One Man Brand

With his second album, Thank You For Giving Me The Blues, having reached number one on the Australian Blues and Roots Airplay Charts, 2012 has been a decidedly great year for songsmith and multi-instrumentalist Shaun Kirk. Given this, what better way to top it off than a massive national tour, culminating in a performance at every muso's dream festival, Queenscliff? This is exactly what Kirk has been hardworking and talented enough to achieve, so, naturally, Inpress wanted to find out exactly how Kirk himself would describe his stellar year.

“It's been awesome. The album's done everything I've wanted it to do, pretty much. It's gotten me some pretty good recognition, it's sold lots of copies, and it's exposed me to that festival scene, which was kind of the goal. I'm very happy that all my goals have happened. It's pretty cool. It's totally different to the first album. That was kind of a road CD – just something for me to use to hit the road and sell at gigs. I bit my tongue and quit my job and hit the road.”

Talking of hitting the road, Kirk has done so in no uncertain fashion of late. His massive national tour takes in Queenscliff, as already mentioned, but also The Sydney Blues Festival and The Commonground Festival, just to name a few. It seems as if life on the road is something Kirk has accepted with good grace as part of the deal, at least temporarily.

“Yeah, it's been hectic,” he shares. “I like to keep busy. And you kind of have to as a musician starting out, I think. You just need to do as many gigs as possible and get yourself out in front of as many people as you can. Then, hopefully, down the line you can ease off a little bit and focus more on the writing and recording sort of things.”

As soon as all this is over, Kirk will be doing a little bit of that; making preparations for an overseas tour and his third album. This time, he tells us that he's going to go about things slightly differently. “In December when the tour comes to a close, I'm going to get back into the studio and start recording some demos. That should be cool. It's going to be a totally new experience for me, I think. The last one was recorded in someone's bedroom, whereas this one's going to be done in a proper studio. I'm really excited about the songs I've been writing, as well. I've been taking my time and getting them right lyrically. My writing process has really changed. I've been looking at it line by line. If I write one line a day, I'm really happy.”

Given the success of Thank You For Giving Me The Blues, many an artist could be forgiven for attempting to repeat the formula, but Kirk is obviously not cast from that mould. “I think you have to keep yourself interested and excited,” he tells. “You try some things and they work, and you try other things and they don't. I'm confident that this one's going to work.”

The tour will also see Kirck contuniung his established one-man band scenario. Kirk surrounds himself with a stomp box, kick and snare drum, tambourine, hi-hat and cymbal on stage, as well as a guitar and harmonica, and he doesn't want to change a successful formula just yet. “I might get a couple of session musos in,” he tells. “We might sprinkle it with a bit of sugar, just add a little bit more here and there to make it more enjoyable, but I don't believe in producing a record that you can't play on stage. I guess you should never say never, you know, but I don't think there's going to be a 50-piece orchestra behind me or anything like that.”

Shaun Kirk plays the following shows:

Wednesday 19 December - Sandringham Hotel
Thursday 20 December - Grand Junction Hotel, Maitland
Friday 21 December - The Aztec, Forster
Sunday 23 December - The Rails, Byron Bay