Brisbane Festival is shaping up to be one of the biggest and best showcases of music in Australia this year, with the likes of Sarah Blasko, Eskimo Joe, Polish Club and loads more gracing various stages around the city.
Eskimo Joe in particular are stretching out, performing a special set with Camerata – Queensland’s Chamber Orchestra. Under the guidance of noted conductor Vanessa Scammell, the three-piece and Camerata will sail through a set made up of their numerous hit singles, as well as a few fan favourites – all completely reimagined and rearranged to take full advantage of the immersive experience of such hefty orchestration.
We caught up with Stu MacLeod from Eskimo Joe to discuss the band’s storied career, how they approach the monumental task of reinventing their catalogue, and what’s next for the band.
How do you guys generally find Brisbane audience respond to Eskimo Joe?
There’s subtle differences around Australia; it’s not like playing in South Korea or something, but I do find that people in Brisbane genuinely are music people, they do love to participate when they’re watching a band. Some places you’ll go to where it’s more about being there, rather than being invested in the music, which is one thing I love about Brisbane audiences.
It’s been five years since your last record came out. Where are you at with the next one?
We’ve done a couple of little things over the past few years. We were writing for a mini-series which never ended up happening, and then we’ve just started reissuing previous albums with a few outtakes and rarities. But in terms of new material, we’re all kind of in a different phase of our lives if you will. Joel’s living in Melbourne, doing producing, I’m managing a radio station, and Kav’s doing solo things – so I think we’re just going to let that breathe for a little bit before we jump back into the studio.
What’s it been like revisiting all the old recordings?
It was pretty amazing actually. Being the more tech-savvy person in the band, I was tasked with the daunting task of grabbing all the old hard drives and computers and backing them all up in a central location, and going through and seeing what we had their that we could use. So as much as that was a huge task, it was pretty amazing too, to go back and listen to all the old demos and just where the songs had had their first inspiration, and what that turned into. It was a really cool process. We’ve tried to include as much of that as we can on these reissues, too.
Your catalogue is marked by some rather drastic shifts in sound. When revisiting it all, can you trace it in a linear fashion, and remember where your headspace was at, or was it more a gradual evolution?
I think most of it was pretty much an evolution. I remember there was a specific conscious decision to do something different after the second [self-titled] EP, before we started writing for Girl. It was a conscious decision that we should probably make music that we’d want to listen to. We kinda got caught up in; we formed the band to win a campus band competition, and we had 15 minutes of material, and the rest we kinda had to ad-lib banter onstage, and that sorta worked for us – we got on these longer tours with punk bands, we’d have to play fast and loud, and we sorta went along with it, because that what all the people listening seemed to be enjoying.
Then it got to a point where we were writing a song — Kav and I — the lyrics were stupid, and the melody was pretty simple and boring and basic and childish, and Kav was like, “You know what, we should be writing music that we wanna listen to” and I went, “Yeah! (laughs) It’s probably a good idea if we want to have any longevity at all. So that was probably the main stylistic change, and from there there’s been a progression as we’ve journeyed through the musical landscapes together, but that first jump from the second EP to the first album was the biggest.
You mentioned you manage a radio station. What does this entail?
Everything and anything. I manage RTRFM and there are lots of great people with passion and talent, but it can entail anything from making sure we have enough money in the bank, to approving artwork to designing artwork to changing a lock on a door — I did that the other day — so anything you can imagine doing, I’ll be doing.
What’s the setlist balance like between records these days?
When we play we try and pick something off each record because people have their favourites and we have our favourites. I’d say probably A Song Is A City, and Black Fingernails… get the most love, but most of the time, we try and squeeze in as many from each record.
Personally, what do you feel are the most unheralded moments in your catalogue? Like, the cracking songs that just didn’t get the exposure you feel they deserved.
Two off the last album Wastelands. The opening track, ‘Running Out Of Needs’, and the last track. [Last track] ‘Last Beacon Light’ is my favourite song we’ve ever made, so it’s a shame it really didn’t get a lot of exposure; we didn’t release it as a single or anything. Generally speaking, the last song on every record across the board is my favourite off the record. Songs like ‘Car Crash’, which was the last song on the second record, ‘Sky’s On Fire’, which was the last song on Ghosts Of The Past – those are my favourites.
When making these last two albums, did you take into consideration the different way people consume music these days? How it’s more ‘tourist-y’, for want of a better term.
Look, it didn’t change our style of writing, but it was definitely on our minds that people digest music in a different way these days, it’s almost like the Sushi Train version: rather than sitting down to a four-course meal, you’ll grab a plate as it comes past. We’ve always come from the school of albums; we love that concept as a body of work, and as a start, a middle, and an end, rather than just a song by itself.
This show is obviously different to a regular set. How did you approach the preparation?
On the Camerata show, which we’ll be playing at the Concert Hall, we’ll be playing as a three-piece, with an orchestra. So we’ve had to think very differently about how we’re presenting the show; that’s been a fascinating experience working with an orchestra and with arrangers to reimagine these songs and make them work in an orchestral setting.
Did it impact the set list selection?
Definitely. We kinda went through every single song on every record and threw some ideas around, and had a set list of about thirty songs that we shortlisted. It’s a good hour-and-a-half, hour-forty-five set, so there’s a lot of songs in there. Some of the songs we’d have never imagined would work in that setting and they’ve stood up really well, and other songs have been really difficult. Songs like ‘Sarah’– just the full on straight up rock numbers — we didn’t wanna do that, we didn’t want to do the Metallica S&M thing where it’s just a rock band with strings.
We wanted to bring the orchestra forward and make them the main instrument, because you don’t get an opportunity to do this very often.
—
Eskimo Joe and Camerata play on September 28 at QPAC – Concert Hall as part of Brisbane Festival. Buy tickets here, and check out the rest of the schedule here.
