No Longer Alone

2011 was a productive year for Tex Perkins – he conducted nationwide runs of his Johnny Cash musical The Man In Black, which led to his onstage bandmates putting out an album of country covers under the Band Of Gold moniker. Even more exciting was the emergence of the first Dark Horses' album in eight years. At year's end, Perkins promised to keep the ball rolling, and on cue arrives another Dark Horses record, Everyone's Alone. Thing keep getting busier for the irascible frontman.

“You don't know the half of it,” Perkins chuckles. “You have to keep active at my age; it's either continual music or regular games of lawn bowls. Still, although this time last year I wanted to keep the ball rolling, there were no actual plans put in place for [the album]; we only started recording in May. It's all been sorted out pretty quickly. I mean, the seeds for this record were sown during the recording of the last one and the tour we did for it, so the few opportunities we got to throw things together, we recorded them fairly loose and quick.

“Every time we're together, it's not rare but there are six or seven individuals we need to bring together, who all have their own lives and careers, so you use the time you can. I feel that there is a good band here, a good chemistry exists, and I daresay on this tour we will be sowing the seeds for the next record; still I'm actually impressed with myself that I have been able to follow through with something I said I'd do.”

Last year's self-titled record stemmed from writing with Murray Paterson on the score for the 2010 film Beautiful Kate. Everyone's Alone had a decidedly different approach, whereby the addition of James Cruickshank (The Cruel Sea) and Gus Agars rounded out a full band dynamic that Perkins insists has become the focal point for songwriting.

“That's why I think we go out as The Dark Horses from now on rather than Tex Perkins & The Dark Horses; whilst it began life as the band that I took out when I did my solo records, it has now developed into its own thing,” Perkins concedes. “A lot of the members contribute a voice of their own, even if they aren't the lead singer. Joel [Silbersher]'s guitar playing is very idiosyncratic, so is Murray, and Charlie [Owen] deserves first-rate credit for how it all sounds as well. Murray didn't want to come out on tour with us last time, so James came in to play his parts. Now we have James and Murray onboard…actually, we'll have to learn how to play some of these songs! I'm interested more in exploring that fact, that we are truly becoming a band, and I thinking we are just starting to find our legs.”

This is a modest statement considering the quality of the new album. It showcases the continuing growth of Perkins as a songwriter who prepares and layers his songs rather than taking them in his stride. The self-titled record signalled the first time he had taken a more preparatory approach to constructing songs, and Everyone's Alone builds upon that “revelation”.

“Since I have become computer-savvy, it has revolutionised my ability to not only create music on the spot that is worthy to be what it is, but also to prepare songs to present to other members of the band,” Perkins insists. “These songs are far more developed than anything in the past. Back when we recorded the last Tex, Don and Charlie album (2005's All Is Forgiven) I think personally I was reduced to using notepads, and any recordings or evidence or demos I had to go to Don [Walker] for them. I carried them all around in my head or in these notepads. I never wrote down chords, only lyrics, so I had to remember how a song would go by playing them. Now to open Garageband up, hit record, play a bit of guitar then listen back to it to work out what are the good bits, it captures the tiny little ideas that would've been completely lost, never utilised again. I don't even own a notepad anymore.”

This has meant that the new album is a forthright album even to the point of urgency, veering away from the introspective nature of past solo releases.

“It was more the nature of the songs for whilst the bulk of the songs were written by Murray and myself, the band aspect was built and layered into it,” Perkins states. “The band was integral into how these songs were written, which is an important distinction. Because of that it feels more assure but more relaxed at the same time. In some ways the last record feels like there was too much stuff on it. We deliberately looked at eleven or twelve tracks as opposed to fourteen – we tried to throw too much at it last time. The original idea was for that to be a twenty song record; we hadn't put a record out in eight years, so there was a lot of stuff around. This record benefits from more focus, a good solid forty minutes.”

Perkins has always had a loquacious way with words, which hasn't changed on Everyone's Alone. There even appears that a particular C word sneaks its way in there.

“No, the word is cund,” Perkins wryly stresses. “A lot of these lyrics fell out without a lot of filter on them; the whole album is like that. There isn't a lot of consideration of, 'Hmm, will this get played on the radio? Is this too far?' But you will notice in the lyric book it says, 'You will have to be a cund' – C-U-N-D, which is an Icelandic word meaning goat, or auctioneer. In Halo it's, 'fugin', and on Uneasy Feeling it's 'I wake and rub the shid oud of my eyes'. I do sound like I'm swearing quite a bit on this record, I've noticed, and quite casual swearing too I might add. A lot of the time when you hear swearing on records it's angry swearing, 'fuck this, fuck!' This is me swearing in normal conversation. And shit, fuck and cunt sound like the words I might say in conversations, but that's not me now, is it?”

Perkins sounds revitalised by these changes in musical perspective, so much so that the structure and trajectory of the new Dark Horses knows no bounds.

“I'd like to explore the idea that I'm not the only lead singer, to get others to open up,” Perkins ponders. “I might not even be in The Dark Horses in twelve months' time, they might carry on without me, imagine that? Maybe I've given them far too much freedom and credit and they'll start to think it's all about them – gee, I think I've created a monster.”

Tex Perkins & The Dark Horses will be playing the following shows:

Thursday 8 November - The Zoo, Brisbane QLD
Friday 9 November - Star Court Theatre, Lismore NSW
Thursday 15 November - Corner Hotel, Melbourne VIC
Friday 16 November - SSA Club Albury, Albury NSW
Friday 23 November - The Venue, Townsville QLD
Saturday 24 November - Tanks Art Centre, Cairns QLD