Devil In The Detail

Sydneysider Frank Sultana introduced himself to the wider blues community early last year with a debut album, Blues From The Lost Motel. Just over a year on, he's releasing the next chapter, almost literally, with second album, Devilstown.

“I guess there was a theme behind the whole recording, as far as I tell a bit of a story about the way that things appear on the surface,” Sultana explains, “ but then underneath all that there are often some sinister elements. So the whole idea of the Devilstown thing is that it's pretty on the outside but then, a little deeper, it all gets a bit ugly and a bit nasty, so there are songs about adultery and murder and all those typical blues themes – being on the run from the law, things like that I guess, mostly.

“The idea was pretty much taking some experiences and things you pick up from conversations with people about other people's experiences and things like that, and then just kind of fictionalising it all, you know? I guess some of the songs on Devilstown are almost like sister songs of the first album in a way. They had that same kind of vision on there, where I created a bit of a world.”

While there's something of the Gothic novel idea behind the characters who populate both albums, which lies somewhere between William Faulkner and Nick Cave, Sultana's music is very much steeped in the old pre-WWII Delta blues.

“It was always the goal to try and sort of have a vintage tone to everything,” Sultana admits, to which end he pulled together a lot of “old amps and old guitars and old microphones,” in order to get those tones despite recording everything bar the drums, which were recorded live, digitally in his home studio.

As to his obvious passion for roots/blues/Americana, Sultana explains, “When I was growing up, my parents played a lot of black American rhythm and blues music, so I grew up listening to Chuck Berry, Jerry Lee Lewis and Howlin' Wolf, all that kind of Southern rhythm and blues music. That led me onto The Stones and Hendrix and all that kind of thing as a teenager, but I've kind of just gone back to it. It's just really good, honest music and I've always been a fan of those vintage tones, and I guess they've got those tones because that was the technology of the day, but I think there's a really nice resonance about it - the noise and the simplicity of it all.

“There's nothing fancy about it, it's just really raw music. And I love the fact it leads you into rock'n'roll and rock music and you can see it as a historical thing. I listen to a lot of '30s and '40s music particularly, and there was that period there with Robert Johnson, who just kind of invented rock'n'roll, when you listen to him – all the riffs, the stylings and the little nuances.”

Sultana's interest in all that prompted a trip to the US this time last year, initially intending to hit the Mississippi Delta. In the event, the area was experiencing torrential flooding, so he redirected his six-week trip to California.

“I wanted to go and see what it was like, and I was just at a bit of a point in my life where I'd gone through a couple of changes and I just wanted to do something a bit different and to inspire some writing and play – nothing major; a couple of backpacker hostels in LA, some cafés and San Francisco. I did a couple of gigs as well, mostly cafés. It's pretty easy to get gigs over there actually.”