In These Hands Vol.2
Lee Reader
Rehearsal & Recording Studio Manager / Tour & Band Manager / Venue Booking Agent / Promoter
(Matchless Music & Management / Lynotts Lounge)
WA
Loudmouth: Yo man, let’s kick it off with the general who are you, what you do, where you from?
Lee: Hey! I'm Lee Reader. I own Matchless Music which is a brick and mortar rehearsal / recording studio + backline hire business in Perth. I'm also an artist manager and venue booker under Matchless Management where I work with various artists and book Lynott's Lounge (350 cap original music venue in Northbridge) as well as tour / road manage for a bunch of acts. I like to burn myself out regularly...
Loudmouth: Such an insane list! You really do it all so let’s start from the start, what got you into the music you listen to today?
Lee: As far as HC specific stuff goes I got into it via my younger sister when I was in my early - mid 20's. I was playing in a psychobilly band and listening to a lot of punk and sub genre stuff mainly and she was right into the early 2000's HC / Metal revival when that scene just exploded. I was hard into Hatebreed at the time and she showed me Miles Away and I went down the rabbit hole from there. I listen to loads of other genres but for specifically HC that's pretty much where it started.
Loudmouth: Is your taste and knowledge in such a wide range of music thanks to how you were brought up/music you listened to growing up or did you have moments where you just fell into a deep dive on certain genres/topics?
Lee: Hugely because of my parents. Mum was a piano / guitar / vocal teacher and Dad was just into music. They also had pretty broad taste in music. Every weekend they would have music playing loudly from early in the morning which I hated at the time because I usually wanted to sleep in but started appreciating it pretty quick. I distinctly remember being woken up numerous times to dad blaring The Pogues - Rum Sodomy & The Lash at like 7AM on a Sunday when I would have been hungover from a party and just hating life. But all that stuff stayed with me and I still listen to it loads. Carole King, Stones, The Doors, Neil Young etc etc.
Loudmouth: With that kind of diversity and having done your fair share of DJ sets around Perth, how stacked is that vinyl collection looking?
Lee: Floor to ceiling dude I love my record collection.
Loudmouth: So damn jealous. How do you even remember what you have when you have that many? Hahah
Lee: I’ve got a pretty good idea of most of what I have but still forget some stuff and end up buying a double at a record fair or shop occasionally. When I’m DJ’ing regularly it can get pretty messy with crates n shit stacked everywhere. I’ve lost some expensive ones and then found them like a year later in a random Crate haha.
Loudmouth: On top of everything you do behind the scenes, how many instruments can you play?
Lee: I still play double bass every now and then. Might play 1 or 2 gigs a year. I can play bass guitar as well. I’m OK on guitar (enough to get by). I’m trying to get Harry (The Decline) to teach me drums at the moment so see how that goes!
Loudmouth: You seriously never stop hey! Where did the initial idea/inspiration for Matchless Music come from? Did you expect it to grow to everything that it did?
Lee: I was a mechanic with my own shop specialising in classic cars and bikes and playing in a band and that was really the only things I was interested in doing. I hurt my shoulders and my neck when I was maybe 27 and needed to get out of swinging spanners. We had a rehearsal studio out the back of my shop so I decided to pack everything up and build a pro level rehearsal studio. I had to sell all my cars and bikes to pay for the build and the only bike I kept was my 48’ Matchless G80 bronze head so that’s where the name came from. The studio went well straight off the bat. I was doing a little bit of touring work as well so pushed that side of things and ended up expanding the business into studios / backline hire / promotion / bookings / touring and it just worked. I think I’ve built something to a high standard and I’m good at what I do so that’s made it work. It probably went a bit further than I originally planned. It started out as 1 building with my friend Jon Russo subleasing the upper level for his merch business Hammer Ink and now it’s expanded into 2 buildings and Hammer Ink in its own building so we have the whole back section of our block. We’re expanding our management office at the moment and I plan to have the bike on display in there once it’s done.
We took inspiration from the original Matchless Motorcycles logo when Tom Sweetman (The Chain, Street X) did the branding. So the logo has wings the same as the bike.
Loudmouth: From Matchless you’ve manage to bring together Lynott’s Lounge, one of Perth’s newest and best live music venues. How difficult was it managing so much transforming the old “Boston” and opening up during covid?
