Australian independent artist Lachy Doley is kicking some serious goals right now.
Lachy, who has just been announced to play the iconic Bluesfest next easter, is stoked to announce that Roger Waters of Pink Floyd has hand-picked him to play keyboards in his band for Waters’ upcoming ‘This is Not a Drill’ US tour.
Although he’s had very little mainstream or national media coverage in Australia, Lachy Doley’s online fan base is enormous and his high-octane Hammond organ and Clavinet playing is being enjoyed by millions around the world. Roger Waters saw Lachy play on YouTube and put out the call.
Says Lachy, “It felt like one of those scenes in a movie. The phone rang at about 7 pm when I was just getting ready to put my 5-year-old in the bath. It was a private number, so I didn’t answer it and it went to voice mail. I listened back. ‘Hi, it’s Roger Waters’ manager here. Roger would like to talk to you about possibly joining them on the next tour. Please call me back’. I was like ‘you can’t be serious!’ Anyway, I spoke to Roger and had an awesome chat and laugh and teed up some remote auditions. We were originally meant to tour in 2019 but now it’s all happening in 2022.”
The news of Roger Waters’ tour finally going ahead was just one of a series of wins for Doley this month; his brand-new album Studios 301 Sessions debuted at 13 on the ARIA Top 50 albums chart, 1 on the ARIA Jazz and Blues charts, 3 on the ARIA top 20 Australian Albums charts. A couple of tracks having reached 300k plays on YouTube since release.
“I feel so incredibly thrilled that as an independent artist with zero commercial or Triple J radio play that I’ve managed to crack the top 20 in Australia. I really hope it gives some inspiration to other artists without any label backing that it can be done, it all came down to the support of my fans.”
The Studios 301 Sessions album is available from all places that music is available.