Country star Eales continues to shine

By Melissa Meehan
WARBURTON country music star Steve “Ealesy” Eales has again added to his swag of music awards, winning Best Album of the Year at the Australian Country Music People’s Choice Awards in Tamworth.
The award is described by many of Eales’s fans as a great achievement as the album The Battler was only released six months ago.
Eales’s star is continuing to rise after he received a total of 13 nominations for his music over the past year, six for Victorian and National Country Music Awards, five for Australian People’s Choice Awards and two for Bluedog TIARA Awards.
Born in South Australia, Eales moved to Warburton with his family when he was 15 years old. Eales describes his music style as a combination of traditional Australian country mixed with country pop and country rock.
He said that his parents influenced his country music tastes, but as a young man preferred the tunes of artists such as Sting and Neil Finn.
Eales said that he was often inspired by the surrounding views of the Upper Yarra area.
“Inspiration comes from every day things, you can get a song out of a passing thought that only lasted half a second,” Eales said.
“In my old band, Sovereign, our song It’s My Town was inspired by the areas surrounding Warburton.”
In the future, Eales said, he hoped to break into the U.S. and European markets, but in the mean time was happy to tour Australia and work on his new album.
“In country music, it’s best to let your albums breath. It’s much slower than pop and rock, albums often take 18 months to peak rather than 18 weeks,” Eales said.
“I’ve already got a number of songs that will allow me to get started on my new album fairly soon, so hopefully the new album will be out by early next year.”
Eales said he loved Australia but wanted to take his music overseas. He said while the U.S. had a lucrative country music market, his music was already well received in European countries such as France, Norway and the Netherlands.