Eyes On The Road

The cover of Mick Turner's latest album, Don't Tell The Driver, is a painting of a woman walking down a path to a beach. There are sandy shrubs on either side of the path and mottled clouds above. Created by Turner himself, it's a painting that perfectly captures the mood of this expansive album.

Turner's artwork nearly always appears as the cover art to his own albums and those of The Dirty Three, the Australian instrumental trio in which Turner plays guitar. But rather than paint something specifically for each album, Turner says he often finds something in his collection that encapsulates the spirit of the album he's working on. “The music and my contributions to The Dirty Three music come from things going on in my head. And the paintings come from there too. They're usually works that have happened from around the same time so they're related anyway.”

Over the years Turner has managed to balance his love of working in visual arts with his musical impulses. “You can definitely get swamped with too much music,” Turner confesses. “I really like both for different reasons. Music's more sociable but painting gives you your own space.”

Turner's new album, unlike most Dirty Three albums, balances instrumental tracks with the vocals of Caroline Kennedy-McCracken (Deadstar, The Plums). “I really wanted vocals on it to make the songs stronger and give it more of a narrative and Caroline's been a friend of mine for a long time now. She's got a great voice and she was very keen to do it. So it was easy to pick it.”

There are definite musical themes running through the songs. Though Turner admits he didn't write the album with that kind of fluidity in mind, once he realised there was a thread running through it, he was able to capitalise on it on the track We're Not Going Home. “It probably took me four years to do this album. I think it's got a really great line if you listen from start to finish. That kind of became evident towards the end when I was looking at putting all the pieces I'd been working on together.

“I've always loved the idea of a concept album. I like the way, on those kinds of records, that musical themes will repeat and return in different songs, so We're Not Going Home references other songs on the album and other melody lines. That was one of the last songs I wrote for the record and if you're really sharp you'll pick them.”