What better way to celebrate International Women’s Day than to introduce Kimberly Zehra, an incredible and inspiring woman in the Perth music scene. Kimberly has been engaged with the local music community for quite some time in all facets behind the scenes of Jamart gigs, festivals and events. Kimberly contributes to many gigs, promoting them and putting them on herself with her partner Ersh On, including monthly all ages gig, Mosh in a Sanitorium (MiAS), weekly Open Mic Nights, and annual festivals such as Dark Down South, Metal United Down Under and Kalbarri Open Air Festival, among many other gigs and events.
This is all on top of raising kids, working full time in a demanding corporate job, and other creative endeavours. Kimberly is also the proud new owner of a wonderful all ages music venue in Perth called JamArt Sound Lounge HQ (JsLHQ), located at 108 Murray St Perth. This new venue is situated very close to a CPP car park, bus stops and two train stations within a 5 minute walk. I was lucky enough to sit down with Kimberly on a lovely Perth morning at JsLHQ, and chat about all things music, including how a new music venue came to be.
Steph: Kimberly, thank you for sitting down with me today at your new venue, Jamart Sound Lounge HQ! Please tell me about this incredible new venue and how it came to be?
Kimberly: Ersh and I created Jamart Sound Lounge HQ (JsLHQ) as the coming together of a whole bunch of metalheads who had the same goal of being united. Ersh began Mosh In A Sanitorium (MiAS) all ages, about five years ago. We went through a few different venue changes with MiAS, and we ended up at Vision Studios for a few years and that was fantastic. However, the venue was soon outgrown by how many young ones who were coming to the MiAS gigs. For about a year, Ersh said that he wanted to find a venue and I was super keen too. Not just for the MiAS kids, but also because there were quite a few venues shutting down around Perth and it was getting harder for us to book gigs.
We had been looking for 12 months. Ersh would always keep his eye out for venues and then one day, he scooted past this place. He came in and checked it out. It was very appealing because of how close it is to Murray Street and the train station and everything, but the rent was huge. So we made offers to the owners and then we went on Jamart’s tour in Europe and Turkey which was incredible. Just before we were about to come back to Australia, we received an offer back. The owners had accepted our offer which we negotiated and got a good deal for what the space is and here we are. On the 1st of August, my birthday last year, we signed the lease for this place while we were still in Turkey and then flew back. I grabbed the keys the next day, cleaned it and set it all up for the very first MiAS gig here, the day after. So, within three days, we had got the offer, signed the lease, flew back to Australia, got the keys, signed up and set up the gig and it was absolutely incredible.
Steph: What was it like when you first got the venue?
Kimberly: It was just bare bones, like an office had been ripped out of here and there was just nothing but white walls and fluoro lights. Since then, we’ve gone about soundproofing and painting and Ersh has built the stage with his own bare hands with a bit of help from a few friends. We’ve painted and we’ve done the floor and everything. We are only just getting started. This is just the beginning of what this place is and will be. We work day and night on this place. It’s our heart and soul. It’s our passion. And it’s our love job. We do it because we love it, not because it makes money. Anybody who is in this scene knows that this scene doesn’t make money, and you do it for love, right? But everybody who comes, loves it. They love the space. We are musicians and we have built the space for musicians and music lovers, and that’s resonating with people. they feel it as soon as they walk through the door.
Steph: How would you describe the space when you walk through the front door?
Kimberly: On entering the double doors at the front you’ll see some really cool band shirts and then entering a little bit further into the space you’ll see our ticketing and merch desk. The massive wall of shirts are mostly local bands and a few others – we also do a printing service, Jamart Printing. So many of these shirts we have printed ourselves and provided for the bands. There is a huge shirt collection, CDs, vinyls and stickers for sale, and pretty much all of it is from local Perth bands. We are super, super proud to represent the local music community.
And it doesn’t matter what genre. We have got a lot of metal, but also there’s plenty of others that we have here and we’re also booking plenty of other gigs outside of metal as well for different genres. We are just super keen to see everyone have a really good time and utilize the space, develop their craft, connect with others and just to be a real hub.
