"We're control freaks basically"
Eskimo Joe started out over 10 years ago, as a small town band from Fremantle, Western Australia, doing the rounds on the local scene and releasing 2 solid efforts prior to 2005. But then their stunning 2006 album, Black Fingernails Red Wine, propelled them into the spotlight, urging tour dates across America and Europe, and even securing a deal with Warner in Central Europe. Now on the verge of album number four, the boys prepare for another European tour and are out to prove they have the staying power to be a household name for years to come.
2009 is already looking like it will be an absolutely massive year for Eskimo Joe, and, before the hard slog formally begins, while still putting their final flourishes on the album back home in Perth, guitarist, Joel Quartermain, took a moment to chat to Nat Morris:
Altsounds: Hey Joel, are you free to talk this time around?
Joel: Yeah sorry about that before, I was in a crowded Irish bar, I thought the interview was at 7:30, my memory failed me! I’m glad you called back.
Altsounds: That’s alright, no worries! So, other than hanging about in rowdy Irish pubs, what have you guys been up to lately?
Joel: Well, we’re just putting the finishing touches on the new record, which will be released in May I believe. We’re just in the final stages of mastering now, which is like the last thing you do in the album cycle. And we just went to Sydney to go and play it for the record company and all that sort of jazz, and do photo-shoots and that kind of boring stuff…
Altsounds: The thrilling media kind of stuff…
Joel: Yeah, but kind of dull for musicians. But yeah, we’ve been rehearsing with the band and getting a show ready to bring over to you guys and play.
Altsounds: Of course, we can’t wait to see you boys over here again in April…
Joel: Yeah, should be cool. We were over there in December, but we’ll be coming back a little up the road at Koko this time.
Altsounds: Yeah, that should be a great gig. I remember you mentioning at the show in December that we will need to come back in April to hear you play some of the new stuff…
Joel: Yeah, that’s what we’re actually preparing at the moment. The way we make records is that, we write the songs in the home studio, and then we go and record them at another studio, but we don’t really play them live until after we’ve made the album. We don’t like to get in the jam room and play the songs at a million decibels before we’ve recorded them, because we’ve found that if you do that then anything sounds good really loud, and you just get lazy with your arrangements. We like to really focus on the arrangements and how the songs work in the studio and then translate them to the live world later, so it’s an interesting process, it’s sort of backwards from the way most bands do it I think.
Altsounds: Yeah, I know [lead singer and bassist] Kav performed some of the tracks from the new album solo and acoustic last year in Sydney, is that a standard thing for him to do?
Joel: Yeah, he’ll go out there and play the songs; I think basically to sing them in. They sort of take on a different life when he performs them live acoustically, and he gets to live in the songs a little bit so when we get into the studio it’s not like it’s the first or second time he’s singing the songs, he’s nailing it by that stage. I think he uses that as practice for the studio and also to see how the songs work as full pieces in front of people. But that’s obviously very different to performing with the band, which is a loud and rocking kind of thing.
Altsounds: Great, so can we expect any singles from the new album anytime soon?
Joel: Yeah, first single is due, over here anyway, in March – but I’m sure it will be streaming online and that sort of stuff. And we’ll have a film clip for that too, so you’ll be able to check out something brand spanking new really soon.
Altsounds: Well, you guys will be over here by the time the single drops then, right?
Joel: Yeah, we’ll be over there when the single’s doing the rounds. And because it’s the first time that we’ve gone out and played songs off this record, we’ll be pretty excited. I mean, the old songs, the set that we played last time we were in England, the set list is two and a half years old. We didn’t actually have the time to get the new songs together as we just literally stepped out of the studio and onto a plane, and then we arrived two days later and we were in Dublin so it was a pretty whirlwind, rush kind of thing. And then we came back home and put the finishing touches on the record, the current one that’s due to come out that is, and since then we’ve sort of been breaking the songs in, in the rehearsal studio.
Altsounds: So you have been clocking up a fair few hours over here in Europe recently, and more so with the upcoming tour. Do you think Eskimo Joe would ever consider making the move permanent?
