Joel Quartermain Profile

Name: Joel Peter Quartermain
Known As: Joel
Birthdate: 19 January 1977
Birthplace: Kew, Melbourne, Victoria
Resides: Fremantle, Western Australia

Joel is the guitarist, back-up singer, recording drummer and pianist of the Australian band Eskimo Joe. He spent a lot of his childhood focused on radio and tapes. In 1989 he (unwillingly) moved to Perth, and first joined a band in his high school years. He joined the band Freud's Pillows in Year 12 and thus met Kavyen Temperley which then evolved into Eskimo Joe.

After coming off the tour for the album 'Girl', Joel approached his other band members about moving from drums to guitar when the band played live. Joel says that he is the band member least likely to feel comfortable when doing promo interviews and credits his bandmates 'thespian' tendancies for their comfort in this area.

And, as a special bonus, Joel, in his own words!

I was born on the 19th of January 1977 in Melbourne and delivered by a chap called Dr Champion (seriously). I spent my primary school years taping songs off the radio and saving up to buy tapes. I played cricket heaps and generally did pretty well at school. I spent heaps of time growing up with my cousins, who are all girls so I probably played with dolls more than your average pre-teen boy. Maybe that means I'll be good and changing nappies when I have a kid.

I moved to Perth in 1989 much to my disgust at the time. Mainly because I couldn't go to the MCG on the weekend to watch the mighty Bombers any more, plus I loved my cousins heaps and I knew I'd miss them.

In 1990 I began highschool at Hollywood Senior High. With that came my first opportunity to start a band. I'd tried the year before but my friends were all too young to give a shit about starting a band. My parents got me a keyboard with a stand which I could barely see over. I was very serious about playing in the band which was kind of frustrating to me and my bandmates as they were not quite so serious about it. Then in year 9 I befriended some year 10 guys who had a band. They already had a keyboard player but his instrument was powered by pumping air with pedals, so I was in.

While playing with these guys, I started to pick up the guitar and then got one of my own the next christmas. That's the good thing about coming from a broken marriage, at xmas and b'day time you can ask for cash from your multiple families and then pool it to get something really good. While in year 12, I formed a band called Freuds Pillow in which I played guitar (shithouse name, hey?). That's how I met up with Kav. We did heaps of shitty gigs around Perth and ended up releasing a CD in '97. At that time I was studying marketing and management at uni. Uni was great, a chance to get drunk a lot and for the first time, without a fake I.D. At the same time, I joined Kav and Stu to join Eskimo Joe. We decided to enter the campus band competition to get a gig and to get us out of just jamming in Kav's room every Wednesday when Stu and I both had days off from uni.

I'm not sure how, but we won the whole thing which at the time was a good kick in the bum for all of us. It made me drop out of uni to finally concentrate solely on music. The best decision I have ever made. So now, here I am, sitting in a Kings Cross internet cafe, part of a band I'm really proud of and in love with my bandmates and my girl. Now there's a happy ending for ya. courtesy: eskimojoe.net (archived)