A MUSICIAN who took his dreams from Barnsley to Australia is now ready to break into the American charts.
Ben Simpson, 36, from New Lodge, is a member of the band Chavez Cartel, which was founded in Australia’s Gold Coast around six years back.
“I’d moved to the city and just didn’t know what to do with myself,” he told the Chronicle.
“I decided to just have a look on the community pages and met the others.
“We’ve had some member changes obviously, but the core lads have been together for the full time.”
While Ben would be the first to admit that the band was not the best to begin with, when Covid hit and they had little else to do, the group knuckled down and got on track.
“We’ve got quite good now I’d say,” Ben added.
“We ended up getting signed by a record label in London and did a tour of the UK.
“At a gig in London there were some industry people around and things took off.
“There’s nothing better than being back in the north of England for music, there’s so many great bands.”
Chavez Cartel are set to release a new album, Red Flag Blues, on March 1, before jetting off to America later that week for a month-long tour.
“There’s so much work at the minute, you can’t enjoy it until you get on the plane.
“It’s literally 24/7 organising, it’s got nothing to do with music.
“So I’m looking forward to actually getting on the plane.”
