What has Piet Collins from The Sharp been up to lately? OR Rockabilly to Revival

Send us a text

Join Cheryl Lee - That Radio Chick on STILL ROCKIN' IT for news, reviews, music and interviews with some of our favourite Australian musicians

Piet Collins of The Sharp takes us on a musical journey from the band's rockabilly beginnings to their current revival with a fresh lineup and new music that honors their distinctive sound. 

After their 1994 ARIA Top 20 hit "Alone Like Me" cemented their place in Australian music history, The Sharp took a lengthy hiatus, with Piey venturing into television writing (penning 70 episodes of Neighbours), radio work, and ultimately music education.

The conversation reveals a fascinating full-circle moment in Australian rock history. The Sharp has welcomed Scott Owen from The Living End as their new bassist—a band that once supported The Sharp when they were teenagers. "When I asked Scott and he said yes immediately, it just really gave us the energy and the impetus to really have another go at it," Collins explains, highlighting how this connection has reinvigorated the band.

Their debut album "This Is The Sharp" has been released on vinyl for the first time, responding to years of fan requests. Piet eloquently compares the vinyl listening experience to reading a physical book—both requiring active engagement versus the passive consumption of streaming or audiobooks. "It's a much more tactile experience than jumping onto Spotify and just mindlessly surfing. It's more of a journey," he shares.

The band's new EP "4" features three fresh tracks alongside a live recording of their classic "Scratch My Back," demonstrating their collaborative songwriting process where ideas transform through four-way contribution. Fans can catch The Sharp on their Adelaide tour this September, with shows at the Edinburgh Castle, Big Easy Radio and the Wheatsheaf—each offering a unique atmosphere for experiencing their blend of classic hooks and riffs with a contemporary edge.

Want to experience The Sharp's infectious energy and hear both their classics and new material? Check out their upcoming shows and connect with them in person—as Piet says, "We're always happy to meet with friendly faces."

What has The Sharp's Piet Collins been up to lately?  Let's find out!

Get out when you can, support local music and I'll see you down the front!!

Visit: ThatRadioChick.com.au

Episode Transcript

Cheryl Lee (00:04):
that radio chick, cheryl lee, here.
Welcome to the still rockin itpodcast where we'll have music
news, reviews and interviewswith some of our favorite
australian musicians and artists.
The Sharp the band that had thehit Alone Like Me in 1994 in
the aria top 20, are back, andthey are back with a vengeance.

(00:26):
Staying true to the Sharks'signature hooks, riffs and
harmonies, their brand new EP,called 4, delivers a tougher,
more dynamic edge to their sound.
We were lucky enough today tocatch up with Piet Collins,
founding member of The Sharp, tofind out all the latest goss.
To catch up on podcasts fromother favourite artists, simply

(00:49):
go to thatradiochick.
com.
au.
You're with Cheryl Lee, thatRadio Chick, and I'd like to
welcome into the Zoom room for achat today Piet Collins,
founding member of The Sharp.
Thank you so much for joiningus today.

Piet Collins (01:05):
Thanks very much for having me.
We're looking forward to comingback to Adelaide.

Cheryl Lee (01:08):
Why wouldn't you right?

Piet Collins (01:10):
Yeah, I grew up in Mount Barker.
Oh, did you?
Yeah, Adelaide's my hometown.
Yeah so I always love comingback.

Cheryl Lee (01:17):
Awesome and I did not know that.
We've got some exciting thingsto talk about some new music,
release of some old music onvinyl, there's the tour.
For those that might not befully au fait with the show,
should we go back a tiny bitbefore we go forward?

Piet Collins (01:33):
Let's do that.

Cheryl Lee (01:34):
If I've done my maths correctly, you were a
three-piece band, rockabillyband formed in 1990 in Melbourne
.
You've morphed, haven't you?
You are now a four-piece.

Piet Collins (01:45):
Yeah, that's right .
So the original lineup existedfrom 90 to 95, and then we took
a long hiatus and we did a fewlittle comeback things and then
our original bass player, Alan,didn't want to be involved
anymore, which is totally fine.
I'd reached out to Scott Owenfrom the Living End.
Unbeknownst to me, he was amassive Sharp fan growing up.

