SOLE SPIRIT
music
Better known as the frontman of The Panics, Jae Laffer is now stepping out with his solo debut, When The Iron Glows Red. He tells Jazmine O’Sullivan how friends in ‘rythmic places have re-energised his creative side.
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hen The Iron Glows Red is a beautiful title for an album, yet it becomes so much more poignant when considering its origin. While flipping through a newspaper, Jae Laffer discovered a story about the last Vietnamese blacksmith. Due to the development of machines and a lack of interest in carrying on the tradition, this man became the last in what used to be a prospering trade. The story was of a common man following his dreams, who was suddenly about to lose his tradition: a notion which profoundly resonated with Laffer. “The story seemed to reflect a few things I was writing about. The record itself is kind of a coming of age record; we’re all still trying to chase our dreams and [the story] resonated with me because I thought this guy was in that vein; he summed up the situation [in] a really poetic way,” Laffer explains. “Once you’ve got a title in mind for your album and a certain atmosphere, it directed the whole environment and the characters. His story and that phrase in particular are a nice overview of what I was trying to say in the album, it helped me clarify that.” One of the more important factors for Laffer in making this album was that it was written, recorded and produced quickly, following his instincts. “The recording process was really a reaction to [The Panic’s] last record which took a while to put together; I wanted to make sure I still had it in me to sit down and write a whole bunch of songs really quickly just because I felt like it. I just wanted to play with my own creative spirit.” While many musicians can spend an eternity refining their songs, Laffer admits it was liberating to not do that with this album. “I always look back at certain things and regret overanalysing, or overproducing, or just constantly going back to a song, replacing instruments and things like that. Sometimes it takes you a year or two to look back on something you’ve done and realise your first instincts are often correct.” It may sound like a simple task to just write and record on instinct, yet Laffer reveals, “It was kind of like retraining my brain to think, ‘Whatever happens today, I’m walking
out with a song’, because sometimes if you don’t put that deadline on yourself then you don’t do anything, so now I know I can sit down and make it happen.” While making the album, Laffer enlisted the help of his friend Dave Stewart of the Eurythmics for certain instrumentation
says, “I’m really into the idea of strange collaborations with people that I wouldn’t normally work with. It’s nice working with strangers and finding new angles on your life. Instead of making the concrete goal to go out on another solo venture in the future, I’d prefer to just randomly make friends with someone and try something completely different to what I might normally do. So in saying that, this might be the last record that sounds anything like what I’ve done before.” Currently rehearsing for his album launch tour, Laffer says he will bring some friends on stage to help realise the energy of the album. “I’ve put together a five-piece
“SOMETIMES YOU LOOK BACK ON SOMETHING YOU’VE DONE AND REALISE YOUR FIRST INSTINCTS ARE OFTEN CORRECT. ” and production duties. “I’m really intrigued about him as a character and his creative soul,” Laffer tells of Stewart. “He’s spread his net wide over the years, working with films and books as well as helping people with all kind of musical endeavours, and I like to be around people like that.” With the people around him providing the prime source of inspiration for this album, Laffer
band which is half traditional and half not. I really wanted to bring a driving rhythm section, but I also wanted to keep a lot of space to make sure it’s still very vocal and lyric heavy. Then we’ve just got a great drummer, a piano player, Paul [Otway] who’s the bass player for The Panics, and a guy called Ben [Riley] from Georgia Fair doing some guitar work and some other sounds. So between them we’re just trying a few different things, we’re still putting it together really but we’ve got a great energy and the songs sound particularly special live.” WHAT: When The Iron Glows Red (Dew Process/Universal) WHEN & WHERE: 18 Oct, Alhambra Lounge; 19 Oct, The Loft, Gold Coast THE MUSIC • 16TH OCTOBER 2013 • 33