Shane Nicholson: Moving Pictures.

It’s A Movie is in stores now.

Shane Nicholson’s new solo album It’s A Movie is the perfect record for anyone who likes their music intimate, uncluttered and songwriterly. It’s a collection of songs Shane is clearly happy with.

“I’m really chuffed,” he enthuses. “Every record’s a bit of a journey and a trial, with countless little battles along the way. But in retrospect, I’m really happy. I think it’s the perfect record for me to make at this point in time. I’m glad it came out the way it did.”

How did your collaboration with producer Nash Chambers come about?

“I’d started the record three times before with three different producers and I didn’t really know myself what kind of record I wanted to make at that stage,” he explains. “I more knew what I didn’t want to do, so I was experimenting with a bunch of different people and producers. And I never seemed to find someone I was clicking with and I wasn’t satisfied with the direction it was taking. So, the idea of Nash came about, because after trying to do the record three times, I decided I needed to make a more simple record, to pare it all down and just do a song record. I think it was my manager that suggested Nash and instantly I thought that was a pretty cool idea, because we come from such different sides of the fence. I though it would be very interesting scenario. And when I met him for the first time, he said “Just so you know, I fuckin’ hate country music”.”

Ironic, seeing as he’s the brother of a certain Kasey Chambers!

“He doesn’t so much hate country, but he hates what a lot of people call country,” says Shane. “But his listening tastes surprised me quite a bit and we hit it off straight away. I loved his philosophy on what he thought good music was all about. With Nash, it was all about spontaneity and simplicity and never allowing the production to overtake the song.”

Nash’s rather famous sister also does a guest spot on Shane’s album.

“It was really unplanned,” Shane says of this particular collaboration. “The harmony was too high for me and I needed to get a girl to sing it. We were recording at Nash’s house and Kasey lives literally just around the corner. She was at home pregnant at the time. I said to Nash, “Look I can’t find these friends of mine to come around and sing this vocal”. He said “Kasey’s at home, she can come around and do it if you like”. She came around and did it in about half an hour. It sounded fucking awesome straight away. I didn’t think about having her sing on the album. She’d often come over for barbecues and just to visit, but I never once presumed she’d want to sing on the record. She had the perfect voice for the song. Then I had panic attacks about whether I should have someone so famous singing on the record! Then I thought, Kasey sounds really good, so fuck it. I love how it came out.”

This record is fairly stripped back. Can you envisage yourself experimenting with more ornate instrumentation on future recordings?

“Definitely,” says Shane. “The one thing I wanted to do was to not set myself up as a certain kind of artist. This record is not a rock record, it’s not pop, it’s not folk, it’s not country. But it has little bits of lots of things. I’m getting off on the freedom to just do what I like.”

Is it more comfortable for you operating as a solo artist than as frontman for Pretty Violet Stain?

“It is more comfortable and I only have my own expectations to live up to,” Shane replies. “It’s easier to be working on your own if you’re a control freak, which I am. I’ve always had a clear vision about how I want to do things and it’s never nice to have to play the bad guy, but I felt that I had to. It’s much easier now, because I can push myself as hard as I want to. There are a lot of bonuses to doing a solo record, but the one drawback is you lose that camaraderie from being in a band and hanging out with your mates. But the bonuses for me outweigh the disadvantages.”