ADAM PAVITT » Seasons will pass

East Coast Tour Diary 2009-10

Adam — Fri, 29 Jan 2010 04:23:53 +0000

So the East Coast called my name and I answered with a station wagon, two roadies, two guitars, a P.A. and four surf crafts.
We rode the lightening; leaving at 12:00am on the 17th of December 2009 we were aiming to hit the South Coast of N.S.W at dawn. As we drove along with the roaring road trains and white knuckled highway travelers, we noticed the multitude of stars that were so amazingly bright. With no city lights to darken their sheen I knew this was going to be a great trip.
As we wound down the mountains off the bland golf course known as the Hume Highway we got a surprise from Quincy (my eloquently named station wagon). Quincy had smoke coming from the front left tyre. Luckily it was just a temporary thing and we decided to utilize low gear a bit more often on steep inclines from then on. Quincy was a real champion along the way, and didn’t miss a beat, despite the disgrace that became of the interior due to three lads living on the cusp of homelessness and using Quincy as a tour base.
Minnamurra Beach welcomed us with small waves and warm water. The Victorian wetsuits were left at home and shorts were the order of the day. After the surf I proceeded to nearly knock myself out on the tail gate. As I lay on the ground, I realized that I must be a bit fatigued from the eight hour drive. We had all our own food and cooking gear, so we were sorted for breakfast.
Wollongong proved a friendly place for a busk and a great place to get some $3 sunnies, and more secondhand cooking gear. I also found a hilarious beach mat with an over-simplified map of Oz that said “let’s go to the beach”…..$2 oppy gold! After staying at Coaldale and adopting the name ‘The Three Wise Men’ (due to our advice/counseling session with a stranger at the R.S.L)…..It was time to head for Stanwell Park and my first gig.
My official roadies (Matto and Chien) were selected due to their amazing strength, skills, adaptability and the fact that they wanted to go on a surfing holiday…and I was headed that way anyhow. They are great mates of mine and they wasted no time in setting up my P.A and guitars and CDs as I sipped lattes and talked about the surf with Bec, the owner of Ruby’s Café. As disappointed as I was that Bec’s name was not Ruby….She was a true champ and had even cooked up a special vegan curry for yours truly. All the staff were heaps friendly, and the lovely family that we stayed with, the Murrays, came down to watch along with some of my family. The show had a nice intimacy to it and the open air feel of the small café gave it a cool feel. We ended up back at the Murrays playing pool until the early hours of the morning and talking to Dane about a new controversial campaign to help curb global warming (all will be revealed in 2010).
Sydney’s North Shore was the next stop for an in-store at Power Linez surf shop Dee Why. I must say, it shocked a few Xmas shoppers to see someone jamming out in the shop, but generally it was a good vibe and an interesting experiment. So Sydneysiders be aware that my record is available at this surf shop. The surf wasn’t getting any bigger but that didn’t phase us. Surfing North Narrabeen with my sister Rachel and her partner Jake is always fun.
Next stop Forster and the Mexican restaurant known as The Aztec. What a cool place, the paint work is bright and colourful and the food was great. The Aztec is a venue that is fostering the music scene in Forster. My mum and step-dad Mick came down and brought a crew as well. There was a good vibe in the air and one of the families on holidays in attendance was dancing up a storm. They became known as the ‘kings of cool’, as one of the kids had a shirt that said some thing along those lines. I could not help myself and had to make up an adlib song…when they bought my CD I was asked to sign the CD and make it out to ‘the king’s of cool’….. This was the beginning of my adlib fun, and it was a good way to break the ice at some gigs. I sold a good amount of albums at this gig and it definitely put the wind in my sails.
This gig combined with a nice surf at Treachery definitely was the ticket. Treachery also had a resident mad man who insisted on taking the most dangerous waves and pulling deep into the barrel. He later came out with a video camera strapped to his head and did fairly well before breaking his leg rope and giving up on the idea. Matto also scored his first tube of the trip on his first wave…impressive. Chien and I were having a bit of a hard time and considered calling a ‘learn to surf’ phone number that we had spotted on a billboard.
Next stop was the beautiful Bellinger Valley. The road crew was due for a wash and so the river at Thora was the perfect place. The water was surprisingly warm even after recent flooding. We considered protesting the drought in Victoria by not bathing but that idea didn’t really hold up. Back in Bello I went busking out the front of the historic Hammond and Wheatly store to drum up some publicity for the gig that night at Guru Foods. It was here that I was given some organic cherries as a donation from a woman who said she was collecting up from communal gardens from around the town…nice. At Guru foods that night my mate Dean was over from W.A. and my buddy Brett Divola from the old school days was there as well. Brett was a massive influence on my playing as a youngster as we would play music down the phone line to each other and so it was great to see him and great to play my songs back in Bellingen. The adlib was alive and well and I proceeded to make up a song about all the people in the room. The crew at Guru Foods was ace and offered for us to stay in the shop that night. We nearly accepted, but then decided to head for sunny Sawtell.
