Meet Jack and Pat Pierce, twin brother musicians who I met while they busked on Elizabeth Street in Melbourne. The pair were performing to a small crowd gathered on the steps of the GPO mall and to hundreds more people passing by.

They told me that they’re trying out the life of full-time busking for a while to see how it goes. Having both just finished university this, according to Jack, was the perfect time to test out this way of earning a living, though they don’t lack any ambition to enjoy more commercial success.

They’re fun to watch and have no shortage of talent and stage presence, or in this case, street presence. Jack (pictured here on the left) is particularly animated as they perform and I watched a number of people smile and stop to watch them as they bang out their upbeat numbers between moments of banter with each other and the crowd.

“We’re doing pretty good here, but we’re on the list to get a spot just around the corner there, on Bourke Street. That’s the best place to be.” Jack tells me as I buy one of their CD’s that they sell for a mere $10. They’ve been enjoying the Melbourne summer and have done pretty well so far. “Our best day we sold 65 CD’s and had about two hundred dollars in the guitar case there,” Patrick tells me.

The Pierce Brothers are currently working on a fresh new album and will also be making festival appearances through the year, as well as more busking sessions right there on Elizabeth street, by the steps of the GPO next to the tram stop.