11 minute read
CLOSE TO THE EDGE
>>> “Yeah, word play amuses me. It keeps me happy and the black dog away and if I can just scribble down some ideas I’m really happy and ready for a drink. So, again that’s my thing and it just gives an extra edge to the songs. Davey brought a lot of other songs. I brought 10 and Davey brought five. He, as much of a musical wunderkind / maestro he is, knows what’s good for the band and he listens as well, he excoriates.” So, then who is the “... Scottish man fronting an American band / Now he lives in Dublin tho’ and I’m in Rosedale lookin’ for ghosts” (‘The Waterboy’)? “It’s Mike Scott from The Waterboys. Yeah, I’d been listening to a record of theirs called Modern Blues. I was down fishing and drinking beer with my mate Nick (Tischler) who my brother and I started the band with. There were a lot of metaphors clashing. I was in a tinny, out in the ocean fishing with my mate and then we’d get back on land and in my hotel room I’d be sitting and listening to this record over and over again. I’m a big fan of Mike Scott’s. From very early on it seemed he was just someone who’s heart’s so big and he just tried big ideas. Sometimes they don’t work but when they do they’re just beautiful. That song’s about, not seeking inspiration but getting it at exactly the right time. “And using Australian place names, I think often Australians got told early on, or warned off in rock and roll anyway, to stay away from place names. The likes of Mississippi, Tennessee and Kansas City, they’re all over the American song book. There are examples, someone like Paul or Don and Mickey Thomas would use Australian geography and I thought I want to own this. It’s taken a long while to get it. Coincidently, something like Ulladulla is onomatopoeically so beautiful, it’s brilliant. Those kinds of indigenous names have such a swing to them, they’re just gorgeous, using their vernacular and trying to use it in a respectful way. I was just luxuriating in those beautiful words.”
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TAKIN’ IT TO THE STAGE
As I queued up outside The Nightcat, in the Melbourne suburb of Fitzroy, for the band’s first of two sets that night, the air was palpable with excitement. Not only was it the chance to get out and see a band – before the May lockdown hit – but also it was the mighty You Am I. They’d been interstate, playing two shows in Brisbane, then a sold out, 1,500 capacity show at Sydney’s Enmore Theatre. The Nightcat is a club about a fifth the size of the Enmore but the band played like they were fronting a whole arena. The stage is in the round, so the audience surrounded the band on all sides. They put in a remarkably assured and commanding performance, one great song after another. For all their wild ’n’ woolly urban bluster, they’re a top notch rock ’n’ roll band with the interaction between band members a joy to behold. Russell Hopkinson, in particular, was an unstoppable force on drums. The audience loved them, spontaneously singing along to the likes of ‘The Waterboy’, ‘Good Mornin’’ and ‘Berlin Chair’. For one band member touring again has been a bittersweet experience. “Um, it’s been quite confronting actually, yeah,” Rogers reveals. “The plague last year affected my family quite disastrously, overseas and here. My sister’s husband dying from it, my daughter in New York right in the middle of it and my family in Spain being decimated by it. So touring, ah, I’m a little flipped out about being around humans, again. When we toured last time before the plague I was ready to go, I didn’t want to tour anymore, I didn’t want to get on a plane anymore. I just wasn’t interested in being a musician really. I thought it was time to get a job and drink beer, get a bit of sleep every now and then. “But I love playing with my friends and I love going through this experience with them. So going out and touring, I love not sleeping and not eating, I love all that shit. It does take a bit of a toll but then about the third day in I start getting very jittery again. I want the whole thing, I want the crap food and the mucking around and the no sleep. I love all that but maybe I’m just not match fit. Yeah, I can’t pretend that
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Photo by Kaza Black
I’m anyone other than who I am but being on stage, people looking at you, all that noise, it’s actually an uncomfortable experience. Oddly it’s also the only time in the day when I am comfortable, so I make it my mission to do the best I can. If no one was there it would almost make it easier; I’ve done plenty of those shows believe me.” For Hopkinson, it was an almost cathartic experience to be on the road again. As Willie Nelson sang, “On the road again / Just can’t wait to get on the road again... with my friends”. “It’s great! It’d been the longest I’ve gone without playing gigs since I was about 16, and that was 40 years ago. Literally over a year without being in a venue and stepping on a stage. It’s work, it’s a fair bit of effort, especially when you’re getting older. We’re loving it though, finishing the night feeling satisfied that we made a bunch of people happy. The feeling from the crowds has been overwhelming in a way. I’m going ‘holy shit, this is fun!’. “You can rehearse as much as you like, but playing a gig is a different beast. It’s driven by a lot of emotion, a lot less calculated thinking. It’s not off the cuff necessarily but we don’t really rehearse. We don’t stick to a template with every song. We’re just building up to that thing where we’re comfortable again and feel like we’re on top of it all. It takes a while, I think I’m playing pretty well but there’s always room to improve. People seem to be digging it. Because the stage was in the round, the guys had to walk out and back again to the band room through the audience. In their excitement, punters were trying to hi-five the guys and engage them in conversation. Was that confronting because they were intent on just getting to the stage and then backstage again? “Well, I don’t know what people want. Do they want to be my best friend? No, we’re a fucken rock band and we cling to each other, we’re best friends, we just want to get backstage and have a drink together. We don’t necessarily play nice on stage, we don’t feel nice on stage, and when we finish we do get a lot of gyp for being impolite and not going out and signing records. I’m so grateful that people are there and I appreciate that they’ve chosen to see us, and three hours after at a pub I’d buy anyone a round of drinks. I’d buy you dinner, talk to you till the sun comes up. We’re there to do a job and despite all appearances we’re actually pretty serious about doing the best show we can.” They finished the set with a rousing version of ‘Berlin Chair’. Then to a wail of feedback, they did the arena styled salutation to the audience, a series of four-man bows with Rogers kicking out his right leg, just as Lemmy would do at the end of a Motörhead concert. It was a final way of saying, “We are You Am I. We play rock ’n’ roll!”.
