By Tyler Wright
A brother and sister duo from Belgrave are taking the live music world by storm, preparing to perform in the National Busking Championships this November.
Going under the outfit name ‘Black Opal,’ Amber and Charlie Canning started busking by accident in 2018, after Amber tried her hand at gigging with friends at the back of Woolworths in Belgrave.
“I was listening to my favourite bands and I thought playing guitar would be really easy. Obviously I was very wrong, but it was just wanting to play like these people from my favourite bands…Metallica, Iron Maiden, Judas Priest,” 14-year-old Amber said.
After a positive response from the initial performance, Amber came home and suggested that her and her younger brother should team up and create a rock busking pair.
“The reason I started playing was because Amber decided she wanted to play guitar. Then I thought, ‘well, maybe what if I started drums?” 12-year-old Charlie said.
Since then, Black Opal have performed at events including SelbyFest in 2022, the ALWAYS LIVE music program at Federation Square and the Yarra Ranges Youth Awards Ceremony.
On 13 May, the outfit won first place in the secondary category at this year’s Busking Rutherglen heat.
“We had quite a number of issues in our second set. First, my guitar string broke, so luckily I had two guitars,” Amber said.
“Then I swapped to the other guitar, then the amp started malfunctioning, and it was just not fun.”
But when Amber found out her and Charlie had taken first place and would be heading to the national championships, she said she “wanted to scream”.
“At the same time, you’re with a whole bunch of other people, so you sort of like you’re cool about it and you’re like, ‘this is awesome’, but not out of your pants, jumping around excitement, which was how I was feeling,” she said.
Charlie said he is “pretty nervous” for the upcoming competition on 25 November.
“There’ll probably be a lot more talent there because it will take quite a lot of talent to actually get there,” he said.
“When we’re performing, we’re fine. It’s really hard, though, because sometimes we have massive argument in the car and then we have to get out and play, but normally when we get out and play, everything’s fine,” Amber added.
“We just try to be us and be natural and be normal, not dyeing our hair and wearing ridiculous ripped up clothes, [not trying] to fit that stereotypical look.”
The pair are currently working on creating originals, taking inspiration from daily life for their music.
“We’ve got one completed original that Charlie and I wrote about Charlie, because he just won’t do what he’s told and he’s always getting into trouble with our parents…I just write them based on how I’m feeling,” Amber said.
“Normally when no one’s homes, I completely let loose. Just motions and thoughts.”
Charlie said his heart races when he sits down at his drum kit to perform, with theatrics to follow if he is in a “good mood”.
“I start messing around while drumming, like head banging, doing my arms while playing,” he said.