Lee: When I saw Rosies / The Boston was up for sale my first thought was I hope who ever buys it keeps the band room and actually does something with it. I cut my teeth playing small cap band rooms in Northbridge and all of those venues have since closed or moved into different programming (YaYa's, The Rocket Room, The Bakery, The Castle, etc) so the only dedicated venue in Northbridge left was The Bird which wasn't really suited to heavy / HC shows. When I got the call to say it's been purchased and the new owners are dedicated to keeping the band room and want me to book it I was stoked. I did a lot of shows at The Boston when I was starting out so I had a soft spot for it. The sound sucked and it looked like an Irish football club room from the 80's (Because that's what it was) but it was a good sized room in the middle of Northbridge just oozing potential. We re-branded and re-styled the venue, took out the huge 80's bulk head and doors sectioning the room in half, re-did the bar and added a nice display wall with an up to date booze selection but most importantly we completely re-designed the stage and put some actual production in there. The PA and Lighting spec is huge for the room. We were also lucky enough to have our capacity looked at by the city and ended up nearly doubling it to 350. It's been a hard slog with border closures, tours canceling, bands getting covid etc but we can see the light at the end of the tunnel. Everyone that plays there loves it. We have some huge shows and tours coming up now that the borders are sorted.
Loudmouth: I’ll definitely back the fact it’s one of Perths best venues since the change. The music industry isn’t your only interest though, you seem to be the type of person who always has a new hobby, your latest of which I believe is making jewellery? Which from what I’ve seen you’re killing it!
A.) How the hell do you find the time?
B.) Out of everything you do, either professional or personal, is there one thing that you will always enjoy the most?
Lee: Yeah i like to keep busy. I kinda get fidgety when I'm standing still honestly. Jewellery has been great to kind of take a moment to breath and focus on something small. I find that when I'm working on a piece I'm only focused on that and it's a nice kinda switch off from emails and shit. Just a bit of me time haha. As far as what i most enjoy Jewellery is really looking like something that works for me otherwise I really enjoy working on my bikes and getting out riding.
Loudmouth: You’ve helped so many Perth bands in so many different ways and late last year you also gave a helping hand to the doggos without homes when you organised the Hard Luck Hounds fundraiser show late last year with 100% of profit going to Dog Refuge Home WA. You made over $5K from memory which is honestly fucking huge! Congrats! What makes this cause so special to you?
Lee: I wanted to do a Dog Refuge Home fundraiser for so long but every year I kind of got too busy and it got put on the back burner. When I took on Lynott's and I was booking more shows the timing just worked and we pulled it off. I met the team at DRH about 6 years ago after I lost my previous dog and ended up going there to meet a 1.5yo pitbull named George (Now named Triumph, 6 years old and currently snoring in his bed next to me). They go above and beyond to get these dogs re-homed and it's all privately funded so they rely heavily on donations. It's a pretty easy cause to get behind honestly haha you go down there and see all these fucking homeless dogs and they're just looking up at you with sad eyes and you break in about 5 seconds! I remember contacting the bands and explaining the idea and what I wanted to do and as soon as I mentioned that we'd all be going to the refuge to take videos with each band meeting a dog for adoption everyone was just instantly keen. The specifics were irrelevant, as soon as they heard they were going to meet the dogs it was like yep lock us in haha. I'm really looking forward to putting this years show together and doing it all again.
Loudmouth: Stoked to see it become a regular event! Aiight, serious question though, what breed of dog would you be?
Lee: I didn't know how to answer this so I did a Buzzfeed quiz "what dog are you" and got Shiba Inu haha
Loudmouth: That’s perfect haha! Lastly but not least…
You’re probably Perth’s busiest dude, but forever taking the time for other people. Definitely a bit of an inspiration to myself and a few other in the PCHC community so thank you so much for giving me your time, the work you do, and the attitude you do it with. Before I let you go is there anyone you want to shout out or if you want to plug your projects or anything we didn’t cover, send it!
Lee: Anytime dude! I hope Loudmouth kills it. Shout outs to my staff Olivia, James & Harry for holding it all together. While we're here lets plug SPEED happening at Lynott's on May 28th. Calling it for biggest HC show of the last 5 years in Perth so don't miss it. I'm missing it because I'm on tour and honestly I'm not stoked about it. Cheers!