(02:07):
I was really stoked to be askedto join and he's been with us
now for just over a year.
And we've got a new lead singeras well, a guy called Louie Lee
Feltrin, and he's been awesome.
So the new line-up's been a lotof fun.

Cheryl Lee (02:22):
We're really looking forward to hitting Adelaide so
we can check it out.
You guys did two studio albumsin 93, this is the Sharp 94
Sonic Tripod.
It's the first, the debut album, that's been re-released on
vinyl.

Piet Collins (02:37):
Yeah, that's right .
So we got in contact with ourold label, warner Music.
Basically, a lot of fans hadbeen on at us for years.
You know why can't we get avinyl copy, and we never even
really considered it.
And then Warner's put the wholething together and so you can
buy that vinyl album through ourwebsite or also through the
Warner Australia website as well.

Cheryl Lee (02:59):
And your website is.

Piet Collins (03:01):
I reckon it's just thesharp.
au.

Cheryl Lee (03:03):
Are you saying that when it was originally released
in 93, that it wasn't releasedon vinyl?

Piet Collins (03:10):
No, it wasn't.
93 was sort of the era of CDs,the CD era and also the Kasingle
, if anyone remembers thosehorrible things which used to
get jammed in your car in yourGemini playback.

Cheryl Lee (03:23):
Yeah sure.

Piet Collins (03:24):
So yeah, it was never really an option.
But then you know, there's kindof been a bit of an explosion
of interest in vinyl in the lastdecade or so, I'd say, and a
lot of people just prefer havingthat bigger format with the
artwork and everything.

Cheryl Lee (03:37):
yeah, we absolutely do.
There has been, you know, thatnostalgic resurgence of vinyl
recently and all us oldies andeven some of the young ones are
really keen to get, you know,the big sleeves and you can
think all about it.

Piet Collins (03:52):
Yeah, just having that experience of being able to
put on an album and listen toit from you know, start to
finish, put on the B-side.
It's a much more tactileexperience than jumping onto
Spotify and just mindlesslysurfing.

Cheryl Lee (04:06):
It's more of a journey, I think.
An album where you have to, youknow, like you say, physically
turn it over to continue thestory CDs, it's a little bit
easy to like oh, I don't knowabout that, that's not my
favorite.
Skip, skip, skip, you miss partof the story.

Piet Collins (04:21):
Yeah, I agree a hundred percent.
It's almost like the differencebetween reading a book and
listening to an audio file orsomething you know, where all
the work's done for you,essentially, whereas if you're
reading you've got to put in thework you know.
Yeah, so it's a bit of ajourney.

Cheryl Lee (04:37):
You're so right.
I've never thought of it thatway.
But when you're reading, yourimagination is completely free
to go wherever it wants to go,which isn't quite the same when
you're listening to someone readit to you.

Piet Collins (04:48):
Exactly right.
I mean, the whole purpose ofreading is to give your brain a
workout and let it have a bit ofa holiday, and I think a lot of
people are not taking advantageof that anymore.

Cheryl Lee (04:58):
Congratulations on the release of the vinyl.
Good move.

Piet Collins (05:03):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, it's been a lot of fun and also
it's picked up a lot ofresurgent interest in the band
as well.
And the music, yeah, and themusic and the image and the
whole thing that we put togetherin the early to mid-'90s.
But we've also got new musicout.
We've just released afour-track EP which is
imaginatively called Four.

Cheryl Lee (05:23):
Yeah, I wondered if that was.
Is that because it's fourtracks?
Is it your fourth work orbecause it's four of you?

Piet Collins (05:30):
All of those reasons, all of the above.
So it was a bit of an obviouschoice, but I think it works
pretty well.

Cheryl Lee (05:36):
Well, we'll talk about those songs in a minute.
I'm a little bit interested.
Well, first thing, this one's abit out of left field.
Who knew that in 1991, Piet wasa writer for Neighbours?

Piet Collins (05:48):
Yeah, true.
Well, actually not 91.
I think that's good oldWikipedia being, you know Close
enough, close enough yeahexactly, I didn't start at
Neighbours until 97.

Cheryl Lee (06:00):
Right.

Piet Collins (06:01):
After the Sharp parted ways, I worked in radio
for a couple of years atAustereo ACM.
And then after that, I managedto score a job writing for
Neighbours, which I did forabout 10 years, wowee, yeah,
that's a bit of a sidestep, itis, isn't it?
Definitely a fun time.
I think I needed a break frommusic.

