Jeff Lang On Setting Up Rules & Finding New Ways To Express Himself

Iconic Aussie blues'n'roots singer-songwriter Jeff Lang could be deemed a true solo artist, in that, aside from the occasional guest contribution from another muso, he does virtually everything himself. His brand new album, Alone In Bad Company, is no exception — even the very title of this, his 13th studio outing, is reflective of his preference for solitude.

"I like to set up a rule for myself with each record," he explains, "something that sets a little sense around the methodology. This time around I had a little rule for myself: that I was going to play everything myself on the record. Anything that needed to be done, I'd do it myself. I broke that rule on one song, I had Danny McKenna come and play drums on it, and my wife sang backing vocals on that same song. So I broke the rule on that song, but for the rest of them I kept to that."

"Anything that needed to be done, I'd do it myself. I broke that rule on one song, I had Danny McKenna come and play drums on it, and my wife sang backing vocals on that same song."

The enigmatic title of the record has other connotations as well. "When I was finishing it up and looking for a title, that phrase just hit me," he recalls. "Even when you're on your own you can still be in bad company, still have bad thoughts in your head, swirling around and giving you grief."

He even drives himself around to his shows when he's on tour and is about to do so again when he hits the road in mid-March in support of Alone In Bad Company. "I'm really looking forward to it," he says, "it's great getting out and doing some of the regional areas as well as the capitals. Hitting the road solo is fun, too, there's a good headspace about getting out there on your own and doing a lot of driving. I like it; makes me feel like I'm in my early 20s again."

But that time is long past: it is well over 20 years since Lang released his debut solo record and sometimes he feels all of those years and all of that mileage, and sometimes he doesn't.

"You have some shitty experience somewhere and you go, 'Christ, I've been doing this too long to be putting up with this,' but that's relatively rare," he says. "I just really enjoy it. I think it just keeps you young, in a way, keeps you fresh. The goal is to stay interested in what you do, from writing a new song and finding a way of getting the mood of the song across well."

And, by all accounts, despite more than two decades of hard graft behind him, Lang still feels very fresh. He tempers that optimism with a sense of realism, however. "I'm still keen," he admits. "You always think you can keep on finding things to write about, and find new ways of expressing yourself. I don't try to think too far into the future, to be honest, because you just never know in this business."