that Christianity is a myth. And the more you look at it as a myth and less as history, the better it gets. Is it more important than all of the other myths that are out there? No. Is it the one that speaks to me directly because I’ve got experiences of it since I was five years old? Yes. I’m a Christian because that’s what’s deepest in my soul. It was introduced to my soul at age probably five, maybe even younger, and it’s still there today.

My mum came unannounced to a show once we were playing in Sydney on a Friday 13th. This was after I’d been treading the boards for a while so we had quite a following. Of all the dates that my mum could have come to a show.. being deeply religious. There was a lot of satanic motifs. I think satanism is inherently a bit dumb. I mean if you’re a satanist, really you’re just a Christian but like a different, fruity one. All Christians are a bit different and a bit fruity. So why is satanism any different to the Jehovah’s Witness? It’s the same thing. They believe in the same characters, it’s the same myth. Mum pretended she liked the gig but she didn’t.

The peak of my musical career was in 1999. I was nominated for an ARIA for best rock album with the band Henry’s Anger. I moved back to Canberra in my early 20s, following some guys that I’d played music with before. We became relatively popular. Triple J picked us up, back when people listened to radio. Now I wonder, why do we need a youth station? Do youth listen to radio? Some of them must. Maybe call it ‘youth media.’ My kids don’t listen to the radio at all.

I was never making a living from music. We were alt metal, alt rock in the 90s and naughties. The older I got the less metal I got. When I first left home, I was selling vacuum cleaners door to door. I’ve done all sorts of stuff, I’ve had a really weird career arc. I ended up working in Martin Place for the banks. I was a superannuation administrator, then I became a financial planner. I hated that industry so badly that I left that and became an early childhood teacher. I worked as that for six or seven years. Then I thought I wanted to work less and get paid more so I started working in IT and that’s what I do now.

I moved between Canberra and Sydney for a while and I met a dear human. We had our first child when we were living in Redfern. We bought a place right near the Block just after the Redfern riots. When Peta was born, there was still a lot of heroin in Redfern. The area got a lot cleaner later on after we left. But at the time we were thinking, do we really want to bring up our kids here? So, we decided to move to the Northern Rivers when number two, Scarlett, was on the way. We’ve lived here ever since. We don’t live together anymore but it was the right move to come here.

All of the trials and tribulations that I’ve been through since moving up here, I think would have happened anywhere. As humans we go through crises, regardless of the environment. I think this a good environment definitely to bring up my kids because it’s not too big so that you’re still accountable for your actions. In a city, you’re not. In a big city you can be a horrible person to everyone and still meet new people every day to be horrible to. In a small town you can’t get away with that, you’re accountable for who you are. Community makes a lot more sense up here. We’ve found people up here that mean something to us and to our family. Its home now. It’s the longest I’ve stayed anywhere.

I like to build a character as a performer, especially with my current act - Space X Dragon. It’s way healthier to have a character to go to as a live performer so that you don’t have to bring yourself. If I can leave myself off the stage, my feelings aren’t hurt, my insecurities and inhibitions just aren’t there. I’ve got this other character that I can completely lean into. I think this is why I used to like acting. Its not to pretend to be someone else but to create characters where you can explore different sides of yourself. In some ways, I do like to be like Captain Aegis, my character. I like to be majestic and strong and powerful and willed with passion and stuff like that. But that’s not me all the time. Sometimes I’m the antithesis of that. But with Captain Aegis I can explore what that means and take it to it’s illogical extreme without having to be myself. I don’t think I would personally be that bombastic in real life but the Captain can.

There’s a great scene up here. I get excited when I think about bands like Loose Content and Liminal and the punk rock scene here with bands like Masochists and Gusset Rats. I get excited to work with other musicians in cool, casual formats. It’s just that kind of place. It does tend to attract some creative people and I think finally I’m taking full advantage of that after being here so long. Scarlett was born here so we’ve been here 15 years.

Scarlett is into music. She’s a singer and plays bass and guitar. It was very important to me that I taught both my kids how to play guitar, for no other reason so that they can be a person at a party who can pick up a guitar and twizzle out a couple of songs. Scarlett has a beautiful voice, great sensibility in approaching music. Peta is visually artistic, definitely gets that from their mum.

I work for North Coast Radiology and one of the sonographers actually pulled me aside recently, when Space X Dragon had an article on the Lismore App, and said, “is this you?” This was a picture of me with my armour on as Captain Aegis. Most of my workmates don’t know. Once again, I’m not in character at work. I’m not shy about them knowing. I don’t want to be that guy that is constantly trying to tell all his workmates to come see his crazy space rock band. Maybe I should be better at self-promotion. I have to admit, that’s one thing that I’ve never been very good at. I tend to try let people decide by engaging in my art.

Photo by Raimond De Weerdt