Sawtell was a bit of an extended stay and a bit of time to relax and catch up with old friends. Matto’s parents Moreen and Allan were away, and said to us “you guys are welcome to stay…..just make sure we are away at the time”..funny! Sawtell is a pretty nice place in that it has two islands, two rivers, an antique cinema, Viv and Jenny (the same chip shop proprietors for around 18 years) and now about 20 cafes. If you know the size of Sawtell then 20 is a lot!
Xmas day brought with it a huge shift in the ocean temperature and we were back to around the familiar 16 degrees mark. After the inaugural Sawtell Boxing Day Test it was off to Barells Café to play three sets. Barells was a treat to play, with plenty of friends turning up and even a teacher Mr. Dyball and his family from back in my high school days. Hilda Kemp who own Barells, even worked out that her son Chris and I went to school together. So it certainly is a small world as they say. It was a really warm night and the free beers were flowing. Matto’s folks even could chill on the picnic tables in the middle of the main street and get a good sound. My awesome neighbors from Melbourne turned up and helped cheer me on and the familiar faces made the gig a treat. While staying in Sawtell, Chien and I had two really great busking sessions in Toormina and Coffs Harbour. The Coffs session netted 6 CDs sold and had a great response from people. Buskers take notice; Coffs could be an untapped place to spread the busking love?
After the Barells gig we headed off to Emerald beach and were awoken by kangaroos and heavy dew. The waves were calling us further north and so it was time to fire up Quincy and chase the north swell that seemed to be building. Angourie at Yamba was mega crowded and not quite working, so we went to a beach just south of Lennox Head.
Now Byron Bay was looking to be the climax of the tour for me. It had the biggest venue and the most potential for crowd vibes given that it was going to be the night before New Year’s Eve. I was excited and looking to bust out the jams. We gave the streets a busk in a bid to get a vibe for the crowd. We decided to check out the Channon area around Lismore and took some good friends and visiting German family members to Protester’s Falls. It was really spectacular and the water tasted fantastic and fresh.
After playing cards in a park and sleeping in a parking lot and getting awoken by police we headed to Cameron Spike-Porter’s house (Cam is the talented guitarist who added guitar tracks and solos to my album). Cam and I set up the P.A as my road crew slept and we warmed up for the big Byron gig in his lounge room over looking the Tuki Tuki hills. The country around Lismore had the most massive mango trees that I had ever seen and they were all laden with mangoes. It was as if they were weeds, just sitting in the middle of paddocks everywhere.
The Buddha Bar was pumping when we arrived with a nice sized crew and an ace outdoor stage. The only problem was that my name was not on the massive blackboard out the front. I went inside and my posters were everywhere, so at least I had a story to tell the manager. Now it was agreed that I would play after the guy who was setting up. That sounded fair enough…..little did I know that the act before me would be the most offensive excuse for entertainment that I have ever seen or anyone else who came to see me had ever seen. This clown, proceeded to beat the crowd into submission with his verbal assault and even his last song “suck more piss, smoke more drugs, have sex with everyone” could not bring the crowd back. I think he lost them with the remarks about “fat chicks” and their sex lives and when he started telling stories about “road kill” and making necklaces out of “the good bits”. Let’s just say, that by the time I got onstage the audience was all clapped out. Now that would have been fine if we could have just cranked it up and enjoyed playing….but no, to do that you need a sound engineer. The venue did not have one of those and so we sat there with a lot of feedback and trying to mix our selves in a 200 seat venue. This is the only gig in my life that I have ever checked the time at and wished that there was still not 20 mins to go. Cam was ripping it up on guitar and I was happy with my performance, it was just as my dad said though “once you started playing covers I knew you were in trouble”. After the gig we all raved on about all the factors that had worked against the gig and basically whinged. I decided to let it go though and focus on the next gig.
Before the next gig was that wonderful tradition know as New Year’s Eve and what better place to spend it than the sleep hamlet known as Nimbin. Chien headed off to the Sunshine Coast as by now he was known as ‘Sunny’ and he told us that he had to spread the message of the three wise men before their arrival. To explain how we got the name ‘the three wise men’….The guy back at the R.S.L in Coaldale had explained to us how he hated his job as a real-estate agent in west Sydney and that he had given up on his dream of becoming a DJ. We told him that he should stop doing something that he hated just for the sake of getting money. I told him that I have a rule when it comes to working ‘if I can’t take my guitar to work, then I do not take the job’. Matto told him that he had been working on organic farms for food and shelter as well as planting nearly half a million trees. Then Chien told him that he had been to a spiritual retreat and not spoken for three months …and the title was born…To him we were the gurus known as ‘the three wise men’.
Nimbin was a blast! After swimming in the river Matto and I booked into a camp site and met some fellow travelers who were all from Sydney. We partied with them and hit the main street for the countdown and then it was back to camp for the sing-along and classic Nimbin indulgence. The cous cous and rice salad plus marinated zucchini from the Nimbin Café the next morning was also the perfect start to 2010. The drive out of Nimbin was spectacular. We stopped in to visit on old mate Glen Cambell who has a great heritage listed house in Corakai. After that Evan’s Head was a nice place to chill out with a lot of wilderness close to the ocean protected. It was here that the joy of corn fritters was also rekindled.
