My Themes and Variations Tour ramped up for a third and final leg, across Australia. This blog is a continuation of my tour diaries chronicling my escapades with avoiding lightning strikes, soaking my clothes with vodka, battling illness, cracking open locked bathroom doors, signing hurdy gurdies, shooting a video with Red Letter Media, hanging out at Sweetwater headquarters, and much more. (Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, and Part 4 covered my European tour, while my North American excursion was chronicled in Part 5, Part 6, and Part 7.) This final entry details my adventures Down Under!
To get there, I spent sixteen hours flying over the Pacific Ocean. The in-flight entertainment offered two Crocodile Dundee movies. (Do Australians love these movies or hate them?) I noticed two people near me watching Drop, an incredible little thriller I scored recently: a good omen! I landed in Melbourne, and had a couple days to collect myself before the day of our first show.
PUTTING THE BAND BACK TOGETHER
Our Melbourne venue, The Forum Theatre, was the most breathtakingly magical space we’ve played yet. The stage is flanked by classical-inspired statues, pillars and columns, beneath a deep-blue-lit ceiling evoking a dusky night sky. The room transported me back in time!
I wandered past ornate statues to the front of the stage, and saw my band and crew gearing up for our first soundcheck on this continent. Though I hadn’t seen most of them in six weeks, I instantly felt like no time had passed at all.
Our drummer, Gene “The Atomic Clock” Hoglan, was positioned behind two massive kick drums, each emblazoned with the cover artwork of my rock album, The Singularity. A legendary musician in his own right, Gene brought out many of his own fans in each city we visited, and I was struck by how generous he was with his time, greeting every fan who showed up in a Strapping Young Lad, Dethklok, Devin Townsend, or Dark Angel t-shirt.
Omer Ben-Zvi, one of the talented composers from my team at Sparks & Shadows (who had just won an Emmy for co-scoring Percy Jackson with me!) returned on lead guitar. He still brought with him the various outrageous accoutrements he had collected on our adventures, including his Parisian beret, pink Hello Kitty cable, and his garish meme-inspired sunglasses. Omer is quiet offstage, but his presence onstage, both visual and aural, is loud!
My longtime musical partner, violinist Paul Cartwright, brought his lovely wife Sarah along for the adventure this time around, and she helped our travels feel more like a vacation. Paul’s solos, in particular his heartfelt rendition of Galadriel’s Theme on “The Sun Yet Shines” from The Rings of Power, remained a highlight of our set for me.
My brother, Brendan McCreary, was in good spirits throughout the trip, and seemed each night to discover new ways to rally the crowds to their feet. He tackled even more vocal responsibilities this time around because we were not able to bring Morgan Sorne for this leg. So, Brendan now sang Morgan’s lead vocals on the intense ballad “Tears for the Dead Life.” (We all missed Morgan, but at least we were able to send him a bunch of celebratory texts on his birthday.)
Our bassist Pete Griffin had perhaps the most dramatic trip of all. He landed in Melbourne only to be told by Qantas that his bags, including his custom-made pedal board, electric basses, and all his clothes, had not yet left San Francisco. Thus began “The Saga of Pete’s Luggage,” an epic tale that unfolded across our entire trip. He picked up new clothes in Melbourne, we rented him a couple electric basses, and I lent him my spare Neural DSP Quad Cortex. The Quad Cortex is the amp simulator that everyone in the band uses, in part because I became so fond of the hardware. Thanks to the Quad Cortex, Pete was able to download his personal settings from the cloud on to my spare hardware and have all his settings up and running in two minutes. Incredible what is possible through technology these days!
We were unable to find replacements for some of his more unique effects pedals that are essential to certain moments in the set, including his memorable bit-crushed bass solo in “Redshift.” Throughout the tour we played a frustrating game of “cat and mouse” with Pete’s luggage, much to his increasing frustration. His gear missed us in Melbourne. So, the airline forwarded it to our next destination, Sydney, where we all waited with baited breath as Pete trekked to customer service. Sadly, his luggage would arrive there too late—once again missing us by just a couple hours.
Pete was finally reunited with his baggage in Brisbane, but even then, the reunion missed our showtime by a matter of minutes. When at last he got his suitcase, he threw his arms around it! Ultimately, the only show he performed with all his gear was our final night in Perth. But, inspired by having all his pedals back, Pete’s “Redshift” bass solo in Perth kicked ass!