Joel: Well, yeah, if there were to be a relocation during this year, it would probably be into Europe, most probably Berlin or somewhere like that, because we’re signed to Warners there in that part of the world, and that is probably the biggest deal we’ve got outside of Australia. So it seems like the place to focus or just be based, and obviously to get around Europe from there is just so easy. I mean, once you’re there then you’re in the thick of it. And I think we’ll be coming through as many times as possible, I know we’re due again later in the year, maybe around the Summer festival sort of time as well, so we’re looking forward to getting over there and playing as much as possible like we did in the old days in Australia.
Altsounds: And why not?! You’ve been selling out a lot of your scheduled dates already…
Joel: Yeah, the last tour we did through England, pretty much all the gigs sold out, apart from Birmingham, which was about 80% sold, so we were really so happy with that. I mean, we hadn’t really played over there before and we didn’t expect to have an audience but people came out and checked us out and I must say, they seemed to enjoy the show. So hopefully with this next tour we can build on that, we’ll see how we go. I know, at the moment, times are a bit tough in that part of the world, so hopefully people can spare some of their hard earned money to come and check us out because it’ll be a good show.
Altsounds: Absolutely, is it crazy to think that you guys are coming all the way to the other side of the world now and selling out most, if not all, of your shows?
Joel: Yeah, we were as surprised as anyone, but it was a nice surprise and it made it exciting. We did a couple of rounds of America on the last record, and that was way tougher, you know, some nights we’d be playing to a couple of hundred people, and some nights we’d be playing to a couple of people, literally! So that was like a big coming down to earth experience. Just before we went over to America, we were playing the biggest headline shows that we’ve ever played at home, and we sort of moved to a new level of success over here and then we go over there after playing those shows on a large scale and suddenly we’d be in Austin, Texas playing to 5 people and it’s like okay!? But it was really exciting coming over to England and having a ready-made audience, which we loved that so it was really great.
Altsounds: You mentioned a video for the new single, how does Eskimo Joe approach a new video, as you have some great videos to live up to, the likes of ‘New York’, ‘Wake Up’, etc. Do you boys have any say in the direction?
Joel: Yeah, I think with say ‘New York’, it was Kav and Stu’s idea, especially Stu’s really good visually, so it’s like the way we demo songs; they put together a demo video of Kav walking backwards but through the streets of Fremantle, and then they showed that to the guy who directed the clip and he took it from there. We happened to be going over for whatever reason, so we flew him over to New York, which seemed like the appropriate place to make the clip! So yeah, that was an example of it coming from the band, but say with ‘Wake Up’, that was the director’s idea, and usually what happens is we put out an idea and the directors take it and put their own spin on it. Sometimes we just deliver the song and see what the directors come up with and that’s part of the process. With the first single, we usually have some sort of idea of what we want to do.
Altsounds: So is that the case with the upcoming video?
Joel: Yeah, this time we’ve got a general idea, I mean, I’ll tell you about it and you’ll see in a month or two if we achieved what we were looking for. It’s a pretty powerful song, like it’s a pretty rocking, epic sort of tune, so we wanted it to have a real sense of power in the clip. We referenced a clip filmed somewhere in Europe I think, I don’t know whose group it was or what it was for, whether it was in a movie or a film clip, where all these kids with these super powers, and weird scenes and movements and energy and that’s sort of what we’re bringing to the clip. So it’s a pretty broad description, but you put that out there and then see what directors can come back with. And usually there are about 6 of them that come back and we chose the one that we want to go with.
Altsounds: Now that you are nearly done with album number 4, how do you look back on your [first album] Girl era?
Joel: It’s kind of nice, because nowadays, it being 10 years on, and we’re all that bit older, it’s like looking back on a scrapbook or a photo album. And that’s a nice thing to have, that kind of record of the past and where we were at musically. And also, obviously the songs, Kav writes the lyrics and they describe the times that we’re living through and what’s going on in our lives to an extent. So yeah, it’s like keeping a scrapbook, or having a time line in front of you, which is really nice. But during the middle years, say 5 years in, you look back on the earlier stuff and might be slightly embarrassed by it. You know, it’s only 5 years, you’ve moved on and you’re in a rush to grow up. But nowadays we look back on it fondly.
