How Dan Sultan's Next Album Will Be "A Change Of Pace"

1 April 2016 | 5:00 pm | Bryget Chrisfield

"This record’s gonna be a bit different; I like to sort of change it up each time and see where it ends up.”

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After admitting he started writing songs for the follow-up to his award-wining Blackbird album (2014) "towards the end of last year", Dan Sultan reveals, "We've kind of come to the end of the writing, so it's just looking at how we're gonna attack it now as far as the recording process." For Blackbird, Sultan collaborated with mates/fellow artists such as Alex Burnett (Sparkadia), Jan Skubiszewski and Chris Cester (Jet), so will there be co-writes on his upcoming record? "A lot of collaborations, yeah," he confirms, "and I enjoy collaborating, and I'm collaborating with a lot of people I worked with on Blackbird as well. It's different to Blackbird — it's a change of pace and, yeah! I didn't just wanna make another record like Blackbird — I'm very proud of it, you know, and I really enjoy it, and I enjoyed making it — but this record's gonna be a bit different; I like to sort of change it up each time and see where it ends up."

"People enjoying a good time en masse."

He's "at home" at the time of our chat and Sultan admits, "I've been touring a lot and travelling a lot so it's good to be home." We last saw Sultan in solo mode, ably supporting Lucinda Williams. "There were a couple [of shows] with her and then there were a few solo shows leading up to it and also with Merri Souls [The Merri Soul Sessions] as well," Sultan offers. "So at one point there was about three or four tours at once."

Next up Sultan is performing at a couple of regional festivals, which he stresses are "good for the whole community". "They're always pretty keen, you know," he continues, referring to the regional festival crowds he's entertained to date. He's chuffed about the Kidgeeridge Music Festival line-up, which includes the likes of Joe Camilleri & The Black Sorrows ("Camilleri's always great value") and Kingswood, about which Sultan enthuses, "On my last record, Blackbird, doing BVs — we just all happened to be in the same studio in Nashville at the same time, so that worked out pretty well; [Kingswood] sang on a track called The Same Man and did sort of chorus-ey bits: mongrel men's choir." Another act billed to grace Kidgeeridge Music Festival's stage is Pierce Brothers. "I did a solo tour and they were the support act so, yeah!" Sultan shares of the aforementioned sibling band. "So I just get to hang out with my mates," he laughs before adding, "and play some rock'n'roll, you know?" At Kidgeeridge Music Festival, Sultan says he'll "definitely be spending time with some mates... when I'm able to, it's always good to be on the other side of the fence".

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Sultan observes, "There's some really beautiful parts of this country," complimenting our "really healthy festival culture in Australia". "You get to go to places that you haven't been [to] before, that you're not too familiar with, and see the lay of the land and, yeah! It's pretty cool. I get to do it sort of more often than not in this business, so that's something that's fortunate... It's a positive thing, you know? People enjoying a good time en masse."