As a guitarist, I was hoping just to get my chops back to where they were at the peak of touring a few weeks prior. To my surprise, I found I had improved enough as a player that, for Australia, I was able to tackle additional lead lines in “Escape from the Machines” and “Incinerator,” using skills that had been out of my technical reach before! I have played piano and keyboards since I was five, but as I’m approaching just the third anniversary of my first guitar lesson, I was thrilled to step to the front on “Escape” and nailing soaring melodic lines that I had been too insecure to perform for our first fifteen shows.
THE WRECKING CREW
I get to work with these musicians quite frequently, but I only hang with the crew on these tours. So, I was excited to see these guys again.
“Evil Uncle Timmy” McGugin was back on our monitor mixes and video playback, and as hilarious and charming as ever. I realized that as he gets to know you better, he starts telling increasingly outrageous stories from his crazy career in the touring business that only his closest friends hear. He told me one that made my eyebrows fly up, which I cannot repeat here! Igor Stolarsky and Jack Spittler Jr. were back behind their consoles in the back of each venue, running front-of-house mixing and light direction, respectively. Our drum tech from the European run, Charles Degolla, was back with us once again. I got to know all these guys a lot better on this Australia run and enjoyed hanging out with them on our time off, chatting about life in the touring world.
Our guitar / hurdy gurdy tech from the last two runs, Jai Kaminoff, was unable to join us on this run, so we picked up a local Australian tech, Jackson Valentine. Jackson made a huge, positive impression on everybody, stepping confidently into a challenging position. I remember a moment at the first soundcheck when he was tuning the hurdy gurdy, with guitars awaiting work lined up behind him, fielding questions from three needy musicians at the same time, all without breaking a sweat. He kept a smile on his face and deftly handled it all.
I was shocked at how prepared Jackson was to handle the unique needs of my hurdy gurdy. I asked him if he had played or worked with one before, and he had not. However, I then learned that Jai had sent him a detailed email, filled with his customary humor. I was the last person to read it! Jai’s email had been passed around the band and crew like a meme, with everybody giggling as they quoted their favorite parts. (Please note in the following transcription I am preserving Jai’s creative spellings of “hurdy gurdy.”)
Hey guys,
Turn the volume on the hurdy gerdy down while not in use as the pickup system drains the battery even without being plugged in.
Pete likes a beer at the beginning of tears for the dead life because he doesn’t play for most of the song.
Keep an eye on the amount of cotton on the string of the gërd that touches the wheel.
Always have a sandwich ready for Gene.
Brendan likes massages when he comes off stage for the songs with no vocals.
For the hrdy grdy make sure that the sympathetic strings not in use are not touching the wheel before changes because that will make it sound broken.
Also when tuning the heardy remember to pray.
If you’re having trouble getting all 3 strings to stay in tune on the hirdi gerty before a change you can pull a string giving you trouble off the wheel and only use two but don’t make a habit of it.
Also when tuning the hurdley mcgerdelstein pay attention that you’re not turning the wheel too fast or slow as that can effect pitch.
Bear will throw his jacket at you after the third or fourth song.
If I think of anything else I’ll give y’all a shout. I’m going back to bed.
Love ya
– Jai
Even though I missed having Jai around, it was nice to have his sense of humor with us. Jackson immediately mastered the hurdy gurdy, I’m sure thanks to Jai’s letter!
Our tour manager Frankie Orange was back with us. Even though I haven’t yet toured with anybody else, I’ve been told over and over Frankie’s one of the best to ever do the job, and at this point it is easy to believe. By the end of the trip, Brendan and I (only half-jokingly) referred to him as the long-lost McCreary brother. It can not be overstated how much this guy lowers my stress level on these tours!
I was also grateful to our Australian promoter Destroy All Lines, without whom we would never have been able to make this trip. Promoters Scott Mesiti and Stu Marks were supportive every step of the way, brimming with curiosity and ideas. I first got to know them in Melbourne, when they took a bunch of us out to dinner at an amazing little Iraqi restaurant. And I do mean little! The restaurant was so small that our party filled more than half of it, to the point that it was difficult for the server to even navigate around us.
MELBOURNE
I could not have asked for a more lovely city in which to acclimate to the jetlag for a couple days. I never needed to take a nap and I slept solidly through every night. Jetlag be damned. (It would be a different story after coming back to Los Angeles, but I was blissfully unaware of that in Melbourne!) I spent a little time watching ridiculous comments and reactions pour in to my newly uploaded “Best of the Worst” episode on Red Letter Media’s YouTube channel, a video I had shot while in Milwaukee on the previous leg of this very tour.
