From Lighthouse to Farmhouse

A lighthouse residency was the unlikely spark for a deeply place-driven musical project by Tyrone and Lesley—the ukulele and double bass duo of David Megarrity and Samuel Vincent. What began as songs inspired by particular buildings soon evolved into a creative experiment exploring the intimate relationship between people, place, and sound.

Setting themselves a distinctive challenge, Tyrone and Lesley committed to writing songs about specific locations—and then recording those songs in the places that inspired them. The result is a two-part release: Keepers, a studio album, and Finders, an EP of live field recordings captured on location. Both are now available worldwide.

Alongside traditional studio sessions, the location recordings became an exploration of how imagined and real spaces shape composition, performance, and listening. The project is grounded in a unity of site and song, with the musicians responding directly to the acoustic and emotional qualities of each place.

The songs span a diverse cast of characters and settings:

• an old house in This House Knows

• a struggling rural shop in And So Forth

• a lighthouse keeper in Keeper

• a tollkeeper living inside a bridge in Walter Taylor

• and a pilot departing from a small art deco airport in Archerfield

Each location shaped the music from the outset and ultimately determined where the field recordings took place.

Wolston Farmhouse: Sounding Out History

One of the most significant recording locations was Wolston Farmhouse, a National Trust Queensland property and the oldest surviving farmhouse in Brisbane. The historic house became the duo’s first true on-site recording location, offering not just walls and rooms, but a living soundscape.

Inside the farmhouse, bees hummed in the eaves, a mantel clock ticked steadily, mynah birds squawked nearby, and helicopters drifted overhead. Outside, reverb disappeared entirely, wind became a challenge, and the sounds of farmers chatting in the distance blended with the music. Decisions had to be made constantly—when to pause for environmental noise, and when to let it become part of the performance.

The duo also experimented in the farmhouse basement, where sandstone floors and heavy timber ceilings dramatically shaped the acoustics. Double bass resonances filled the space, prompting adjustments in positioning to balance the sound. Samuel Vincent’s open ‘A’ string rang out beautifully, and during the final notes of Walter Taylor, the distinctive call of a pheasant cuckoo echoed through the recording.

Returning to Place

A year later, Tyrone and Lesley returned to Wolston Farmhouse to film a music video, further cementing the site’s role in the project. The farmhouse had become more than a recording location—it was part of the story, part of the sound, and part of the memory embedded in the music.

Finders, the EP of field recordings captured live with a ribbon microphone, preserves these moments exactly as they occurred, complete with the textures, interruptions, and atmosphere of each place.

So, has this experiment in site, sound, and song produced the most Brisbane album ever? With recordings shaped by lighthouses, bridges, airports, rural shops, and one of Queensland’s most significant heritage farmhouses, it’s a compelling case—and one that sounds unmistakably local.

Has this experiment in site, sound, and song become the Brisbane-est album ever?
 
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