Eskimo Joe“We’re not really coming from that rock’n’roll three piece kind of thing any more,” explains bassist, vocalist and all round frontman Kav of West Australian pop trio, (or four piece if you catch them live) Eskimo Joe.
“With the last album, and this is the way things have been going with us for a while now, we really like the whole strong song kind of thing, so we’re not just rocking out. Usually it’s just me, Stu and Joel, but once we get out of the studio we find that we need an extra member to play all the stuff we’ve written. I think eventually we’re going to have to get a keyboard player or something as well.”
After a listen back to some of the bands earlier, more straight ahead, almost punk recordings, there’s few that would have predicted the trio would put together an album quite like they have. Girl is nothing short of a pop masterpiece for the band, laden both with sweet acoustic romanticism and brash crashing guitars.
“That’s the genius of it all,” he laughs. “I think with the first couple of EPs we were just having fun playing music together and a lot of the songs were getting written in the jam room while we were touring. The direction Eskimo Joe is taking now, for me personally and kind of for the band, we’ve always been really conscious of what we do. The earlier stuff was us having fun, but this is how we want to be perceived. It was a real cleaning of the slate.”
“I’m totally not insulted by people who didn’t like our old stuff but like our new stuff. I don’t even like a lot of our own stuff.”
And I guess if you were still really into your old material, that’s the kind of records you’d still be making.
“Exactly. If that was our thing we’d be doing it, but it’s not.”
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You kinda get the feeling a second national jaunt supporting punk heavyweights The Offspring is well and truly off the cards, Eskimo Joe having taken to the road with the band for the Conspiracy Of One tour.
“No,” he laughs. “I think I was talking to someone in Warrnambool or something earlier on today, and they were going, ‘you played with the Offspring, how was that?’ I was like... it was an experience but I can’t see it happening again. Which is cool, you know, but I think he was under the impression we were going nowhere from now on. There’s nothing more left for us in this world.”
Are you worried by the fact people can’t get their heads around the fact that bands do grow up and their tastes change?
“I think it’s kind of cool actually, because it means you can take people by surprise, and they can be pleasantly surprised sometimes. That is one of the things we did want form the album, was for people to go, that’s not what I expected, and a couple of months down the track really be loving it and forget about the fact they didn’t expect it. It’s kind of happening like that, which is good.”
Girl is really an album that grows on you, the more you hear it the more of a kinship you feel with the songs.
“That’s really what we wanted to do. We didn’t want anything instant. All our previous stuff has been instant gratification, and that’s fine for what it was, but all my favourite albums are slow burners. It’s got to grown on you and reveal itself slowly as opposed to just flashing its boobs at you.”
Kind of like the bands proverbial albatross, Sweater Song, an instantly catch to the point of irritation ode to granddads clothing.
“Reluctantly it’s still in the set,” Kav concedes. “People love to hear it live, and to tell you the truth we really don’t enjoy it now. You don’t even know the half of it. People are paying to come and see us play, and they want to hear it. Even people who have gotten into us from the newer material when they see us play they sing along to that song, even through they might hate it. It just spreads good will through the room, so it does it’s job, but it’s boring as shit to play. You don’t want to through things away too quickly, but what can you do. You’ve got to keep the fans happy.”