Altsounds: There’s a quote on your website at the moment, saying just that about the new album, “reflecting the recent events that are going on in your lives at the moment”. Is there anything in particular that has influenced this album for you?
Joel: Well, the theme of the new record is that it landmarks a new era in our lives and a new era in the band, obviously, but also in where we’re at personally, it seems to coincide with the things that are going on. I mean, some of the band members have had children and that’s obviously been a big change, and having that around the band brings a totally different feeling and energy to things, it’s a very positive thing, so I think that the music on this record is generally a lot more positive. I mean, there are still some dark moments; like the first single, and when the album begins, it’s kind of in a dark place, those two songs were more written during the last album period, when we were still touring the last album. But the later stuff that we’ve written, which comes later on the record as well, is a lot more up and more positive, and the way the track listing is, it’s kind of in chronological order of what was going on while we were writing it. Which is kind of cool. There’s definitely a ray of light running through the album…not like Madonna’s ‘Ray of Light’, but still…
Altsounds: Let’s hope not! You’ve gone back to enlisting a producer for this album, was there any particular reason you didn’t chose to do it yourselves again, considering the success of self-produced Black Fingernails, Red Wine?
Joel: I guess because we’ve done it ourselves now. Before [Black Fingernails, Red Wine] we had a producer, but we took it home and re-did a lot of the stuff ourselves, because we’re control freaks basically! But yeah, this time we decided to hand over the reins so to speak and really try to learn something off someone who had made some records that we love, and bring something new to it, and he definitely did that. The demos were pretty developed and inclusive, but then he was able to add on top of that which I think has made the record more layered, it’s probably better to listen to more than a few times, there’s a bit more depth in the music and what’s going on, and will hopefully draw people back to it, I think that’s what he’s brought to it. You work with these people for hours, we’ve worked with a bunch of different people in the mixing process or whatever process it may be, and whatever you learn is really good because you can use it in everything you do after that, so just add to your bag of tricks.
Altsounds: Yes, and who else’s bag of tricks would you be better to take from! It doesn’t get much better than Gil Norton…
Joel: Yeah, he’s made a lot of records, and made really important records, you know. The Echo and the Bunnymen stuff he did very early on, leading into the three Pixies albums, and then moving onto Foo Fighters and that sort of thing. Especially the Pixies stuff, when we started the band 10 years ago, all we would listen to in the tour van was Pixies. And we would talk about how amazing it would be to do a record with Gil Norton one day and 10 years later, we’re still a band and the opportunity came up so it just seemed that we had to take it. It worked out really well, it was one of those things that you wish for and when you’ve forgotten about it 10 years later, then you get it. It was great.
Altsounds: Sounds like a dream come true. One thing I will ask as I’ve always wondered, Eskimo Joe have had a lot of changes between the touring line up and the recording line up, have you ever considered adding another permanent member to the trio?
Joel: No, not really, I mean we’ve been making albums for years now. I wouldn’t call it the best system but the chemistry that we work to and I think throwing another person in there might mess with the chemistry. Although, with this album we did co-write some songs with a friend of ours who lives in Perth, who is a very talented guy called Steve Parkin, who we’ve signed to a record label that we’ve started, and we did a bit of collaborating with him in the writing stage. But as far as adding another member into the recording band, we kind of don’t really need to. I mean, if we really need other musicians, we’ve got lots of friends at home who we can bring in to play the instrument or whatever we can’t achieve, but generally after this many years of making records we can cover all the bases ourselves.
Altsounds: If it’s not broken, don’t fix it…
Joel: Yeah, exactly, I think it’s dangerous messing with the chemistry of a band. I think you can lose more than you gain. I think the important thing is it’s all about the sum of the parts being greater than the parts themselves, you know.
Altsounds: No, the formula you have seems to be working more than okay for Eskimo Joe! Well, I won’t take up any more of your time. Is there anything else you would like to add?