It was off to Lennox head the next day for some small surf and a dip in the tea tree waters of Lake Ainsworth. It is an amazing natural phenomenon where there is a fresh water lake only 50 metres from the beach. It is stained brown from the tea trees that are all around it, and is great for your skin and hair.
Byron Bay and the Fresh Café was the next stop. There are a heap of people complaining about Byron due to the changes that have taken place. You have to pay to park at the beach during the day and you cannot sleep in your car or face a $200 fine per person. The town is pumping though and despite the changes, people from all over the world head to Byron Bay for the coastal dream. I was starting to get pissy with the place after my last gig, but then as I paddled through the top of a nice four foot peak that all changed. A dolphin launched straight out the top of the wave that I was pushing through and went spinning though the air. Byron Bay is constantly switching it on with plentiful daily displays of natural beauty. This gig set up was an interesting one, as I was on the street, but playing to three levels of people having dinner. So as well as having all the guests in café to play to there were also all the people on the street. This was great because I was getting paid and had a bar and food tab as well as coins and notes in my case from passers by. Again there was some good CD sales and some young crew dancing. Byron had switched it back on for me and I was stoked.
Next stop Brisbane. The music Kafe in West End was a friendly bunch of people, and for a Tuesday night there was not a bad amount of people. I kicked out the jams and had the most amazing spicy pasta of the trip. When I asked if it would be a problem to get a vegan meal the response was amusing….”the chefs are all animals”. My host for the nights in Brisvegas was Moshe, who is the super supportive uncle of my old buddy Trash Mcsweeny of The Red Paintings fame. Moshe was a champion and despite my protesting insisted on shouting me food and beverages due to my status as “a touring struggling artist”. Looking around the house, it was nice to see some of my paintings around and it made me keen as ever to get to L.A and paint with T.R.P again.
The Kookaburra Club in Paddington was my next gig. The club has a long tradition going back around 20 years and it was great to see an audience who were singing along with the performers. This gig was totally unplugged and allowed me to tell a few stories and explain a bit about my songs to an attentive audience. I would have liked to have stuck around, but my host had to work and the Brisbane heat was intense.
Malaney in the Sunshine Coast hinterland is a truly beautiful town. All the shops have a ye-old look to them. Everything was super green and tropical looking. Upon meeting Danny Rose who booked my gig I knew I was in good hands. He had secured a write up in two local papers and all the tables were booked out for dinner. Danny also got some footage of the gig and was super organized. The Upfront Club was a treat to play. My Aunty Robyn and partner Bill came along and even Kathryn Lee(an old neighbor) who I had not seen for 20 years turned up. How time flys…now she is married and has four kids. Danny chilled with Matto and I after the gig and we awoke to a car boot market and a hang-over. I was quite happy to buy a tweety bird with an eye patch and some vintage English 60’s era dinner plates. Coffee was to be my true friend that morning.
We spent the next day chilling on Burleigh Headland and relaxing at Chien’s buddy’s house up the hill from Palm Beach. Chien and I had finally learned how to surf again and got some ace waves. The sun was absolutely cooking and a large slab of tar melted to one of my tyres and remained there for the next week, despite driving hundreds of kilometers.
The three wise men were back together again and it was off to Coffs Harbour for a gig at the Surf Club. Again a crew turned up to see me and it was a nice place to play. I could have done with band, due to the large area. However, I still had a blast. The stage was underneath a little tent on the veranda and everyone was enjoying the perfect weather. My old friend Kim offered for us to stay at her place in Sawtell and it was cool to catch up with some of the crew from high school days. Another busk in Coffs went well and then we headed south again. A midday nap at pelican point was much needed and then we decided to go straight for Sydney. Just like everyone else….we had succumb to the calling of Avatar. After the 3D amazement of the biggest movie of all time, Matto went off to study his permaculture course and Chien flew back to Melbourne to party with friends.
I picked up my little bro Shane from the airport and we headed to Nowra for my last gig of the tour. It was a treat to hang with my bro, as we don’t get to see each other that much due to him teaching in Q.L.D. Again the venue had made sure that I was given local press and the word had gone out to a large mailing list. The Tea Club Café has the best stage. It sits at the back of a large open air court yard with a big avocado tree that is said to be fed on the vibes of the music. All the staff are great and keen to help out. The candles on all the tables made this one of the best gigs. Local lad Liam provided a nice set after fixing up his broken guitar with good old super glue. The audience was great and I look forward to heading back to Nowra again.
So after a family wedding that was just too much fun. I picked up my lovely fiance Marta and headed the long way via the coast road back to Melbourne. It was time for more sun, surf, kangaroos and great scenery.
The road is a great place to be and I know this tour is just the beginning…………..

