Born and raised in the Australian outback, Markus Meier (30) has started to attract attention Down Under with his unique brand of country rock and an ongoing stint on the road with perhaps the most famous name on the Aussie country scene, Lee Kernaghan.
This successful - and undoubtedly beneficial for Markus - pairing comes at a time when the North Territory boy is currently riding high with his third album, Modern Days, a thoroughly modern-sounding effort that has already yielded one number one single in the form of the uplifting, A Perfect Night.
Markus Meier: On the Road with Lee Kernaghan
"I’ve been on tour with Lee for about 18 months now," confirms the affable star from his Queensland home, "and it’s been a real experience for me because he’s one of the bigger acts in Australia. He’s sort of taken me under his wing a little bit and shown me the road and it’s my job to go out there and warm the crowd up for him, basically.
"It’s been a really good ride. Big crowds and high-energy shows and I get up and play in the band and sing with him after I’ve done my thing, so it’s been a really good experience. He didn’t have to help me, but he’s gone out of his way to, so I’m really lucky."
Markus Meier: Growing Up in the Bush
"Growing up, I was very, very remote – I didn’t have a lot of outside influence," explains the talented young musician, revealing how he initially got started on the road to stardom, "so it was good in one way and bad in another. Good in that as a kid, there were no guitar teachers or music lessons or anything like that, so out of boredom, I taught myself to play guitar out of a chord book that an uncle had sent me for Christmas.
"That’s how I picked up guitar and just listening to the radio and playing along to the songs - that’s how I learnt to play guitar and sing. It influenced my songwriting because just being in the bush and being in the desert, there’s not a lot out there, so you have to use your imagination a fair bit.
"When I did finally get to go to a couple of the bigger cities… even today, as an adult, I go to places and see things and I guess it surprises me to see things because of where I come from and where I grew up – it was quite unique."
Markus Meier: A Mix of Styles
Suite101: How did you first become interested in country music?
"Originally all I had were my parents’ cassette tapes, so yes, it was a bit Johnny Cash, a bit Elvis – that kind of thing. But I didn’t hear rock music until I was about 12 years old and I thought, 'What in God’s name is this?!'
"But over the years, I got a real love for all genres of music and I think it probably shows in my style of country. I’m not really traditional country, I’m sort of more country rock - probably more to the rock side. In Australia, you’ve got traditional country, which I’d guess you’d call bush-ballady-folky-type-country and I don’t really fit into that category."
"If you put your earphones in my i-pod, you’d probably shake your head...I’ve got a bit of everything in there and influences from Bob Dylan to Creedence Clearwater and that kind of stuff and then modern music as well.
"Anything from the Foo Fighters to Coldplay to Kings of Leon influences my style as well. Even though I am a country artist, I listen to anything to pull the good out of that style and try and put it into what I do."
Markus Meier: Opening for The Black Crowes
"I was about 10 years old and I was busking down at a market up in Darwin up in the top end of the country," states Markus, recalling the moment when he knew that he wanted to follow a career in music, "and a promoter walked past and saw us play.
"When I say us, my younger brother and I, we were both busking on the street and he walked past and saw us playing and said, 'Would you guys like to support The Black Crowes?' The Black Crowes were a big touring act that were coming through at the time and we said, 'Yeah'.
"We were about 10 and 12 or 10 and 11 - somewhere round there - and that weekend we ended up supporting The Black Crowes at the sports stadium there in Marara for 6,000 people and ever since then I was hooked.
"I was scared out of my brain, obviously, as a 10 year old, but just getting up on that stage and playing for all those people and having them clap after the songs that we’d written as kids, it was just amazing. I was hooked after that and I’m still doing it 20 years later.
"It just goes to show you, you can start very, very humbly on the street busking for gold coins and you just never know where you’re gonna end up."
Adrian Peel - Adrian is an English freelance writer and journalist currently living in Mexico. Over the past eight years, he has had articles, features ...
Join the Conversation