While we were shivering in minus-five-degree temps last weekend, one half of Canberra’s electronic duo, Peking Duk, was sipping Casamigos margaritas in Byron Bay at a surprise DJ set for Splendour In The Grass.
This news is not to make you jealous, but rather to show that Canberra’s home-grown music talent, Adam Hyde, is mixing it with the best.
And if it wasn’t for a nightclub called Lot 33 in Kingston in the mid-2000s (now closed), Adam says he wouldn’t be where he is today, sipping tequila cocktails at Byron.
“As far as club music goes, Canberra was one of the world stops for the world’s biggest DJs when Lot 33 was a venue in Kingston,” he says. “The owner really cultivated a great culture around electronic music at that time. We wouldn’t have a career if it wasn’t for that.”
Adam was a guest of Casamigos at Byron to spring a surprise on the sweaty crowd – a DJ set under his alter ego moniker, Keli Holiday. And he did Canberra proud. He promises to head back here mid-September to visit his aunt and nieces and get amongst the live music scene.
“In my time growing up in that city, I was lucky enough to meet so many talented people that really elevated me, helped me believe in myself, to even dream about where I am now,” he says.
“The mentality that’s projected from other cities onto Canberra is nothing but fuel for the fire, for the creative hub that it can be.”
Adam’s next stop is Joshua Tree in the middle of the desert in California, to do some recording. A far cry from icy Canberra.
“Tell you what, I spent a lot of those mornings in Canberra scraping the ice off my windscreen at 4.30am to go and open up cafes and that was not fun,” he laughs.
“I used a credit card and then I graduated to a tool. That Canberra cold cuts through any apparel that you’re wearing. I haven’t felt cold like that since Chicago. That’ll never leave me, it’s permanently etched into my mind.”
If you’re wondering where his moniker “Keli Holiday” came from, it was from a crappy holiday.
“I’d just been through a breakup and before I knew it, four weeks had passed and I’d written the album but everyone else had been on holiday,” he says.
“I had this album that was kind of like a pretty twisted holiday. Then I thought, what’s a twisted holiday? Imagine the [Ned] Kelly family on a holiday. That’s pretty twisted.”
