Trippin' down the 80's (with Bobz)

I was with a breakdance crew in the mid-80's. It was a time of great development for me in terms of philosophical and musical directions.

In the early days, out of pure boredom we use to teach ourselves to do flips and somersaults after school, out in Birdwood Square, Highgate. It was pretty much what I did with my crew everyday without fail, so we mastered the moves quickly and soon we were bored again. As hyperactive teenagers go, we were sooner looking out for new stimulation again, and that was when Berry Gordy's "The Last Dragon" hit the cinemas and got us on our feet again. Our introduction to routine dances soon extended to community centre performances and unbeknown to us, the dancing bug has begun spreading.

So, when breakdancing finally landed Down Under in the 80's, my crew(Turbo Mix) spruced up our act and rocked up to Forrest Chase, Murray St.(before it was a mall) to battle on massive pieces of cardboard boxes. We honestly had no idea what we were doing back then except for what we learned from the movie, 'Breakdance 1 & 2 - The Electric Boogaloo'. However, we quickly gained much valued street credibility by incorporating our martial arts/gymnast agility into the art of breaking. (There was a lot of rascism and fights back then and it is true to say that dance help to ease off a lot of our youthful passion and energy.)

It was at that time, that a teacher from our high school realized and channeled our talent by managing and promoting us for paid gigs. I remembered that our first stint was at the Sheraton Hotel ballroom - we were a hit! From there, as I continued dancing, I began taking up modelling stints for private functions at(Rumours, Gobble's, Chicago's & discos throughout the metro. Things happen and before I knew it I started promoting myself as one of the event organizers and had wine glasses and cigarettes hanging off me. I experience plenty and learned swiftly. From the wheeling dealing that was happening around me, I can see clearly that life in the entertainment business is a musical chair charade of cons and counter-cons with players dancing like vultures around each other. It was a dizzying dance.

Somehow, I was blessed with good sense, and so sooner than I had started, before I even begun having fun with the offerings, I became totally bored of the whole fakings and makings of the industry.

Coincidentally, that's when the ol' music bug caught up with me. I recall sitting alone as a little boy strumming on my guitar contentedly - days where there was no one to impress, no show offs to perform and no schedule to keep to. I quit my failing relationships, quit my job, quit the glitz, quit it all and ended up simply with a guitar on James St. in Northbridge outside the Wespac bank.

Thinking back, that decade was a whirlwind with temptations of fame and fortune. And boy! Was I glad that I gave up showbiz and got on with the business of making soul music. But yeah! The 80's were unforgettable!

Colorful Blac - The story of us.

Colorful Blac - founded 2003

Money can’t buy me life.
As children, we both loved books. But more, much more than that we loved music. Words and melodies were our way of learning about the world. It helps to drown out most of the falsities in our dreary childhood. So we sang the words and we worded the songs. And we continued singing till our voices grew so enormous and true, that our timid little hearts felt ripe to take on even the wild wild world. Soon at 17-18, we packed our sandwiches and left home to tackle the foxy entertainment industry where billboards and fast-talking executives were said to rule.

We met back in 2003, formed Colorful Blac and in the following years achieved a relatively modest albeit remarkable success with our covers act. Meanwhile, we had also begun self-schooling on the art of sound engineering via google to prepare ourselves for the recording of our personal tales onto a song album.

We worked plenty and played some, and did our best to stay out of trouble. Even so, life did not offer us the little monotony we had envisioned without a barrage of temptations. With chance occurrences we came to live amongst and witness the hazardous and whirl-wind paths of profiled entertainers often littered with drugs, alcohol and depression. Playing festivals and prominent venues in Melbourne, the Gold Coast and Singapore, we also found ourselves frequently haunted by wicked witches with delicious apples, pimps in gold chains with carrots-a-dangling and all the worldly enticements for the eyes’ feasting! Luckily, each time they prodded at us, every time the little voice in our hearts triumphed us to fix our eyes on our art and leave the rainbow be.

