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 GEARED heads down to West End to chat to BROWNING STREET MUSIC’s SALLY PELEKANOS about the noted music instrument retail and repair shop’s new location in Boundary St.
GEARED: Sally – when we last spoke, Browning Street Music was based in Browning St...
SALLY PELEKANOS: We needed a wider retail and repair space than in Browning St, and I found this place through another business downstairs – Greg Dodge [profiled in Rave’s 1000th issue – Geared Ed.], who suggested it to me. The current financial climate means a lot of people are getting their instruments restored and repaired rather than buying new ones at the moment; the repairs seem to have really taken off.
G: As a business, are you staying here in Boundary St long-term?
SP: Yes, absolutely. Once again, the area around here is like any other inner-city area – we managed to sign a half-lease, because there are lots of areas here the owners want to develop, but apart from West End Traders Association and the local community, no one’s making sure these buildings are not knocked down and turned into larger apartment blocks. So yes, we would like to be here long-term.
G: I understand Browning St Music are somehow affiliated with the forthcoming Lovefest.
SP: West End Traders Association has been having meetings for years and I got involved in that – pretty much traders wanting to promote West End and shopping locally. They’ve been coming up with ideas throughout the year and one of them was organising a local Lovefest over the three-week period in September. Loving and fest-ing [laughs]! There are so many small businesses that are closing down everywhere in Australia, so in an area like West End, the traders all really want to get together.
G: As someone actively fostering the local music community in West End, what’s your assessment of the current music retail and live music situation in the suburb?
SP: Well, we’ve just had a customer in telling us how cheaply they could get their stock from the States rather than go to a music retail store – you get that a lot. With the Australian dollar currently being so strong, the music retail industry is suffering; there are small music shops closing down everywhere, and I guess that’s the main factor – musicians buy all sorts of stuff from Amazon or eBay for much cheaper than from the retailers.
As far as gigging is concerned, West End has always been full of great venues to play at and there are lots of musicians and artistic people around – that’s why we started our shop here. There are many customers coming in and saying it’s great how there’s finally a music shop in West End. It’s quite amazing there hasn’t been one up until now.
G: How would you describe your client base?
SP: [laughs] It takes a while for a small business to test the waters and work out what are the best products to sell. We’ve had lots of different types of customers – ranging from the backpackers that want the cheap acoustic “traveller” guitar to more serious musicians. The fact that we have brass & woodwind repair and retail as well as guitar repairs on site brings in gigging musicians, and because I’ve had my own repair business for years, I have a clientele base – I service a lot of instruments for schools. So yes, it’s a wide variety. West End is an excellent place to be: you get all sorts of people, all sorts of musicians ... keeps it interesting.
G: I remember there was also a performance space happening in Browning St.
SP: Yes – that’s still happening in the old building. The Browning St Studios and the teaching department are still there, and No. 11, where there retail was, still has the band room and the drum teaching downstairs. Upstairs – the venue area – has been expanded; they’re using the retail space we were using. It’s still much the same and a lot of local musicians are playing there. It’s also a great spot for underage bands – it’s very hard to find somewhere to play when you’re under 18 – and it’s getting more and more bands.
G: Lastly, what are BSM’s future plans?
SP: It’s great getting onboard with WETA – it means that we want to get involved in other businesses in the area to promote West End. We’ve decided that we want to be a music shop that offers something different from other music shops in order for us to survive in the music industry – a shop you can come into and you’ve got technicians in a range of areas from brass & woodwind to guitars. Other shops don’t offer that.
BROWNING STREET MUSIC is now located upstairs at 176 Boundary St, West End (stairs near Espressohead; free parking in Thomas St). For more information head to www.windandbrass.com.au, www.browningstreetstudios.com.au or call 1300 801 390.
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