Kav Temperley - Eskimo Joe (22/11/2013)
The major city shows might be over, but Eskimo Joe are keeping busy with their Wastelands tour continuing it's home stretch to numerous rural areas across Australia. I was fortunate enough to catch up with front man Kav Temperly before it all kickstarted.
It was 12pm in Melbourne. “I’ve just woken up pretty much”, laughed Kav. “After I talk to you I’m going to ride my bike to the studio and be environmentally conscious. We're rehearsing because tomorrow is our first gig for the beginning of our Wastelands tour. Tomorrow it'll all be happening!"
The Wastelands tour is in conjunction with Eskimo Joe's latest record and 6th studio album. "Tomorrow is our first day so the challenge at the moment is that we've created this album which sounds quite sonically different to other stuff we've done, so we've basically been learning how to play the album and see how it relates to the old music. Now we're going to go out and play it live and see how that happens, and how people react to it. So it's pretty exciting and kind of a nervous sensation of how it's all going to go."
Between albums, The Joe has done miscellaneous shows here and there but they haven't properly toured since 2011. They began to record Wastelands in early 2012. "We basically walked into the studio with no real plan of what we wanted to do", Kav explained honestly. "We went through heaps of trials and changes, and we ended up with this completely different sound that unpredictably happened. It's really exciting and everybody feels quite invigorated."
The band's last record, Ghosts of the Past received mixed reviews upon release. Its overall sound and reception proved to be a massive motivator for the production of the band's latest record. "With that record [Ghosts of the past] We ended up making this very rock sounding album, and so I think we all kind of walked away from that a little bit unsatisfied. So this album [Wastelands] for us is such a breath of fresh air. We all kind of arrived at the same place at the same time, so everybody feels really quite satisfied."
Post Ghosts of the Past, the band has worked with producer Burke Reid (previously of Gerling and producer for The Drones, Oh Mercy and The Mess Hall) and have left their label, therefore producing Wastelands as their first crowd funded record. "It was a really positive experience. Burke has pushed us and gotten us out of our habits and the weird dynamics of three people who have worked together so closely for years. It was kind of scary going into it cause we've always worked within the framework of a traditional record company. We were really keen to forge a new way. I guess you’re putting yourself on the line to be shot down- not so much from a critical perspective, but more from a financial one. You put yourself out there and if you don’t make money you can just say you attempted to crowd fund! [laughs] but luckily it went really well. We raised the money which was an important part of it, but it also created a new way for us to interact with our fans. It feels like the most positive relationship we’ve had within the music industry."
The Wastelands record, labeled by many as the band's first electro album has garnered attention for it's different sound in comparison to past records, particularly the hit Black Fingernails, Red Wine. "I always listen to stuff like Beck and LCD Soundsystem. Stuff that’s not really like rock. Since Black Fingernails Red Wine, We’ve become this 'rock band' and I don’t know if we ever really intended to be that. We just started to unconsciously do what people expected us to do, and so our main influences for Wastelands came from simply dropping a lot of the pre-tense to what people expected from us. We never set out to make a dance album or anything, but we really wanted to get away from using guitars as our main instrument. I know this sounds kind of silly, but we really wanted to make a record that our friends would listen to! [laughs]. There came a point where our friends developed this attitude of "Ah yeah.. that’s just Eskimo Joe doing their Eskimo Joe thing". So I think we were really motivated by the idea of doing something that if our friends heard on the radio, they’d be like “Oh that’s cool, what’s that?"
The record has definitely surprised friends and fans of the band, from the boys' hometown of Perth and beyond. "I think the Perth music scene is like a family- whether we like it or not we’ve become like the elder statesmen or whatever. The thing about Perth is that it is a small place so anything you do is set. Like, if you’re a wank to somebody, you have a reputation as a wanker and you can’t do that bullshit to anybody. We're so isolated from everyone physically that everybody knows they need to help each other to expand out of Perth, and try and promote Perth as its own musical force."
With this tour, the boys from Eskimo Joe plan to do many shows outside of Perth- particularly a lot of rural areas across the country. "Multiple smaller shows makes touring and performing more fun! You get to do more shows and because of that, you become a better band." Kav departs our conversation on an inspiring note for any aspiring musician: "I say focus on the fundamentals- there is lots of talk on how savvy you have to be in the industry, like forget about all that bullshit! Just focus on writing really really good songs and being a great performer and then the rest will just come together. If you are good at what you do, things will just come together so just focus on the fundamentals."
