Two years in the making, Imagine You Are Driving is an enthralling follow-up to James Kenyon‘s 2012 debut record The North Pole, and a thoroughly modern slice of Antipodean alt-country.
The Adelaide native cites Don Walker and Paul Kelly as major influences in prompting him to create a record that is a reflection on the unique Australian story – “The broad plains, the bright sun, the grit of bitumen and the exhilaration of speed” – and had unusual beginnings as a soundtrack to a theoretical piece of cinema.
“I pitched the idea for the album to Nick Huggins whist kicking a footy around,” tells James. “I wanted to make a soundtrack to an unmade film. The ‘film’ was really just a shifting set of images and songs I’d been thinking about over the past few years – a collection of loosely connected narratives based around a small town or an outer suburban area that reverberated through the songs. It didn’t matter that the plot for the ‘film’ wasn’t locked down, what mattered was that we had an idea of the textures, colours and landscape of the film; enough information to inform the music.
“Nick was excited about the idea and we slowly set about charting our ideas for each song. He got me to write down some very particular details for each song- where was it set? What time of year was it? What year was it? What could one smell, hear or touch. What were the characters in the song wearing? We wrote all this down on a piece of butcher’s paper and it stayed on his studio for two years while we slowly mapped out and recorded the album.”
James brought on a long list of local talent to work on the record, and actively encouraged them all to have creative input, rather than just playing along.
“I wanted them to do things we couldn’t imagine. Matt Dixon’s burning pedal steel solo on ‘Out on the Wire’ is a good example of that. Nick (Huggins) played a fair bit of guitar too. I still get excited about Nick’s baritone guitar arpeggios at the end of ‘A Tribute to Graham Gill’”
The end result is what you hear above, a sprawling, textured chronicle as vast as the open road. You’ll be able to hear it live this Saturday October 6 as he launches the record in Melbourne at the Toff In Town, bookended by shows in Castlemaine on the 7th and Belgrave on the 9th.