Street Culture

Real life, not unlike Hollywood T.V. offers numbing sensations with instant success-out-of-a-can that leaves the eyes wide and highly dilated. Forewarned earlier by what we had witnessed of the risqué price of a hurried success, the question begs us, do people really mean it when they say, “I would give ‘anything’ to have that kind of success!!?”  We  formulated our answer swiftly before the speedy buzzer timed-out, and to cut a long story short we have sooner committed ourselves to staying low and avoiding all kinds of short-cut trappings. So together for nearly 10 years now we have grounded ourselves, utilizing street performances to hone our craft and earn a modest living whilst enjoying the richness of street culture.

What if a recording/distribution deal turns up? Well, we’re definitely keen, if only to share our music to a wider audience around the globe. Truth be told, we have had substantial offers throughout the years (with various songwriting / recording / reality-t.v. deals in Australia, Canada, Singapore). But because we value the vital groundworks which we artistically cannot overlook, we maintained that there is no rush to move forward. We were enjoying our process and we figured if we keep brewing our songs patiently, the right time will come to see the right person for the job. As they say, you can’t keep a good man down!

Meanwhile, we get to live like the flower-child of the 70’s, work hard and travel freely with no hurry to compete in the world. So we did! And in this way, we have found that the privilege of meeting just any people is priceless, and learning to discipline the self in hard-work is liberating.

            Wedding couple, Ali & Mark still keeps in touch.

So how do we manage this anomalous lifestyle which most would deem unstable and insecure? The key, is that we work diligently(fr Latin diligere, "take delight in,"), live frugally and give sincere gratitude to our fans for their appreciation of our work, cos whether it be a monetary expression or a physical gesture it all comes from a place of value! There’s a saying that sums it up for us - “Gratitude turns what little we have into enough”. We have had fans who have offered us a roof. We've been given hand-warmers for the cold winter. Some bought sushi and others brought us delicious home cooked meals and even baked us cookies. How cute is that?

We truly believe that every breathing moment in life should be celebrated with thanksgiving and so naturally we’ve produced ourselves a motivating, positive and appreciative album as our first release. We started in 2003 with nothing. Fast track nine years and today we are the proud owners of a personalized LP recording that will always serve to remind us of the peace in knowing that more does not equate better.

Currently, we’re moving our CDs steadily one at a time, each weekend we’re out on the town. Although you may not have heard it yet...;) on television or the radio, we have many happy listeners to vouch for our success. So if this is your kind of success story, and you would like to hear more about our adventures, get your Colorful Blac CD and join all the other happy campers on our side of the fence in celebration with songs of real life - and real love...

The kind that money can’t buy!

A few words by our fans:

Thank you! I won a gold medal with your motivation (swim 4km in 20mins & sing your song)!- Tanja Engels(GER), World Masters Championships

An amazing album by two of the most soulful singers in Australia, if not the world - 87.6 kissFm, Australia, DJ Eddie Mac & Cam

Amazing sound on this album! Ingenious! I recommend it. - 98.9 fm Melbourne Musos with James Morrison

Two words… Mont Blanc - Eddie Nigel, Singapore, Award Winning Producer/DJ

Soul filled album… always puts me in such a fantastic place! - Big fan, John J Antonic


Support us:
You can preview and purchase our CD or mp3s at: http://www.colorfulblac.com

I'd like to teach the world to sing(in perfect harmony)

Someone asked me recently about some of my inspirations...

Just off the top of my head, I'd say one of my earliest inspirations would have been Coca-cola's 1971 hit TV advertisement feat. the song, "I'd like to teach the world to sing in perfect harmony". The words, the melody, the images and the emotional association they all have with a perfect world of harmony had somehow created quite a stir in me. 

Perhaps I was subjected to an environment of disharmony and prejudices at a very early age. "Certain religious followers will go to hell" and "other-colored skin should be avoided" are ideas that I often hear in the backdrop. It is truly not the most fertile condition for a steady foundation in life.

