DAN SULTAN FLYING HIGH Dan Sultan is something of a rarity in the Australian music scene, let’s admit it: a dude with charisma, talent and opinions who isn’t afraid to use all three. Often the dreaded ‘Tall Poppy Syndrome’ gets in the way of letting artists truly express themselves but Sultan seems to just go for it with a purity of will and utterly without pretence. He doesn’t feel the need to talk himself up, but he doesn’t talk himself down either. That makes him a pretty damn refreshing interview. And it also makes Blackbird, his new studio album, something very special. Named after Black Studios in Nashville where it was recorded, it’s Sultan’s first album in five years and the follow-up to his acclaimed Get Out While You Can. A lot can happen in five years, especially when you carry the burden of expectation on your shoulders, but Sultan is taking it all in his stride. With producer Jacquire King (Tom Waits, Kings Of Leon), Sultan has crafted a varied and expressive album which sounds at once brand new and comfortable. It’s familiar and yet exciting. And its’ loaded with great guitar tones. “I used a 1956 Les Paul Goldtop with P-90 pickups,” he says. “And also a nice ’58 with PAF humbuckers. Another one I took over was a nice ’69 Tele which is unbelievable - I love that guitar. It’s all thrills, no f lls. But the main one was the ’56 Goldtop. It was amazing how many times we’d be trying things out, like we had this great Silvertone plugged into a gr eat 70s Maestro fuzz pedal fr om the 70s, but also with more modern stuff like the Earthquaker Devices Ghost Echo and the EHX Holy Grail reverb… but the number of times we’d be trying something and not quite getting it until we picked up the Goldtop, man, it was just perfect. Y ou can hear the gold, man, you can!” he laughs. “But P-90s in particular, I love those pickups. Pickups are an incr edible thing. It’s something I’ve been getting into a little more recently. I think the studio did a lot of that for me as well: in a studio like that you get to sit and
try a lot of things. The pr oducer and engineer as well, they wer e plugging shit in for me and I didn’t have much of an idea of what was going on until we’d get this sound that was just crazy . We used this cheap plastic Line 6 pedal, but we actually used it on quite a few things because it sounded like ther e was this or gan happening in the backgr ound, this big ghosty chur ch organ, but it’d just happen. It was just an incidental, accidental sound of the frequencies of that r everb banging up against each other.” That’s just one of the ‘ear candy’ moments on Blackbird. Listen close and you’ll hear banjo, hor n parts - all sorts of little touches that make it a gr eat headphone album. “With the horns we didn’ t want to go too over the top,” Sultan says. “With Jacquire and his production, he just eats that shit up. So we didn’ t want to go too full-on. W e were thinking about strings at one point but then we had that Line 6 pedal again, doing this high-end jangliness
that sounded like a cross between strings and a the morning for ‘The W ind Cries Mary,’ mate. horn section, and then we’d have the hor ns in, So we lear ned ‘Sunshine Of Y our Love.’ Sultan and due to the arrangements and they way that says the drive to be a pr ofessional musician has it was mixed it comes up like strings. Little things always been with him. “It was never gonna be we learned along the way…” any other way,” he says. “But I was always given In a more nebulous way, the environment in the a lot of support. I had a couple of teachers at studio was enhanced by some rather interactive school who wer en’t that good (laughs) who I mood lighting designed to allow musicians to don’t need to mention. They know who they are. get into the mood. “I’m not just talking about But I was always given a lot of support. I think I a dimmer switch,” Sultan says. “Ther e’s a whole was pretty cocky growing up. I can still be a bit lighting rig in the studio, and we’d change cocky. So maybe there were a couple of teachers it from time to time to see if that’d make any when I was a kid that I might have rubbed up the difference. Most of the vocals I got pr etty lucky wrong way, but I was a child, y’know?” with, because we’d get them within f ve takes. Sultan is hitting the road for an expansive - okay, But there were a few other songs wher e I’d just friggin’ huge - Australian tour , hitting up way leave it and come back at the end of the whole more towns than the average run by the average deal, within the last few days of me being there. artist. “We’re gonna give it a good crack,” he But we were so excited to be there. There was a says. “It’s the largest tour I’ve done and the most lot of emotion and it was a long time coming for full-on tour I’ve done. But they’ve been good to us to be making another record in the f rst place. me. It’s four shows in a row and then maybe four So once we were there it was pretty exciting and or f ve days off. And I haven’t got it right in front we had a lot of adrenaline. We’d record the song of me, but basically it’ s June, July and August all day and then we’d do the vocals at the end playing a lot of r egional areas and a couple of the day. So by that time I was tired and wasn’t of capital cities. Just giving it a good nudge, I inspired by what we’d come up with throughout guess!” Sultan says his material typically changes the day. But Jacquir e was r eally cool and very on the road, but that’s not likely to happen with understanding. He could tell when I was feeling the new stuf f. “I feel it out a lot, y’know?” he it or not feeling it and he was very nurturing says. “It’s def nitely changed in the past, and either way.” that’s really me saying I wanted it to be bigger Sultan f rst picked up the guitar at ar ound the and more grandiose. I guess when I haven’t had age of four , learning ‘Wild Thing’ on a single that control in the studio I’ve had mor e of that string, then moving on to as much of AC/DC’ s control on stage. But with this r ecord I don’ t ‘Thunderstruck’ as he could manage. “I’ve had a think it’s going to change as much because I had lot of great teachers, and even people I played a lot more control this time around and we were with who wer en’t off cially teachers.” he says. able to make it as big as I wanted.” “Scott Wilson, who I used to play with, he’ s an amazing guitar player . I lear ned a lot playing BY PETER HODGSON with him for many years. And a teacher that I had when I was a kid was Louis McManus, who’s no longer with us, but he was TOUR DATES in the Bushwackers and was a gr eat June 26 – The Venue, Townsville QLD inspiration early on. I r emember rocking up to his house, 2 o’clock on June 27 – Tank Arts Centre, Cairns QLD June 28 – River Sessions Festival, Mackay QLD a Saturday or Sunday, I was about 8 July 2 – Solbar, Maroochydore QLD or 9 or something. He’d just taught July 3 – Spotted Cow, Toowoomba QLD me ‘The Wind Cries Mary’ the week July 4 – Soundlounge, Gold Coast QLD before - I love Jimi Hendrix, grew up July 5 – Eatons Hill Hotel, Brisbane QLD listening to Hendrix - and I rocked up July 8 – The Northern, Byron Bay NSW and he looked like he’d had a largish night. He’s like ‘G’day, come in. What July 9 – Port Panthers, Port Macquarie NSW July 10 – Cambridge Hotel, Newcastle NSW do you wanna lear n today?’ and I July 11 – Metro Theatre, Sydney NSW said ‘I’d like to learn the solo to ‘The Wind Cries Mary,’ and he just looked July 12 – Waves, Wollongong, NSW July 17- The Forum, Melbourne VIC at me then went ‘…it’ s a bit early in July 18 – The Wool Exchange, Geelong VIC July 19 – Westernport Hotel, San Remo VIC August 1 – Settlers Tavern, Margret River WA August 2 – Astor Theatre, Perth WA August 8 – Wrest Point Showroom, Hobart TAS August 9 – Country Club Showroom, Launceston TAS August 14 – The Gov, Adelaide SA August 16 – Roebuck Bay Hotel, Broome WA Blackbird is out now through Liberation Records.
PG. 24 / MIXDOWN NO. 240 / APRIL 2014