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In many ways, Dr Taos (real name Adrian O’Shea) is your classic English blues-rock journeyman.
He is someone who has put in the hours, the miles, and the calluses, chasing the intrinsic rewards rather than the glitter. This has taken him through Ireland, France, Germany, Hungary, the Czech Republic, and the USA. And soon... Orange.
“I’d probably go insane if I didn’t do this,” he says, trying to explain why anyone would deal with the constant challenges life as a musician throws up, whether it’s finding attentive audiences, getting decent royalties out of Spotify, or nailing down inspiring collaborators. And the short answer is that incomparable feeling when a gig in front of a full-house goes off.
Born in England and transplanted to Australia as a child, Adrian grew up in a household where music was always somewhere in the air. His father was “a jazzer” and weekends were soundtracked by Miles Davis, Dizzy Gillespie, Don Burrows, and a broad sweep of crackly vinyl and reel-to-reel tapes. But when he saw someone playing a guitar he simply thought: That’s what I want to do!
At around eight years old, he began learning classical guitar in Sydney, unknowingly studying under respected jazz guitarist Jan Goul. Only later did Adrian appreciate the pedigree of that training. At the time, though, the pull was already shifting toward something rawer: Queen’s ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’. Then the sounds of Led Zeppelin’s ‘The Song Remains the Same’ album.
The pivotal moment arrived during a return trip to England. His grandfather, himself a former banjo player with a colourful skiffle past who’d played around America, handed him a Burns electric guitar he wasn’t using. “That was that from then on,” says Dr Taos of the now-collectors item he still has, although his main weapons these days are a Fender Strat, a Les Paul, and a Martin DC Aura acoustic.
He was off on an eclectic creative journey, absorbing everything he could from Free’s Paul Kossoff, Clapton, Jeff Beck, Hendrix, and Jimmy Page. Apart from Queen's 'Sheer Heart Attack' and Floyd’s 'Meddle' album, tracks that copped a high-rotational workout included the latter's ‘The Great Gig in the Sky’, and Led Zep’s ‘When the Levee Breaks’.
His early school band efforts swarmed around those bands. And one day, aged 16, staring out of the window, he found himself jotting down some thoughts and words... lyrics that became his first song: "'Pictures of Magic’ I think it was called."
Dr Taos was never interested in being a clone. “I just thought, well, I’m not going to copy everybody directly — I’ll just play my own style.”
But what exactly is his own style? Yes it’s British blues-rock, yes it’s psychedelic. But his interest in music has seen him filter it through his love for John Lee Hooker, Muddy Waters, Sonny Terry, Brownie McGhee, and more lately Buddy Guy. The Australian band Died Pretty, and its leader Daniel Cardinale’s work, has been a long-time favourite.
The result is that when you listen to his albums ‘Darkness and Light’ and ‘Dr Taos’ you find yourself grabbed by songs that are melodically catchy, with smouldering lead breaks, and fleeting hints of everyone from Radiohead to Tom Petty to Black Keys. Eclectic.
Tracks like ‘Merry Go Round Thieves’ showcase his lead work: fluid, expressive, steeped in blues phrasing but delivered with rock muscle. It is the sound of someone who has spent decades woodshedding and playing live with real musicians.
‘Coming Home (Fall from Grace)’, one of his most resonant tracks, emerged from a deeply personal moment after hearing of an acquaintance’s tragic death. The song arrived quickly, almost fully formed. “Within about half an hour,” he says.
Other songs grow from observation. ‘Love Strikes’ began as a quiet morning on the Clyde River on the South Coast, guitar in hand, tea nearby, the riff appearing first and the story following — a small-town love narrative shaped more by empathy than autobiography. But it was convincing enough that his wife wondered who it was about!
Dr Taos, however, rarely writes directly about himself. Instead, he projects outward, using characters and situations as emotional vessels. It is a very English songwriting instinct: slightly detached, quietly observant, emotionally present without being confessional.
“I’m pretty bad at writing lyrics,” he laughs self-deprecatingly. Typically in the lounge room of his Sydney home, overlooking some trees in the front yard, he’ll start with fingering a chord progression and just “noodling around.”
He loves working with a band so he can take these ideas to them to add their own spin to his, and take it in a bigger, better direction.
The big satisfaction to him is getting what he initially envisaged in his head to sound like that when played by the band, or down on “tape”.
It doesn’t always go smoothly... workshopping a song, one bass player threw up his hands in frustration: “I don’t know what’s in your head!”
“You don’t want to know, mate, it’s not a pretty place!” retorted Dr Taos.
His recent material shows a writer increasingly tuned to the human and environmental currents around him.
Despite being Sydney-based, Dr Taos has a genuine Central West thread. His brother Gerard O’Shea lives in Orange and plays with Reverend Hawthorne and the Hand of Law. Dr Taos has previously played the Victoria Hotel several times in the Four on the Floor format, and is looking forward to returning for the upcoming VicStock event (Victoria Hotel, February 27- March 1).
He has noticed something telling: regional shows often draw stronger, more engaged crowds. People actually listening to the music.
And in that space — somewhere between English blues heritage and Australian pub-rock resilience — Dr Taos continues to do what he has always done: “Just give it a shot!”
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Insta:@DrTaos
Dr Taos VicStock appearance: 3pm, Saturday, February 28, Victoria Hotel.