Joel: No, I think we pretty much covered it all! Thank you for taking the time.
Altsounds: Thanks very much for talking to us. I’m looking forward to the new album and seeing you guys over here in April. Take Care.
Find all the information about Eskimo Joe, including their tour here:
ESKIMO JOE
2009 is already looking like it will be an absolutely massive year for Eskimo Joe, and, before the hard slog formally begins, while still putting their final flourishes on the album back home in Perth, guitarist, Joel Quartermain, took a moment to chat to Nat Morris:
Altsounds: Hey Joel, are you free to talk this time around?
Joel: Yeah sorry about that before, I was in a crowded Irish bar, I thought the interview was at 7:30, my memory failed me! I’m glad you called back.
Altsounds: That’s alright, no worries! So, other than hanging about in rowdy Irish pubs, what have you guys been up to lately?
Joel: Well, we’re just putting the finishing touches on the new record, which will be released in May I believe. We’re just in the final stages of mastering now, which is like the last thing you do in the album cycle. And we just went to Sydney to go and play it for the record company and all that sort of jazz, and do photo-shoots and that kind of boring stuff…
Altsounds: The thrilling media kind of stuff…
Joel: Yeah, but kind of dull for musicians. But yeah, we’ve been rehearsing with the band and getting a show ready to bring over to you guys and play.
Altsounds: Of course, we can’t wait to see you boys over here again in April…
Joel: Yeah, should be cool. We were over there in December, but we’ll be coming back a little up the road at Koko this time.
Altsounds: Yeah, that should be a great gig. I remember you mentioning at the show in December that we will need to come back in April to hear you play some of the new stuff…
Joel: Yeah, that’s what we’re actually preparing at the moment. The way we make records is that, we write the songs in the home studio, and then we go and record them at another studio, but we don’t really play them live until after we’ve made the album. We don’t like to get in the jam room and play the songs at a million decibels before we’ve recorded them, because we’ve found that if you do that then anything sounds good really loud, and you just get lazy with your arrangements. We like to really focus on the arrangements and how the songs work in the studio and then translate them to the live world later, so it’s an interesting process, it’s sort of backwards from the way most bands do it I think.
Altsounds: Yeah, I know [lead singer and bassist] Kav performed some of the tracks from the new album solo and acoustic last year in Sydney, is that a standard thing for him to do?
Joel: Yeah, he’ll go out there and play the songs; I think basically to sing them in. They sort of take on a different life when he performs them live acoustically, and he gets to live in the songs a little bit so when we get into the studio it’s not like it’s the first or second time he’s singing the songs, he’s nailing it by that stage. I think he uses that as practice for the studio and also to see how the songs work as full pieces in front of people. But that’s obviously very different to performing with the band, which is a loud and rocking kind of thing.
Altsounds: Great, so can we expect any singles from the new album anytime soon?
Joel: Yeah, first single is due, over here anyway, in March – but I’m sure it will be streaming online and that sort of stuff. And we’ll have a film clip for that too, so you’ll be able to check out something brand spanking new really soon.
Altsounds: Well, you guys will be over here by the time the single drops then, right?
Joel: Yeah, we’ll be over there when the single’s doing the rounds. And because it’s the first time that we’ve gone out and played songs off this record, we’ll be pretty excited. I mean, the old songs, the set that we played last time we were in England, the set list is two and a half years old. We didn’t actually have the time to get the new songs together as we just literally stepped out of the studio and onto a plane, and then we arrived two days later and we were in Dublin so it was a pretty whirlwind, rush kind of thing. And then we came back home and put the finishing touches on the record, the current one that’s due to come out that is, and since then we’ve sort of been breaking the songs in, in the rehearsal studio.
Altsounds: So you have been clocking up a fair few hours over here in Europe recently, and more so with the upcoming tour. Do you think Eskimo Joe would ever consider making the move permanent?
