Would you mind telling us a bit about yourselves and any passions, hobbies or interests you have? 

Hi! I’m Aaron Zapower, and I’d say that my main passion is music (which you probably could’ve guessed). I’ve been playing music for around 10 years and it’s been at the centre of my life ever since. I’m in year 12 now, and things have been a bit hectic, but I always try to find time to calm down and play some bass, guitar or banjo. 

Hello I’m Dexter Taylor Gibson-Cummins Holman Hoffman Butt III. I’ve been making art in various forms of film, music and drawings since I can remember. I constantly find myself engrossed in mildly inconvenient and unusual situations that tend to fuel my creative doohickies. My current project is finding the balance between self-expression and self-obsession in my new album, WEDNES.

Hey, I’m Seth. I also like music and have been a multi-instrumentalist for about 10 years. My main purpose in my art, whether it be sound, ink on paper or skin, film or written word, my main goal is just to create something that serves as a snapshot of whatever’s going on in my world at the time. It’s important to me that I create something I enjoy but others can derive some sort of feeling from. I also like rain, cats, and Dexter’s shoes.

Congrats on your majorly successful MyProject event that took place at the Youth Centre in September last year. Can you share with us the backstory behind the event, how it came to be and what inspired the name of the event? 

It started with Chris (Youth Programs Officer) coming up to us (Seth and Dexter) while we we’re jammin in the Youth Centre’s music room. He gave us the idea of us planning a concert. From there it just sorta worked out and the ball kept rolling. Eventually, Aaron joined the band and the project just kept getting bigger and better. The name came from the original placeholder  ‘Jam Night’ and we added the Cherry as a reference to Seth’s old music name ‘churra’.

It’s great to see so many young people pursuing their passions in the area of performing arts. Are there any major aspirations / inspirations that you have as a group or perhaps as individuals? 

It’s kinda funny because we all sorta get into the same stuff together more or less. One of us will show up to practice and just chuck on a song they heard and we’ll just end up writing songs just like it for a while. We’re all pretty massive fans of Tyler, the Creator, Ween, Thundercat, Bowie, Mike Krol, Big Thief, Outkast and Andwer. Love Andwer.  Aaron loves Hall and Oates and Björk. Dexter fiends over Mark Ronson. Seth is a musical butterfly who flutters his wings every which way. 

I’m hearing whispers of a potential Cherry Jam evening returning later in this year, which is very exciting! Can you give us any insights on what to expect? 

We can’t say much… but we can tell you that it’s probably not gonna be called Cherry Jam again, but it will still include a range of amazing local talent, just like last time. You should expect it within the back end of Term 2/Early term 3. Unfortunately we can’t say anything more than that. Because we don’t know.

The event featured an eclectic group of performers and performances, from five piece bands to melodic trios and even a poetry reading! This drew quite a crowd of young people, what could the local community do to support you and the local music crowd? 

There are tons of ways you can support local artists. Local newsletters and bulletins (just like this) are a great way of keeping informed, as well as following local artists on socials (@andwer.b on instagram get on that we will love you forever). Also, keep an eye out around the area for posters and such. As for us, we’re gonna be doing very regular gigs around the northern beaches/city area as well as youth centre events… stay posted. posted. 

In fact, this coming Friday, March 3rd, Andwer will be performing at the

youth centre’s World Pride Block Party. Come down and say hi!

Do you have any tips for other young people about pursuing their own passion projects?

Just create as much as possible. Don’t worry about how ‘good or bad’ what you’re making is and NEVER DELETE things you think are crap. As long as you’re getting to know and growing your confidence in your craft, it’s always worthwhile. It’s never going to be an overnight thing, but when you look back on your old work compared to what you’re doing now, you’ll learn so much about how far you’ve come and where to go next. Never create without reason, do what you feel expresses how you feel and make it for yourself and your personal satisfaction. Never make it for anyone else and NEVER do it because you think you ‘should’ be. There’ll be artistic highs, lows and plateaus. Just go with the flow. 

You’ve just finished writing your autobiography, what would the name of the book be?

Big Andwer: We covered Frank Ocean once.