Before traveling, I knew it would be winter in Australia, but upon arrival I still struggled to adapt to the chilly, blustery winds of Melbourne after the sun-saturated blue skies of Los Angeles. Winter there reminded me of Seattle in November, so eventually I felt right at home. I explored every nook and cranny of the city’s gorgeous river walkways and mysterious alleyways. I loved the graffiti-covered alleys with their air conditioning units and neon signs reminding me of the indie-darling videogame Stray or the rainy futuristic streets of Blade Runner. And what’s the deal with these giant golden bugs?
While in Melbourne I caught dinner with my old friend, actor and novelist, Luke Arnold, who my fans likely know for his captivating role as the iconic Long John Silver in Black Sails. Luke and I ate at a fantastic restaurant where we shared beautifully prepared kangaroo meat. Luke smiled and said “Welcome to Australia,” as I took my first bite. Absolutely delicious! We wandered Melbourne and found a cozy corner bar that looked like the wand store from Harry Potter, with bottles and knickknacks stacked floor to ceiling. We chatted about our shared love of tackling multiple forms of creative expression. I wish this dude lived closer, because we would hang out often.
Our first show in Australia was explosive, right from the opening blasts of “Incinerator.” I always start our performance of Black Sails by calling out to the audience “Do we have any pirates out there?” I grinned wider in Melbourne that night knowing that my friend Luke, Long John Silver himself, was actually out in the crowd!
Having just learned of Ozzy Osbourne’s death hours before the gig, I made a heartfelt dedication to him before our performance of “Last Stop,” the most dizzyingly brutal song from The Singularity. Somehow, contextualizing the song as an homage to one of the founding fathers of the metal genre made it feel more at home in the set. In truth, I was debating taking it out of the set, because it’s just so insanely intense, but in Australia I feel like our crowds finally wrapped their heads around it. And it’s just so fun to play – when you have Gene Hoglan with you, you want to hear those double kicks fly!
This was also my first chance to hear our opening act, a talented young singer and songwriter named Portair. He has a relaxed energy about him, with dirty blonde hair, usually wearing a button-down travel shirt. He uses electronics, pre-records, and multiple instruments to create crowd-friendly, infectiously catchy pop hooks that always got people cheering. (One day, when he’s playing way bigger crowds than me, I’ll brag about how he used to open for me!)
SYDNEY
My first three days performing in Australia were on an absolutely punishing schedule. The morning after our Melbourne show, we flew to Sydney, marking the first of two consecutive days in a row in which we would fly partway across the continent, go straight to soundcheck, and then perform a show, each in the span of about twelve hours. Three times in a row!
I was overwhelmed by the sheer volume of our bags, instruments and flight cases, which together required a massive flatbed cart (a “trolley” to many outside the United States). We looked like a caravan trekking The Oregon Trail as we pushed this mass of bags through the airports.
The Enmore Theatre in Sydney has a comfortable backstage vibe, complete with a crystalline statue of David Bowie by the stairs to the stage that can easily startle anyone not prepared for it. Before the show, we opened a bottle of Tasmanian whiskey appropriately called “SYMPHONY Nᵒ1” that fans had gifted to me the night before (thanks Leon and Elena!). Absolutely delicious, it went down like milk and honey. Even though the band and crew were there to help me empty the bottle, I still got pretty buzzed before the show.
Our second show was bombastic! The Sydney crowd brought an electric energy that was greatly appreciated.
After the show, I was excited to catch up with my Aussie friends, writer Mat Groom and comic designer / editor Michael Busuttil, two veterans of The Singularity graphic novel. They were exhilarated to see their work splashed across the merch table and the screen behind the band.
Mat said it felt surreal to be one of a handful of comic book creators who could experience the cover of their book vibrating on two giant double kick drum heads at a rock concert! I felt so grateful they were there to take a victory lap after years of working with me on that book.
BRISBANE
Another flight, another soundcheck, another gig. My head was spinning from exhaustion by the time the third gig in a row started, but an unusually intense energy from the crowd kicked my adrenaline reserves in. That show was surprisingly unpredictable, rowdy, and ultimately unforgettable. A contender for my favorite of the entire tour.
