How it all started

I began to play music at the age of six and the instrument of choice (my parents’) was the accordion. One of my earliest memories involves my teacher playing his version of ‘happy birthday’. Although I didn't know what the word lush meant at the time, I certainly have a very strong reminiscence of the feeling his exotic new harmonies elicited in me – I could almost taste the chords and it really affected me in a special way.

I progressed little by little, learning to read music. Actually I learnt to do this before learning to read English! My parents spoke to me in Italian, which became my mother tongue during these early years, notwithstanding the fact that I was born in Australia.

Gradually my interest in music intensified. Mind you, I wasn’t one of these kids who practiced all day: music came naturally to me and I was able to learn pieces and commit them to memory very quickly. I remember learning some of them on the morning of a competition. I would set the alarm clock for 6am and away I went! Even then I left things to the last minute.

Very soon I began to win talent contests, quite a few of them televised, and I suppose this encouraged me to want to get better. I used to play those novelty pieces like Variations on the Carnival of Venice and the Flight of the Bumble bee. Actually, it was quite virtuosic music even if it did lack profundity.

Along with my brother, Dominic, on drums, I spent most Saturday nights playing accordion at local Italian functions.

On the day of my 14th birthday, I made my first record. Unfortunately…or fortunately, the record company closed its doors only months before it was due to be released: the tapes, thought to be lost, were miraculously found – they had been stored at the ‘Screen and Sound archives’ in Canberra.