Maria Majsa Back bedroom, Pakuranga, Auckland 1978I held the popsicle to my left ear while my brother stabbed away at my right. It was a warm day and I could feel the popsicle oozing down my neck. Blood and raspberry, an indistinguishable mess.
...Jacek Koman owned that studio. He snarled, sang, and sneered. I had never before watched a character of mine brought to life, off the page and into the room. The experience was intoxicating....
Carl Dickens Footscray, Melbourne, 2015Annika sulked in her room; she figured someone had run Wolfgang over in the street and just chucked him in a bin. She blared Elvis Presley songs from her stereo and told of how she and Wolfgang used to sit outside together and listen to The King.
Ethan Andrews The Standard, Darlinghurst, Sydney January 17, 2013To clear my conscience I needed to make amends and I had to do it the only way a 19-year-old searching for an anonymous stranger knows how. On Facebook.
Darren 'Smokie' Dawson Newport, Melbourne 1992As the opening chords of Under the Milky Way softly made their way through the speakers, I asked the woman with whom I was planning to spend the rest of my life to dance with me. “I like this,” she whispered.
Bruce Jenkins Bentleigh East, Melbourne, 1969How different from tinny snatches of tunes captured from passing transistors: like smells drifting from strangers’ kitchens. This time I would actually hear an album on a real stereo.
Laura Grace Weldon Ohio living room,1970Supervising little kids’ baths was one of my dad's chores in the parental division of duties, so he’d sit on the toilet lid singing and strumming the guitar while we played in the tub.
Azlan Jahan, post 1947-48 Kashmiri War Fiction by Zainab NasimThe gramophone resounds in the galleries of the haveli, stirring it awake. As the needle twirled around delicately on the vinyl, he closed his eyes softly settling comfortably into his rocking chair with his stack of letters and a lit cigar.“It is not like I am not proud to be a martyr’s father, Bittoo ," he said to his grandson.
Newport, Melbourne Saturday 2 July, 2016Stereo Stories performed a 45-minute bracket at the 2016 Newport Folk Festival in Melbourne on Saturday 2 July. We were the first cab off the rank, with a midday gig on the festival's main stage at the Newport Bowls Club. Take a look, folks.
Rijn Collins Joutsa, Finland. October 2015 The feminist in me battles with the linguist, and I waver between correcting his English and biting his arm. I do neither, as the song on stage floats into my awareness.