Being a Man in the Modern World..... Glenn Van Reason

Glen is very good with card tricks,
he is a singer and guitarist,
he does gigs around about the place
and is a pretty laid back bloke

What is it like to be a man in the modern world?

Blending work, family, kids, freedom, music, rural life.....

We talk to Glenn Card Trick Van Reason to find out......

The Main Reason….

Glenn Van Reason is a musician who lives near Windermere, in the hills towards the west of Mudgee. He is originally from Sydney but he grew up in Gulgong. He’s done everything from working at a truss plant and gaining qualifications as a carpenter to running computer networks. But his real love is music. Before becoming a professional musician, he was working 60 hours a week at his day job as well as doing gigs on weekends. His partner gave him a challenge to either quit his job or quit the music scene. She probably didn’t get the answer she was after when the job became history come Monday morning. From that time til now, music has been the primary gig.

Glenn studied music at Orange TAFE, and even taught computer studies in the building where our group meets. He really enjoyed teaching an 89 year old lady who wanted to join the class to learn how to type and send emails, kind of like the lady who came to our class today and was interested in joining. She was a retired teacher who visited the class while she was waiting for the library to open.

When Glenn was 12 he was a newspaper boy in Lilyfield, near Birkenhead Point in Sydney, on the banks of the Glebe Bridge. He bought his first album - a record by Patrick Hernandez – Born To Be Alive – a purchase which ignited a lifetime passion for collecting records. He collected an album a week and now have over 2,000 vinyls in his collection, including a limited edition Beatles White Album in white vinyl. He picked up a Pat Drummond album from the tip shop for 50 cents, and had Pat sign it for him.

Glenn does a midi show, playing guitar and singing over the top. He also does an acoustic duo with his lovely wife, Emily.

“My first few guitar teachers quit on me,” he says. “My hands were small and they said I’d never make it as a guitarist. Then I met Janice Bool and she took me under her wing, teaching me theory and stuff like that, which I wasn’t terribly interested in. I told her I didn’t need any of that because I was going to be a punk and break all the rules. Then she said yeah but you’ve got to learn the rules first”.

“Other musos teach to help make ends meet,” Glenn says. “I don’t. I will work on other projects, but I get to pick and choose. It’s a living – it’s not a great living but I love it. I’ve got no boss. I mean, you’ve always got a boss – I’ve just got a different boss every night of the week. You can’t just get up and pay half an hour then take a break – you’ve got to be reliable.”

“There’s pros and cons in the music industry – I don’t like packing up at the end of gigs. If I do 132 gigs for the year, with ¾ of a tonne of gear to lug in and out, we’re shifting 1,300 tonnes of equipment every year. And I go through about 12 kilometres of guitar strings a year too. One of the pros is that you’re at the pub every night – one of the cons is also that you’re at the pub every night.

“I’ve always had heaps of plans – and then, if one doesn’t work out, then who cares. When I left school I was going to be a maths teacher. Then I was going to be a computer engineer. I’ve always had great plans, but you know, if your plans don’t work out, you can always make another plan. I’ve always got more plans on the go. One thing I’ve had to learn as a muso is not to stress.  Sometimes you worry about the money and whether you’ll ever make ends meet – but I know now that things always work out.”

Glenn recommends the Willie Nelson card tricks: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KJ0ncVqrd8M

To find out more about Glenn, check out:

http://www.centralwesterndaily.com.au/story/779399/a-reason-for-making-tracks/


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