Still Rockin' It - Cheryl Lee
Join Cheryl Lee That Radio Chick on Still Rockin' It for news, reviews and interviews with some of our favourite Australian musicians.
What are they up to at the moment? Let's find out .......
Still Rockin' It - Cheryl Lee
What has Piet Collins from The Sharp been up to lately? OR Rockabilly to Revival
Join Cheryl Lee - That Radio Chick on STILL ROCKIN' IT for news, reviews, music and interviews with some of our favourite Australian musicians
Piet Collins of The Sharp takes us on a musical journey from the band's rockabilly beginnings to their current revival with a fresh lineup and new music that honors their distinctive sound.
After their 1994 ARIA Top 20 hit "Alone Like Me" cemented their place in Australian music history, The Sharp took a lengthy hiatus, with Piey venturing into television writing (penning 70 episodes of Neighbours), radio work, and ultimately music education.
The conversation reveals a fascinating full-circle moment in Australian rock history. The Sharp has welcomed Scott Owen from The Living End as their new bassist—a band that once supported The Sharp when they were teenagers. "When I asked Scott and he said yes immediately, it just really gave us the energy and the impetus to really have another go at it," Collins explains, highlighting how this connection has reinvigorated the band.
Their debut album "This Is The Sharp" has been released on vinyl for the first time, responding to years of fan requests. Piet eloquently compares the vinyl listening experience to reading a physical book—both requiring active engagement versus the passive consumption of streaming or audiobooks. "It's a much more tactile experience than jumping onto Spotify and just mindlessly surfing. It's more of a journey," he shares.
The band's new EP "4" features three fresh tracks alongside a live recording of their classic "Scratch My Back," demonstrating their collaborative songwriting process where ideas transform through four-way contribution. Fans can catch The Sharp on their Adelaide tour this September, with shows at the Edinburgh Castle, Big Easy Radio and the Wheatsheaf—each offering a unique atmosphere for experiencing their blend of classic hooks and riffs with a contemporary edge.
Want to experience The Sharp's infectious energy and hear both their classics and new material? Check out their upcoming shows and connect with them in person—as Piet says, "We're always happy to meet with friendly faces."
What has The Sharp's Piet Collins been up to lately? Let's find out!
Get out when you can, support local music and I'll see you down the front!!
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that radio chick, cheryl lee, here. Welcome to the still rockin it podcast where we'll have music news, reviews and interviews with some of our favorite australian musicians and artists. The Sharp the band that had the hit Alone Like Me in 1994 in the aria top 20, are back, and they are back with a vengeance. Staying true to the Sharks' signature hooks, riffs and harmonies, their brand new EP, called 4, delivers a tougher, more dynamic edge to their sound. We were lucky enough today to catch up with Piet Collins, founding member of The Sharp, to find out all the latest goss. To catch up on podcasts from other favourite artists, simply go to thatradiochick. com. au. You're with Cheryl Lee, that Radio Chick, and I'd like to welcome into the Zoom room for a chat today Piet Collins, founding member of The Sharp. Thank you so much for joining us today.
Piet Collins:Thanks very much for having me. We're looking forward to coming back to Adelaide.
Cheryl Lee:Why wouldn't you right?
Piet Collins:Yeah, I grew up in Mount Barker. Oh, did you? Yeah, Adelaide's my hometown. Yeah so I always love coming back.
Cheryl Lee:Awesome and I did not know that. We've got some exciting things to talk about some new music, release of some old music on vinyl, there's the tour. For those that might not be fully au fait with the show, should we go back a tiny bit before we go forward?
Piet Collins:Let's do that.
Cheryl Lee:If I've done my maths correctly, you were a three-piece band, rockabilly band formed in 1990 in Melbourne. You've morphed, haven't you? You are now a four-piece.
Piet Collins:Yeah, that's right. So the original lineup existed from 90 to 95, and then we took a long hiatus and we did a few little comeback things and then our original bass player, Alan, didn't want to be involved anymore, which is totally fine. I'd reached out to Scott Owen from the Living End. Unbeknownst to me, he was a massive Sharp fan growing up. I was really stoked to be asked to join and he's been with us now for just over a year. And we've got a new lead singer as well, a guy called Louie Lee Feltrin, and he's been awesome. So the new line-up's been a lot of fun.
Cheryl Lee:We're really looking forward to hitting Adelaide so we can check it out. You guys did two studio albums in 93, this is the Sharp 94 Sonic Tripod. It's the first, the debut album, that's been re-released on vinyl.
Piet Collins:Yeah, that's right. So we got in contact with our old label, warner Music. Basically, a lot of fans had been on at us for years. You know why can't we get a vinyl copy, and we never even really considered it. And then Warner's put the whole thing together and so you can buy that vinyl album through our website or also through the Warner Australia website as well.