Song 11: Walkaway

Adam — Mon, 10 Aug 2009 22:40:56 +0000

It seems strange to finally have a recording of Walkaway….. If I counted up all the times that I have played this song in the last thirteen years…..well it would be alot! The song has been a staple in my set for as long as i have been performing. Walkaway is a song that goes back to the early days of my songwriting. The chord structure was formed way back in 1994 when I was playing alot of guitar with my uncle Mark Robberds as a teenager. I remember one jam session with my uncle Mark and his good buddy Jeremy Betts where I may have formed my first band called Rambshackle. The jam session inspired us to form a band after hearing the recording back. A rambunctious “rambshackle” was proclaimed as the last phrase before the tape clicked.
As the song developed over the years the lyrics began to develop a tragic love story. The underlying theme to this story people’s attachment to different types of drugs. I have had my struggles with drugs and have lost friends to them. So many people seem to love to hate using them. They wake up in the morning vowing to never drink again, only to start all over again at the next party. The youth are told “don’t do drugs”, and yet so many famous people glorify their use. Kids are told not to do drugs, but then hear of their parent’s drug experiments. Or they are told by their parents “do as i say, not as i do” when it comes to drugs. Eventually it comes down to personal choice, however, the toll is shown in the tattered lives of the addicted. The love affair can not go on forever. Drug addiction is mentally and physically draining.
What about legal drugs? Alcohol, cigarettes, caffeinated products and prescription drugs are all sanctioned and taxed by our government. It seems society can accept some drug use and makes illegal others. People can be addicted to so many things TV, food, sex, sugar rushes, adrenaline, shopping, gambling, internet, excercise, stealing…..the list goes on. Somehow finding a balance in this world is the key. So many addictive things are used by businesses to turn the cogs of the economy, and we will always be faced with these activities that give a short term endorphin rush. How you treat that rush is the important thing as it is all too easy to follow the rush into addiction. The patterns can be all too consuming. The rush or thrill is often followed by guilt and/or self-loathing. The vicious cycles can be broken and there is always help if you ask for it.
I feel we should should all strive for a balanced life. One of contentment where choices are made based on the hope of a positive outcome, not one where the choice will lead to that same old place….regret.
The outro of Walkaway is probably my favorite part. I am happy how the layered vocals turned out. There are two parts that i have sung in a solo capacity for so long, and to hear them layered up was a treat. The harmonies are also beautiful. In your mind you are hoping that the parts will layer up, and then when they do it’s like clockwork.
Rocky Rivers added some smooth fretless bass, which upon reflection I probably would have mixed up up higher in the mix. There is also cool guitar line that sits alongside the bass that has a nice tremolo effect. Josh Morshed played drums after the track had been laid down and that is the last time I will do that. He did really well, it is just such a hard thing to do! Feeling the groove of a song after it has been laid down is a mission. I am really happy to have this song recorded after all these years. I think it sits well near the end of the album, as there is a mellow vibe on the song and a long fade.

