Eskimo Joe is one of Australia’s most popular bands. Black Fingernails, Red Wine, (2006) their third Australian release and their U.S. debut, was a smash in their homeland that skyrocketed to # 1 upon its release (where it stayed for four weeks) and has since gone quadruple platinum (approximately 400,000 copies). The band also won three ARIA Awards including Best Single for the album’s title track (and first U.S. single). In the U.S, the band has garnered much acclaim from critics. "Hot Australian band that reminds me of INXS from time to time (and I mean the good INXS, around Kick)." wrote Ken Barnes for USA Today. "One of Australia’s best young bands gets a belated North American release for its third album, which kicks off with this wintry ballad. Reminiscent of U2’s “New Year’s Day,” it is so seductive, you’ll barely notice the lyrics consist of the same nine words repeated over and over." said John Sakamoto of The Toronto Star.
And for a band whose sound has taken giant leaps forward, from 2001’s
Girl to 2004’s
A Song Is A City to 2006’s
Black Fingernails, Red Wine,
Eskimo Joe have stepped up to again prove why they’re one of the most heralded and enduring rock bands around today. The group recently released their fourth album. Titled
Inshalla it was produced by acclaimed British rock producer
Gil Norton of
Foo Fighters, the
Pixies and
Echo and the
Bunnymen Fame. The album displays an invigorating and exciting fresh sound for a trio intent on embracing the world around them. And the band can’t wait to perform songs from the new album, as well as their vast collection of previous hits as they hit the road again. While the band were in Melbourne, Australia,
Joe Matera caught up with guitarist
Stuart MacLeod and drummer
Joel Quartermain – who also plays guitar in the group - to discuss the new album, the songwriting process, guitars and performing for overseas audiences.
UG: The album kicks off with the track Foreign Land which features some interesting Middle Eastern instruments and a breakdown in the song that is very similar sounding to Led Zeppelin’s Kashmir.
Stu: Kav Temperley (vocalist/bassist) had an epiphany in Cairo and from that got some ideas for this song. But it was very inspired by an Echo and the Bunnyman track, a sort of winding Middle Eastern string section that he originally wanted to play over. So Kav got this CD called The Sounds of Turkey and it had this sample in the middle of this ten minute Turkish jazz which was almost like a folk jam. So we tried all these different beats over it until he settled on this John Bonham type beat and thought it was great. And then we decided we should go the whole hog and just do a little Led Zeppelin mini break in the middle of it.
"I believe you need some friction in the writing process otherwise the music has no edge to it."
Stu: Yeah, I guess the idea was that with the last record it had become too easy.
In other words the situation had become too comfortable?
Joel: Exactly. We had this tried and true method of writing songs and we did it the same way every time. And I think by the time we got to Black Fingernails, Red Wine, there was no friction whatsoever in the writing process. And I believe you need some friction in the writing process otherwise the music has no edge to it. So this time, there was a lot more to-ing and fro-ing and we had no idea of how we were going about things because we were making it up as we went along. So it led to more arguments and whatnot but I think that was a positive thing. And I know it is a cliché to say “creative friction can be a good thing” but I think it was the first time we actually encountered that in about ten years. And by having Gil involved, he became the mediator between things. So for this album it was important to have Gil there.
Stu: I have to say that the arguments were never a personal thing for us. It is where we see our vision of the song. And eventually we all converge on the one idea. But it is just getting to that point.
With your last record the whole feel was about the band becoming stadium rockers, everything was big sounding. Yet on this record it seems like you’re leaving that persona behind and expressing more of who you really are as individuals.
Stu: Music wise it has always been who we are, but I think with this album, because in real life we’re pretty happy go lucky guys, pretty jovial and lighthearted, that element seems to come through more. And I guess when you’re writing music it is easy to be cathartic and put all your negative emotions out into a song. And this time it was also more a case of Kav bringing in more of the positive elements of his life to the actual songwriting table.
Joel: It seems that with every second record we do, it is a totally diverse affair and the record after it - which in our case, would have been our last album - we seem to always hone in on one thing. So this record is the more diverse outing.
What did producer Gil Norton bring to the recording process?
Stu: In the past we’ve really loved doing it [producing] ourselves but with this record we really wanted someone to mix it up and Gil really did that especially, on the rhythm section, the drum and bass, where he really analyzed those intensely. Also the dynamics too, working the kick patterns and drum patterns in general and making sure each section had its own character. And each section built from that.
Joel: He was really the drum taskmaster. All of the dynamics he introduced to the band, originated from his tweaking of the drums. That was the foundation for everything else. And though that was his strength, he absolutely loves guitars. If you ever hear his desk mixes, all you’ll hear is loads of guitars. He hates keyboards though.
