About Us

The short version of the story is that Bewilderbeats is an online music, clothing & art store based in Brisbane, Australia. We exist as an outlet for musicians and artists such as Butterfingers, Spitfireliar, Evil Eddie and Hairbrain Creative as a place to showcase and sell their work. A longer version of the story goes like this...

Sell Your Cleverness, Buy Bewilderbeats

For as long as I can remember my parents always pushed for me to be creative. Always drawing and playing. Guitar lessons started at age 8 and when I was 15, I’d saved enough money to buy my first four track recorder and with it, came my first real ‘songs’. Skipping forward a few years, I started playing in some local Brisbane punk bands, none of which lasted too long or accrued much of a following. That is until I joined Butterfingers.

Butterfingers

Butterfingers started in 2001 as a band with no direction or genre that stumbled it’s way into being a foul mouthed, Aria nominated (twice), Hip-Hop/Punk band. It was hard to gather interest from agents or labels in the beginning due to that fact we weren’t easily classifiable, so eventually we thought the only way forward was to start our own label and we called it ‘Valley Trash’… cause that’s what we were.

Valley Trash

Valley Trash was such a success that when Butterfingers started getting recognition and offers from major labels, we didn’t want to sign with anyone else because we’d become so attached to our independence. We had complete freedom to write and release whenever and whatever we wanted without any third party interference while remaining a successful, financially viable business and it was this experience that gave me a DIY ethic that I just wasn't able to shake.

Spitfireliar / Evil Eddie

In 2009 Butterfingers took an indefinite hiatus and I joined the thrash punk outfit Spitfireliar. In a similar fashion there was no interest from record labels so I felt compelled to start one and release the debut album myself, this time trading under the name of Bewilderbeats. In 2010 I released my own album on Bewilderbeats as Evil Eddie which was then followed by a long quiet musical lull making way for another creative passion to fill it's place.

Hairbrain Creative

Since I’d always done most of the album art and poster design for the bands I was in, it was a fairly natural progression for me then to start my own graphic design business. Known as Hairbrain Creative we began by specializing in gig and event posters and went on to design anything and everything from album art to websites, from skateboard decks to shoes and shirts. Only problem was that we didn't have anywhere sell our goods and thus needed a plan...

Bewilderbeats

Realizing a need for one collective outlet for all these creative ventures, in 2015 Bewilderbeats opened an online store for all the music, art and clothing that I’d been involved in over the years by stocking Butterfingers, Spitfireliar, Evil Eddie and Hairbrain Creative products. The name itself Bewilderbeats comes partly from the Sufist profit Rumi’s quote ‘Sell your cleverness, buy bewilderment’. This quote reminds me to value things ahead of the curve, in defiance of the status quo and that I should strive to bring those things to others. The name also comes partly from the word ‘beats’ which, in the world of Hip Hop, basically means the music. Bringing the two together means all the music I produce (along with art & clothing) must be of the highest quality and that I always do my very best to push the boundaries.