Stephen and Matt grew up in the hills of Perth, WA in their family home built by their father who raised his family among the trees in the same town in which, he grew up. The timber walls and verandas were alive to the sounds of the violin, guitar, piano, singing and their Dad’s favourite instrument, the harmonica. There were only a few vinyl LPs in the house on high rotation and The Fureys was one of them. Many family dinners, Sunday afternoons, visits from friends and the occasional tear were accompanied by When You Were Sweet Sixteen and Belfast Mill on their old Fureys record. Now, decades later Stephen and Matt have raised their own families in hills of Sydney and have brought their love and many hours of playing Irish folk and contemporary songs to the many live venues from the inner city to Newcastle and beyond. They have performed at The Harbour View, had month long residencies at Kellys on King in Newtown, headlined University gigs in Wollongong, UTS and Sydney Uni, performed at Club Rivers for St Paddy’s Day at Club Rivers for 5 years in a row and were the featured live music event in The Narrabeen Sands live music calendar.
During the week, Stephen can be found in his artist workshop sculpturing and running over his reels in Marrickville and Matt is a registered music therapist. They both share a passion for music, art, family, community and of course playing together as the McNamee Brothers. They always look forward to their next live performance and to creating a friendly and social atmosphere of singing and dancing, story telling and letting the fiddle come alive with the spirit of the Irish.