Cheryl Lee:And your website is.
Piet Collins:I reckon it's just thesharp. au.
Cheryl Lee:Are you saying that when it was originally released in 93, that it wasn't released on vinyl?
Piet Collins:No, it wasn't. 93 was sort of the era of CDs, the CD era and also the Kasingle, if anyone remembers those horrible things which used to get jammed in your car in your Gemini playback.
Cheryl Lee:Yeah sure.
Piet Collins:So yeah, it was never really an option. But then you know, there's kind of been a bit of an explosion of interest in vinyl in the last decade or so, I'd say, and a lot of people just prefer having that bigger format with the artwork and everything.
Cheryl Lee:yeah, we absolutely do. There has been, you know, that nostalgic resurgence of vinyl recently and all us oldies and even some of the young ones are really keen to get, you know, the big sleeves and you can think all about it.
Piet Collins:Yeah, just having that experience of being able to put on an album and listen to it from you know, start to finish, put on the B-side. It's a much more tactile experience than jumping onto Spotify and just mindlessly surfing.
Cheryl Lee:It's more of a journey, I think. An album where you have to, you know, like you say, physically turn it over to continue the story CDs, it's a little bit easy to like oh, I don't know about that, that's not my favorite. Skip, skip, skip, you miss part of the story.
Piet Collins:Yeah, I agree a hundred percent. It's almost like the difference between reading a book and listening to an audio file or something you know, where all the work's done for you, essentially, whereas if you're reading you've got to put in the work you know. Yeah, so it's a bit of a journey.
Cheryl Lee:You're so right. I've never thought of it that way. But when you're reading, your imagination is completely free to go wherever it wants to go, which isn't quite the same when you're listening to someone read it to you.
Piet Collins:Exactly right. I mean, the whole purpose of reading is to give your brain a workout and let it have a bit of a holiday, and I think a lot of people are not taking advantage of that anymore.
Cheryl Lee:Congratulations on the release of the vinyl. Good move.
Piet Collins:Yeah, yeah, yeah, it's been a lot of fun and also it's picked up a lot of resurgent interest in the band as well. And the music, yeah, and the music and the image and the whole thing that we put together in the early to mid-'90s. But we've also got new music out. We've just released a four-track EP which is imaginatively called Four.
Cheryl Lee:Yeah, I wondered if that was. Is that because it's four tracks? Is it your fourth work or because it's four of you?
Piet Collins:All of those reasons, all of the above. So it was a bit of an obvious choice, but I think it works pretty well.
Cheryl Lee:Well, we'll talk about those songs in a minute. I'm a little bit interested. Well, first thing, this one's a bit out of left field. Who knew that in 1991, Piet was a writer for Neighbours?
Piet Collins:Yeah, true. Well, actually not 91. I think that's good old Wikipedia being, you know Close enough, close enough yeah exactly, I didn't start at Neighbours until 97.
Cheryl Lee:Right.
Piet Collins:After the Sharp parted ways, I worked in radio for a couple of years at Austereo ACM. And then after that, I managed to score a job writing for Neighbours, which I did for about 10 years, wowee, yeah, that's a bit of a sidestep, it is, isn't it? Definitely a fun time. I think I needed a break from music. To be honest, I was a bit sort of musiced out. That was a nice thing to do, yeah.
Cheryl Lee:You know it's a classic show. It went for so long we used to run inside to watch it every night and it must be, you know, a little bit pleasing to be part of such an iconic Aussie show.
Piet Collins:Yeah, so primarily I was there as a storyliner. So you develop stories across the week. Those get farmed out to scriptwriters who then turn that into dialogue. But I also wrote 70 half-hour episodes for the show as well, which was not a bad effort, I thought back in the day.
Cheryl Lee:Yeah, you are multi-talented, aren't you?
Piet Collins:I think you've got to be these days, don't you? I don't think you can be a one-trick pony. You've got to kind of just keep on morphing into different worlds.
Cheryl Lee:Yeah, Well, I was going to ask you know, you guys had a little bit of a break, just a little bit. What do you guys all get up to in that downtime?
Piet Collins:My career sort of went into, you know, media, television, radio, did some print work as well. I didn't really play much music for almost a decade and then I sort of slowly got back into it. Got back into it. Charlie's always played. Ran a bookshop for a while in Melbourne. He now teaches young guitarists in schools and I also teach now so do you?
Piet Collins:Yeah, so I'm teaching at a place called Peninsular Grammar in the Mornington Peninsula in Victoria. Yeah, I love it. Yeah, it's good to be able to, you know, try and help some aspiring young people to do what they want to do.
Cheryl Lee:Bringing through the next generation of musicians.
