On Comedians, Outer Space And Being Mediocre

It sometimes seems difficult to get a handle on the eclectic career of singer-songwriter Ben Salter, but fortunately he wouldn’t have it any other way. The now Melbourne-based Salter honed his craft in the warmer climes of Brisbane, first coming to notice fronting rock band Giants Of Science and later the more folk-infused ensemble The Gin Club, and while he’s still involved in those bands (as well as numerous other more ad hoc affairs) it’s his burgeoning solo career that has been front-and-centre in recent times.

He released his debut album, The Cat, in 2011 to great critical acclaim – announcing himself to the world as a formidable and fully-fledged solo proposition – but an Australia Council grant-abetted European sojourn in 2012 to focus on songwriting collaborations added even further firepower to his already redoubtable armoury. The results of these edifying partnerships were first heard on 2013’s European Vacation EP, but they’ve now also helped shape his follow-up long-player, The Stars My Destination. It’s a beautifully-crafted batch of songs, tied together by a certain sensibility – and of course Salter’s distinctive, uber-expressive voice – yet still showcasing plenty of diversity and a willingness to experiment (within the obvious rock’n’roll parameters).

“Every time I go to do an album I toy with the idea of doing just an acoustic album, because that’s how I play live normally, and I think it would be so simple with just me and a guitar,” he offers. “But then I think, ‘Fuck, I don’t want to listen to that fucking album! What’s the point of making albums like that?’ I mean those sort of albums can be really nice, but the ones I love are ones with strong production and lots of shit going on, and there’s a country song and a rock song and so on. I love being able to have a go at a lot of different things – I definitely wanted it to be diverse.”

The Stars My Destination also highlights Salter’s adroit lyrical skills, his deft wordplay seeming to get stronger with every outing.

"Fuck, I don’t want to listen to that fucking album! What’s the point of making albums like that?"

“It’s totally different from The Cat, in that a lot of the songs on The Cat were written so long ago and the lyrics were all so different – it’s like a different person doing different songs. Some of those were written fifteen years ago, but all of these were written in the last five years. For me that’s a totally new thing. I think that’s the thing about doing this for twenty years – you just learn to back yourself. There’s a point where you really want to labour over getting the lyrics right, and there’s a point where you just go, ‘No, just leave it; it’s not just the lyrics but the way they work with the music.’ I get just as surprised as anyone else sometimes, when I listen back and go, ‘Oh, I see! That sort of works together even though the verses are totally different.’ 

“I think I’m just getting better at it – you’d hope so with time. I think they’re getting less personal as well, which is good – you want to achieve that state where you’re being really personal but not totally involved in the song. You want it to be a bit detached. I think The Stars My Destination [itself] is a song that I love because it came from all of these different individual strands, and then the finished product is really sublime – it’s really cool – even though none of it really goes together.”

There seems to be a theme of transience permeating the album, not surprising given the amount of travel that Salter’s undertaken in recent years.

“Yeah, there’s really a theme of moving permeating the whole album. The title almost ties in with that. Moving around for five years as I did while writing it was always going to seep in, and also relationships coming and going and stuff is in there as well. There’s a bit of a comedian theme too – there’s a couple of references to comedians, and I was nearly going to call it The Comedian for a while. I’m fascinated with comedians and reckon it must be the hardest bloody job. They must be so wracked by insecurity, and there must be nothing worse than being a mediocre comedian – although mediocre anything is a bit shit. Then there’s a bit of a space theme too on songs like the title track and Vile Rats and Bones Under The Dunes, looking at outer space and that sort of cosmic perspective. But really I don’t have the money or the luxury to be making concept albums – I just come up with twelve songs and try to make a concept fit around them.”