Song 10: Ashes

Adam — Sun, 09 Aug 2009 00:10:34 +0000

booklet image

I once read a sticker when I was young that had a strong impact on me. The message was clear ‘disarm or peace will come in a flash’. It really is quite frightening to think that we as humans have the means to destroy ourselves at the push of a button. The advancement of the human race has seen some sinister twists.
We stand on Aboriginal land and so much has changed in just over two hundred years. Over ninety percent of the forests have been decimated and the land is divided up into salable lots. The indigenous people of Australia join others around the world caught in the turmoil of rapid change. We are trying to move forward together and yet so much has been lost. For a young country (from a European perspective) we have a shocking record. There are entire peoples, a generation of children, languages lost and even the Victoria Market stands on an Aboriginal burial ground. Aboriginal people now account for 1% of the population. These are people who have fought for survival and equality in their own land. We even allowed the British in the 1950’s to test nuclear bombs on Aboriginal traditional lands (around Maralinga S.A). These tests resulted in the local people being exposed to dangerous radiation, with some of the area being contaminated for and estimated quarter of a million years!
Ashes attempts to look at what it would be like to see your world turned upside down and divided up to create wealth for those who have stolen it. It is crazy to think about the massive imbalance of inherited wealth that has gone to people of a European background while Aboriginal people were only just getting the right to vote in the late 1960’s. Even the name of one of our states, Queensland hasn’t changed it’s name to accompany the official apology from our Prime minister…how about a state called Aboriginal-land? Some things change quickly and others change at a snail’s pace.
Traditional stories about the Ancestors in the starry night sky must be hard to tell in the cities, as the Milkyway seems to resemble a milky grey. For such a young country (from a European perspective) we have a shocking environmental record. We need to look at reforestation and a re-injection of organic minerals into the soil. The connection to our indigenous traditional owners and caretakers must be acknowledged and embraced. For too long the forests and arable land have been exploited. In a global sense we must look at look to the ancient wisdom and look after Mother Earth.
There is a very fine balance balance between humankind and nature. We stand poised to either destroy ourselves militarily and environmentally, or throw off all harmful practices. Organisations like the United Nations, Red Cross and Oxfam are working day and night to bring about equality and peace. There is hope for future generations and our own as we increasingly insist on leaving a legacy of positive change. We are beginning to expect those we support to represent this ethos of change and in our everyday lives. We look to those that represent us to act on our behalf, rather than just pay lip service to promises and that is important.
Ashes has some nice tribal vocals that drift over the last sections of the song. My friends and I enjoy having a tribal ‘hey yar’ as we call it, where we can explore our voices in a nonsense syllable sing/shout along. My friend Cameron Spike-Porter could feel a shuffling reggae vibe and so he added some acoustic over-dubs. For me the reggae helps the song reference the type of vibes that Bob Marley had in songs like ‘Get Up Stand Up’. A song where change is asked for from people. I was at a festival a few years ago and got to meet one of the original members of the Wailers (Bob Marley’s Backing band). In a conversation we had, I was told that Bob used to say that when you are singing you must sing as if you are in mourning, wailing and every part of your being needs to be released. Sometimes in ‘Ashes’ I feel as if my heart may break as i call for us to “bring in peace”. Recently while playing Ashes live a spoken word section has found it’s way into the song
that ties in with the themes expressed, it goes like this “Water, food, shelter, love. Family, good friend, keep you thinking of, All those who do not have enough, and we are sending it out in the hope that it does, remove some of these brutal border lines, all the fear and ignorance and greed that divides, maybe then we wouldn’t have to rely, on all the politician’s lies”.