Piet Collins:Yeah, and hopefully, you know, they'll take on board some of the, not just the musical lessons that I can teach them, but some of the life lessons as well, you know.
Cheryl Lee:Absolutely Good music teacher is so important. It's so good that the curriculum is still in schools. You know, we just need to teach music all the time because it has so many benefits.
Piet Collins:Yeah, absolutely. I couldn't support that anymore, and I hope that that's what's happening in South Australia. I'm sure it is.
Cheryl Lee:Anything else exciting that happened in that break.
Piet Collins:Got married, had a couple of kids, you know, did all that sort of stuff. How old are the children? 19 and 17.
Cheryl Lee:And do either of them have any musical talent? Are they following you into the family business? No, no.
Piet Collins:In a word, they've both dabbled with different musical instruments over the years, but I'm not the sort of person who wants you know, you must do this and you must do that. If the passion's not there for it, then there's just no point in trying to make people do things.
Cheryl Lee:I mean, all you want for your kids, isn't it is for them to be happy, whatever it is they do.
Piet Collins:Yeah, happy and well-paid, I think.
Cheryl Lee:Happy, healthy and earning a lot of money.
Piet Collins:Yeah, yeah, all of that.
Cheryl Lee:The group has stated that some of your early influences were the Kinks, the Beatles and the Easy Beats. Yeah, and you can hear that, can't you in the music.
Piet Collins:Yeah, absolutely. I mean. And the band actually started off being a flat-out rockabilly band. So the band was called 59 Sharp and it was all rockabilly. It was, you know, old school Eddie Cochran, Stray Cats, all of that rootsy rock and roll, little Richard. It's just, it's really timeless stuff. You go back and listen to that stuff now and you really appreciate how powerful and clever it was back all those years ago, you know.
Cheryl Lee:And it still holds up. It's still great music to put on and listen to and dance to.
Piet Collins:Yeah, it's amazing. I've been getting obsessed with Little Richard lately and it's just insane to think that someone like him was around in the early 50s being crazy, like a complete crazy man, singing some pretty naughty lyrics, and it was amazing. I don't think the world's seen anything like it.
Cheryl Lee:They really were trendsetters, weren't they? They sort of opened the doors and set the path for you guys to come along.
Piet Collins:Yeah, absolutely. And also the Living End. When they first started they were a band called the Runaway Boys Same thing, they just played all of that early rockabilly music. And the Living End actually supported the Sharp a couple of times. When they were just out of high school those guys would have been maybe 16, 17 years old and they used to like really look up to us because we were like the big kids you know.
Cheryl Lee:Well, it was good that you guys could work together and learn from each other, and now you've got Scott playing with you.
Piet Collins:Yeah, so it is. It's a real full circle moment. He's loving it and we're loving having him. And you know, Living End are a big Australian act and they just released a new album, so we have to work around what they're doing yeah but, yeah and but. But the Adelaide trip fits in well with everyone, so we're really looking forward to coming back.
Cheryl Lee:And does Scott? When he's playing with you guys, does he jump up on his big double bass and jump off?
Piet Collins:Does all of that Can't be stopped, can't?
Cheryl Lee:stop him.
Piet Collins:Can't be stopped. I mean, double bass, apart from being a great instrument, is also a great piece of architecture.
Cheryl Lee:It doubles as a architecture. It's not just a ladder.
Piet Collins:That's right as a launching platform.
Cheryl Lee:Well, that's good to hear, Do you think it was so? You performed your last gig in 95 at the Hallam Hotel and then really didn't do anything else for five years until you did a reunion gig in Melbourne, and then it was another 10 when you started playing shows in Adelaide, and then did you just think the time's right.
Piet Collins:Yeah, yeah, there was various things stopping us from getting back together and you know, full-time jobs and you know those kinds of things, all of that. All of that stuff. I mean like those kind of life things just happen to everyone, I assume. I assume. But it felt when I asked Scott and he said yes immediately, it just really gave us the energy and the impetus to really have another go at it and to bring back the music that was so popular back then.
Cheryl Lee:You're clearly loving it.
Piet Collins:Yeah, we're having a great time. Last year we did a run of support shows for James Rain, so we went to Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Gold Coast and it was great playing in front of his crowd, because a lot of his crowd is a similar sort of age group, maybe a little bit older, but playing to those packed rooms and to see people go. Yeah, I remember those guys and let's go and do it again. So, yeah, it's been a lot of fun.
Cheryl Lee:You've been back together sort of officially since March last year.
Piet Collins:Yeah, that sounds about right. I think we did our first show almost exactly a year ago with the new line-up. We've done about a dozen shows since then.
