Career
Strykert co-founded Men at Work with Colin Hay as an acoustic duo in 1978, regularly performing at the Cricketer"s Arms Hotel in Richmond, Victoria. From 1979 to 1985 he provided guitar, vocals and bass guitar for that group. He contributed to all three Men at Work studio albums.
He wrote or co-wrote many of their songs, including "Down Under" which appears on their first album Business as Usual.
He sings lead vocals on "Settle Down My Boy", one of his self composed songs on their second album Cargo. Strykert played bass guitar on the very first recordings of the early group in a stage musical called Riff Raff in 1979.
When bassist Johnathan Rees was later added in 1980 to the band, he moved forward to lead guitarist. He developed a unique soaring style of playing which added a high amount of energy to their songs.
His signature playing went from long sustained notes as is often the case with the bass guitar, to a rapid fire lead guitar attack in a split second.
He would often duel with fellow guitarist Hay adding dimension to his presentation as well as blending strong backing vocals. He often weaved his guitar playing around the stylistic playing of Greg Ham on his keyboards, saxophone, clarinet and flute. During the process of recording their Two Hearts album, he decided to leave the group in 1985.
Strykert took part in thirteen singles released by Men at Work.
Nine of them charted. He took part in three albums released.
All three charted. In 2003, Strykert released a solo debut titled Paradise on compact disc.
lieutenant was released by an independent label Le Coq Musique and contained the following tracks composed and produced by Strykert:.