You Better Watch Out

Sometimes it's great to have surprises, but there's also a massive place for tradition in our everyday lives. No matter what he's done in a given year, singer-songwriter Darren Hanlon celebrates the festive season by embarking on a solo jaunt of Australia, bringing the Christmas cheer to his multitude of fans around the country.

He's had a busy 2012 involving a lot of production work and a lot of travel – he's just returned from a month-long tour of Europe as we catch up with him – but he's already looking forward to rejoining his Australian friends and showing off some new material. “There's a couple of new songs; there's one that I'm going to play on this Christmas tour,” the affable Hanlon explains. “It's about eight minutes long – they just keep getting longer – about the history of my guitar. And I've been listening to lots of early folk stuff, so I've got a few new folky songs. There's a lot that I need to finish though for next year, I've got to get my act together to record this new album.”

It has indeed been a couple of years since Hanlon's last studio collection, 2010's I Will Love You AT All, but he's been busy living his life as a means of artistic inspiration. “I lost a lot of the demos – I had a bag stolen in Europe and a few things got lost unfortunately,” he rues. “But I'm taking my time with it – I feel like you need to live a little between these albums. The last one I toured so much on it – I did two years of pretty much constant travelling – and this year I've been just trying to relax and let the new one happen organically, not force it too much.

“I definitely work hard at [songwriting], you just have to make sure you have experiences and not write so much that you're not living – that's what I've been trying to do this year, just relax. I still write every single day, whether it be longhand or songs; it's good to keep yourself match fit. So I've just been having some great experiences.”

And, one would hope, this year's run of Christmas shows could be just the tonic to provide some new material. “I'm looking forward to it, the Christmas shows are always a lot of fun,” Hanlon smiles. “This is seven years now, although the first few were only Sydney and Melbourne. It's solo too, and a lot of times in Australia I have the band with me, so it's a different vibe – I can just study the set-list and play whatever. Usually people just want to hear the songs they know at Christmas time, it's not really time for breaking new albums – it's more of a relaxed vibe, with some guests coming up to sing. I have a few new songs that I want to play – it's my personal law that I have at least one new song for every tour anyway, just to keep myself amused.”

And of course Hanlon is finishing the run in his native Queensland, so that he can hit the road and beat Santa home to the extended family. “I love it!” he gushes about finishing up north each year. “That's really part of the tradition, to play either Christmas Eve or the night before in Brisbane and then the road trip up to Gympie – the feeling that I have playing that last Brisbane show is euphoric almost! You get to the second half of the set and I feel so great – the year is nearly finished off and I'm about to see my family, life's good!”

Darren Hanlon will be playing the following dates:

Wednesday 19 December - Mojo's, Fremantle WA
Thursday 20 December - Chrusch of the Trinity, Clarence Park, Adelaide SA
Friday 21 December - Northcote Social Club, Melbourne VIC
Saturday 22 December - St Stephens Anglican Church, Newtown NSW
Sunday 23 December - The Old Museum, Brisbane QLD