Song 9 : Steal words

Adam — Sat, 08 Aug 2009 12:11:52 +0000

Steal Words is an optimistic song about finding what you are meant to be doing. I am at my happiest when i am doing something i love. We should all try to follow our dreams. Find what it is that makes us tick and just go for it!
So many people are doing something they hate for a living and complain that they are too scared to try something new. Why not try and repalce what you are “just doing” piece by piece with the things that you were “born to do”. A great many secret desires to be more creative are swept aside. When we are young we are told that we are great dancers, great singers, great painters and actors. Then as we grow our performances get judged more harshly, until our creative talents are often snuffed out all together. The once prolific creative soul becomes someone who “cannot dance, draw,sing in key or write a story”. Society has crushed the idea that art is ok in whatever form it takes. The individual must be allowed the freedom to express without the commentary stating “trees are green, not red”, or “your fingers are too short to be a pianist”. All the criticism can cripple the inner artist. If you are an artist say it loud and proud. The world would be alot more beautiful if there were more of us.
The fear is the problem. With talent shows pulling people up for a few out of key notes or attacking their song choices, what hope do we have for new or interesting sounds to develop? So much safe and re-hashed music saturates the airways. This is often because the taste-makers have never sung a note onstage. They are interested in what sells or what can be repackaged and sold again.
So many teachers crush creativity because their art has been stifled. It is a vicious cycle and yet there is hope. It makes people happy when they express themselves. Often the urge to create is so strong that nothing or no-one can hold it back the flowering. The knock backs just make the artist push harder and eventually they are surviving..and then thriving off their art.
Music is a great connection between people. Young, old, female, male, rich, poor- music is a global unifying force. I have made it my business to take my guitar to work now for the last few years. I run music groups for people with a disability and have seen some amazing things in the process. Music brings us out of our shell. It taps into some thing deep in the psyche. I have seen someone ‘walk like an Egyptian who could barely walk at all. I have heard people sing who barely ever speak. All this has come from sharing music together. Every day i am thankful that music is such a big part of my life.
I have struggled with confidence and technique and i am constantly trying to improve. I have learned to relax in the moment and enjoy the sound of the vibrations.
I did a few demos with an artist known as Ray Right a few years back. He rented a house by himself and had a nice studio. Along with an extensive collection of guitars and bass guitars, he had a lage number of cats. Ray survived off busking, singing and selling hard waste. He introduced me to a book called ‘The Artist’s Way’ by Julia Cameron and convinced me that living your art is a daily practice. Besides great advice Ray also gave me a great companion in my cat ‘Madam Pat The Cat’.
Steal Words has a nice build in the second chorus that lifts into a dreamy crescendo. It reminds me of the amazing feeling that i can get from playing music. when i listen back to this track the moment that springs to mind is from a day at Richmond train station (VIC) when Ray appeared. He told me that he had been standing around the corner out of sight for the last 20mins, as he did not want to interrupt me. When he told me how much he had been enjoying my music and that he wanted to record me i was thrilled! When you feel that your music has truly connected with someone, it is hard to describe the overwhelming positive feeling that it gives you. Steal Words is about just that….You can steal the words to someones song to put on your wall or a t-shirt. you can have your own ideas about what the song means to to you. You can even use it as “our song” for you and your partner……and the artist will most likely be thrilled. The spark of inspiration that made them write the song or even pick up an instrument in the first place, has warmed someone’s heart and the world is a better place for it.