After a high-energy show that concluded with thunderous applause and piercing cheers, we returned to the stage for our encore. Brendan and I had our acoustic instruments in hand, ready to settle down into the gentle “The Skye Boat Song.” But, a woman in the crowd called out “Godzilla!” She got some laughs, but she could be momentarily ignored. Brendan approached the mic with an anticipatory breath, ready to offer a heartfelt falsetto of the lyrics “Sing me a song of a lass that is…”
The crowd erupted into cheers as I traded my accordion for my Ibanez electric guitar. As the song’s bombastic signature guitar riff filled the room, Brendan made a deal with the crowd. “Ok, you asked for it!” he called. “You got it, but you gotta stand up! Get up!” The crowd exploded to their feet. Suddenly, chairs that had been meticulously laid out were concealed in an ocean of fans that flooded right to the front of the stage like a tidal wave.
We launched into the most intense version of “Godzilla” we’ve ever played, energized by the rowdy crowd. My impulses got the best of my better judgment and I was tempted to leap off the stage into the crowd. I was inspired by Brendan. Earlier in the show, during the guitar solo in “Type III,” Brendan was crouched at the front when, in a flurry of sparkling high tops and glitter, he rolled forward and landed on his feet just in front of the first row. I thought he was so cool – what a rock star! “If Brendan can do it, I can do it!” I thought to myself.
As Omer and Paul began their dueling solos, I jumped down off the stage into the crowd and jammed in the midst of flabbergasted fans. Ironically, I would find out after the show that Brendan had not intentionally left the stage: he had miscalculated the stage size and fell off accidentally! He was shocked when he saw me jump down into the crowd!
“Godzilla” was usually our closer for this run, so instead we ended the Brisbane show with “All Along the Watchtower,” from Battlestar Galactica. Ironically, our Brisbane crowd never got to hear “Skye Boat Song” at all. However, the trade-off was an unforgettably intense last two songs. I feel like it was worth it.
Each concert ends up being its own adventure, and Brisbane was truly legendary. After the show, our energy backstage was absolutely electrified!
After the show, we experienced another Singularity reunion when we were visited backstage by our brilliant mixing and mastering engineer, Forrester Savell, a legend of Australia’s hard metal music scene. Beyond meeting me in person, he had never actually met in person any of the musicians he mixed on my album until this moment. I felt a rush of emotions watching him exchange hugs with Brendan, Gene, and Omer, all of whom expressed their heartfelt gratitude for the incredible impact he had on that record. It was shocking to me that these people had never been together in the same physical space before, despite collaborating closely on my album.
Forrester introduced himself to our front-of-house mixer, Igor, after the show. Igor was a little starstruck meeting Forrester, who has mixed some of his favorite hard rock records (not to mention the original versions of many songs in my set that Igor was now mixing in real time in our show). Igor confessed later he was grateful he was oblivious to the fact that Forrester was in the audience while he was mixing the Brisbane show, so he wouldn’t feel nervous.
KOALAS AND KANGEROOS
After three consecutive shows, two of which were on the same days as flights, my voice was strained and my fingertips ached. Thankfully, we got a day off in Brisbane. A group of us made an impromptu trek to Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary.
We saw cockatoos and all manner of exotic birds. I was shocked to see that a platypus is much smaller than I thought, and a wombat is much bigger! I was stared down by a snarling Tasmanian devil and wandered past a sleeping crocodile. We saw dozens of adorable koalas. And what Australia trip would be complete without chilling out with some kangaroos?
In the afternoon, rain settled in over the city so I returned to the hotel and watched reactions pour in from Raya’s surprise performance of “The Skye Boat Song” at San Diego Comic Con, on the other side of the world, at the packed Hall H panel for Outlander. I was so proud of my wife getting to bookend our experience on that show now that it is concluding, since she first recorded the iconic main title eleven years ago with our daughter Sonatine in utero. Ironic that Raya surprised a San Diego audience with “Skye Boat” just around the same time I skipped over the song in our set in Brisbane to satisfy the audience’s “Godzilla” bloodlust.
I spent the late hours of my last night in Brisbane filled up on steak and fries, in bed with my laptop open, composing a new piece of music for the third season of The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power on my little portable keyboard rig. Never a dull moment on tour!
PERTH
After the day off, I found myself stepping off the plane in Perth, the furthest most western city of our tour. One of the most isolated cities on planet Earth. At that moment, I was as far from home as I had ever been. Almost as far as I could possibly be!
Our spirits were high on the bus ride from the airport to our last hotel. We opened one of the packages of Tim Tams, a favorite Australian treat, that many fans had given me during our shows and passed it around the bus. That night, our entire band and crew went out to local burger place, actually marking the first time we’ve ever managed to get everybody out at once during the entire Themes and Variations Tour. Achievement unlocked!
