Show & Tell: Kirsty Tickle of Party Dozen
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Show & Tell: Kirsty Tickle of Party Dozen

What piece of equipment do you have to show us today?

This is my Yanagisawa alto saxophone. 

 

How did you come across this particular item?

After a long search and trialing many many instruments out, this was the one for me. I bought it from a music store in Canberra and was relieved when I liked this one as much as some saxophones twice the price.

 

What is it that you like about it so much?

She’s a Japanese beauty. Just a really standard gold lacquered sax. Many people go in search of that vintage horn, or something with a crazy finish, but I love my sax because it’s simple. It does everything I need it to do and sounds beautiful and it’s loud too. I also love that I don’t feel bad abusing it in Party Dozen. It doesn’t feel wrong to play it with bad technique or to shout into the bell. Every little nick or scratch on it tells a story of a good time had on stage.

 

How do you use it and how has it shaped the way you write music?

It took some trial and error to figure out my sax sound in Party Dozen. I started off using a contact microphone that was self made. Extremely DIY and, admittedly, sounded pretty bloody awful. Nowadays I use a DPA 4099 sax mic into a wireless unit so I can bounce around on stage and that goes through a pedal board and into a Marshall JCM800. The board has the usual culprits… a couple of octave pedals, some delay and reverb etc, but I like to change it up each show so I might throw in some wah, vibrato or a tremolo depending on what kind of mood Jonathan and I are in.

 

Tell us a little about what you have coming up?

We’re about to do some single launches on the East Coast and are very close to finishing our sophomore album! We’re just exploring at the moment really, doing what feels right and pushing ourselves further into sound. It’s a really exciting and creative time!

 

 

 

Catch Party Dozen on the road this month:
 

Friday April 19 – Old Bar – Melbourne, VIC 
Thursday April 25 – OAF Gallery Bar – Sydney, NSW 
Saturday May 11 – The Foundry – Brisbane, QLD