Song 8 : ‘Til You’re Gone

Adam — Fri, 07 Aug 2009 13:23:22 +0000

Song 8 : ‘Til you’re gone’
This is a song of heartbreak and loss. For me the first time I played this song live was the time that the person it was written about turned up unexpectedly at a gig. Looking out through the crowd, I knew, that she knew the song was about us. I only just made it through the song and I am quite sure she left before I got off stage. It still stands as one of the most difficult songs that I have had to sing, up there with a Wake song that I wrote and performed in honor of for my grandfather. The feeling of being in a room with over sixty people and yet feeling that there were only two. When I realised she had left the gig and was gone, I knew something was gone forever.
It is quite amazing the way we can process emotions through music. One of the first groups of songs i wrote came out of a break up. I vented my hurt and my anger and created some beautiful music from it. I also wrote a song for my grandfather when he passed away, and found that even though i did not know him very well, it made me feel closer to him while documenting some of the few things that i did know.
Music is a healer and i have found this time and time again in the work that i do. I was working for a year with kids who had cancer and often it was a song sung with a puppet that would get them to come out of their shell and interact. Despite being in pain and suffering emotionally, a song could quite often bring a smile. The same results are often found when working with adults with a disability. During the past eight years working with music appreciation groups i have seen some astounding things. I have seen people who can barely walk, independently get up and ‘walk like an Egyptian’ across the floor. I have experienced very shy individuals who completely come out of their shell and sing at the top of their voices. I have also seen the sheer joy that comes from getting people together and enjoying different types of music.
Even a sad song can sometimes remind people of just how precious this life is with all it’s emotional ups and downs.
Adz

Song 7: Loneliness Don’t Pay

Adam — Wed, 05 Aug 2009 12:29:01 +0000

Loneliness Don’t Pay is a song that is about when someone knows you just about as well as you know yourself. You can try to face things alone, but if there is someone who is looking out for you it makes it all that much easier. My favorite line in the song, “put you heartbeat next to my head and you can stop me frowning now” is all about putting you head on your loved one’s chest and letting your troubles drift away.
The feel of the song is bluesy with a bit of a soul feel for the second half. The song has a bit of a bounce to it and at times only relies on a mainly two string rhythmic strumming pattern. Once Rocky Rivers added his fretless bass line the groove started to fall into place. Cameron Spike-Porter also really added the icing to the cake with some solid slide-guitar licks. What started off as a rather sparse track was buffed out to tap into the raw emotions of the song. The main riff has hints of Diesel’s ‘Right On The Tip of My Tongue’, where as I have always favored playing his song ‘Cryin’ Shame’. So the influences of my youth have come filtering into my songwriting again.
I found a nice riff that has some strange chords that I had not played before and added them as a secondary layer in the second verse. It seems to give that section a nice lift along with the backing vocals. Naomi Jones and Joanna Flemming sang together in the studio for an old-school backing vocals natural vibe. This song was a heap of fun to practice before going in to get the vocals layer up. Jo, Naomi and I would be on the soul train and getting down with some soul claps and plenty of “shoops”.

Song 6 : No Arms

Adam — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 12:46:35 +0000

The words to ‘No Arms’ came to me through a quite strange encounter. I was catching a train between Coffs Harbour and Sydney and it was the middle of the night when a new passenger joined the train. The smell of alcohol was strong on his breath and he started to mumble as he sat down in the seat right in front of me. As he went into his rant, for some reason , i took up a pen and started writing down what he was saying. Writing in the half-light i saw the strangest words appear on the page. “It’s contaminating the atmosphere, poison in the sky. So excuse me for breathing, accidents happen. Just when you thing something good in the world is going to go on, there’s no need to argue. You know i’ve got no arms”. It was a strange moment and within a minute the man had drifted off to sleep. I kept the words in my song book and waited for a melody to arrive for a few years.
In later years as i learned of Australia’s greedy sale of large quantities of uranium throughout the world and began to hear terms like ‘preemptive strike’used in the public arena, the song evolved into being about the insanity of war.
The words “no arms” to me speak about the possibility of a world without weapons and war. A Utopian vision of a peaceful world. The words “no arms” also references the waste and destruction of war in regards to amputees. You see the victims in every war-torn country, young and old they lose their limbs in the senseless violence that plagues our planet.
Us humans are a strange species. Brought up with action figures and toy guns. Coaxed into joining the army to get some discipline, a trade and see the world, we are not told about the gun that is going to be pointed at the back of your head when you don’t want to fight in the heat of a battle. Time and time again war has brought out the very worst in human nature. Mass murder, genocide, rape, torture, environmental destruction and cultural decimation all go hand in hand with war! No longer do the leaders of countries lead their troops into battle. No the puppeteers play with the lives of many in the cowardly comfort of the senate. The war is waged from afar and we the public are offered sanitised images via satellite. until we are desensitised enough to play the latest video reenactment of a conflict scenario.
The biggest losers in terms of lives lost are often everyday people. Since the invasion of Iraq in 2003 there have been over 100,000 civilian casualties! All this on the premise of Iraq possessing weapons of mass destruction. No weapons have been found and now a country is in chaos because some people think ‘war is the answer’. The oil flows from the wells and the money flows out of the country. A shallow democracy is imposed and the streets are safer. Try telling that to the people of Iraq who have lost loved ones, family and friends to the horrors of this war.
For me ‘No Arms’ stepped into it’s own when Cameron spike-Porter added the final acoustic guitar riffs. The chorus run is a bit like a riff from ‘The Police’ and the solo wind downs are so tasty. I have listened to the song alot, as Stefan Ehrenfeld and i put together a film-clip over a couple of months. This involved playing the audio over and over. It is always a pleasure to work with Stefan, as he loves the music and is always open to creative exploration.The eventual fusion of music and images i think captures the vibe of the song well. The song is meant to be hard-hitting and opinionated. It is meant to be bleak and hopeful simultaneously. I hope this song gets to as many people as possible . I also hold hope that one day the horrors of war and conflict will cease to exist…..
Adz

