It's the middle of winter and I began to feel a little ambitious, I had my eye on this place called Grind and Groove, the pictures on the myspace were quite inviting and I knew the guy who hosts the open mic on a Wednesday Ewan Cloonan.

274 Maroondah Hwy makes it sound a lot closer to Melbourne than it actually is but I felt like I needed to drive away and meet new people anyway. On my way, almost as soon as I got out of Ringwood I found myself driving on a stretch of road which was met by farms on either side, it was quite dark and little traffic which allowed me to put my high beams on and it gave me a warm feeling of home. I grew up in Churchill and each time you'd drive out of town (which was often) the high beams were used, it's a joy when sometimes the littlest thing can remind you of a nice place, it can really put you at ease and I needed a little bit of that tonight, I needed to be put at ease.

Unfortunately the whole evening inside the venue I wasn't at ease at all, trying to find a seat in the busy crowd, talking to strangers and I wasn't assertive when it came to handing out contact details. Though as usual I was nice, which is ok and when it was my turn to play I had 10 people brand new faces looking at me. Now I'm the type of guy to shy away from attention in a day-to-day basis but when it comes to me being on stage, I love it. I can't get enough of it, Brand new faces, smiling faces.

Two acts after me there was this 17 year old kid, his name was David and a phenomenal guitarist, a very percussive style, like Andy Mckee. I told him about the Spleen Bar and how he should talk to Tim Mc Millan and I reckon if I can somehow get him to meet James Moore that would be awesome for him too!

So there was a lot of talent there and a young crowd, it turned out to be a very enjoyable time, I called up Jakksen Fish and Kate Walker to announce my success, and when I said I'm in Healesville an hour drive from home, I'm sure it was a little bit of a shock. But next Wednesday, it's an Edinburgh Collective road trip. I really hope we can branch out and spread our wings to this little place with a lot of charm.

-Tim