Paris has somehow eeked out a living, yet never shown anyone his lacklustre school certificate while avoiding holding down a 9-5 job for as long as he can remember.

He began his creative life playing bass in a host of bands, and has worked as a freelance music/arts journalist in Sydney for over 25 years, writing for nearly every Australian music rag that has appeared and then disappeared over the decades, as well as being better compensated as a regular writer for the Sydney Morning Herald and other Fairfax publications.

He’s been a DJ for almost as long, dabbled in publicity/marketing for record labels/distributors, worked for numerous festivals and co-founded the Groovescooter record label back in the late ‘90s, the label has now diversified into also being a boutique events collective and independent film-distributor service.

Besides co-curating/hosting events like In Conversation (where everyone from Devo to Gilles Peterson has had to front his questions), Paris is also a radio broadcaster, heard weekly on 2SER with his upbeat mixed show Jumping The Gap, prior to that presenting on FBi, Eastside and SBS Alchemy.

Triple J (perhaps mistakenly) once asked him to do a set for their Saturday night Mix-Up Program and so the youth station ended up broadcasting an hour of Afrobeat and post-punk junk-funk obscurities.

He adores quality disco, Latin, tropical, soul and jazz and his dreamteam band would combine all of these and consist of two bass players (one better than him), a drum machine, percussionist, synth-player, kick-arse singer, monster horn section and a bunch of other colourfully decked-out energetic people who have no discernible music input but provide on-stage critical mass and can dance like everybody’s watching.

There’s no guitarist in the line-up intentionally, because he’s always found it hard to muster the assertiveness required to enforce the “no squealing lead solos” rule.

He still produces and remixes music, does loads of re-edits and is part of the Afrobrasiliana party crew. His favourite party to DJ – alongside Afrobrasiliana – is Soul Of Sydney.

Without any real establishment-recognised skills, he nonetheless has an enduring passion for independent music and arts, conceives a thousand ideas a week for events (some harebrained), is willing to muck in (though lacks brawn) and has always valued enthusiasm over certified eligibility.

He avoids meetings with people who ask “how are you placed?”, hates spreadsheets, has no idea what Powerpoint is and was one of the last people in Australia to succumb to a mobile phone.

Due to teenage years pretending to be a punk while secretly loving Earth, Wind & Fire, his enduring DIY ethic can best be summed up by The Clash lyric: “Who gives you work and why should you do it?!” In other words he continues “not to heed the Call Up”.