Walking further through the venue, you walk past the curtain and then it opens up to this massive space that fits about 300 to 400 people. There are some awesome little lounges here and there that people can relax on, and we’ve got some really cool beanbags that the kids like to jump on when they’re here. And then a huge dance/pit floor. And then this incredible stage that Ersh has built. The stage measures about 9 metres by 7 metres. It’s absolutely huge, it’s one of the biggest stages in Perth. We have a drum rise and this incredible PA set up. The PA was from Richie Ray, who was doing our festivals but wanted to divest. We thought well why not buy the PA system? And then we’ve got it to take to our Kalbarri Open Air Festival, we can have it in the venue and take it to our Dark Down South Heavy Metal Festival. We have got the most incredible PA! It is designed to throw sound to the back of an oval!
Up here on the stage, we have the most amazing Turkish rug that Ersh brought in. He wanted all of the musicians who play here to have this beautiful experience and play on this rug. It stands the test of time. It has been jumped on and all kinds of stuff. I come in with a vacuum and it comes up beautifully. It is really nice to have it on the stage. And then at the back of the stage, we’ve got the big drum riser. All of the drummers will be happy to have their own drum riser there and be safe and be able to be seen from the crowd.
Then moving further behind the stage we’ve got a vault. This building used to be the old Lotteries Commission so given that there was a lot of money flowing through here, there’s actually a bank vault. That’s where we allow the bands to store their gear. It’s really cool in there, it’s soundproof and fireproof. We have got a green room at the back where everybody can chill out and get ready for their set. There is a really cool courtyard out the back where people can go out there and get some fresh air or have a cigarette or whatever they want to do.
Steph: What is the age range of people attending your gigs and how has the response been from the local music community?
Kimberly: The young ones absolutely love the space and we’ve gone from having gigs at Vision Studios in and around the 100 attendee mark to the last MiAS here, which was well over 250 young ones. I think this is much easier for them to access in terms of the train and the bus. It’s booming really. And then outside of all ages, because we don’t have a bar, we allow BYO for adults, and we monitor the young ones really closely. Outside of the dedicated all ages, which is alcohol free, but then all the other gigs are a very wide variety of ages. We have the young ones come through. There might be a few 15, 16-year-olds and all the way up to us older metalheads at 55, 60 years old. It’s a huge variety of people that come through.
We have an open mic nights on a Thursday and you just never know who’s going to walk through the door on open mic night. For example, last night we had three stand-up comics come in and a solo pianist, Emily, she was incredible. An acoustic artist, Bonfyre, jumped in and had a go and then we also had a metal band come in, Challenge Rejected, and they were also incredible. And people just walk past, and they’re blown away by the space that is here, what we’re doing and we just love it. We just love people coming in and just using the space and enjoying themselves.
Steph: What have you got coming up in the line-up for any future gigs on the horizon?
Kimberly: We have MiAS on the first Saturday of every month. The March gig was Iniquitous, Monolith, Cold Fate and Dead Horse, so quite a brutal metal gig. And MiAS is all ages, so everyone can come. At $10 entry, it is really cost-effective. We also have a gig called Crush It! in celebration of International Women’s Day. We wanted to have a gig that was about the women in the Perth and Western Australian music scene. Bands like Ball Breaker, the ACDC tribute, they are absolutely incredible and I can’t wait to see them live. We’ve also got Witchcliff, the most incredible heavy metal band from Bunbury. And we have Bonfyre. She’s going to come and do her acoustic set. We also have Emcee Aerosol.
Steph: How do you find this amazing talent?
Kimberly: One night we had a rap gig and Emcee Aerosol walked past and she wanted to jump on stage. Nobody had ever heard her before. She jumped on stage, absolutely wowed everybody, dropped the mic and just left and I had to chase her down and find her. I was like you have to be booked for all of these other gigs so she’s coming in again. She is just incredible because she really raps from the heart. And then we have Good Strife who are coming from Geraldton. Good Strife came down for a bit of a Midwest kind of regional focus that we had a couple of weeks ago on Sunday. They’re a young band and they absolutely blew us away. They are incredible. The main singer, Kim, her voice is just out of this world. And Kim’s sister Caroline also fronts the band and they’ve got three other younger guys playing with them.
