Feature photo by Marxchivist. Photo above by Reini68.

In December 2007, Tanya Andrea Stadelmann and I decided that we had to do something dramatic to break out of our loneliness and despair. During the two previous years, our lives had reached a complete dead end, littered with heartache, ill health and crap jobs.

Over mint juleps in sweltering Melbourne Christmas heat, we hatched a wildly ambitious escape plan– we’d start a musical act, tour the USA and make a film. We called ourselves The Jilted Brides.

We faced a few hurdles: We didn’t have an album, Tanya hadn’t sung for 15 years, we had no contacts in America, owned no video equipment and had hardly any money. But what we had going for us was a kind of Withnail and I fantastic desperation, a vivid imagination fueled by despondency, joblessness, and intoxicants.

Over the next four months, a series of minor miracles occurred. We recorded an album in six weeks, using the shed in back of my share house. On the strength of that album and Tanya’s images, we applied to be artists in residence at spectacular locations all around the USA, thinking nothing would come of it.

But almost every residency we applied for wanted us – institutions in Montana, Washington, Pennsylvania, Georgia and New York. Without having played a single gig, we e-mailed music festivals and venues in Canada and New York, asking to be put on the bill. They put us on the bill.

By May 13th, we were flying to Canada to play our first festival in Vancouver. We carried our bulging suitcases and an Indian harmonium, The Jilted Brides’ exotic signature instrument.

Since then, we have been pursuing our quest to find freedom and happiness by traveling around North America, having many incredible low budget adventures.

We have Wwoofed (Willing Workers on Organic Farms) in Canada, plowing up dirt in exchange for food and board; we have couch surfed in every US city we have visited. For transport, we have relied heavily on Craigslist rideshares, getting lifts for hundreds of miles on improbable routes– with the harmonium stuffed in the trunk.

I do believe that there must be some old rock and rollers up there in heaven who want us to have a good time, who are helping us overcome seemingly impossible odds to realize our dreams. Through sheer chance, I have been given free entry to sell-out shows by major artists, I’ve found myself late at night in the kitchen of rock stars, all great stuff for our DIY documentary.

When Tanya has needed extra hands to help her shoot our film clips, willing helpers, sometimes with great cameras, have just appeared.

And perhaps most incredibly of all, just these last two weeks in New York we found a backing band (via Craigslist once again), rehearsed with them for only a few hours, then played to a wildly enthusiastic audience in the East Village.

So where to now? We have just finished a promo for our road movie/ musical documentary. We have more gigs lined up in New York in November. Our financial situation is as dire as ever. But we are having the time of our lives.

For video from the road: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-nvauc6t_QQ

For more info: www.myspace.com/thejiltedbrides. www.thejiltedbrides.blogspot.com