(06:21):
To be honest, I was a bit sortof musiced out.
That was a nice thing to do,yeah.

Cheryl Lee (06:26):
You know it's a classic show.
It went for so long we used torun inside to watch it every
night and it must be, you know,a little bit pleasing to be part
of such an iconic Aussie show.

Piet Collins (06:39):
Yeah, so primarily I was there as a storyliner.
So you develop stories acrossthe week.
Those get farmed out toscriptwriters who then turn that
into dialogue.
But I also wrote 70 half-hourepisodes for the show as well,
which was not a bad effort, Ithought back in the day.

Cheryl Lee (06:55):
Yeah, you are multi-talented, aren't you?

Piet Collins (06:57):
I think you've got to be these days, don't you?
I don't think you can be aone-trick pony.
You've got to kind of just keepon morphing into different
worlds.

Cheryl Lee (07:06):
Yeah, Well, I was going to ask you know, you guys
had a little bit of a break,just a little bit.
What do you guys all get up toin that downtime?

Piet Collins (07:16):
My career sort of went into, you know, media,
television, radio, did someprint work as well.
I didn't really play much musicfor almost a decade and then I
sort of slowly got back into it.
Got back into it.
Charlie's always played.
Ran a bookshop for a while inMelbourne.
He now teaches young guitaristsin schools and I also teach now

(07:40):
so do you?
Yeah, so I'm teaching at a placecalled Peninsular Grammar in
the Mornington Peninsula inVictoria.
Yeah, I love it.
Yeah, it's good to be able to,you know, try and help some
aspiring young people to do whatthey want to do.

Cheryl Lee (07:53):
Bringing through the next generation of musicians.

Piet Collins (07:56):
Yeah, and hopefully, you know, they'll
take on board some of the, notjust the musical lessons that I
can teach them, but some of thelife lessons as well, you know.

Cheryl Lee (08:06):
Absolutely Good music teacher is so important.
It's so good that thecurriculum is still in schools.
You know, we just need to teachmusic all the time because it
has so many benefits.

Piet Collins (08:17):
Yeah, absolutely.
I couldn't support that anymore, and I hope that that's what's
happening in South Australia.
I'm sure it is.

Cheryl Lee (08:24):
Anything else exciting that happened in that
break.

Piet Collins (08:28):
Got married, had a couple of kids, you know, did
all that sort of stuff.
How old are the children?
19 and 17.

Cheryl Lee (08:36):
And do either of them have any musical talent?
Are they following you into thefamily business?
No, no.

Piet Collins (08:43):
In a word, they've both dabbled with different
musical instruments over theyears, but I'm not the sort of
person who wants you know, youmust do this and you must do
that.
If the passion's not there forit, then there's just no point
in trying to make people dothings.

Cheryl Lee (08:58):
I mean, all you want for your kids, isn't it is for
them to be happy, whatever it isthey do.

Piet Collins (09:02):
Yeah, happy and well-paid, I think.

Cheryl Lee (09:05):
Happy, healthy and earning a lot of money.

Piet Collins (09:08):
Yeah, yeah, all of that.

Cheryl Lee (09:10):
The group has stated that some of your early
influences were the Kinks, theBeatles and the Easy Beats.
Yeah, and you can hear that,can't you in the music.

Piet Collins (09:21):
Yeah, absolutely.
I mean.
And the band actually startedoff being a flat-out rockabilly
band.
So the band was called 59 Sharpand it was all rockabilly.
It was, you know, old schoolEddie Cochran, Stray Cats, all
of that rootsy rock and roll,little Richard.
It's just, it's really timelessstuff.
You go back and listen to thatstuff now and you really

(09:43):
appreciate how powerful andclever it was back all those
years ago, you know.

Cheryl Lee (09:48):
And it still holds up.
It's still great music to puton and listen to and dance to.

Piet Collins (09:53):
Yeah, it's amazing .
I've been getting obsessed withLittle Richard lately and it's
just insane to think thatsomeone like him was around in
the early 50s being crazy, likea complete crazy man, singing
some pretty naughty lyrics, andit was amazing.
I don't think the world's seenanything like it.

