Ahead of his first set at the One Movement Festival, we have a chat with Dan Sultan about his muisc, what he’s been listening to, and what he’s up to next. Here’s what he had to say.
So last time I saw you, you were playing West Coast Blues and Roots, how did feel that set went?
It was great, it was wonderful, Blues and Roots is always a bit special and also that part of the world, it’s always good to get back up there.
Do you have any songs you like playing the most? Any that are particularly special?
Yeah, there’re some songs that can be really good live, like musically just so far as we have a lot going on stage, the horns and stuff. And to perform them can be a lot of fun, dancing around and stuff, a lot of energy. And then there is also a lot of songs where
I’ll just play on my own, and a really nice quiet audience where you can hear a pin drop can be really special. It’s weird, like sometimes it can be quite full on and then sometimes it can be quite laid back.
What’s more important to you, the live performance or the studio work?
That’s a really good question, I have been asked that a few times. I really love recording, you know, I really love arranging. But, I don’t know, being on the road with my band, with my friends, it’s a ride; there’s ups and downs, it’s amazing, you know. It’s like school camp, you know, but you know you have money and no one telling you what to do all the time. Except the tour manager, but that’s ok. And so I really love, I love it all really. There are times when I am really sick of touring, and I just want to get back into the studio, and there are times when I jumping to get back onto the road, but I think as a rule there are really great things in either.
Which do you prefer, or where do you feel more comfortable, the festival
or the small bar/theatre?
Again, good question. Both, really; you can play a festival and have a massive crowd and there’s this amazing vibe and it’s just, wow. Then with the theatre the crowd is obviously not as big, you know, but you have got this most amazing room where you can hear a pin drop and it’s a beautiful crowd. If anything I probably prefer theatres, but I love festivals man, and I love little pubs, where you can get wild and sweaty.
Your music, in a way, kind of lends itself to that sort of venue?
Yeah, I have always been pretty lucky, I have found we can play a venue like the Corner Hotel back at home in Melbourne, or we can play a thing like this, or we can play at the Forum Theatre in Melbourne or the Metro Theatre in Sydney. We have been pretty lucky like that, we’ve had plenty of options.
You are playing two shows at One Movement, the festival and a showcase
later, do you approach these two shows any differently?
I try not to think about it too much, I guess they are going to be different. Going to try and do our best for each, have as much fun as possible.
You have a great classic rock sound, are you particularly influenced by
the music of the 50s and 60s, or does it stretch further than that?
Yeah, yeah, very early on I was, then I got into a lot of stuff from the seventies, punk and rock. I grew up with soul music and rock ‘n’ roll.
Then later, as a teenager, I got into country music. I reckon country music and soul music are like cousins, you know. When Willie Nelson sings “Georgia on My Mind”, it’s a country song, but when Ray Charles sings, it’s a soul song, and vice versa. Almost, sometimes you hear it and Willie Nelson’s voice sounds really soulful, and you hear Ray’s version and it’s country. And I think they just go hand in hand. Because of my background in soul music I think I have a bit more of an ear for it.
Where do your songs come from? Any stories behind them?
There are always stories, there’s always something behind them. Sometimes they are fiction, sometimes they are real. Whatever inspires me, I guess one thing that’s the same for all of them, is that all my songs are love songs. They’re songs from the heart.
What sort of records have you been listening to recently?
I have been listening to Dan Kelly, his first EP, there’s a great song on it called “Summertime Blues”… not “Summertime Blues”, the Eddie Cochrane song. This one on Danny’s record, it goes “Red wine summertime, drinking by the train line, woo ooo.” It’s just a lot of fun. It’s one of the better EPs I have ever heard, so I have been listening to a lot of Dan Kelly.
I also listen to a lot of Black Rebel Motorcycle Club, I listen to Outkast and a little bit of Snoop Dogg. Yeah, pretty varied, and a lot of soul music. I listen to anything good, or rather anything I think is good. That’s a whole other thing.
What do you make of the whole One Movement set up?
I think it’s great, yeah I think it’s really good. It’s a manager’s festival, you know. It’s good for them. We as artists get up on stage, do our thing, and then all the managers get together and talk. So it’s great for them, and great for us, they’re treating us really
well; we are not left wanting for anything by the festival. It’s great fun, and just WA man, Perth, there are always great crowds, people ready to just dig it, and there are some incredible looking people in this city, just wow.
What’s the response been like to Get Out While You Can?
It’s been great, it’s been really good. It’s been really cool. We received a couple of awards for it last week. We won a couple of Independent Music Awards, a few Deadly Awards, and in the same week we found out that we are nominated for four ARIAs for it. Which is really cool. I mean, look man, when we started that record we worked really hard on it and we really believed in it, so to get that recognition, to get that nod from the industry is really gratifying and really encouraging. It’s great.
Any plans to break into Europe or the US?
Yeah, absolutely, we went over to Europe this year and had a good time. We are going to go back next year, we have the summer festival circuit going on next year. Which will be good, we are just looking at a few offers now, and we’ll see how it goes.
You were in the film Bran Nue Dae, any plans for further forays into film?
I don’t know. With Bran Nue Dae man, everything just kind of lined up. The stars all lined up, everyone was just ready. It was an offer I couldn’t refuse, really. If that kind of thing happened again, I would have to consider it, but it would have to be pretty big.
It’s amazing to have done that even once in my life. It was great, it was really, really great. I got to meet some people, and get to know some friends a lot better than I previously did. It was really, really cool. And I got to spend three months in Broome. It was bloody hot man, it was about September to the end of the year, it was the build up. Sometimes it was pretty fucking unbearable, but that’s alright. I think some days I lost 5 kilos man, just in my clothes.
But I mean, we’d be there and we’d be working hard and it was so hot, but I’d look around and there’d be roadies lugging stuff around, working far harder than I worked all day, and they weren’t making a peep. They were just getting the job done. It was great to get a bit of perspective, I mean I’d finish a scene and there’d be someone there with an umbrella. It could have been a lot worse. So as much as it was full on, I didn’t lose sight of it. There was a lot of support going on.
Any plans for the future?
Yeah, we are going to start recording again next year some time, I’ve been writing a lot. Going to take a break from the road for a while, at least until we have to go into Europe. That’ll be a few months where we can write and record and hopefully we’ll have a new album out in about six months.
Were there any songs from the last albums that didn’t make the cut?
There were some, there were a lot of songs that didn’t make it, which we are going to have a look at. We might just re-record them, we didn’t really like the way they came out. So we might just have another go at them. There were some songs from the first album that didn’t make it and we listened to them again, and they didn’t make it again, they just didn’t seem to fit.
There has been a clear evolution in sound from album to album…
A lot of that’s with money too, first album we didn’t have any money. Second album, we had a little bit of cash to spend on it, so we could go to a really cool studio, and use great equipment. If we want a Motown Reverb we’ll actually use the reverb they used
at Motown. Or if we want to use an Abbey Road EQ, we will actually use the EQ from Abbey Road. So we had a lot more options.
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