Robert Mackay
How did you get your band together?
I met Sarah’s father Garry in the late 90s at a blues show featuring Phil Manning. We were both picked to play with Phil Manning in his last set. We decided to form a band which originally did covers. Until we adopted songs Garry had written which show the formation of the Bobkatz.When Garry sadly passed away in 2019, Sarah stepped into Garry’s shoes as lead singer which Im sure he is very happy with.
What inspired you to start playing and making music?
I loved music from the 70s such as Daddy Cool and Skyhooks. Inspired by these bands I learned to play guitar as a teenager. I practised an average of five hours a day everyday. I guess you could say guitar was an obsession. Being able to work on Garry’s original material in The Bobkatz has been the pinnacle of my music career & led me to opening my own recording studio working with artists from all over Australia. I’ve produced over 140 albums over the last 16 years or so including most of The Bobkatz albums.
What instruments do you play?
Guitar, bass, mandolin, mandola, ukulele , piano, banjo & bouzouki. Almost anything with strings.
Tell us about your favourite performance in your career?
Playing the big stages at Tamworth and The Gympie Music Muster.
Which qualities do you think make a great musician?
Dedication to music itself is so important along with being true to yourself about music. It is also important to not feel as though you are in a heircahy of who is better than who, that’s just so unimportant & unhelpful when it comes to creativity & growing as a musician.
What’s your upcoming gigs?
We have a series of house concerts here in Hervey Bay in October and November. These shows best suit our story songs and we have had great success with them here in the Bay and in Bundaberg. We are off to Tamworth in January 2023 to perform in the big festival & are planning gigs in Albury and other regional areas soon.
Sarah Koehler
What inspired you to start playing and making music?
I can never remember a time when Dad wasn’t playing his bass and singing in bands. We spent weekends at his rehearsals, sleeping under pub tables, jumping up to sing harmonies from about the age of 10… Music was always pulsing through my veins, and dad made music come to life and feel so right to me. To watch him turn from the cover band man, to a self penned writer of songs that told stories of all things and more that I felt at home with, Music was always going to be part of who I was and am today.
What instruments do you play?
I was the kid who if I cant pick it up or master it straight away, Ill throw it to the side and try something else I might be able to be better at. I self-taught myself Keyboard when I begged Santa for a keyboard, and then the poor town of Howlong NSW (growing up) had to sit through me playing the National Anthem at Friday Morning Assembly at school. Those poor people!
For a few years, I played some fairly “ordinary” guitar in a cover band here in the bay, and spent some “rock and roll” years as lead vocal for a few local bands. I have only just recently (againnn for the 50th time) have decided I need to commit some time to learn some more guitar. Singing was always my thing. Harmonies were something dad taught me from a young age, and I am blessed to have been taught such skills.
Tell us about your favourite performance in your career?
Music hasn’t really been about performance to me. Music, gigs, stages and sweat, beer, and cover songs in local pubs were what I found in my music career. I loved every minute of it.
The first time I actually realised how much I adored and felt like myself, was being on stage at a sit down, respectful, quiet and supportive audience in 2020 when we did our tribute Show for my dad Garry Koehler at the Tamworth Country Musci Festival. I don’t think any gig will match that evening. #Doinitfordad
Which qualities do you think make a great musician?
I think if you have that love for music that sits in the centre of your being, and that when you perform and be up on that stage singing/playing and feeling every word that leaves your lips or resonates from your instrument… You just have to love what you do… its not about fame, its not about fortune… Its about loving what you do, and who you are when you are doing it