This week Americana sensation, Melbourne’s very own Raised By Eagles, comes to Club Mullum.
The Echo had a little chat with the lads ahead of their only show in the area.
What has been the attraction for so many Aussie musicians to play Americana? Why do you think we do it so well?
I guess there’s been a surge in the popularity of this kind of music in Australia, largely owing to Americana finding its way into semi-mainstream music outlets thanks to artists such as Ryan Adams, Gillian Welch and David Rawlings, Old Crow Medicine Show and Lucinda Williams. It does feel that there are a lot of bands playing this kind of music now but I’m not really sure why that is. Perhaps it’s just because Australia is a relatively young country (post European settlement) and therefore so is our musical trajectory, so this is probably just a natural progression into a broader, deeper phase of art and culture as we move further down the line. I don’t like to think of the music we make as Americana. It’s certainly inspired by American music but it also has a hefty dose of Australia in it, which you can really hear whenever Australian bands perform in places such as Nashville.
It’s hard to articulate but there’s something unique about the way Australian-played Americana sounds. It would be nice if our brand of music got the same kind of attention in Australia as it does in America. I feel like it’s a genre that’s still very much a musical subculture, and is unfortunately overlooked and unsupported in this country by radio stations such as Triple J and bigger commercial media outlets, which is a shame because it’s world class. Thank the gods for community radio!
What has been the essence of your success with the lineup you have for Raised By Eagles?
I suppose it’s the fact that we all have a deep love for the art of storytelling through music. And we all play and write from the same place emotionally, so we don’t really need to discuss anything when we start working on a song; we all just fall in and it becomes this beautiful, fully formed thing after a few runs at it. Then we go into a studio somewhere and make a record.
You are voracious songwriters and album recorders – three in four years! What’s your secret?
A very healthy work ethic and a relentless need to get things down on paper so that they’re not just swirling around inside our heads. The songwriting process is very cathartic, and making music is the only form of therapy that really works for us, so it’s something we need to be doing. Writing a sad song can bring you happiness, if that makes sense.
You have just released your third album I Must be Somewhere. Tell me a little about what you set out to achieve and what you have ended up with.
The only thing we ever set out to achieve is to make the kind of music that we love and can be proud of. The songs have to mean something to us; if they don’t then we can’t expect them to mean anything to anybody else. So when we write and record it’s important that we stay true to that. We could never put out a record that we didn’t believe in, so we hope that I Must Be Somewhere lives up to the expectations of our fans as much as it has our own. And if we can make some money along the way, doing what we love, that’s great too.
What should we expect for your live show in Mullumbimby?
Something honest, well-grounded, musically stirring and emotionally informative. We have a bunch of new songs to play and also a lot of the older ones that we haven’t had in our setlist for a while, so it’s gunna be fun. We’re having a great time on this tour so hopefully we can share that vibe with you. We’ve always had such a good time whenever we’ve had the chance to play festivals in and around Mullumbimby, and we can’t wait to get back there. Great weather, great people, great music… can’t lose!
