Down To The River

he life of a solo artist can be a lonely one at times. Travelling around with nothing but a guitar for company, attempting in vain to overcome the chatter of a crowded room; getting old, getting grey, getting ripped off, under paid – it truly is harder than it looks. No stranger to this conundrum is New Jersey native Joe Michelini – lead singer of the now seven-piece folk-punk collective River City Extension. Michelini spent the better part of his formative years on the solo trip and, although he appreciated the experiences it gave him, it seems he always had one eye on an inevitable expansion.

“Playing solo was a thing I'd been doing for a long time,” he explains down the line from his home in Toms River, New Jersey. “I was still becoming comfortable with myself and my songs at the time, so playing on my own seemed to make sense. When I started playing with a band – that's when things changed. I don't know if I felt like something was missing before, but somewhere in me I knew that I was going to be playing my songs with a band. That's why I started playing by myself under the name River City Extension.”

Considering he'd been using the name itself before the band was even formed, it'd be fair to say that by the time he managed to find the right people, Michelini had some well-developed plans for River City Extension. In fact, coming from a small musical city made locating solid personnel the least of his worries; so much so that the outfit eventually swelled to nine pieces. “We all met playing shows together,” he says. “We were all just musicians in a small community in a small state. There are a lot of people packed in here (New Jersey) and it's a pretty tight-knit scene so we all came together through that. It took a couple of years of finding people though, and still people come and go from the band.”

Once Michelini had found his soldiers, it was full steam ahead. River City Extension's first record, The Unmistakable Man, found them a niche audience, their mixture of punk, folk and heartfelt lyricism allowing them to traverse the limitations of genre like few other bands before them. In fact, they became the first band ever to play both the Newport Folk Festival and the Vans Warped Tour. After this triumph, the logical step was to head back to the studio with famed indie producer Brian Deck (Modest Mouse, Iron & Wine, The Grates) and carve out their second effort, Don't Let The Sun Go Down On Your Anger. “Brian's a character, that's the best way to describe him,” Michelini fondly recalls of the man in charge of the sessions. “He believes in artistic truth above almost anything else, and that's commendable. We had some disagreements here and there but I think that's healthy in the relationship between artist and producer. I feel like it wouldn't be a good record if there wasn't some friction, but it's healthy friction.”

Last in Australia for the Soundwave Festival earlier this year and returning for the distinctly less abrasive Harvest Festival in November (again, they'll be the only band to have ever graced both bills) it's curious to hear Michelini recount his experience last time around. It seems that the one thing that all of that solo work and planning didn't prepare him for was our wide, brown land. “I don't think I was ready for Australia last time,” he says. “I think we're still learning how to do Australia as a band. Everything was different last time. The food, the people. As similar as our English may be, you just get these moments where you realise that you actually are on the other side of the world.”