Adrianna Connelly
It was 12pm in Melbourne. “I’ve just woken up pretty much”, laughed Kav. “After I talk to you I’m going to ride my bike to the studio and be environmentally conscious. We're rehearsing because tomorrow is our first gig for the beginning of our Wastelands tour. Tomorrow it'll all be happening!"
The Wastelands tour is in conjunction with Eskimo Joe's latest record and 6th studio album. "Tomorrow is our first day so the challenge at the moment is that we've created this album which sounds quite sonically different to other stuff we've done, so we've basically been learning how to play the album and see how it relates to the old music. Now we're going to go out and play it live and see how that happens, and how people react to it. So it's pretty exciting and kind of a nervous sensation of how it's all going to go."
Between albums, The Joe has done miscellaneous shows here and there but they haven't properly toured since 2011. They began to record Wastelands in early 2012. "We basically walked into the studio with no real plan of what we wanted to do", Kav explained honestly. "We went through heaps of trials and changes, and we ended up with this completely different sound that unpredictably happened. It's really exciting and everybody feels quite invigorated."
The band's last record, Ghosts of the Past received mixed reviews upon release. Its overall sound and reception proved to be a massive motivator for the production of the band's latest record. "With that record [Ghosts of the past] We ended up making this very rock sounding album, and so I think we all kind of walked away from that a little bit unsatisfied. So this album [Wastelands] for us is such a breath of fresh air. We all kind of arrived at the same place at the same time, so everybody feels really quite satisfied."
Post Ghosts of the Past, the band has worked with producer Burke Reid (previously of Gerling and producer for The Drones, Oh Mercy and The Mess Hall) and have left their label, therefore producing Wastelands as their first crowd funded record. "It was a really positive experience. Burke has pushed us and gotten us out of our habits and the weird dynamics of three people who have worked together so closely for years. It was kind of scary going into it cause we've always worked within the framework of a traditional record company. We were really keen to forge a new way. I guess you’re putting yourself on the line to be shot down- not so much from a critical perspective, but more from a financial one. You put yourself out there and if you don’t make money you can just say you attempted to crowd fund! [laughs] but luckily it went really well. We raised the money which was an important part of it, but it also created a new way for us to interact with our fans. It feels like the most positive relationship we’ve had within the music industry."
The Wastelands record, labeled by many as the band's first electro album has garnered attention for it's different sound in comparison to past records, particularly the hit Black Fingernails, Red Wine. "I always listen to stuff like Beck and LCD Soundsystem. Stuff that’s not really like rock. Since Black Fingernails Red Wine, We’ve become this 'rock band' and I don’t know if we ever really intended to be that. We just started to unconsciously do what people expected us to do, and so our main influences for Wastelands came from simply dropping a lot of the pre-tense to what people expected from us. We never set out to make a dance album or anything, but we really wanted to get away from using guitars as our main instrument. I know this sounds kind of silly, but we really wanted to make a record that our friends would listen to! [laughs]. There came a point where our friends developed this attitude of "Ah yeah.. that’s just Eskimo Joe doing their Eskimo Joe thing". So I think we were really motivated by the idea of doing something that if our friends heard on the radio, they’d be like “Oh that’s cool, what’s that?"
The record has definitely surprised friends and fans of the band, from the boys' hometown of Perth and beyond. "I think the Perth music scene is like a family- whether we like it or not we’ve become like the elder statesmen or whatever. The thing about Perth is that it is a small place so anything you do is set. Like, if you’re a wank to somebody, you have a reputation as a wanker and you can’t do that bullshit to anybody. We're so isolated from everyone physically that everybody knows they need to help each other to expand out of Perth, and try and promote Perth as its own musical force."
With this tour, the boys from Eskimo Joe plan to do many shows outside of Perth- particularly a lot of rural areas across the country. "Multiple smaller shows makes touring and performing more fun! You get to do more shows and because of that, you become a better band." Kav departs our conversation on an inspiring note for any aspiring musician: "I say focus on the fundamentals- there is lots of talk on how savvy you have to be in the industry, like forget about all that bullshit! Just focus on writing really really good songs and being a great performer and then the rest will just come together. If you are good at what you do, things will just come together so just focus on the fundamentals."
Adrianna Connelly