The Lives of Others is available now via Caroline Australia.
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THE KING OF AMERICANA
Jason Isbell is the King of Americana. At least, that is the title I have given him; and I think it is justified. The 42-year-old guitarist began his career in the Drive By Truckers before releasing his first solo album in 2007 and since then has released six more albums with his band the 400 Unit, the latest of which was Reunions which we spoke to him about last year. Since 2009 and his second album, simply titled Jason Isbell & The 400 Unit, he has won nine Americana Awards and four Grammys. This year he has also been nominated as Artist of the Year and for Song of The Year Categories: that’s impressive. Now, as a tribute to Isbell’s guitar playing, Fender have released the Jason Isbell Custom Telecaster®, marking his first collaboration with the iconic guitar brand as part of its Artist Signature Series. Other names in this year’s series include Chryssie Hynde in the Telecaster range, Joe Strummer’s Campfire acoustic guitar and Dhani Harrison’s ukulele. They join legends such as Jimmy Page and James Burton in the Telecaster range and Eric Clapton and Jimi Hendrix in the Stratocaster series. So, the launch of the guitar luckily offered the opportunity to chat to Isbell who, when I caught up with him was in Oklahoma where he is making his movie acting debut in Martin Scorsese’s Killers of The Flower Moon, starring Robert DeNiro, Leonardo DiCaprio and Lily Gladstone as well as Isbell and Sturgill Simpson. “It is really exciting. I got out here a couple of weeks ago and I’m out here until July. It’s a pretty big project. But I’m enjoying myself a lot so far,” replies Isbell when I ask him how he is going on the movie set. Our conversation picks up from there. Isbell had a voiceover part in a TV series and was in the HBO movie, Deadwood but technically this is his movie debut. “It’s a big deal,” he says. “I don’t know how I wound up getting a part, but I’m certainly happy. I just tell everybody, ‘I don’t know what I’m doing, so just tell me what to do and I’ll do it.’ And so far, that’s worked out.” Is sitting around on a movie set more frustrating than being in a recording studio making an album? “I mean, if I was frustrated to sit around and wait on Martin Scorsese, I would be an asshole,” laughs Isbell. “To tell you the truth, I’m fine, man. If I’m just going to be sitting somewhere, I might as well be sitting around waiting on Martin Scorsese to give me something to do. It’s a long day and it is real work and it’s not easy, but I’ve got no complaints about it at all. I’m really enjoying myself.” And if you’re going to start your acting career, why not start at the top with Martin Scorsese? “I know,” replies Isbell. “That’s what I told my agent. I was like, ‘I would like to do the greatest movie of all time please. Call me when they say yes.’ No. I’m very lucky that this is my first role. It’s a short resume, but so far, it’s a pretty good one.” Isbell’s other recent projects include work on a new album for his partner Amanda Shires, who has also received an Americana nomination as a member of The Highwomen, whose outstanding self-titled album won Album of The Year last year and picked up a Grammy to boot. Isbell has also been finishing work on an album of songs from Georgia. “What I did was when we were having the election here I said if Biden won the state of Georgia – because it looked like he had a chance - thanks to Stacey Abrams and a lot of other people who organized – then I would make an album of my favourite Georgia songs,” he explains. “So, I’ve been working on that. That’s been a whole lot of fun. Of course, Isbell has also been involved with Fender in the design and manufacture of his signature model Telecaster. “I’ve been working with Fender for quite a while and playing a lot of their guitars,” he says. “They’ve treated me well for a long time now. But then when the idea came up to do a signature guitar, they approached me. I was all for it. I’ve played those guitars since I was a kid. >>>
Americana’s favourite son, Jason Isbell, is honoured by a Fender guitar signature model as his star continues to rise.
By Brian Wise