The next day, we entered Perth’s Astor Theatre via a hidden side door (we called it the “hobbit door”) emerging into a colorful, comfortable backstage area. A beautiful mural behind the couch featured a half dozen artists and performers, including David Bowie whose visage truly did seem to follow us everywhere. LOL
Our final show of the tour was an absolute blast. Brendan got the crowd out of their chairs right away, in the opening moments of “Incinerator.” A group at the back of the hall started waving their hands back and forth during the climactic sing-a-long in “The End of Tomorrow,” so I waved along with them, cueing the entire auditorium to follow. Jack instinctively raised the house lights at this moment, which made it even more magical!
“The Skye Boat Song” was the most immaculate of the entire tour. The crowd jumped to their feet again in our final song, “Godzilla,” a moment that Brendan documented from the stage with his cell phone. The perfect way to end the night, indeed, to end the tour.
Stepping off the stage for the last time this year, it hit me: my Themes and Variations Tour was over. The hours after our final show remain a blur of hugs and h igh fives, along with a bittersweet recognition that, despite everything we shared, we had at last come to the end.
BACK TO REAL LIFE
After wrangling a mass of bags and flight cases through customer service at the Qantas gate in Perth, I found myself seated on a plane that took off at noon on Tuesday, July 29th. Twenty hours of travel later, I touched down in Los Angeles, at two o’clock… on the same day. I can hardly understand it. Over the coming days, the jetlag I avoided in Australia would finally creep up on me.
For my first tour, I played nineteen shows, in eleven countries, across three continents, in three months. A tour is surreal. You have to embrace ups and downs with equal enthusiasm. In one moment, you’re on stage, sweating through your shirt in front of screaming fans. In the next, you’re propped up against a flight case, staring bleary-eyed at an airline customer service agent trying to tell you your bag is over the weight limit.
One of my most surreal moments was in Brisbane, when hanging out with Forrester Savell. Five years earlier, I had contacted him to mix The Singularity, a passion-project I had no reason to think anyone would ever listen to. Now, a half decade later, that passion project had attracted two dozen brilliant guest artists, accumulated hundreds of thousands of spins, and generated enough fan interest that I could tour it around the world. Here we were, together, on Forrester’s side of the globe, all thanks to this record we had made together. A half-decade ago when I first called Forrester, I could never have even imagined this moment.
Of everything said to me and my brother over the last three months, two comments really stand out. One was from our lighting director, Jack who pointed out that this Australia run, three consecutive nightly shows in cities separated by plane flights, is just about as brutal as touring gets. Our bassist, Pete, pointed out that the first tour bus ride my brother and I ever took was a devastating forty-eight-hour trek from London to Warsaw, again just about as difficult as these rides get. Both pointed out these are the kinds of experiences that make immediately clear if someone is cut out for life as a touring musician. Some people face these challenges and understandably say “this is not for me.” These touring veterans were both impressed that the McCreary brothers (and Omer, the other newbie) had acclimated to the life so quickly.
I got to meet so many fans on tour! Many brought stories of how my music helped them navigate difficult periods in their lives. Fans showed me their own artwork and tattoos. I signed Battlestar Galactica CDs I released more than twenty years ago. I signed hundreds of vinyls, comic books, shirts, even musical instruments. I chatted with people about why we all love music and stories. I took selfies and signed autographs on the streets, in cafes, even in the airports, for fans who had camped out hoping to catch us. Many of my fans are aspiring composers themselves, and it felt great to share useful, practical advice to help their own creative pursuits.
As an artist, what more is there to ask for in life? I get to write music that finds an audience. That alone is enough to be eternally grateful for. Yet, to also travel the world playing my music live elevates the experience. To directly feel the electricity created by a crowd responding to my music in real time gives me a burst of emotional, physical and creative energy that refuels my soul. I feel profound gratitude, combined with eagerness to get back out there and do it again.
This tour has also deepened my relationships with many people. The band and crew all feel like newfound brothers o me. Brendan, Gene, Pete, Paul, Omer, and Morgan, as well as Frankie, Timmy, Igor, Jack, Charles, Jackson, Jai and Baldo, you are all etched into my heart!
My Themes and Variations Tour has come to an end. The backstage access lanyard that once lived in my backpack has retired to the shelf of mementos in my studio. I have a ton of work on my plate, including new albums, and new scores for film, television, videogames, and musical theater. Yet, I can’t help but ruminate on my future as a touring artist. I had too much fun out on the road to stop now. I am excited to see what comes next, and grateful to anyone and everyone who will take that journey with me.
Cheers!
-Bear