Cheryl Lee:At those shows you've been showcasing the This Is Sharp album like in its entirety yeah, that's right.
Piet Collins:Yeah, yeah. So we play the whole album plus some of the, you know, some of the better known ones off the second album, like alone like me and things like that. But yeah, all the stuff like talking sly and scratch my back, alone like me and those kinds of songs, those were the songs that got the biggest amount of airplay back in the day.
Cheryl Lee:I do love it when a band plays an album, because again it's got that story.
Piet Collins:Yeah, that's right. There's a sort of an ebb and flow to it. You know we don't necessarily play it in order.
Cheryl Lee:It's like it's on shuffle.
Piet Collins:Yeah, that's right, you can do that at home, you know. But we like to try and structure the show where it starts really strong and punchy and then there's a sort of a middle section where we get to play some of the slower, more intimate things and then Go out with a bang, go out with a monster bang at the end, you know.
Cheryl Lee:Have we got that to look forward to when you come to Adelaide?
Piet Collins:Yeah, absolutely that's what we'll be doing. That's what we'll be playing. Plus, we'll be playing a few tracks off the new EP. Yeah.
Cheryl Lee:It is actually available now on CD, or all your downloaded suspects.
Piet Collins:That's it. It's on Spotify, but you can also buy a physical copy of the CD if that's the way you want to do it. You can make different choices.
Cheryl Lee:Copies are available at the shows as well, which is good to know, yeah that's right. Four songs. Who wrote those?
Piet Collins:First one, Enemies, that was pretty much mostly Scott. How we work is that we bring a really, really strong, mostly formed idea into the rehearsal room. Okay, this is my idea, here's how we want it to go, and then, before you know it, it becomes a four-way writing process.
Piet Collins:So we've all contributed to all the songs, yeah the second song is called Skinny Dog and that's mostly charlie's psychedelic mind at work. And then the next one is mine, pretty much Tonight, which is kind of like a almost a bit of a you know social commentary about life being tough.
Cheryl Lee:But but let's go out and have fun anyway and then scratch my back is a bonus live track yeah, that's right.
Piet Collins:Yeah, so we. We recorded that at a place called Bird's Basement in Melbourne. We weren't intending to record it for release, but the engineer decided to record it and it turned out so well that, yeah, we just had to include it.
Cheryl Lee:You can catch the shark in Geelong, victoria. But what's important for us is we've got the Edinburgh Castle Friday 19th of September, big Easy Radio on the Saturday, the 20th of September, and the Wheatsheaf on Sunday 21st. You're spoilt for choice. You can go to one, two or three of the gigs.
Piet Collins:They're all quite different gigs. So the Ed, which is really just reopened that's our only central Adelaide show. But then the next night we're at Aldinga, which is way just opened, reopened. That's our only central Adelaide show. But then the next night we're at Aldinga, which is way down the coast, and the Wheats heaf is a good opportunity if you want to come and see us in the afternoon. So there are three quite different gigs.
Cheryl Lee:A Sunday shesh.
Piet Collins:Yeah, a Sunday shesh, of course.
Cheryl Lee:Then in October you're at the Brunswick Ballroom in Victoria as well. Plenty of places to see and hear and buy the CD and be reminded why we all love the Sharp.
Piet Collins:Yeah, come down to a show. We'd love to see you, because we only really get to Adelaide once a year. We have a lot of people showing up and they want us to sign T-shirts and albums and all that sort of stuff and we're really happy to do it. We're always happy to meet with friendly faces.
Cheryl Lee:That is lovely. Good luck with the launch of the new music. It's fantastic. Good luck with your tour. I'll see you down the front sometime very soon.
Piet Collins:Awesome Thanks, Cheryl.
Cheryl Lee:Thank you, Piet. Was there anything else that you wanted to touch on?
Piet Collins:Not really. I think we covered pretty much everything. Yeah, we got the history, we got what's happening now and we got the tour dates out and I think it's all a neat little package. You just have to try and make me look a bit more young.
Cheryl Lee:I need a filter for both of us you just get that young filter on there. Yeah, yeah, just get our good side. I'm leaving too. I know you're busy. I appreciate you spending a bit of time with us in the Zoom room today. I was trying to decide which song we might play. I think we might play yours. Would you like to introduce your song for us?
Piet Collins:Absolutely, Piet Collins here from the Sharp and we're about to hear off our new EP Four. This is the song Tonight, perfect, yeah, awesome.
Cheryl Lee:Thanks again.
Piet Collins:Bye.
Tommy Kaye:You are listening to Still Rocking it
Cheryl Lee:You're with Cheryl Lee, that radio chick. Thank you so much for joining me on the Still Rockin' it podcast. Hope to catch you again next time. Get out when you can support Aussie music and I'll see you down the front.