Musician, entrepreneur, and the owner of the ‘Paris Cat Jazz Club’, Serge Carnovale leads a very colorful life. Having toured around Australia with his predecessor bands in his earlier years, Serge these days performs corporate gigs in Melbourne with his current band ‘Funky Film Express’. Also being a builder by trade, Serge’s dual interest in the property market led to the establishment of the now-very-successful ‘Paris Cat Jazz Club’, based on Goldie Lane, Melbourne, in early 2006.

Here Serge shares some insight with us over establishing a hugely successful jazz venue, in addition to the initial challenges that he faced, and what his hopes are for the future of Melbourne’s jazz scene.



Tell me about yourself
I have been involved in the music industry for over 25 years. It all started at the age of 17 when I purchased my first drum kit at a garage sale in Templestowe in order to get recruited into a band. I remember practicing on this drum kit from 7pm to 2am that morning before auditioning for the band, and I was successfully recruited. But only because I was the only drummer at the audition that owned a drum kit. After that I performed with various Latin jazz, funk and R&B bands over the years all across Australia. Nowadays my band ‘Funky Film Express’ perform corporate gigs. We have recently performed at the 2010 AFL Grand Final celebrations and Operation smile in Hong Kong.

I am also a builder by trade, and this in fact is where the history of the ‘Paris Cat Jazz Club’ all began…

So tell us about the genesis of ‘Paris Cat’
I was going through a personal break up at the end of 2005 and I needed to keep myself occupied. I have always been very interested in the property market (from my experience in the building/trade industry). It was during this time that I discovered a property on Goldie Lane, CBD, which had a basement and was up for sale. I began imagining a Parisian-style jazz bar right there. I got very excited…I thought this is where my future jazz venue could be! Without hesitation we snapped up and purchased the property. The next thing I knew, I was on a flight to Paris to get some inspiration for my new jazz club. I wanted to create a 1930s-40s Parisian style ambiance in the basement by using dim lights, having the jazz bands playing in the room, and most of all paying tribute to the Parisian basement jazz clubs.

How did you start with the promotion of the club?
I’ll be honest – it was very hard at first. During the first few months we were lucky to attract 15 people on Friday and Saturday nights. Weeknights were a lot trickier, with an average of five attendees per night. Over time as word got out of our establishment and the calibre of bands we were promoting, we started getting a lot more customers, including new customers through referrals. Since then we haven’t looked back…these days we have sold out shows even on Wednesday nights!

Apart from the humble beginnings, what were the other challenges of running the venue?
Having a constant list of good acts was obviously difficult, as we were new and relatively unknown. Over time as our reputation soared through word of mouth, musicians became well acquainted of who we are, and began contacting us regularly to perform at our venue. To ensure a ‘fresh’ line of acts, we now aim to promote two to three new up-and-coming
jazz artists every month.

How did your marketing strategies evolve over time?
Whilst the traditional ‘word of mouth’ has proven to be successful, we also established our website (www.pariscat.com.au), where people can see what line of acts are coming up and purchase tickets in advance, so that they don’t come to our door at the last minute and unfortunately being turned away (this has become common in recent times). The website has also been great where people can email me with questions where they can receive quick responses.

What has been some of your personal rewards of running the venue?
Personally, my biggest reward has been to create a jazz venue ‘from scratch’. My aim of establishing the ‘Paris Cat Jazz Club’ has been to support original up-andcoming jazz artists. It has been extremely rewarding watching them grow over the years and becoming nationally recognized. In fact, several of them have been nominated for music industry awards They include Nat Bartsch, Sarah McKenzie, Jon Crompton and Megan Washington, Xani Colac and many more. I also love it when I hear our customers taking the time and effort in finding our place, as Goldie Lane is not the most conspicuous lane in Melbourne. One of my customers told me, “It took me over two hours to find this venue!” I am a huge fan of the alleyway
culture of Melbourne, with some of the best bars and clubs being ‘hidden’ in the alleyways of Melbourne.

Being such a busy person, how do you manage to even out your time?
I have my wife Liz to thank for that – she is ‘my rock’. My kids Madison and Christian are also my source of inspiration and pride (with our third child on the way). Having a balance in life is very important when you’re running your own business. Paris Cat used to be opened 7 days a week but now we’re opened 5-6 days a week so that I can spend more time with my family. I also follow the soccer – I am a huge Liverpool fan. Outside work I follow the property market very closely.

What advice do you give to aspiring jazz club owners?
You need to have the concept of longevity and patience in mind before establishing a jazz club. The jazz music industry is not a ‘quick buck’ industry. The purpose is to support up-and-coming jazz artists. I always say – support the talent first, the money will come afterwards. On that note I would advise that if you want to open up a jazz club, buy the property
instead of renting. This is because (speaking from experience) you are likely to experience fluctuations in revenue when you first start out in order to build your reputation. When we first started out we offered free entry for the first three to four
months. So keep this in mind if you choose to rent the place.

What’s your view of the future of the music industry in Melbourne?
Whilst I fully support the ‘alleyway’ music culture of Melbourne, I would like to see more jazz bars being established in Melbourne. In fact, it would be great if they could all be built close to one another, so that people can ‘hop’ from one jazz bar to another. This means that the artists would not only get more exposure, but that you would be supporting several jazz artists in one night with more shows on offer. It is quite common to see a number of jazz shows on one night in New York or Paris as most clubs offer 2 separate shows per night. On this note I’d like to see the attitudes towards paying cover charge at jazz venues to be changed. When we first started out a couple of customers asked why they were being charged $7 for entry fee. I explained to them that it wasn’t going into our pockets but in the pockets of the artists performing at our venue. If more people can get into that mindset, we would be supporting a lot more up-and-coming artists.