Stu: We love keyboards and guitars but on the last album I suppose, we pushed the guitars aside especially the big rhythm guitars and left it for the riff-ery on the top or whatever and brought the keyboards out. Gil was instrumental in bringing out the guitars back into the music a little bit more.
"The arguments were never a personal thing for us."
Joel: He would usually place three guitar mikes on the guitar amps, there’ll be two mikes on the cab; a condenser and a SM-57 and about ten to twelve feet away from those mikes, there would also be a room mike. And often there was a baffle between the room mike and the speaker cab mike. The room mike was picking up what was bouncing off the back wall back into it.
Stu: The secret weapon on 90% of the guitar sounds was the API Lunch Box. The pre amp, compressor and EQ modules are incredibly sweet and beautiful sounding.
Were there other songs recorded during the album sessions that didn’t make the final album cut?
Joel: Yes there were. These days what happens when you deliver a new album to a record company, is that they will tend to say ‘okay in two weeks we’ll need 15 B-sides’. So pretty much you are really making almost two albums which is really hard going. Making one is tough enough for us because it takes so long to write songs and all that sort of stuff. But we kind of use them all up. We rarely go into our next album with an over abundance of material. I read about a lot of bands whom say, ‘this song was like left over from the album before so we decided to put it on this one’. Yet we’ve never really done that as we’re always trying to move forward. You hear of bands say they have like 60 songs before they go into the studio. I can’t understand that. We don’t have 60 songs in total! (laughs)
Maybe they mean they have 60 song ideas…
Stu: That’s the thing, as you can’t think that all 60 songs have an equal chance of being on the record. With us Kav will come to us with a song and we’ll go, ‘nuh, next’. So that song will never even get a look in. And Kav will then save that song for a little side project or something. But we all instantly know whether a song is going to be an Eskimo Joe song or not.
Let’s discuss the guitars you played on this record?
Stu: The unsung hero on this record was a Yamaha 335 copy – while the hero on the last record was a rosewood Telecaster. I actually used two Yamaha guitars on this record but the 335 hollow bodied copy was the main guitar. It is really surprising to a lot of people when you mention Yamaha because when you grow up in a guitar world that is all about Fender, Gibson, Rickenbacker and Gretsch, you don’t really think about Yamaha when thinking of a good guitar. Yet when you pick one up, and play it, it is unbelievable. You never want to put it down. I have to add, we also used a wide range of other guitars on various things too. In particular a Gibson Les Paul Gold Top, especially for solos and things like that. I flicked to the neck pickup as the Gold Top always sounded great in that configuration. There was also a SG Custom, with the three pickups which we used for the main meaty guitar bit on the track Foreign Land. It sounded unbelievable, and had this very AC/DC like sound. There was also a Gibson Duane Eddy Signature Series from the Custom Shop. Because it had an acoustic pickup built into the bridge as well, a transducer pickup, you could blend that with the other two pickups and just created some really incredible sounds coming out from it.
"When you’re writing music it is easy to be cathartic and put all your negative emotions out into a song."
Stu: We had a selection of acoustics that ranged from a Gibson Jumbo Custom Shop to a Maton and a Lakewood.
And when it came to amps what did you use?
Stu: The amps were HiWatt Custom Stage Studio Mk IIs. And Joel used a Matchless amp.
Joel: But we really didn’t use it [Matchless] that much because we actually bypassed it on this record for a Vox AC-30, so it was a mixture of an AC-30 and Stu’s HiWatt. The AC-30 was mod-ded in some way though I’m not exactly sure in what way. It was a very bright sounding amp and very top end-y sounding but it worked for the type of guitar sounds we were going for on this record.
The band has worked very hard and toured heavily since its inception in order to achieve the level of success the band has today, so how has the journey been for you as a band and as friends?
Stu: It has been an incredible journey. I think because we have faith in each other and respect for each other and love for each other, each time you go through a trial or tribulation or back breaking tour, you get stronger as a unit. And each time you write a new song that you’re all happy with, it bonds you together as a unit as well.
You toured the U.S heavily on the last record. Being a band from Australia, how did you find American audiences?
Stu: It was great and all the audiences were very responsive. I think we are something fresh to their ears and though it is not easily as identifiable as Australian, it is also not easily identifiable as coming from anywhere else. So it is a different sound for them.
So what are the tour plans for Europe and the US for the rest of this year?
Stu: At this stage we’re more focused on Europe and Central Europe and breaking through down through France. We’re starting the next tour in Germany and then head through Austria and trying to break into those markets there and if that goes well, we will continue into England. Those places are where the most interest is at the moment and we have a lot of fans there.
Interview by Joe Matera
Ultimate-Guitar.Com © 2009
Karnivool's our best band and they aren't even much good. Or the John Butler Trio
