Alex Brindell

Introduction

I’m Alex, Alexander David Brindell. I’m from Australia, born in Newcastle. I’ve been living here in Bali for eight years and along with other things at GS, I  teach music and surfing. Now I teach Middle School and High School music, with a focus on percussion instruments: Marimba, drumming and a lot of band work. Outside of school, I’m a musician, that’s what I love to do. I also play outside and do gigs, recordings and things like that.

Musical Background

My dad is a musician, so my early memories of him is sitting on his lap and playing piano, he actually cut out the wood of the piano and replaced it with glass, so we could see all the hammers moving as we played.  I was probably about 3 or 4.  I still remember it, those moments at least.  That was what really kicked me off and inspired me to do that. I’ve been doing that since.  The teaching kind of came later on.  It wasn’t until I was in my early 20’s that I took off with teaching professionally. 

Happiness

Family. Being around my family, I feel really happy but also safe.  It feels very real.  Being around good friends.  We get each other.  There’s nothing faked or forced and then, playing music is definitely for me my happy space.

If I had to think of my happy place individually, definitely playing music and being in the water.  Going for a surf.  That’s my happy place.  

I’m happy. Living the dream. You know, you can never be 100% happy. It’s hard to be objective and say "YES! I’m 100% happy”, but yeah, I’m really happy. Life is good.

Happiest moment?

I’ll give you two. Briefly.  They’re related to those things that make me happy. The first one, was a few years ago actually.  We were playing a gig at “Old Man’s” which is a bar down in Canggu.  And the whole band came collectively together in this one moment in music and things just exploded, sonically.  People talk about being in the flow, one of those big moments when things just come together.  That was one of those moments. I felt like I could punch a hole in the sky.  Huge, it was powerful!  Just so much joy! I still remember that feeling.

Another moment, more related to the surfing side of things, was being in Serangan on Lombok and having the most dreamy surf at sunset, overlooking the cliff, and there was a dugong swimming around or a manatee.  Another really happy moment, but totally different.

A struggle at the moment

A struggle that I’m going through right now… Thinking about the future. I’ve been here for 8 years and I do plan to move on soon and do something else.  It’s just making that leap and deciding on a place and a thing. Which is easy, objectively, but when you are living somewhere so beautiful and you’re having so many great experiences and having a great job, it’s really hard to give all that up and leave.  So that’s my struggle right now.  Trying to figure out my next steps. I have a few ideas, but they’re all just ideas. I haven’t gone much more beyond the idea stage.

Maybe Australia, Canada or Spain. Maybe Bali but who knows. It’s good to mix it up. Eight years is a long time to be anywhere. It’s actually the longest I’ve ever lived anywhere. I grew up in the defense force so we moved every year. So I’m starting to get the itch to do the next thing. 

What do you want your legacy to be?

I would like people to remember how they felt when we had good moments.  You know…it doesn’t have to be like some huge prophetic thing. It’s just like “Oh I remember the time we did this and, man, that made me feel so good”, or on a musical level, “Oh I got to see this band perform and he was playing in the band.”

It’s things like that.  As you get older, your aspirations maybe become more humble.  If you had asked me that at your age, I would’ve maybe said something like, “I have 10 platinum albums and, like, a million fans” and now I just want to make people happy through what I love doing.  If that’s what I could be remembered for then that would be amazing. 

Do you think you’ve  achieved that already?

In part, yes, but there’s more to go. Yeah I think so yes. 

Fear

The first thing that pops up in my mind is sharks and crocodiles. I had a friend taken by a crocodile when I was about your age. So that is a very real real fear.  When I’m in the water, I do think about that a lot. Same with sharks.  But they’re kind of surface level fears. I think the greatest fear for me, and I think a lot of people, is failure.  You know, doing what you love and running with it, but also failing. And that’s a massive fear.  Whether that’s economic or the notoriety you get. Or leaving things too late.  

Kindness

Being a good person and being real.  

