Joel Quartermain

Quartermain spent a lot of his childhood focused on radio and tapes. In 1989, he moved to Perth, Western Australia, where he attended Hollywood Senior High School.[1]

Quartermain started playing in bands from the age of 12, forming an outfit called Hollywood Boulevard, shifting from keyboards to guitar along the way.[2] This band then evolved into a funk band called Carpet, which consisted of Quartermain on guitar, bassist Simon Leach (Little Birdy) and Simon's brother Stuart on drums .[2] They were subsequently joined by Kavyen Temperley on vocals, changing the name of the band again to Freud's Pillows. As Freud's Pillow they released an EP, Pleasure Puppy in 1997. Despite their modest popularity, Quartermain and Temperley were unhappy with the style of music being played by the band. Quartermain started wearing You Am I T-shirts in protest.[2] Meanwhile, Temperley was jamming on a side project with former school friend Stuart MacLeod, who had co-written some of the songs for Freud's Pillow.[2] The two unsuccessfully auditioned a number of drummers to join them eventually settling on Quartermain, the guitarist in Freud's Pillow, who they concluded was more musical than any other drummers they had auditioned.[3]

We always used to say in interviews that we liked Joel because he couldn't play the drums. Of course he can, but he didn't play drums like a drummer. He wasn't piss-farting around on a high-hat.

— Stuart MacLeod[2]

This side project, now called Eskimo Joe, with MacLeod on guitar, Quartermain on drums and guitar, and Temperley on bass guitar and vocals, played its first public performance in August 1997 at the University of Western Australia in a local heat for the National Campus Band Competition, they proceeded to the state finals in Perth and then the nationals in Sydney.

Quartermain initially played the drums for Eskimo Joe but moved to join on guitars in 2004, with the live drumming position being filled by a number of musicians.