Joel: Well, yeah, if there were to be a relocation during this year, it would probably be into Europe, most probably Berlin or somewhere like that, because we’re signed to Warners there in that part of the world, and that is probably the biggest deal we’ve got outside of Australia. So it seems like the place to focus or just be based, and obviously to get around Europe from there is just so easy. I mean, once you’re there then you’re in the thick of it. And I think we’ll be coming through as many times as possible, I know we’re due again later in the year, maybe around the Summer festival sort of time as well, so we’re looking forward to getting over there and playing as much as possible like we did in the old days in Australia.
Altsounds: And why not?! You’ve been selling out a lot of your scheduled dates already…
Joel: Yeah, the last tour we did through England, pretty much all the gigs sold out, apart from Birmingham, which was about 80% sold, so we were really so happy with that. I mean, we hadn’t really played over there before and we didn’t expect to have an audience but people came out and checked us out and I must say, they seemed to enjoy the show. So hopefully with this next tour we can build on that, we’ll see how we go. I know, at the moment, times are a bit tough in that part of the world, so hopefully people can spare some of their hard earned money to come and check us out because it’ll be a good show.
Altsounds: Absolutely, is it crazy to think that you guys are coming all the way to the other side of the world now and selling out most, if not all, of your shows?
Joel: Yeah, we were as surprised as anyone, but it was a nice surprise and it made it exciting. We did a couple of rounds of America on the last record, and that was way tougher, you know, some nights we’d be playing to a couple of hundred people, and some nights we’d be playing to a couple of people, literally! So that was like a big coming down to earth experience. Just before we went over to America, we were playing the biggest headline shows that we’ve ever played at home, and we sort of moved to a new level of success over here and then we go over there after playing those shows on a large scale and suddenly we’d be in Austin, Texas playing to 5 people and it’s like okay!? But it was really exciting coming over to England and having a ready-made audience, which we loved that so it was really great.
Altsounds: You mentioned a video for the new single, how does Eskimo Joe approach a new video, as you have some great videos to live up to, the likes of ‘New York’, ‘Wake Up’, etc. Do you boys have any say in the direction?
Joel: Yeah, I think with say ‘New York’, it was Kav and Stu’s idea, especially Stu’s really good visually, so it’s like the way we demo songs; they put together a demo video of Kav walking backwards but through the streets of Fremantle, and then they showed that to the guy who directed the clip and he took it from there. We happened to be going over for whatever reason, so we flew him over to New York, which seemed like the appropriate place to make the clip! So yeah, that was an example of it coming from the band, but say with ‘Wake Up’, that was the director’s idea, and usually what happens is we put out an idea and the directors take it and put their own spin on it. Sometimes we just deliver the song and see what the directors come up with and that’s part of the process. With the first single, we usually have some sort of idea of what we want to do.
Altsounds: So is that the case with the upcoming video?
Joel: Yeah, this time we’ve got a general idea, I mean, I’ll tell you about it and you’ll see in a month or two if we achieved what we were looking for. It’s a pretty powerful song, like it’s a pretty rocking, epic sort of tune, so we wanted it to have a real sense of power in the clip. We referenced a clip filmed somewhere in Europe I think, I don’t know whose group it was or what it was for, whether it was in a movie or a film clip, where all these kids with these super powers, and weird scenes and movements and energy and that’s sort of what we’re bringing to the clip. So it’s a pretty broad description, but you put that out there and then see what directors can come back with. And usually there are about 6 of them that come back and we chose the one that we want to go with.
Altsounds: Now that you are nearly done with album number 4, how do you look back on your [first album] Girl era?
Joel: It’s kind of nice, because nowadays, it being 10 years on, and we’re all that bit older, it’s like looking back on a scrapbook or a photo album. And that’s a nice thing to have, that kind of record of the past and where we were at musically. And also, obviously the songs, Kav writes the lyrics and they describe the times that we’re living through and what’s going on in our lives to an extent. So yeah, it’s like keeping a scrapbook, or having a time line in front of you, which is really nice. But during the middle years, say 5 years in, you look back on the earlier stuff and might be slightly embarrassed by it. You know, it’s only 5 years, you’ve moved on and you’re in a rush to grow up. But nowadays we look back on it fondly.
