Craig Honeysett

When I was in school my mate lent me an MxPx tape, a bit of punk rock, and I just fell in love with it and started drumming on everything.

My uncle had a really, really old drum kit, so mum thought we'd get a hold of that so I could get through this little fad — but it just never stopped.

I’d practice for hours and hours every day and started a band with my mates, which we did all through high school.

After year 12, I went and did a music course at TAFE, but you can't do much on a drum kit as far as scales and compositions, so I picked up a guitar and then learnt the piano. I just fell in love with music, particularly with the recording aspect of it.

So, in 2008 I moved to Brisbane and got my audio engineering degree and then when my wife and I fell pregnant with our first baby, we moved back to Orange and I started Dotted Eight Studio.

I don’t know that I thought there would be the need for a studio, as much as I just really wanted to do it, to be quite honest.

My mum admitted to me the other day that she had wanted me to get over it and get a real job, because music will never take you anywhere, but with a lot of luck and hard work I was able make it all happen and now I'm doing this full time.

Music is a pretty personal thing and I’ve found one of the most important aspects is building relationships with musicians and artists to make them comfortable that I can be someone they can trust, to hand their baby over to me to record.

Everyone I talk to is surprised there is enough recording work in Orange to sustain something like this, but there actually are a lot of musos here.

It is pretty unreal for a small town and there’s some really good talent, really good songwriters particularly, which I love working with.

It would be great to get a couple of guys to that next level, where they can break into mainstream radio, wider than just Orange. I think there is definitely the talent here.