I grew up in Northern NSW as one of those kids who spends a lot of time in the bush and develops really good skills in one creative area (and telling you if it’s gonna rain) but a few deficits in mathematical thinking and social interaction. Sometimes I wish I’d spent more time practicing comedy. People love comedy. Instead I got the guitar bug listening to Leo Kottke records and haven’t ever really looked back, until now, when I’m 26 and wondering whether or not the humming fridge at the back of the venue is testament to the attentiveness of the crowd or simply that I’ve thrown my youth away…
No not really! That was a joke. Was it funny? Maybe I will try comedy. But humming fridges or not I’m back on the road visiting Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne with Ahliya Kite and the dynamic is still working! We’re doing a bunch of songs off her new record as well as from my album Sorry Business and working with some really cool loops and samples to take both our shows to a place we’ve only really dabbled with before. It’s really exciting and what’s also really great is that other people seem to like it too!
Tone Deaf: After touring together earlier this year, you’re about to embark on another tour with Brisbane songstress Ahliya Kite. What is it that keeps bringing you two together?
TJ Quinton: I think that artistically we’re in a similar place right now and that’s a great thing to have with a collab partner. We’ve both created solo projects that demand a unique approach to live performance and working with someone who has strengths in areas different to your own is a great way to learn as part of the process of arranging and performing tracks. Its pretty challenging and often we’re both a little out of our comfort zone but that tends to result in some really cool and dynamic live performances.
Your first solo record, Sorry Business, is a conceptually driven album full of storytelling. How do you go about turning the album into a live performance?
Making the story of Sorry Business part of the live performance is pretty great but it does get a bit intense, so on this run of shows I’m only featuring a few parts of the tale that hint at the bigger narrative. That’s what I like about themed albums, a story doesn’t jump out at the listener, but given time, conceptual continuity plays out in the most delicious ways. Thats how I tried to make Sorry Business. I was so sick of planned obsolescence popping up in shit, even by good artists, and just wanted to make something that got better as it aged.
With stories being an integral part of your songwriting – are your tales inspired by personal experience or are they purely works of fiction?
I think that for me creative license is one of the most enjoyable things about writing and I feel there is something deeply therapeutic about living out themes through characters and story. In the same way that Shakespeare’s plays are significant for their expression of complex emotions and characters, in-depth stories lived through music have a way of communicating elements of spirit that may otherwise reside under dusty bits of cardboard in our minds. If I’m writing a song that has lyrically progressed past my own horizons, I work on connecting a personal emotion to the content and going from there. I find that if the balance of emotion and content is right then the story unfolds on its own.
The recently released video for ‘Strange To Care‘ features the stop motion of Byron Bay local Shanti des Fours. How did you come about working together?
Shanti and I actually grew up not far apart near Byron and connected through our Deckchairs drummer Pema. Shanti is the sort of person who simply takes on projects when they inspire her so when she told me she was working on a clip for an album track I was super stoked.
To us, the animation creates a spot-on matching of the style and tone of your music. Was the video making process a collaborative one?
I think it was only because Shanti connected personally with the track in the first that the clip came about and so it was one of those things where I sat back and waited to see what happened knowing that any input I had into the project was simply crowding Shanti’s interpretation. I waited the better part of a year to see that clip and when it showed up on my birthday; I was blown away. The story that was told through all those hundreds and hundreds of still images was a journey all in its own and still gave the song so much more clarity in its meaning. The beautiful little details, like mountain ranges being the actual ones from our area, give a bit of insight into her own connection to the piece but I can only imagine the experience of an artist telling a story frame by frame.
Your music creates what we perceive as uniquely Australian imagery, it has a real sound of home. How was this received late last year as you briefly toured the UK?
Wow really? That’s a wonderful thing then, I don’t think I could aim much higher than giving the country around me a voice through art, I’m stoked that you think that! I didn’t really consider this when I was in the UK but I do feel that part of the attraction for me to tour other countries is the cultural exchange that happens for both artists and audiences. There’s a sense of fascination that occurs when someone develops a style of playing or writing in an environment alien to your own and then delivers it to your front door. I always find that when watching international artists play in Australia and now I think about it, definitely felt this from audiences when I was over there.
Interestingly, you funded the aforementioned UK tour through crowdfunding site Pozible – after going through this process do you see crowdfunding as a viable solution for financing young artists, and would you use it for any future endeavours?
Well if you have a project with outcomes that align with other people’s values then you have a case for crowdfunding. I guess the thing about crowdfunding is that unless you’re Eskimo Joe with a decade of fans behind you then most of your donations are likely to come from your own backyard; friends, family. In terms of my own friends and family I’ve been sleeping on their couches, showing up for dinners, and “borrowing fivers” for years, I think they’ve given more than enough. One day I’ll make a Platinum selling pop record and buy everyone a country retreat free of CSG mining.
There was actually a group around a few years ago in Sydney (I hope they’re gone now) calling themselves Blue Pie Records who were massive advocates of crowd funding and would get enthusiastic individuals to raise huge sums of money (I heard of one young group raising over $100,000) from their families and friends under the guise of having a huge network of industry people and touring networks available only to have people show up at airports for their massively expensive international tour to find no tickets ever existed and no one answering the phone at Blue Pie. I guess the lesson that assholes like that can teach us is that if you have a plan for funding, make sure the project is achievable and take responsibility for it yourself. If you’re smart with money you can do a lot and I think you owe that to investors.
You’ve certainly been keeping yourself busy. When the tour wraps up in November, what are your plans for the remainder of 2013?
I’m working on a plan for a series of collaborative singles. There are some wonderful artists from Australia and abroad who have displayed an interest in the project so over the next six months I’m going to be co writing and producing some material that looks at bringing together these all these different experiences and approaches. Once again, thats going to be challenging, both artistically and logistically but something I’m really looking forward to. Maybe I should give Blue Pie a call and see if they’ll manage the project for me.
TJ Quinton & Ahliya Kite Tour Dates:
October 10th – The Newsagency, Sydney – 7.30pm – w/ Stephanie Grace And Aerobiu
October 13th – The Little Guy, Sydney – 5pm Free Entry
October 16th – Simply Acoustic, The Wesley Anne, Melbourne
October 17th – The Empress, Melbourne – 7pm – w/ Kate Mulqueen
October 19th – The Chandelier Room, Melbourne – 8pm
November 6th – Black Bear Lodge, Brisbane – 8pm – w/ Sleepy Tea, Li Li Kite
Listen to ‘Sorry Business’ here
