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Originally hailing from the Scottish town of Greenock, Strakerbarlow AKA Gareth O’Neill is a Perth WA-based singer/songwriter who is driven to get his songs out into the world. O’Neill was for many years a guitarist in various bands, but when pandemic complications skittled the last outfit he was playing in, he felt compelled to step forward as an artist in his own right. “I think when you're in a band it’s one of the best things in the world, but it also can be like trying to steer a cruise ship,” O’Neill says. “I feel like I'm getting to the age where I don't really have time to compromise. I just want to do it myself, the way I think it should sound.” That sound is earthy yet atmospheric. Ethereal at times but of flesh and blood and borne of a diverse range of influences, from the Rolling Stones to Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds and a melange of ‘60s UK folk. "There’s quite a bit of darkness in the songs,” O’Neill notes. “They can be quite cinematic, which I think really comes from the Bad Seeds. I really loved when they used to do that kind of driving, Ennio Morricone type stuff. “I also really like John Martyn, Bert Jansch and Nick Drake, that kind of stuff really influences how I play acoustic guitar. I think quite visually. I really enjoy arranging my music so it sounds like it could be in a film, evoking something sinister and atmospheric.” O’Neill’s songs evoke a feeling of twilight and that moment of reflection before night falls is there to embrace in songs such as Push Against The Sun, the weaving, open-tuned guitars embracing the lyrics that were inspired by Justin Cronin’s post–apocalyptic book, The Passage. “It's about two people who stay up all night by a fire, and they’ve both fallen for each other,” O’Neill explains. “They're both kind of feeling each other out, to see if something will happen... two people who don't want the night to end, basically.” Similarly, All Your Pretty Horses takes its title from a book by Cormac McCarthy, while sounding like Bruce Springsteen driving past the Joshua Tree. “It starts with somebody on a cattle ranch deciding to go for a ride,” O’Neill says, “they simply leave and go on a big adventure. It's really a song about change - different types of change in the world or change in your life.” Looking into the second half of 2023, O’Neill plans on releasing a new Strakerbarlow single every couple of months. It’s what he’s always wanted to do. "It's been my mission all my life to release some music,” he says. “At this point, I'm really just doing it for myself, to prove that I could have done it and that I can do it. I’m just happy to get the music out there and if some people like it, that would be great.”