Weekly > Interviews
Eskimo Joe
Eskimo Joe may not be a household name in the UK, but they certainly are in their native Australia where they play arena gigs on a regular basis.
The band have released three albums to date, with a 4th on it’s way this year and are currently in the middle of A UK tour. We took the chance to catch up with them while they were over here to put some essential questions to them, which of course had to include if they prefer Home & Away or Neighbours!
You sold 400,000 copies of your last album in Australia, how does that compare some of the bigger UK bands in Australia?
I’m not exactly sure what the numbers are but maybe Cldplay would be a good measure.
Obviously the venues you play in your home country are a lot bigger than over here at the moment, how does it feel to be swapping between the two experiences and which do you prefer?
Wll both size rooms are fun for totally different reasons. doing the big stadium shows you get to live out your childhood fantasies of laser light shows and crazy costumes while walking around the stage throwing shapes.
but with the the smaller rooms you get to make eye contact with people, which is really initimate and beautiful in a different way.
You’ve got five dates coming up in April that take in the UK and Ireland, what can fans coming along to those shows expect to see from Eskimo Joe live?
If your an Eskimo Joe fan already it will be a good chance to hear some new songs from our new album “Inshalla” that we just finished recording with a very talented british chap by the name of Gil Norton, if your seeing us for the first time then we’ll just be doing our thing and hopefully you dig it.
Your 4th album is coming out this year, what can you tell us about that?
It starts off with a churning siren like sample from a Turkish flute and drum jam, and then descends into Led Zeppelin riffery. Over all its a much more positive affirmation to the World than our previous winter of discontent
It was recorded with Gil Norton, how was he to work with and does he have any unusual techniques?
Gil was fantastic, when we first started the band the only record we could ever agree on to listen to in the tour bus was The Pixies (which Gil produced) so it felt great to come all the way back around after several self produced records and get to work with one of our production heroes. Gil was fantastic with dynamics (quiet/loud) and also with really locking in the ryhthm section.
Weblinks
Add to favouritesHow do you feel your sound has developed throughout your career and where do you see it potentially going in the future?
We never want to make the same album twice, so each record we try to look for ways to throw a Spaniard in the works, this time threw an English man in instead
Australian music is starting to do quite well over here now but it tends to be dance music such as Cut Copy, Muscles etc, do you think you can buck that trend and what would be ‘success’ for you over here?
We really don’t care if we don’t belong to a scene or a certain sound, we simply just wanna write well written songs which create an emotional response in the people who listen to them, in saying that we try not to over think it all too much, we just really enjoy the process of making music with each other and having fun with it all, hopefully that comes through when people listen to our albums.
Who were your inspirations between you when you started the band?
We’re always discovering new bands and new music it never ends but…
The Pixies, Tom Waits, PJ Harvey, Davie Bowie, The Beatles, Neil Young…the list goes on!
After the album comes out what does the rest of 2009 hold for you?
Crap loads of touring….and ever evolving stupid in-jokes!
Final question….Home and Away or Neighbours?
Well it used to be Neighbours hands down but I have to say Home and Away have picked up their game, so Home and Away it is.
Have your say...
Comment Guidlines
You must be logged in to post a comment. Go Login or Register first.
We waffle on enough without letting you lot do it too. Comments are limited to 300 characters.
Try and keep on topic if you can and no insulting the contributors. All hate mail can be addressed to Kev.