Kindness isn’t always happy thoughts and compliments.  It’s being real with people in a supportive way but being kind is like, ‘hey man, have you considered that what you are doing is actually a little off?’

In my eyes, that’s kind? It’s just being real with people.  And it’s also really positive.  Being super positive but it doesn’t necessarily have to be rainbows and flowers to be kind. Being a good person, being honest and real. And it does not have to be reciprocal.  That’s one of the things I would say.  Sometimes people think that kindness has to be this two way street. “I say you look nice, you say I look nice”. That’s kindness.  I don’t think it’s the case. 

Regret

I have one.  It’s when I had a really bad leg injury and I regret the situation leading up to that. Which was a really mundane situation.  It was just me shopping. Buying a glass bottle. I really regret that moment because it took me out of being physical for nearly two years. So I really really regret that. 

What would you do to change that

I just wouldn’t go to the shop. I think it’s the only regret I have… It was an unfortunate situation but I regret finding myself in it. Not that I could’ve done much to change the outcome. 

I’ve had a few things where I got very close to doing something I would’ve regretted and I pulled away at the last minute. I’m thankful for that and it’s mostly confrontational. Having these big moments of feelings surging up and wanting to go to the person to lay it on them. Then at the last minute going like, “Ah just leave it another day.” And I’m glad I did that because that would definitely be a big regret. 

Confrontation

What I found that helped me in these particular situations, was to write down what I was going to say going in, and I wrote down the msg on my apple notes, ready to fire off. Then I looked at it again and then thought I’d give it a day and then send it.  Looking at it again the next day, I thought “I’m in strife if I do this”. That's not something I regret because it didn’t happen but it got close. 

Love 

It’s kind of everything, isn’t it? Love it great! Love is awesome!  It’s not just being in love with someone, it’s like feeling the love and loving what you do.  Love doesn’t have to be emotional with another person necessarily. 

I’m lucky! I get plenty of love. From my girlfriend, from my family, from my friends, from people I barely even know…there’s a lot of love. 

I feel a lot of love when I’m playing music, from the other musicians, even from my instrument.  It’s something I’m lucky to have a lot of in my life.  I don’t know how I’d define it, but I’m very lucky to have it. I think you really notice when you don’t have it.  It’s one of those things, that when you have it, you’re like, “Oh this is great, everything is good” but when it goes away for a bit, you suddenly feel really energyless and dark. So maybe it’s something you feel more when you don’t have a lot of it. 

How has Bali changed over your time here?

Gigantic! At least where I live.  When you think about the change that happens in Bali, it’s really happening along the coast.  If I was living in Bedugul, the change I’ve seen is probably a lot less than what it is living in Canggu.  When I first moved to Pererenan, it was main road and it was one warung, and there’s now 50!  All the rice fields are gone. So, environmentally there’s been a massive change, where I live, and that also been a change in mindset.  A lot of people see their friends selling off their land for this much money and want to follow suit, so the mindset has somewhat changed. Before it felt a bit more like a community and maybe that’s fractured a bit.   

And it went so quick. The road to Batu Bulong used to be dirt road. There’s two main entrances and in 2015, the right hand entrance was a dirt road. Now there’s massive hotels all along it. 

Change isn’t always bad.  There is some good sides to it too. Any café, any kind of food you feel like, there’s maybe 10 restaurants out there that do it which is cool but it’s definitely changed a lot. 

Piece of advice

Just be a good person. The world is full of really dark, sad things and bad situations.  So just be a good person.  Help people out when you can. Be generous with your time and your energy and your finances if that’s what you’ve got going on. Just be a good person.  Help other people. And don’t expect anything back from it. 

I think if you can go through life with that and get to the end of it and be like “I was a good person, I’ve helped people.”  I think that’s a nice feeling. 

And wear a helmet! 

Inspiration

Pak Made Aristanaya . The music teacher in Primary school.  He is an absolute machine when it comes to Balinese music. He inspires me hugely.  Worth shouting to, about music.  There’s so many people.  But the first one is him, Pak Aris. Legend. He is amazing.