This record came out of a commissioned project to create new songs around contemporary Australian poetry. It features the words of five of Australia’s leading published poets and crosses through the urban and desert terrain of South Australia, Victoria and Western Australia with poems that speak of love and desolation, loss and memory, the resilience of country and the stories held within it.
'Hum of the mettle' a collaboration with poets Ali Cobby Eckermann, Maria Zajkowski, Kevin Brophy, Renee Pettitt-Schipp and Graham Kershaw, my band James Brown, Paul Angas, Sam Cagney, Mark Seddon and I. With poetry leading the song writing process, words conjure up the soundscapes and are the framework for the melodies to launch from, which takes the music into sometimes unconventional places.
As a collection they form a dynamic range from epic 70’s rock soundscapes, sudden storms of explosive pop, driving indie folk-rock and whispering, sparse ballads that build to cathartic crescendos. The band blends vocals stark and spacious over sonorous acoustic and electric guitars, keys, bass, drums and percussion, with storytelling always at the centre.
As a collection they form a dynamic range from epic 70’s rock soundscapes, sudden storms of explosive pop, driving indie folk-rock and whispering, sparse ballads that build to cathartic crescendos. The band blends vocals stark and spacious over sonorous acoustic and electric guitars, keys, bass, drums and percussion, with storytelling always at the centre.