JOWE HEAD

Jowe was christened Stephen Bird by his parents, but he was renamed by his school-friend Nikki, with whom he started playing guitar in 1972. He started various musical projects with Nikki, Epic, and Phones. He mainly played electric guitar, but also contributed balalaika and bass guitar, and started to make sounds with found objects, like radio sets and kitchen utensils. In Swell Maps, Jowe was mainly responsible for the bass-guitar parts, but also contributed peculiar songs and unusual instrumental pieces. He also sang lead vocals on some of the material.

Since Swell Maps broke up in 1980, Jowe has made many solo records, and collaborated with a wide range of musicians. He performed in Television Personalities with Daniel Treacy for eleven years, between 1983 and 1994, playing bass guitar, keyboards, trumpet and backing vocals.

Being a versatile sort, Jowe also played bass in the Long Decline, dueted with his ex-partner Sue (aka Mercedes Mole) in the Househunters, and shared the singing and guitar-playing in Olive’s Hairy Custard. He also sang with the Palookas, Angel Racing Food, and The Demi-Monde.

More recently, Jowe was playing guitar and keyboards with a band called Rude Mechanicals, and with Rose McDowall (ex-Strawberry Switchblade). One of his most recent projects is composing and singing for an experimental band called Infernal Contraption and another project called Kandide. He also collaborates with cellist/vocalist Jasmine Pender (aka Rotten Bliss) in a project called Eleventh Hour Adventists. Recently, he composed his first film score, for a feature film by Grant McPhee.