However, these ideas never made sense in my heart(and I've got a darn strong one) so I've always made it a point never to fall for some of these silly beliefs that adults around me at the time had tried to instil into me. I was pretty much indomitable and although I was tiny, I've always been a feisty and vocal one. As far as I can remember I was always questioning everything and arguing my point till I was often physically beaten into silent sobs by my authoritarian aunt. Then the next day it starts all over again.

Following a great many years of beating, I decided to spend most of the time with my head (and my opinions along with it) buried in books. School books and Enid Blyton stories mainly. Enid Blyton had me itching for adventure. I couldn't wait to go off and do the crazy things I read in its stories.

Then came my big break. At 15, I moved back in with my parents whom by now have become complete strangers(they left me with my aunt and grandma from age 6). It wasn't long before I became aware that my parents had a lack of practice in exercising their authority over me. That, on top of the fact that I couldn't quite see how education would serve the world peace had me deciding to finally quit school and get a job and move out at 17.

Soon I was exposed to a world of clubs, gangs, smoking, drinking, greed and lust. I got myself a girlfriend, hop from job to job and spent a lot of time philosophizing with just anyone. At the same time I was trying to stay out of trouble, trying to live in peace with all whom I crossed path with. Witnessing a whole lot of taking and grabbing on a day to day basis kept me continuing my search for the remedy to perfect harmony. The words from the old Coca-cola advertisement trails on.

During this period, I had also tried my hand at songwriting.  I'd figured that putting down my thoughts this way was the only thing that's provided me with relief from a world too noisy to listen, too busy to care. This went on for a bit and at age 21, my world came crumbling down. All at once, my long standing girlfriend of 4 years left me, i lost a job which I've held down comfortably for a while and my family, siblings and friends didn't care for my ramblings about the state of the world anymore.

The idea of harmony persists.

At this point, jobless, friendless with no agenda and with no one's approval to seek anymore.. I was totally free to see the world unadulterated. I picked up my guitar, took to the streets of Northbridge. It was then that I eventually put one and one together and I decided that I best be a harmony seeker and musical storyteller. And thus began my love affair with harmonic tones and the written word.

It's probably a paradox that I've chosen to take on the path that life has chosen for me. But here I am with a bit of good out of life and a bit of bad - and it all serves to continue inspiring me to teach the world to sing in perfect harmony!

- Bobz

Introduction to Colorful Blac

This is our first blog so we feel it's only appropriate to introduce our core selves - the fundamental essence that reflects our external manifestations (our vibration & music, our art & movement, and not forgetting the misgivings & forgivings of our interactions in this complex state of the world.)



We all do what we can to share our best manifestation at whichever point we are at... Here is the 'point', the foundation upon which Colorful Blac is built.

This is our DESIDERATA:

- In our daily dealings,

Ask not for the attainment of things, rather ask what it is that is worth attaining… and you'd realize that the only thing that is worth attaning is the art of gracious giving.

Gracious giving means happily giving to people whatever makes them happy. In this way, make happiness your gift and giving your happiness.

However, remember one ground rule... anything that interferes with freewill interferes with happiness. So let others have whatever makes them happy as long as it does not impose upon freewill and the truth.

In this way, let those who ASK receive, and refute those who demand because the enforcement of their will upon you disregards freewill and comes in conflict with the law governing freewill.

In this way, let those who wants to receive, first ASK. How else would you know if others value the happiness you have to offer… for even the gift of happiness when enforced comes in conflict with the law governing freewill.

And with this in mind, give freely without demand.

The Hebrew scriptures read, “To those who give freely, they shall receive freely… and give unto others what you would have unto you”. Therefore give without demands so that you too shall receive without demands from others. And if your wish is happiness then let happiness be your gift. And what an appropriate gift it is… as everyone, if asked, will wish for just that too!

With all that said, then…

Let’s get together and give forth happiness
Happiness in beautiful images
Happiness through sensuous sounds
And let’s populate the earth
with a Happy Peaceful feeling of Harmony! (Inspired on the: 9/08/2004)


In the days to come, we will try to elaborate these principles in words and in spirit through our personal compositions, lyrical interpretations and photographical representations. So stay tuned, and express your sentimentality if you share a common vibration.