-By Kim Parnell-

Last month marked 40 years since Pseudo Echo released their iconic album Love and Adventure—a major milestone for a band still going strong. I caught up with frontman Brian Canham to chat about music and the memories.

Brian was just twenty when he and Pierre Gigliotti formed Pseudo Echo in Melbourne in 1982, driven by big dreams and inspired by the music of the time.

“We’d already done the hard yards,” Brian laughs. “Pierre and I went to high school together and had a few bands from the age of sixteen—Pseudo Echo was probably our fourth or fifth.”

“Watching bands on Countdown, and hearing bands on the radio made us think, wouldn’t it be amazing to reach that level?” Brian recalls.
“Back then, as a young band, any kind of recording demo that sounded like a professional product was very hard to obtain. We didn’t have the technology that is around these days, so, at the time, it felt like a pipe dream.”

A few years later, Pseudo Echo was thrilled when they got to perform on Countdown and even Top of the Pops in England. Brian says, “Countdown was full of Aussie legends—Australian Crawl, Flowers, Mental as Anything. We’d bump into them in the ABC studios. It was such a fun vibe. The studio looked huge on TV, but it was actually quite intimate, which we loved—it wasn’t too daunting,” he laughs.

“Top of the Pops was a different experience. We shared a band room with Def Leppard, which was pretty cool! There were huge acts on that show, and I remember being in awe. But like Countdown, it had that small, familiar studio feel—backstage felt just like the ABC. That helped settle us.”

“We were at the top of our game when Funky Town hit—it was massive,” Brian says. “Funny thing is it wasn’t even on the Love an Adventure album at first. I started noodling around with it during a soundcheck, and the guys joined in. We had so much fun, we threw it into the encore that night—and the crowd went wild.”

From there, it became a regular closer at every show, creating such a buzz that radio started noticing. “Lee Simon from Triple M bumped into me and said, ‘You have to release that song—it’s a smash.’ He’d heard a live tape and was convinced.”

Brian continues.

“Despite early resistance from the U.S. label, worried it was ‘too disco’—they came around once it started climbing the Aussie charts. By the time it hit number one here, they were fully on board; the timing couldn’t have been better.”

For Pseudo Echo, the ’80s were a real time for expression. There was new fashion, new technology and new sounds,” Brian says. “We embraced it. I’d grown up on ’70s rock, but when I discovered electronic bands like Kraftwerk and then Gary Numan, I realised there was a whole new direction we could take.”

Instead of sticking to guitar-driven rock, Brian reworked earlier songs with synthesiser and electronic elements. “That’s how Pseudo Echo really began—we leaned into that hybrid sound. We wrote new songs with the technology in mind. I was still playing guitar, but we swapped out a live drummer for a drum machine, then later upgraded to an electronic drum kit.”

That kit? The cutting-edge Simmons SDS 5, shipped from London with help from a friend’s dad in freight. “We were probably the first in Australia to have one—it was a game-changer for us.

“Audiences were gasping when we debuted our electronic drum kit—it became part of our signature sound,” Brian says. “And the fashion had to match. While exploring new music, I was also drawn to the evolving style overseas, far from the denim-heavy ’70s I grew up with.”

He studied the emerging fashion scene, inspired by designers like Australia’s Katie Pye. “We started meeting people in that world and began piecing together bold looks to match our sound. We were really expressing ourselves, that mix of image and music felt fresh for Australia at the time.”

These days, Pseudo Echo stays true to their classic ’80s sound—but they’ve evolved.

“We’re a six-piece with more vocals, more guitars, more keyboards, we also have a couple of girls in the band,” Brian says. “It’s edgier live, with extra energy and spontaneity. The feedback’s been great, we’ve definitely taken things up a notch.”

Pseudo Echo are still creating, with Acoustica and After Party released in 2020, followed by 1990: The Lost Album Demos in 2021—a compilation of tracks Brian Canham originally demoed in 1989. In 2022, they dropped the compilation album Ultimate. Their latest project, Machine, is a work in progress featuring edgier, industrial-style remixes of their classic hits, reimagined with a fresh, club-inspired bass-driven twist.

This year, the band’s setlist has had a shake-up, and some songs have been added that haven’t been played in years.

Pseudo Echo will hit the stage at Hervey Bay’s Sounds of Rock Festival as part of their Love and Adventure tour, with a high-energy, hit-packed set.

Brian says, “It’s a shorter slot, so we’ll squeeze in all the big ones. It’ll be tight, loud, and full-on. Festival crowds bring a special kind of excitement. “You’re playing to both fans and new faces—it’s exciting and a great way to show who we are now.”

Onstage, the chemistry is electric. “There’s real camaraderie between us. I mix things up to keep the vibe fresh, and this lineup is one of the best I’ve had—dedicated, vibey, and in sync. That keeps us all pushing harder.”

Pseudo Echo’s backstage rider looks a little different these days. “Herbal tea, maybe,” Brian laughs. “Not much alcohol—just a bit for guests and some bubbles for the girls. It’s pretty healthy now, but it’s still a great vibe backstage.”

“We were always humble,” he adds.

Brian recalls one festival with a grin: “Once, at a festival with Australian Crawl, we spotted some maintenance quad bikes and ended up being allowed to ride them around all day backstage. We had a lot of fun at that gig.”

The Sounds of Rock Festival in Hervey Bay is on Saturday, September 6 and is set to deliver an unforgettable day of music, featuring an incredible lineup including Jon Stevens, The Angels, Baby Animals, Pseudo Echo, Dragon, Eurogliders and Taxiride (with Jason Singh).

For tickets and more information, visit oztix.com.au or check out the Sounds of Rock Facebook page at facebook.com/soundsofrock.