j o e r o b i n s o n — b a l l p a rk m u s i c
Happiness, Smells Like Teen Spirit Sunshine, Beautiful People
JOE ROBINSON came to national attention when he won Australia’s Got Talent at age 17. With his third album about to be released — a collection that he says represents “a chance to move forward into a new direction and add more talents to my palette,” ROSS BECKLEY and VERONIQUE MOSELEY sat down with Robinson to talk about his musical journey. Growing up in Kempsey, NSW, Joe Robinson has been playing the guitar since the age of 10. “You know what it’s like when you’re young - it isn’t about talent, it’s simply about who can play an instrument and join the band. The fun part is performing in front of a crowd, whether that’s the school presentation night or the local fundraiser doesn’t really matter.” Robinson acknowledges the value of those early opportunities by appearing at events such as the Central Coast GOATS Festival to inspire the next generation of young musicians. “I was motivated by experienced musicians sharing their stories and music in the early days. That sharing, plus opportunities to perform, build confidence and inspire you when you’re starting out. That’s important.” Robinson’s passion for the guitar was unstoppable, motivating him to teach himself with the help of lessons on Youtube. At age 14 his ability with the guitar was already stunning when he recorded his first solo instrumental album, Bird Seed, at Cloud Studios, with producer Parris Macleod. Robinson came to the attention of guitar legends the Emmanuel brothers which led to an invitation to perform with Tommy in Nashville. By the age of 16, he was touring around the world with renowned Australian and overseas musicians. Shortly before recording his second album, Time Jumpin’, Joe entered and won Australia’s Got Talent, followed by the World Championships of Performing Arts in the USA, where he became the youngest and first instrumentalist to take the top prize, landing him the prestigious title: ‘Senior Grand Champion Performer of The World’. So what inspired the addition of vocals to his repertoire, given the success of the solo instrumental albums and performances? “The idea for the album germinated in November of last year while I was doing a 60-day tour of Europe, Japan and Australia,” says Robinson. “I really enjoyed collaborating and playing with other musicians and this felt like a chance to move forward into a new direction and add more talents to my palette.” Find us on Facebook
In that collaborative phase, Robinson also started songwriting and singing. He spent six weeks writing songs with different songwriters. “I learnt a ton over that period of time and the songwriting and singing just kept growing on me – the more I did, the more I liked it. It was a challenge, but a fun one. I like to push myself in ways that make me inspired into new directions, and this was just that kind of a challenge.” The last 12 months have been a steep learning curve for Joe. “It’s like a university course - I’ve learnt so much. I was doing an average of 200 gigs a year since I was 12, [but] the last 12 months have been deliberately a little quieter, to give me time to focus on new skills and to record the album.” Once he felt comfortable with his new skills, Joe wrote all the music for the album, with some collaboration on the lyrics. “This is a far more deliberate album with a sound unique to me — it’s been a lot of fun,” he says. The transition from solo instrumentalist to lead singer and guitarist in a small band is one his audiences have embraced. “It was hard at first, because the audience have this expectation of me as an instrumentalist. [But] I’m blessed to have awesome musicians playing with me - the whole dynamic is so different for me now with a band.” It hasn’t taking long for the word to spread that Joe Robinson’s transition is much more about adding to his performance skills than swapping guitar for vocals. Every bit of his instrumental skill still shines through. Add powerful vocals to ingenious guitar riffs and you have the makings of a major star. But then again, isn’t that what you’d expect from someone who gained the title of ‘Senior Grand Champion Performer of The World’ at the mere age of 18. Joe Robinson performs at the Woodford Folk Festival, Woodfordia, December 27– January 1; Glasshouse, Port Macquarie, on Wednesday January 4; Lizotte’s Lambton on Friday January 5; Lizotte’s Kincumber on Sunday January 8.
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If you’ve seen Ball Park Music’s calamitous live show, you’re most likely a fan. If you’ve heard their debut record, Happiness and Surrounding Suburbs, you’ll understand why they are one of the most important Australian bands of 2011. Never heard of them? You’re about to – MAX QUINN spoke with guitarist DEAN HANSON at the conclusion of their Happiness tour. Last time I spoke with Sam [Cromack, vocals/guitar] at a gig, he dobbed in a certain band member for their rogue sleepwalking. Tell us what happened. Paul [Furness, keys/trombone] is the one you want. We were on tour with Eagle and The Worm a few months ago, and they went out drinking after a gig in Sydney. Paul likes a bit of a party, so he went with them, and that was that. Next morning, we get a phone call from EATW, and they were like, “guys, we don’t know how to say this, but we’ve lost Paul”. And we were like, “OK, great, he’ll turn up. No worries”. Then they said “well … that’s not the worst of it. We’ve lost Paul, but we have his phone, his wallet and all of his clothes”. So Paul was un-contactable, in the middle of Sydney, without a wallet, and obviously naked. He then woke up in a strange hotel room with no idea where he was or how he got there. He said there were food scraps everywhere and a room service tray on the floor. He opened the door to this mystery hotel room, and he was four or five doors down from EATW. Needless to say he’s been too scared to sleepwalk again. I came up to see the Brisbane show from your tour, and it was fantastic. How have the rest of the dates been? It’s been fantastic. We really didn’t expect to sell out Brisbane, Adelaide and Melbourne – that was a huge surprise. It’s great to see people in the crowd singing the songs – especially the newer songs on the album that haven’t been singles. That feeling never gets old. I remember the first time it happened to us was probably about a year ago, and it was such a euphoric thing for me to be a part of. The thing that I really like about the album is that the non-singles really stick out. Was there a conscious effort to make a body of work rather than a collection of singles? Leading into recording, we made the decision to put some of the songs we had previously released as singles, onto the album. It was a bit of a challenge to
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produce and arrange the newer songs that Sam had written, that really hadn’t been heard before, so that it became a cohesive body of work. The songs are quite eclectic in nature, but I think that’s what ties them together and makes the album interesting. Do you think that distinctive, eclectic songwriting and arrangement is what makes the songs resonate with different listeners? Yeah, absolutely. The six of us all have some individual input into the songs, and, as would be the case with any six people with a wide range of influences, there ends up being a mishmash of different sounds and styles all wrapped up in this one song. Some of us love commercial hip-hop, some of us love 90s metal, you know? I was really interested to hear you cover Marilyn Manson’s ‘Beautiful People’ on this tour. Is that a good example of what you’re talking about? Exactly. Sometimes we struggle to get people to understand where we’re coming from. We get labelled as this sunshine pop band, which is entirely based on the sound of the singles we’ve released. But it’s not entirely accurate. Playing that cover is a reflection of that – nobody expects it from us, and that’s completely our intention. It’s such a conundrum for me to read about Ball Park as a sunshine pop band, because I think the songs themselves [‘Rich People Are Stupid’, ‘I Fucking Love You’] are quite provocative. I feel the same way. We’re conscious of saying what we want to say in our songs – Sam’s really good at nailing that feeling of ‘that’s what I think about all the time but never say’. There’s a definite attitude to it. The last song on the album is ‘Happy Healthy Citizen of the Developed World Blues’, and that’s about murdering your ex, which I think is something that everyone can relate to. Ball Park Music performs at Your Festival at Newcastle’s Cambridge Hotel on Saturday December 10. reverb magazine issue #065 — Dec 2011–Jan 2012 29