Ned Branchi's Page

Profile Information

I am an:: Indie Artist

Artist's or Band's Name: Ned Branchi

City & State: Melbourne

Country: Australia

Music Genre(s):: Alternative

Bio:: Ned Branchi is a singer and songwriter from Melbourne, Australia whose career began in the late eighties with many bands including "Ned & the HDs", Angry Marrows" and "The Horla" just to name a few. In the early 90’s Ned was a founding member and singer-songwriter of "Bigger Than Jesus" who went on to release his material on 3 CDs "Killervision", "Soulfeast" and "Rough Justice". In the late 90’s Ned founded "Spoon", an Alternative grunge rock band forged in the sweaty pubs of Newcastle, taking Newcastle by storm and soon becoming one of the biggest bands on the East Coast of Australia. Extensive regional touring saw the band developing a massive fan base of loyal punters. Having won critical praise for their live performances, "Spoon" released a self titled mini album in 1997’. The album was engineered and produced by Aria award winning engineer Wayne Connolly at Charing Cross Studio, Sydney Australia. The songs are delivered in a classic ‘rock’ format and are a heady mix of pure ‘Pop’, ‘Gutterfunk’ and ‘Folk melodies’. Songs from the “Spoon” album also feature in 2 Surfing Movies, “Pulse2” by Justin Ganes and “Injuiced” by Brook Sylvester. Due to a conflict of interest with another band by the name of “spoon” from Texas, the “Spoon” album is now available as a solo title, "Ned Branchi – Spoon”. Returning home to Melbourne in 2000, Ned began a stint in Ethnomusicology at Monash University and performed in an Indonesian Gamelan Orchestra under the direction of renowned Gamelan Masters, Pak Koswara Sumamidjaja and Pak Kartomi. Training in the Gamelan instrument “Saron”, culminated in the performance of the “Sankuriang”, a dynamic play that tells the creation story of the "Sunda Culture" in West Java. Having launched a solo career in 2001 Ned has now recorded “StKilda Sun” with renowned engineer and producer James “Oysters” Kilpatrick. Whilst in Yogjakarta, Indonesia 2009 he wrote, recorded and produced the single "Garbage Man". This song combines grunge rock and Gamelan and is a poetic reflection of modern day life in Indonesia. This composition was for the exhibition, “Museum Of The Unworthy” at "Cemeti Art House", (Rumah Seni Cemeti), Yogjakarta, Indonesia. In 2010 this composition and the experience of recording with traditional styles of gamelan inspired the beginning of a new album project “Hati Ke Hati” (Heart To Heart) in Yogyakarta, Indonesia with local Gamelan musicians and performance artists. This album was recorded with local Yogyakarta musicians at "Blass Recording Studio", Yogyakarta and was engineered by Mas Prass, Mas Felix and mastered in Melbourne, Australia by James Kilpatrick. Since 2010, Ned Branchi has also been engaged in underground Indonesian projects, as bass player with "Dysparoenia" and Songwriter, Vocalist and Bass player with "Azrael's Armour". In November 2010 began the new band project for live performance and recording "Ned Branchi & The Pandavas". This band is comprised of extraordinarily gifted local musicians from Yogyakarta, Indonesia, many of whom are from "Institut Seni Indonesia" ( Indonesian Art Institute). "The Pandavas" are five legendary heroes from the great Indian epic "Mahabharata", which is also one of the great classical stories featuring in Indonesian "Wayang Kulit" (Shadow puppet plays), and classical theatre, not only in Indonesia but many other countries, especially in South and South East Asia. Ned Branchi is currently performing regularly in Australia and Indonesia and currently in the process of recording new albums for release in 2011.