Cheryl Lee (10:16):
They really were trendsetters, weren't they?
They sort of opened the doorsand set the path for you guys to
come along.

Piet Collins (10:22):
Yeah, absolutely.
And also the Living End.
When they first started theywere a band called the Runaway
Boys Same thing, they justplayed all of that early
rockabilly music.
And the Living End actuallysupported the Sharp a couple of
times.
When they were just out of highschool those guys would have
been maybe 16, 17 years old andthey used to like really look up
to us because we were like thebig kids you know.

Cheryl Lee (10:45):
Well, it was good that you guys could work
together and learn from eachother, and now you've got Scott
playing with you.

Piet Collins (10:54):
Yeah, so it is.
It's a real full circle moment.
He's loving it and we're lovinghaving him.
And you know, Living End are abig Australian act and they just
released a new album, so wehave to work around what they're
doing yeah but, yeah and but.
But the Adelaide trip fits inwell with everyone, so we're
really looking forward to comingback.

Cheryl Lee (11:15):
And does Scott?
When he's playing with you guys, does he jump up on his big
double bass and jump off?

Piet Collins (11:22):
Does all of that Can't be stopped, can't?

Cheryl Lee (11:24):
stop him.

Piet Collins (11:25):
Can't be stopped.
I mean, double bass, apart frombeing a great instrument, is
also a great piece ofarchitecture.

Cheryl Lee (11:32):
It doubles as a architecture.
It's not just a ladder.

Piet Collins (11:34):
That's right as a launching platform.

Cheryl Lee (11:36):
Well, that's good to hear, Do you think it was so?
You performed your last gig in95 at the Hallam Hotel and then
really didn't do anything elsefor five years until you did a
reunion gig in Melbourne, andthen it was another 10 when you
started playing shows inAdelaide, and then did you just
think the time's right.

Piet Collins (11:55):
Yeah, yeah, there was various things stopping us
from getting back together andyou know, full-time jobs and you
know those kinds of things, allof that.
All of that stuff.
I mean like those kind of lifethings just happen to everyone,
I assume.
I assume.

(12:16):
But it felt when I asked Scottand he said yes immediately, it
just really gave us the energyand the impetus to really have
another go at it and to bringback the music that was so
popular back then.

Cheryl Lee (12:23):
You're clearly loving it.

Piet Collins (12:25):
Yeah, we're having a great time.
Last year we did a run ofsupport shows for James Rain, so
we went to Sydney, Melbourne,Brisbane, Gold Coast and it was
great playing in front of hiscrowd, because a lot of his
crowd is a similar sort of agegroup, maybe a little bit older,
but playing to those packedrooms and to see people go.

(12:46):
Yeah, I remember those guys andlet's go and do it again.
So, yeah, it's been a lot offun.

Cheryl Lee (12:53):
You've been back together sort of officially
since March last year.

Piet Collins (12:57):
Yeah, that sounds about right.
I think we did our first showalmost exactly a year ago with
the new line-up.
We've done about a dozen showssince then.

Cheryl Lee (13:08):
At those shows you've been showcasing the This
Is Sharp album like in itsentirety yeah, that's right.

Piet Collins (13:15):
Yeah, yeah.
So we play the whole album plussome of the, you know, some of
the better known ones off thesecond album, like alone like me
and things like that.
But yeah, all the stuff liketalking sly and scratch my back,
alone like me and those kindsof songs, those were the songs
that got the biggest amount ofairplay back in the day.

Cheryl Lee (13:36):
I do love it when a band plays an album, because
again it's got that story.

Piet Collins (13:41):
Yeah, that's right .
There's a sort of an ebb andflow to it.
You know we don't necessarilyplay it in order.

Cheryl Lee (13:48):
It's like it's on shuffle.

Piet Collins (13:49):
Yeah, that's right , you can do that at home, you
know.
But we like to try andstructure the show where it
starts really strong and punchyand then there's a sort of a
middle section where we get toplay some of the slower, more
intimate things and then Go outwith a bang, go out with a
monster bang at the end, youknow.

Cheryl Lee (14:08):
Have we got that to look forward to when you come to
Adelaide?

Piet Collins (14:12):
Yeah, absolutely that's what we'll be doing.
That's what we'll be playing.
Plus, we'll be playing a fewtracks off the new EP.
Yeah.