Altsounds: There’s a quote on your website at the moment, saying just that about the new album, “reflecting the recent events that are going on in your lives at the moment”. Is there anything in particular that has influenced this album for you?
Joel: Well, the theme of the new record is that it landmarks a new era in our lives and a new era in the band, obviously, but also in where we’re at personally, it seems to coincide with the things that are going on. I mean, some of the band members have had children and that’s obviously been a big change, and having that around the band brings a totally different feeling and energy to things, it’s a very positive thing, so I think that the music on this record is generally a lot more positive. I mean, there are still some dark moments; like the first single, and when the album begins, it’s kind of in a dark place, those two songs were more written during the last album period, when we were still touring the last album. But the later stuff that we’ve written, which comes later on the record as well, is a lot more up and more positive, and the way the track listing is, it’s kind of in chronological order of what was going on while we were writing it. Which is kind of cool. There’s definitely a ray of light running through the album…not like Madonna’s ‘Ray of Light’, but still…
Altsounds: Let’s hope not! You’ve gone back to enlisting a producer for this album, was there any particular reason you didn’t chose to do it yourselves again, considering the success of self-produced Black Fingernails, Red Wine?
Joel: I guess because we’ve done it ourselves now. Before [Black Fingernails, Red Wine] we had a producer, but we took it home and re-did a lot of the stuff ourselves, because we’re control freaks basically! But yeah, this time we decided to hand over the reins so to speak and really try to learn something off someone who had made some records that we love, and bring something new to it, and he definitely did that. The demos were pretty developed and inclusive, but then he was able to add on top of that which I think has made the record more layered, it’s probably better to listen to more than a few times, there’s a bit more depth in the music and what’s going on, and will hopefully draw people back to it, I think that’s what he’s brought to it. You work with these people for hours, we’ve worked with a bunch of different people in the mixing process or whatever process it may be, and whatever you learn is really good because you can use it in everything you do after that, so just add to your bag of tricks.
Altsounds: Yes, and who else’s bag of tricks would you be better to take from! It doesn’t get much better than Gil Norton…
Joel: Yeah, he’s made a lot of records, and made really important records, you know. The Echo and the Bunnymen stuff he did very early on, leading into the three Pixies albums, and then moving onto Foo Fighters and that sort of thing. Especially the Pixies stuff, when we started the band 10 years ago, all we would listen to in the tour van was Pixies. And we would talk about how amazing it would be to do a record with Gil Norton one day and 10 years later, we’re still a band and the opportunity came up so it just seemed that we had to take it. It worked out really well, it was one of those things that you wish for and when you’ve forgotten about it 10 years later, then you get it. It was great.
Altsounds: Sounds like a dream come true. One thing I will ask as I’ve always wondered, Eskimo Joe have had a lot of changes between the touring line up and the recording line up, have you ever considered adding another permanent member to the trio?
Joel: No, not really, I mean we’ve been making albums for years now. I wouldn’t call it the best system but the chemistry that we work to and I think throwing another person in there might mess with the chemistry. Although, with this album we did co-write some songs with a friend of ours who lives in Perth, who is a very talented guy called Steve Parkin, who we’ve signed to a record label that we’ve started, and we did a bit of collaborating with him in the writing stage. But as far as adding another member into the recording band, we kind of don’t really need to. I mean, if we really need other musicians, we’ve got lots of friends at home who we can bring in to play the instrument or whatever we can’t achieve, but generally after this many years of making records we can cover all the bases ourselves.
Altsounds: If it’s not broken, don’t fix it…
Joel: Yeah, exactly, I think it’s dangerous messing with the chemistry of a band. I think you can lose more than you gain. I think the important thing is it’s all about the sum of the parts being greater than the parts themselves, you know.
Altsounds: No, the formula you have seems to be working more than okay for Eskimo Joe! Well, I won’t take up any more of your time. Is there anything else you would like to add?
Joel: No, I think we pretty much covered it all! Thank you for taking the time.
Altsounds: Thanks very much for talking to us. I’m looking forward to the new album and seeing you guys over here in April. Take Care.
Find all the information about Eskimo Joe, including their tour here:
ESKIMO JOE
