The Kuranda hills will come alive with the sounds of music, thanks to a grateful former resident.

When the Kuranda reggae festival took up new residence and a new name at the Tjapukai Aboriginal Cultural Park two years ago it left the mountain village with a void in its provision of musical entertainment.

However, former Kuranda resident Morgyn Quinn has seized on the opportunity to bring a piece of musical enlightenment and a world-class event back to the hills. The second Kuranda Roots Festival, at the Kuranda Amphitheatre on June 28, is the 33-year-old promoter’s brainchild and his way of “giving back” to his home town.

Morgyn, who now lives in Brisbane where he runs his record label RudeKat Records, was involved as an artist in the former reggae festival.

“I originally was planning a tour to North Queensland with Hot Rubber Glove in 2003,” Morgyn says.

“I wanted to play the Kuranda Amphitheatre and asked a few other bands to play. It ended up being the first Kuranda Reggae Festival – which I was involved in for three years before it became Reggaetown (at Caravonica).”

He was determined not to let the festival drought set in and acted quickly.

“I felt a desire to bring a festival back to Kuranda and so in 2007 the Kuranda Roots was born. Roots gives the festival a chance to be more varied in the musical aspect – the Roots genre can include a much wider cross section of music,” he says.

The commitment to a more diverse collection of sub genres and artists comes from Morgyn’s musical background.

“I’m from Kuranda and the local Aboriginal reggae band Mantaka inspired me to get into music,” he says.

While Jamaican music – reggae, ska, dancehall and dub – are his “greatest passion”, he has a deep regard for soul music – original R&B from the ’60s and ’70s – and an appreciation of alternative rock music.

“I love Motown,” he says. “But I still find hardcore punk music the funniest to dance to. It’s certainly not something I’d put on around the house.  I especially like reggae, roots and soul music, where the music promotes peace and unity. It’s important to me to put on an event that brings together black, white and people of all cultures – Kuranda is a perfect place to do this.”

Morgyn’s father plays flute and is a songwriter. “We toured Hokkaido, Japan together in 1999 with Gudju Gudju an indigenous/folk fusion band from Kuranda,” Morgyn says.

His brother Ben is a DJ and an “avid” vinyl collector whose taste in reggae, ska, funk, beatnik and exotica greatly influenced Morgyn. While he was surrounded by music in his formative years, Morgyn was no child prodigy.

“I actually failed music quite dismally but it was no fault of the teachers,” he says.

However, his years at Cairns State High School helped lay the foundation for an appreciation of music and the development of his performing skills.

“I did well at the CAD course at Cairns High which is for visual arts and also in theatre. Cairns High in general was a very supportive school for performing arts.”

For one so influenced by the downbeats of reggae music, Morgyn’s musical education began in an unusual manner when his music teacher played the classic Beatles hit Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds to his Year 8 students.

“I was blown away by that magnificent ’60s psychedelic sound.

That led to an all-out raid on his parents’ record collection where he discovered Bob Marley, Jimi Hendrix, the Rolling Stones and David Bowie.

He also learned that his uncle had a great collection of Motown, soul and R&B records.

Despite unearthing such a wealth of original music, Morgyn’s first foray into performing was with a garage punk outfit called The Gastric Chunks who were later to become Acid Moon.

The group took its inspiration from the political punk groups in the UK and US such as Crass and Jello from the Dead Kennedys.But it was the lure of the drum and the bass which saw Morgyn become more involved in reggae-based music with bands such as Hot Rubber Glove and ultimately led to him launching his own label.

The Kuranda Reggae Festival was a great platform for local and regional bands to perform and its departure from the town was a cultural and economic loss.

RudeKat Records organises events and promotes artists such as Mr Laneous, the Dynamic Thrills, Dubmarine and Rudekat Soundsystem. Morgyn’s experience of organising events includes the annual Island Time festival in the spring.

“Island Time is a festival of reggae, soul, dub and island culture,” he says.

“It will be held on Stradbroke Island from October 24-26.

“Island Time has close links to the indigenous people of the island and aims to raise awareness of local and pacific cultures and the environment.”

“As well as creating recording opportunities for various acts, we put out two festival compilations each year – specialising in the latest soul/dub and reggae from Australia and New Zealand.”

Morgyn believes hosting the Roots festival, in the heart of the rainforest, would appeal to a broad cross section of the region, from the local indigenous community to other musicians, music lovers, artists, performers and poets.

And he’s not content with it being an annual local event, he has bigger plans.

“I’d like Kuranda Roots to be an event that grows to have cultural significance for the region, like the Woodford Folk festival.

“I think it’s important to have a festival that supports local live music and performance artists and also inspires the youth.

“The wide spectrum appeal of the festival and this year’s line-up ensures there is something for everyone.”

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