Track 5: Just Because

Adam — Sat, 01 Aug 2009 15:09:48 +0000

It’s just the cause

‘Just Because’ has a country feel to it because it is about this country. It is a country folk song that talks about what is happening to this land. Australia is a land of constant drought. We are often on water restrictions and the great brown land with the red rock as it’s center is a harsh one. We cling to the coastal fringes and hug her mountain ranges where the rain falls more frequently.
It is water that sustains us. We can go many weeks without food. Without water….. only a matter of days. This precious life force is not given the respect it deserves! Now with global warming being recognised as a real phenomenon the panic is setting in. What happens if all the water drys up? How did it all come about? Cars, factories, land clearing and big houses are all big contributors. Can we adapt to a changing environment and take on alternative energy en masse to avert disaster? People have been warning us for years about our finite resources including water, oil and arable land. Will it be a case of the scientists saying “i told you so”, or will we change our destiny.

The song was pretty matter of fact in it’s arrival in my song book. It came to me in two sittings. I wrote the verses and chorus in the first session and then came back to the song after a few days and wrote the bridge. It is probably one of the easiest songs that i have ever written and yet speaks of some of the most pressing concerns facing humankind.
Naomi Jones and Joanna Flemming do a beautiful job on the harmonies through the bridge section of ‘Just Because’. The ‘oooohs’ to me seem really powerful and add a nice lift to this section of the song. Naomi and i met through Jo’s band (The Joelenes). The Joelenes are a groovin’ country band with hints of folk, funk and all out twang! They are always inviting friends up on stage to jam out and that is where Naomi, Jo and i first shared some music. Both talented singers and instrumentalists, it was amazing for them to help me out for free on the backing vocals. There was some real magic during the practice sessions , as we experimented with the melodies to reach the eventual harmony lines. I also invited a good friend and talented songwriter Jim Green to do harmonies on the song originally. Unfortunately Jim had a cold on the day and we didn’t end up using any of the vocals that he laid down. Jim has had a big influence on my songwriting and we have sat down quite a few times over the years and swapped new song ideas that we have been working on. Jim’s debut album ‘ Come Aboard’ is a classic and had daily high rotation in my CD player for three months when it was first released.

Another part of this song that i love is Liz Frencham’s double bass. Liz is busting out solos and solid as a rock on the groove. Liz is quite busy at times with her band ‘Dev’lish Mary’, who have a country blue grass thing going on , so again it was easy for her to tap into vibe of ‘Just Because’.
I was talking to someone the other day about the song, and it was suggested that The Greens would possibly be interested in a song like ‘Just Because’. I had a chuckle, but then again, i have done a Greens benefit gig and Bob Brown auctioned off one of my paintings once in strange circumstances….so at least we have a history…if they were to come knocking. If ‘Just Because’ was to influence, someone, anyone to think about the environment and alter their actions even slightly to bring about positive change, then my work is done. The last line of the song states “It’s just the cause”. The environment is the most ‘just’ cause that i know of. We must respect the environment…because we only get have one earth to live on. Just one.
Adz