Melbourne-based five-piece folk darlings TinPan Orange, are fresh from a national Australian tour with Martha Wainwright, and are set return to Canada for a summer festival tour in July 2013 and are playing a farewell show at The Toff in Melbourne on Thursday 4th July. We caught up with singer-songwriter Emily Lubitz ahead of the show to chat all things their fourth album, Martha Wainwright touring and more.
Your fourth album, Over The Sun, was released late last year. What has it been like to tour this record compared to your last few albums?
I’ve never felt more in love with my live band. The songs on the album are a little bit more epic than our older folkie compositions and it’s been a pleasure to play them live. Lots of singing all together, which makes me so happy.
You also recently supported Martha Wainwright in Perth. How was that?
We toured with her for half of her Australian tour and it was f***kng amazing! She is a wonderful person and as an artist she such an inspiration to me. After our shows I would go out into the crowd and watch her almost every night. She is such an artist! When she sings it is less about summonsing a voice than trying to harness this incredible voice that comes from deep within.
Some of the record was written while touring in Canada and you have some dates planned there for later this year. What is behind Tinpan Orange’s affinity with the North American country?
We are leaving to do a whole bunch of festivals in Canada in a couple of weeks. I found it to be an inspiring landscape. Frozen lakes and sweet diners at truck stops with watery coffee. It’s vast like Australia, but then there’s places where people only speak French and other places where you can be sitting on the beach and looking up at a snow capped mountain. I enjoyed the familiar and the strange. The people are lovely too. Relaxed like Australians but enthusiastic like Americans. Not that Australians aren’t enthusiastic but compared to North Americans, they kind of aren’t… Sorry. Awkward. But I love that about Aussies.. I love a bit of tall poppy syndrome. But the other side is refreshing too.
Emily also wrote some of Over The Sun while pregnant. What’s it like juggling music and family? Does it hinder your ability to tour?
I’ve never been busier! Somehow we manage. We take our son with us wherever we go and so far it has worked. He loves soundchecks when he gets to play the drums.
On the first listen it’s hard to go past the cover of ‘Round The Twist’ (the theme song from the popular TV show). Firstly will you be making your kids watch the show?
I haven’t watched it in many years so I’ll have to see if it’s stood the test of time. But yes, I can’t wait to try out all the things that I loved when I was a kid on my kid. I’m a nostalgic person and my kid with have to suffer the consequences!
Secondly, what inspired the band to cover the track?
We just thought it was a cool song and started playing it live. The response we got was so great.. there would be a ripple of soft chuckling through the crowd and everyone would come with us for a trippy trip down memory lane.
Much has been made of the success of the Metro campaign ‘Dumb Ways To Die’ which Emily provided some vocals for. How did your involvement in this come about?
I am an accidental hero. My friend Ollie McGill called me up and asked if I could do a session for him for an ad. I said yes (a girls gotta make a living!). It took me a couple of hours and I never thought of it again. I asked that he tell the agency that I wanted to remain anonymous because I didn’t want to be associated directly with a advertising campaign. When it started going viral I was like, ‘tell them it’s me tell them it’s me! And I have a band and I just recorded the greatest album of my life, blah blah blah’. I know I’m fickle but as an original, independent artist something that huge is a big leg up. It’s been fun riding the viral train!
It very recently won the Grand Prix in the public relations and direct marketing categories at the Cannes Lions festival. Are you surprised by its success?
When I was recording the song I never could have imagined it’s incredible success. But I guess when all the elements came together (with the awesome animation) I could see why people loved it. My son adores it. It drives me mental! I’m so happy for them that it’s done so well.. A good cause too right!
What’s on heavy rotation on your iPod at the moment?
Martha Wainwright, Townes Van Zandt and Jen Cloher’s new record, ‘In Blood Memory’.
If you could collaborate with any living Australian artist who would it be?
Baz Lurhman or Paul Kelly.
What are your plans for the rest of 2013?
Keep touring. Write some new songs. Get a dog and some chickens.
Where we can see you play next, what releases do you have available and where can we get them?
Thursday 4th July @ The Toff in Town with support from Spender and Magic Steve. Albums @ iTunes and good record stores through Vitamin Records Distribution.
Watch Supergirl here:
