Cosmo Jarvis is only 23 years old but has already released three albums, a plethora of music videos and YouTube uploads, and a feature film that he wrote, directed, and starred in.

Effortlessly charming and quick-witted, Jarvis is most definitely not afraid to speak his mind. On the verge of yet another Australian tour, the British musician chats frankly about his latest album, his upcoming shows, his dabbling in film-making, and that song.

Despite hailing from Devon in the UK,  Jarvis has found most success in Australia, something that may well have to do with our “dry sense of humour” which is also rife throughout his songs.

“They’ve got a good sense of humour,” Jarvis says of Australians. “That kind of brutally frank sense of humour, that might have something to do with it, but I don’t really know. Anything else would only be speculation.”

Jarvis will be returning to the country for Falls Festival and Southbound over New Years, a mere few months since he was last on our shores for a whirlwind tour that saw him play small, acoustic shows.

“It was good actually,” Jarvis says enthusiastically. “People came, and it seemed like they liked it,” he offers modestly.

Jarvis will also be playing a handful of sideshows in the New Year, this time with a full band, something that takes a bit of adjustment after playing the intimate shows.

“It takes a bit of getting used to,” he explains. “I think it sounds better with a band, but some people say the acoustic shows are good. Some bits live need to be a face-melting kind of thing, or at least getting close to face-melting, like warm-facing.”“Some bits live need to be a face-melting kind of thing, or at least getting close to face-melting, like warm-facing.”

Fans attending Falls and Southbound should be expecting a “generally up” set, with Jarvis explaining“otherwise people at the festival will get bored, you need that kind of thing at a festival set”.

It is perhaps a testament to the eclectic and diverse nature of his music that Jarvis’ breakthrough song was a sea shanty featuring mandolin, telling the tale of two homosexual lovers, that also happened to be pirates.

‘Gay Pirates’ is catchy, as well as tragically heartbreaking, and caught the attention of the likes of Stephen Fry and Kylie Minogue (who both tweeted the video), something that was a “complete surprise” for Jarvis, “I couldn’t even believe they’d watched it.”

The lyrics describe a touching story of forbidden love, but Jarvis says his aim wasn’t to make a political statement. “The aim was that it would be noticeable, but without making a big statement that the story was about anything notable – because it isn’t”.

“I wanted to write a falsely subjective account of an honest homosexual relationship in a way that could be moving, and then basically make it accessible and relatable,” he continues. “That was the point in the first place, to make it a song about gay pirates but that was also not a gimmick.”

Besides the hypothetical, Jarvis’ music is largely inspired by his troubled upbringing, which saw him move from America to the UK due to his parents’ drawn-out divorce. As a result, his first music-writing endeavours were being pursued at the tender age of 12.

“Loads of shit happened really,” he explains. “It was pretty interesting and made for some good, objective views on things I think, and it made me want to get into writing about those things because had they not been put down or anything like that, they would have just been pointless.”

Jarvis released his first album Humasyouhitch/Sonofabitch in 2009, and its follow-up Is The World Strange Or Am I Strange? two years later, with both providing an extremely erratic mixture of genres and instrumentation.

His latest album, Think Bigger, released in July this year, sees Jarvis focus on a more singer-songwriter basis, creating a more cohesive work; something which was a very deliberate choice.

“My overall success on the last two albums wasn’t really noteworthy enough to warrant any educated person in the music industry to continue down that path,” he explains. “I thought I’d kind of have to bite the bullet and try something different so that when that didn’t work as well I could say to those people that made those choices ‘haha we both tried’.”

While the music may be somewhat more restrained and level across the album, the lyrical content is still as diverse as ever, with the 23-year-old tackling issues such as religion, dystopian futures, and even a love ballad for his external hard-drive, ‘Lacie’.

“My family was full of technical superstitions,” he says in regards to the song. “It was just the fact that I really, really rely on it…loads of my work was in it…cause my head couldn’t take it.”

Not content with having three albums at his young age, Cosmo Jarvis has also created music videos for his own songs, uploading many clips and skits to his YouTube channel.“My overall success on the last two albums wasn’t really noteworthy enough to warrant any educated person in the music industry to continue down that path.”

Now, he has also written, directed, and starred in a feature length film, that was recently screened on BBC4 in the UK.

“It’s a black comedy, it was made with leftover music video money,” he says about the film, The Naughty Room. “It was made with an unprofessional cast and crew, who hadn’t really been involved in what would be considered proper film-making before that. It was a lot of favours.”

The film will soon be available for fans in Australia digitally on iTunes, and Jarvis is also “really trying” to get it shown in the country in the near future.

Though no stranger to filmmaking, the jump into screenwriting proved to be quite the shock for Jarvis, who says it is “pretty difficult, I’m still learning”.

“The films just take fucking longer,” he continues. “They’re very easy to fuck up, there’s so many bits of it that have to be accounted for and that have to make sense, and also be required for a story, which are impossible to see at the time.”

Unlike his struggles on set, for Jarvis, songwriting is a constant activity that is always on his mind. Having written over 300 songs already, he admits, in his typically blunt fashion, “many of them are fucking pieces of shit.”

‘Shit’ aside, he’s already getting stuck into a follow-up to Think Bigger, saying “most of the songs are written already… I just need to record a few things and re-write a few bits”, but it’ll “definitely” be out next year.

As for what to expect on the new album, it will be “more live and more heavy and will consist of some songs that are older from a few years ago that never got out and there’ll be a lot of new stuff too,” says its prolific creator.

With his trademark British charm and self-deprecating humour, Cosmo Jarvis says the new album will be “a mess,” but if Think Bigger and his endless amounts of creative output are anything to go by, it’ll be a mess worth listening to.

Think Bigger is out now through Frame Productions, read the Tone Deaf review here. Cosmo Jarvis plays Southbound (details here) and the Falls Festival at New Year’s, details here; as well as headline sideshows around the country. Full dates and details below.

Cosmo Jarvis Australian Tour 2012/2013 Dates

DECEMBER
Wednesday 26 The Rails, Byron Bay, NSW (free show)
Thursday 27 Cambridge Tavern, Newcastle, NSW
(www.lovepolice.com.au/tours OR www.moshtix.com.au )
Friday 28 The Patch, Wollongong, NSW
(www.lovepolice.com.au or Music Farmers – Street 5 Crown Lane Wollongong – 02 4228 0459)
Saturday 29 Bridge Hotel, Castlemaine, VIC
(www.lovepolice.com.au)
Sunday 30 FALLS FESTIVAL, Lorne, VIC
(www.fallsfestival.com.au)
Monday 31 FALLS FESTIVAL, Marion Bay, TAS
(www.fallsfestival.com.au)

JANUARY 2013
Wednesday 2 Annandale Hotel, Sydney, NSW
(www.lovepolice.com.au/tours OR www.annandalehotel.com )
Thursday 3 Corner Hotel, Melbourne, VIC
(www.lovepolice.com.au/tours OR www.cornerhotel.com )
Friday 4 Crown and Anchor, Adelaide, SA
(www.lovepolice.com.au)
Sunday 6 Ya Ya’s, Perth, WA
(www.ya-yas.com.au OR www.trybooking.com )

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