Cheryl Lee (14:19):
It is actually available now on CD, or all your
downloaded suspects.

Piet Collins (14:24):
That's it.
It's on Spotify, but you canalso buy a physical copy of the
CD if that's the way you want todo it.
You can make different choices.

Cheryl Lee (14:32):
Copies are available at the shows as well, which is
good to know, yeah that's right.
Four songs.
Who wrote those?

Piet Collins (14:38):
First one, Enemies , that was pretty much mostly
Scott.
How we work is that we bring areally, really strong, mostly
formed idea into the rehearsalroom.
Okay, this is my idea, here'show we want it to go, and then,
before you know it, it becomes afour-way writing process.

(14:59):
So we've all contributed to allthe songs, yeah the second song
is called Skinny Dog and that'smostly charlie's psychedelic
mind at work.
And then the next one is mine,pretty much Tonight, which is
kind of like a almost a bit of ayou know social commentary
about life being tough.

Cheryl Lee (15:19):
But but let's go out and have fun anyway and then
scratch my back is a bonus livetrack yeah, that's right.

Piet Collins (15:26):
Yeah, so we.
We recorded that at a placecalled Bird's Basement in
Melbourne.
We weren't intending to recordit for release, but the engineer
decided to record it and itturned out so well that, yeah,
we just had to include it.

Cheryl Lee (15:40):
You can catch the shark in Geelong, victoria.
But what's important for us iswe've got the Edinburgh Castle
Friday 19th of September, bigEasy Radio on the Saturday, the
20th of September, and theWheatsheaf on Sunday 21st.
You're spoilt for choice.
You can go to one, two or threeof the gigs.

Piet Collins (16:01):
They're all quite different gigs.
So the Ed, which is really justreopened that's our only
central Adelaide show.
But then the next night we'reat Aldinga, which is way just
opened, reopened.
That's our only centralAdelaide show.
But then the next night we'reat Aldinga, which is way down
the coast, and the Wheats heafis a good opportunity if you
want to come and see us in theafternoon.
So there are three quitedifferent gigs.

Cheryl Lee (16:21):
A Sunday shesh.

Piet Collins (16:22):
Yeah, a Sunday shesh, of course.

Cheryl Lee (16:29):
Then in October you're at the Brunswick Ballroom
in Victoria as well.
Plenty of places to see andhear and buy the CD and be
reminded why we all love theSharp.

Piet Collins (16:37):
Yeah, come down to a show.
We'd love to see you, becausewe only really get to Adelaide
once a year.
We have a lot of people showingup and they want us to sign
T-shirts and albums and all thatsort of stuff and we're really
happy to do it.
We're always happy to meet withfriendly faces.

Cheryl Lee (16:54):
That is lovely.
Good luck with the launch ofthe new music.
It's fantastic.
Good luck with your tour.
I'll see you down the frontsometime very soon.

Piet Collins (17:02):
Awesome Thanks, Cheryl.

Cheryl Lee (17:04):
Thank you, Piet.
Was there anything else thatyou wanted to touch on?

Piet Collins (17:09):
Not really.
I think we covered pretty mucheverything.
Yeah, we got the history, wegot what's happening now and we
got the tour dates out and Ithink it's all a neat little
package.
You just have to try and makeme look a bit more young.

Cheryl Lee (17:23):
I need a filter for both of us you just get that
young filter on there.
Yeah, yeah, just get our goodside.
I'm leaving too.
I know you're busy.
I appreciate you spending a bitof time with us in the Zoom
room today.
I was trying to decide whichsong we might play.
I think we might play yours.
Would you like to introduceyour song for us?

Piet Collins (17:46):
Absolutely, Piet Collins here from the Sharp and
we're about to hear off our newEP Four.
This is the song Tonight,perfect, yeah, awesome.

Cheryl Lee (17:55):
Thanks again.

Piet Collins (17:56):
Bye.

Tommy Kaye (17:58):
You are listening to Still Rocking it

Cheryl Lee (20:48):
You're with Cheryl Lee, that radio chick.
Thank you so much for joiningme on the Still Rockin' it
podcast.
Hope to catch you again nexttime.
Get out when you can supportAussie music and I'll see you
down the front.