About Pat O'Grady

Pat O’Grady is a musician and researcher based in Sydney, Australia.

Pat is a professional music performer and song writer, who regularly appears at live music venues in Sydney and surrounding areas. His instruments include vocals, guitar and piano. He has released several independent studio albums that have explored various popular music genres including pop, rock, country and rhythm and blues, and has written and produced for other artists, too. His songs feature strong memorable melodies, emotive lyrics, coloured by rich traditional, jazz and blues influenced harmony. 250 songs make up his catalogue of recorded works, which have been written and recorded in his own project studio; an approach he is currently researching.

Pat is a popular music performer in Sydney and surrounding areas, giving several solo and duo performances a week in clubs, hotels and university campuses. His performances feature a mixture of original and covered works, drawing from an eclectic collection of popular song from the 1930s until present. A key element of his musicianship is his interest in popular music from the early part of 20th century onwards, which stems from the idea that a fine popular song is indeed timeless. He began performing at acoustic song writer nights in 2006, and turned professional in late 2007.

Pat is currently a first year Higher Degree Research candidate at Macquarie University, Sydney in the Department of Media, Music, Communication and Cultural Studies under the principal supervision of Dr. Denis Crowdy and associate supervision of Dr. Diane Hughes. His research is in the areas of song writing and recording approaches, specifically studio-based songwriting. The research explores and examines the development of studio-based song writing in the 20th and 21st century and its implications on contemporary popular music practice and musicology. He has guest lectured and tutored at Macquarie on song writing approaches and guitar technique.

Pat began tertiary education in 2003 at the Contemporary Music Centre (CMC) at Nirimba TAFE, where he undertook a Certificate 3 and 4 in Music. Pat was awarded CMC Certificate 4 Songwriter of the Year. In 2004, he continued at CMC and completed a Diploma and Advanced Diploma of Music. His work ‘Defenceless’ (2004) was singularly chosen and performed by the entire CMC teaching staff at the end of year function. In 2005, he began a four-year Bachelor of Music degree at the School of Contemporary Music at the University of Western Sydney. He majored in Digital Musics and in his 3rd year for his major work of wrote, performed and produced a 10 track album titled ‘Just A Chance’. In his 4th year, a professional strand, he completed a practical research project into Country Music. In 2009, he completed a Master of Recording Arts degree at Macquarie, where he learnt about the practice and theories of recorded music.

Pat believes in a strong connection between popular music practice and research, believing the two deeply inform one another. He is currently working on his next studio album which is due in mid-2012.

Updated 2012