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Little HEFTY is an upbeat roots solo acoustic artist
who’s sound has been likened to Paul Simon, Bob Dylan, Xavier Rudd
& even the great Bob Marley.


Hello world, a bit about me…

I’m originally from Adelaide in South Australia – a little city with a small town vibe.
I was a drummer from birth thanks to my father’s genes (He's been a drummer in rock’n roll bands since I can remember). My first guitar was a gift from him at age fifteen. It was a cheap electric Hondo that went out of tune all the time. I spent many weekends and nights jamming on the old "Hondo-matic" to stuff I liked at the time: Nirvana, Soundgarden, Red Hot Chilly Peppers, Hendrix, The Breeders, The Cure, The Beatles and Bob Marley and the Wailers to name but a few.
I never had any formal training - I guess in a way those guys were my teachers.

I have always been pulled between Visual Arts and music. For me they seem to feed one another in a way that keeps the creative well full. I studied to become a Visual Arts teacher in SA and then headed off to London to get some work and a change in scenery.

In London I travelled fairly light, but I bought a cheap acoustic guitar and began writing some songs of my own. I liked some of the stuff I was jamming on so I borrowed my housemate’s dictaphone and began recording my ideas. I opened up Pandora’s box with that cheap ass acoustic guitar and dictaphone. I learned how good it felt to express my-self through music: my fears, joys, and frustrations, stories of my experiences inside and out. This was a turning point for me musically and things were never going to be the same. Looking back that stuff was pretty dark but it was a valid part of my song writing and life experiences at the time.

I was more than ready to leave London after two years there and when I finally made the move to South Africa I didn’t look back. Living in the little fishing town of Fish Hoek(Fish Hook) in CapeTown, was a great time for my music to take a more positive turn. I was surfing every day, writing songs and I gained an interest in African Percussion that would later lead to studying under Master African Percussionist Pape Mbaye in Sydney. I became obsessed with traditional African circle drumming for several years until I suddenly felt like I needed melody again. Two and a half years ago I just backed off the drumming and started writing songs that explored melody and rhythm from the “new” me.

My latest body of work represents a culmination of two and half years of solid writing and gigging around the Sydney live music circuit and life at Maroubra beach in Sydney, Australia.

In short I am stoked to be alive, to feel the sun on my face, to breathe the sea air, to ride waves and to share with you the joy that writing and performing music brings me.
I hope you enjoy.

BIG Cheers,
Little HEFTY

PS: The origin of the name “little HEFTY” goes back to my school days. I have always been called HEFTY coz my surname is Heaft. The ironic thing is that I was invariably always the smallest one in the group.

So you see, in a way I’ve always been little HEFTY 

• Bob Marley, 
• The Beatles, 
• The Beautiful Girls, 
• The Cure, 
• Badly Drawn Boy, 
• Beck, 
• The Stone Roses, 
• The Breeders, 
• Chilli Peppers, 
• Pear Jam, 
• Nirvana, 
• Ben Harper, 
• Jack Johnson, 
• Supergrass, 
• Jeff Buckly, 
• spoon slide guitar guy on youtube, 
• Air, 
• Bernarnd Fanning, 
• Curtis Mayfield, 
• The Heptones, 
• James, 
• Xavier Rudd, 
• John Butler Trio, 
• Joni Mitchell, 
• Kelly Joe Phelps, 
• Neil Young, 
• The Mama's and the Papas, 
• Michael Franti, 
• Nick Drake, 
• Primal Scream and Simon & Garfunkel... to name but a few....