So yeah, we’re super looking forward to Crush It! It’s gonna be incredible. And the reason why I named it Crush It! is because the women in the scene really are absolutely crushing their craft and we just couldn’t be more proud of what women in Perth and WA are achieving in music, we really wanted to showcase that. It will be a regular gig that we do on the JamArt circuit every year, and hopefully that’ll get bigger and bigger as well. And then after Crush It!, we’ve got Kalbarri Open Air Festival, we’ve got hip hop gigs and other events. We’ve got 18 bands, mostly local, some from Geraldton, Kalbarri and all around. We’ve also got a country band coming for that and they’re from Karratha they’re called Highway 95 I’m really keen to get them on stage. Kalbarri Open Air’s got a massive variety of genres this year and it is going to be a lot of fun. Following that we’ve got Metal Mumma which is a Mother’s Day special. So many more female musicians and more broadly there’ll be men of course. Metal Mumma is going to be incredible because we’ve got Lamentia as a headline. We also have Kym Redmond and Band of Missfits. It is going to be a lot of fun. We have Bonfyre coming and Emcee Aerosol again, and many more. Then beyond that there’s going to be a heck of a lot more happening here in the venue.
Steph: What’s the story behind Metal Mumma?
Kimberly: In the metal scene especially, there are a lot of female fans. Many of us have kids and many of us are nurturing the next generation of metalheads. I see it every time MiAS brings up a new band, you know, and there’s a 15, 16 year old guitarist and his mum helps him come in with all his gear or her own gear.
And there’s a lot of metal mums out there and I really wanted to celebrate that. I’m probably not the OG original Metal Mumma, but I call myself that because my kids are being brought up on metal.
My first gig was Pantera, so being brought up on metal and bringing my kids up on metal. I am the Metal Mumma. I am our Metal Mumma. I thought it was a really cool concept and a really great way to bring mums in and say, hey, come to this gig, and you know what? Even if you’ve got a six-month-old baby, bring them with you because all families are welcome here
Steph: Talk to me about the process of getting this venue. What would you say to those who want to do this one day?
Kimberly: I would say do your homework. There is an incredible amount of work with the city councils that you need to do. There is also a lot of research you need to do around your market and your venue and what you need to do to that venue to make it publicly accessible as well. Anybody who doesn’t have experience in music or who thinks that they can open venue to make money, forget it. You have to have the passion for it, you have to know and have some kind of knowledge about it all backing you, and again it is an incredible amount of work. If you don’t have the time to sink your heart and soul and every single cent you own into that then probably not a good idea. But if you are willing to do it for your community and for the love of it, then you should go for it.
Steph: I see a lot of instruments on the stage, can you tell me about them? Can anyone play them?
Kimberly: A lot of what is up here is back line so people can come and use what’s here, aside from perhaps a few of Ersh’s very special Ibanez guitars. He is very generous letting people play. On open mic nights, it’s all here for people to use. We are doing everything that we can from our hearts for this place and for the community. It is a pretty great community in Perth, the local music scene. I really see this place becoming a great spot to go for gigs on a Saturday night or whenever the gigs are on. Whether 10 people or 100 people come through the door, it means a lot to us and it shows that we’re obviously getting it right because people keep coming back and giving us incredible feedback.
So the response from a significant proportion of the community has been incredible. We’ve even had the CEO of WA Music come and check out the space and we had a conversation about how we could support WA Music and the artists. I think this space was desperately needed because of venues shutting down in Perth but also because there weren’t spaces where a dad could bring his 14 year old to a metal gig and introduce him to a new band.
We saw what was missing in the community and we knew where the gaps were, who was missing out and we wanted to fill those gaps. It is really awesome, the incredible support . I couldn’t name the amount of people who have come and said I’m happy to volunteer, this is awesome, I’ve got this piece of equipment you can have. Some of the stuff on the stage here has been donated. That’s my daughter’s piano. She just brought it and left it here. She’s said, ‘Mum, you know, the best thing for this piano is to be here for everyone to use it.’ And we’ve had cabs dropped off, all of the soundproofing blankets around were donated by some very incredible supporters. It is a space for musicians, by musicians, and everybody is banding together to support this place. Ersh and I couldn’t be more grateful for all of the support and love, and that’s really what it’s about. This is for the love of music and the love of our community and bringing us all together.
Steph: Thank you so much for your time and your passion to the local Perth music scene!
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OmiNoUS album launch and the official opening of Jamart Sound Lounge HQ
