Going through high school in Garramilla/Darwin, Quested was always a part of the growing music scene up north and was frequently involved in a variety of worlds, from the metal to the folk scenes. With the growing desire to become a professional drummer and musician, Quested strived to one day move ‘down south’ to pursue a career in music and have the opportunity to be a part of the larger Australian music scene.

Having never played or experienced live jazz before, Quested tirelessly began practising five hours a day in the hope he could gain entry into music school. To his surprise, his audition was successful in gaining entry to a number of renowned music schools, and he was able to move to Melbourne to study the cultish art of jazz drumming at the Victorian College of the Arts.

During his studies, he was selected to study abroad at the University of California Los Angeles as a jazz student. There he studied in both New York and Los Angeles with jazz giants such as Jeff ‘Tain’ Watts, as well as having the odd encounter with icons such as A$AP Rocky, will.i.am and Scooter Braun in his classes. Since then, he has performed with ARIA award winning jazz musicians, and has been involved in some of Melbourne’s most underground avant-garde projects as well as being featured in the 2021 Melbourne International Jazz Festival program.

Born out of the unique combination of inspired creativity and sheer frustration that 2020 has to come to represent for so many artists, Local The Neighbour took shape as a project after Quested’s work as a touring musician dried up, with songs that would come to form his debut EP written as a kind of therapy from his family’s home in rural so-called Victoria.