Love. Murder. Songs.

I’ve been wanting to write about Garrett Kato for about a year and a half now. We arrived in Byron Bay on a humid day in early march 2013. I was ecstatic. I remembered how my dad used to love this place and I couldn’t wait to take in the hippie-surfer town again. We did all the typical quaint stuff, observing the surfers at The Pass, walking to the Light House, sleeping in a tepee, organic bircher brekkie and all…

But what we couldn’t plan and was the best of all, was seeing Garrett Kato and his drummer play live in an alleyway.

We sat down on the corner of this cute bar. Just for a glass of wine. And in front of us, on a vintage carpet, was this singer/guitar player and his drummer, all set up. It wasn’t just a guy on the street, he was hired by the bar. I drifted into a daze and felt so completely happy and blissful at this moment in time and I wanted to support his music so I bought the CD, Love Murder Songs. And I’m so glad I did. This album became our Official Roadtrip playlist and I couldn’t have imagined better tunes to see the open roads unfold, smell the sea breeze and sip wine on top of our 4×4 Toyota baptized Harper.

Everytime the music on the radio bored us, I, as the designated live-GPS and official DJ, would go: “Ok uno mas!” and play my favorite tune in the album: Love is an Advert.

Back in Paris after the Roadtrip, this album was my constant link back to Oz. When I was battling fierce Parisians in the metro, after another long and boring day at work, this was what made me unwind.

Back in Oz, I used Garrett Kato’s tunes again in my last Surftrip Playlist to Ulladulla and Jervis Bay.

And still today in Prague the songs stick with me. Somehow, they are still appropriate when I am walking across the Vltava looking at the golden palace against the bright blue sky and the pink clouds. Or when I am reading a book under a plum tree in Petrin. Or when I am writing at my new favourite coffee place Dobra Trafika (sorry Atlas Kiosk… I am being very unfaithful…) How? I don’t know. But have a listen and you might find yourself in the same situation as me. In awe and at peace with his music…

Do you have any tunes that stick to your skin like that?

XoXo – From Prague with Love.