Sandy’s musical journal began well before she was born with 2 musical parents. Dad a saxophonist/clarinets/flautist and Mum on the church organ and piano.
When Sandy ‘popped’ into this world and grew to 7 years old, piano lessons began and her first ever performance (and love of being in the spot light) was as a dancing flower girl in a Thesbian Lodge Debutant ball at age 10. Lessons on classical flute followed including a little solo singing/ acting stint as the character Bet in a primary school production of Oliver Twist.
Flute continued and classical guitar and electric bass gave birth in her high school years.
Playing bass and singing in (a pretty rough) pop covers band Organised Chaos with her girlfriends and baby brother at high school functions, Sandy became hooked into the excitement and love of performing music. At this stage she was heavily into Madonna, INXS, Tears for Fears, Howard Jones, Sade, Do-Re-Me and spent hours transcribing lyrics from video shows on tv that she had taped that day.
Music was pretty much it for Sandy as far as talent and desire was concerned, so on she continued to pursue a music degree in jazz at Adelaide University as a bass player. Jazz was really a secondary reason for being there as she had never really listened to it much, but it seemed the best option to meet some other serious musos, jam and have fun!
Throughout the uni years (1987-1991) sandy joined an outside local original pop/funk band 7 reasons y and there began developing as a singer/song writer.
Slowly Sandy became a ‘jazz sponge’ and then 'jazz lover' the more she soaked up the atmosphere around her at Univerisity.
Miles Davis: A Kind Of Blue, bass players: Ray Brown and Charlie Hayden, bands: Keith Jarret trio, The Necks, The Catholics, and modal jazz) influenced her new desire to learn double bass. A minimalist quartet Pieces emerged and was another vehicle for Sandy’s writing this time in an instrumental field.
Sandy had the very good fortune of receiving a scholarship to study double bass further at Berklee College of Music in Boston for a year (1992-1993).
Whilst learning bass in an amazing environment, one of the most beneficial studies was an extra credit subject ‘lyric writing’ run by Pat Pattison. This opened up a whole new world of relationships with words and keeping away from clichés and playing with imperfect rhymes and poetic rhythms. A trip to Nashville for a songwriting convention was also an inspiring time where she heard songwriters like Janis Ian speak and perform in an intimate setting.
After Boston it was back to little ole’ Adelaide and Sandy received a ‘Young Achievers Arts Award’ for her overseas adventure. With her prize money she bought a Porta-studio Tascam 4 track recorder.
Wow! All of a sudden she could become a one woman band and explore the joys of instant vocal harmonies and music production. Many songs then sprang to life and long nights of hibernation in her little creative bubble of a bedroom studio!
Moving to Sydney in July '95, Sandy meld into the jazz scene as a freelance bass player playing with a wonderful variety of jazz musicians and artists .
On the singer/songwriter front, she formed a duo with Jules Sobotta (Sandy and Jules) who performed regularly at ‘Café Blue’ and the experience was a terrific vehicle to showcase new songs and get the creative juices and musical genre flowing. (They both wrote and sang each other’s songs).
In 1999-2000 Sandy recorded and produced a 12-song debut CD titled "Simple Pleasures", which received glowing reviews and airplay on Radio National. A 5 song EP titled 'Sandy Klose' (a collection of songs she co-produced with her award winning producer brother, Ashley Klose) followed in 2003.
Klose showcased her compositions at Sydney's leading original live music venues and other varied musical adventures involved tours of South Korea, Japan, Singapore, Bali, and playing on a cruise liner that sailed the South Pacific!
Sandy was bassist and backing vocalist for pop diva, Wendy Matthews whose band toured extensively throughout Australian cities and towns.
During the noughties, Sandy began trying new things like hip hop, flamenco, salsa and belly dancing. Salsa dancing was the one that stuck! Cuban salsa and Brazilian Bossa Novas became a big part of her musical influences at this time and to this day. Artists include the Buena Vista Social Club, Sonora Carruseles, Bebel Gilberto, Joao Gilberto, Carlos Jobim, Divan, and current bands played at the salsa clubs .
Sandy particularly could relate to the softness of the Portuguese language with her own gentle vocal quality, the relaxed nature of Bossa Nova with her outlook on life, and the infectious percussion and sensuous energy of salsa with her own sense of wildness and passion for life, nature and love of dance.
In 2006, after wrapping up a good 10 years in Sydney, Sandy felt it was time to regroup back in her home town of Adelaide for a little while where her family and extremely adorable nieces and nephews live.
Since moving back to Adelaide, she performed numerous times at Adelaide's SCALA including winning a recording prize for her song ‘black and white' which was released January 2010 on the SCALA compilation CD "Another Lesson in Love".
Currently, she is producing her new CD, teaching bass and guitar and is following her heart back to Sydney in August 2010 to reside...
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