At a towering 6 and a half feet tall it’s not surprising that Soulman O'Gaia could have been a contender for a career in basketball if he hadn’t opted to focus his talents on music. It’s been an interesting and colourful life thus far with the tall Jamaican changing his name to escape disturbing memories of ancestral slavery, traveling Europe as one of seven children in a military family, and finding music as a salvation and constant companion through life’s ups and downs. This one time Londoner now calls Australia home. “I speak with an English accent but my heart resonates to the Caribbean rhythms my father used to play. I recently found a picture of my Dad that looks like it was taken when he was way down in the deep south of America…He looks like one of those old blues singers…just out of the cotton fields. So it all adds up…In my singing I identify more with Afro-American ancestry. I lean more towards Sam Cooke or James brown than Bob Marley or Peter Tosh love them though I do. The whole roots thing is a bit of a jumble for me. I can get inexplicably tearful some times just encountering pictures of Africans people…I have no idea what’s going on in the depths…but I believe it’s made me a compassionate and peace seeking soul."


“Soulman O’Gaia has an uncanny ability to engage the very soul of an audience. An incredible performer with a wonderful energy…”
Sandy McCutcheon ABC Radio

The music is a unique and impressively diverse blend of Soul, Rock, Caribbean syncopation, Gospel, Pop and Blues.

Soulman has featured alongside John Butler, Paul Kelly, Xavier Rudd, Archie Roach and Tex Perkins on the Fatherhood CD and has appeared at East Coast Blues and Roots, Woodford and others festivals.

“Soulman O’Gaia …the name says it all… A fantastic singer and performer…” Mick O’Regan Radio National