Oxygen College Geelong has lodged plans for a new live music venue, following the most devastating period for performing arts in living memory.
St Albans Park’s Riordan Stewart-McDougall speaks to Luke Voogt about how “amazing” the venue would be for her and Geelong’s emerging musicians post-COVID.
Riordan Stewart-McDougall has dreamed of sharing music ever since she “claimed” her older brother’s $10 op shop guitar.
“I started writing a bunch of songs – as you do as a 12-year-old. They weren’t very good,” the 23-year-old remembered.
“My eldest brother was taking a few guitar lessons so my mum bought a $10 classical guitar from an op shop.”
Eventually, the guitar ended up in a cupboard, so Riordan grabbed it and began learning the chords.
“I kind of claimed that guitar as my own,” she said.
After just six months practicing, she began busking with a new guitar and a parent supervising.
“I really, really wanted to get my music out there,” she said.
“I was like, ‘right! I’m going to go out and do some busking’.
“I wanted to show people what I was working on, and busking was a really good way to do that – you have lots of people walking past and you have to grab their attention.”
After performing a few times at her church, Riordan started playing at open mic nights and landing regular gigs.
“I do get quite nervous before a gig but I love performing,” she said.
“Music is such a universal language. Just being able to look out into an audience and see them connect with a song you’ve written – it’s an amazing feeling.
“In 2019 my gigs were really picking up.”
Then COVID-19 hit, devastating the industry and putting the dreams of emerging artists, like Riordan, on hold across Geelong and the world.
“To hit 2020 and have everything go down the toilet was pretty devastating – music’s a huge part of my life. It was a struggle for a lot of us.”
Riordan had been a regular opening for bands at The Workers Club Geelong, which shut its doors this February amid the pandemic.
“It was one of the main live music venues in Geelong,” she said.
“So that was devastating for a lot bands and artists.”
But Riordan hopes plans for a new live music venue next to Oxygen College in Geelong West could provide a desperately-needed shot in the arm to the local scene.
“It would be massive for local artists,” she said.
“Just having a place to play – especially a place where young emerging artists can come together and showcase their creativity.
“You can meet and network with people who are just as passionate about music as yourself.”
And nothing beats a live crowd for testing new material, according to Riordan, who graduated a sound engineering course at Oxygen and is now studying music there.
“It’s so, so important just being able to see how people react to it, and really getting your heart out there and showing your creativity,” she said.
The proposed live music venue, at 23 Gordon Avenue, is in a commercial zone, with a residential growth zone to the immediate south, according to a planning report.
The venue would host a maximum of 400 patrons and operate sporadically within the hours of 6pm-12am Sunday to Thursday and 6pm-1am Friday and Saturday.
But the proposal faces a few hurdles yet, with just over a dozen people objecting to the plans after Oxygen College lodged them with council in May.
Some describe the plans as a “de facto nightclub”, raising fears of patrons making noise while exiting the venue and bass reverberating throughout the street.
Objectors also raise concerns over parking, and drainage and flood issues.
But Oxygen College chief executive Dominic Monea believes the objectors have misunderstood his “passion project”.
“It will 100 per cent not be a nightclub, ever,” said Dominic, who has been with the institute for 11 years.
“It’s not going to be seven days a week of really loud music or drunken hooligans spilling into the street – it’s not that at all. It’s a performing arts venue.
“They might have misconstrued what it’s about.”
The “hybrid education centre” would host about 15 shows a year, according Dominic, who pledged to soundproof the venue.
“The plan would be to integrate national and international musicians with local artists,” he said.
“The business model is based on education and giving emerging artists opportunities.
“There are suspended bass modules that you can get that prevent the transfer of bass through the ground,” he added.
“I will be spending hundreds of thousands of dollars on sound isolation. The last thing I want is to upset people with music they can hear in their own homes.”
Dominic, a musician of 40 years himself, invited objectors to visit the existing soundproofed rehearsal suites operating 9am-5pm at the adjacent Oxygen College.
“Come see how we isolate sound – they’d be blown away,” he said.
“We can have up to five bands playing at once and they can’t hear each other playing next to each other.”
The venue would take eight to 12 months to construct, if council approves the plans, according to Dominic.
Like Riordan, he believes the venue could provide a desperately-needed boost to the next generation of Geelong musicians amid COVID-19 and local venues closing their doors.
“It’s hard enough as it is without having venues available,” he said.
“This would be amazing for Geelong and the creative artists that are really struggling.”
