The document provides an interview transcript where Kav Temperley of the Australian band Eskimo Joe discusses their new album Wastelands, their upcoming tour of smaller and more intimate venues including rural areas, and how they have maintained their band after many years together through open communication and prioritizing their friendship. Key points include that the new album has a different, more upbeat and danceable sound compared to their past work, they wanted to get back to feeling like a band rather than celebrities, and that staying friends through openly addressing problems is crucial to their longevity.

1. Only justlandingis Eskimo Joe’s sixth album,Wastelands, a resultof a very successful Pozible crowd-funded
campaign.An upbeat, groovy set of sounds that one can justdancetoo, Eskimo Joe has reached into the creative
pools and pulled out a uniquenew sound that’s sureto win the hearts of fans,new and old alike.
Alongsidethe releaseof their new record, Eskimo Joe is set to perform around Australia atnew and unique
locations,hittingthe country settings and reachingout to their rural fans.I talk to Kav Temperley about their new
record, upcoming tour and how to keep together as a band.
Given that you’re all from Western Australia, would you say that’s your favorite place to perform in Australia or
is there somewhere else?
Um I don’t know, It kind of changes all thetime. It’s always a great showin Perth. One of the things that is really
tough about Perth is that it’s really a doubleedged sword, in that you know a lot of people from the audienceand
if your mum’s there it’s kind of hard to get your sex on onstage or whatever, because you’re like'Hi Mum'. You
know? You can’t get into character the same way you would elsewhere. You see the faces of people you went to
primary school with,so there’s this overwhelming feelingof everyone being in the crowd and givingtheir support,
but sometimes it’s nice to be in a big city likeSydney or Melbourne and feel a bit more likean anonymity and be
ableto step out on stage as the band. We always haveamazingshows in Brisbaneas well,so itchanges all the time
and some nights it’s amazingand others you’re strugglingthrough it; it changes all the time. Sometimes you’re in a
crazy,far off placeand you go to these places thatare touristtowns and there’s this energy in the air and it’s just
crazy and wacky. You’ll have an amazingshow even if you only have half of the bells and whistles you usually
would. It justchanges all the time, but Perth is definitely a great gig.
You mentioned a certain energy, which tour would you say has been the most eventful or adventurous tour in
your career to date?
Again, it’s likeitall kinds comes to different reasons.When we were doing the Black Fingernails... touringand the
song was being smashed on the radio,we had some pretty amazingshows through that time becausewe were
playingthese fantastically hugevenues and it was happeningso fast and was perhaps quite overwhelming and
hard to really takein.We kind of look back atit and think, 'Wow that was really full on'.Then, there’s some of the
most eventful were when we were travellingthrough Europe on these six week tours and we’re playingto three
hundred people a night in Germany. You’re back on these tiny littlestages and these people rightthere and that’s
quite an amazingthing as well.But then again you do that and you get pretty exhausted and you justwant a nice
hotel room and all the rest of it. But you always romanticizeaboutwhat you don’t have I guess.
Would you say that's one of the reasons your current tour is in smaller, more intimate locations? Trying to get
back to that feeling?
Well some of them, the city shows are kind of pretty much what they've always been, bigshows. We’re really
trying to make a big effort to get out into the regional areas and play shows outthere and to do that, I think in a
way, that’s good and fun for everybody. You need to do itin smaller venues, otherwise you’re justtakinga massive
bigtent and it’s justa full on affair.So we are kind of happy to go in and play to smaller venues and what we did,in
around about 2008 I think, was we justramped up the city shows and did these huge venues and basically got
everyone from the country to come in.
We were doingabout four shows a year. We would play four bigshows and itwas actually pretty boringand that’s
not really whatbeing in a band is all about,becauseyou want to get out there and you want to play shows.So we
decided what we would do is,is do slightly smaller venues but more shows at each venue and get out to the

2. regional areas and in Western Australia in where we’ve been trying to push that. Ittakes a whilebecause, like
anywhere, you know audiences arequite loyal and if you put energy into them and you keep coming back again;
they come back and see you more and more. So likeI said,we had years of doing those bigshows and I think we
losta bit of the country crowd and you can see itwhen you play the Big Day Out’s, becausethat’s where those
shows are, out in the country. They’re the people who come in and see you. I guess you could say its grassroots
touring but we’re justreally awarenow to justput a lot of energy out to those areas and play really consistently.
So the smaller shows give you a sense of being a band and not just another celebrity?
Yeah, it’s justfun because you want to play shows.Doinga big spectacular showwith biglights and everything is
awesome but again you do that one show and then that’s it. It works for bands that are touring all over the world
but when you’re touring Australia itgets kind of boring.
With your new record, it has a different sound to it especially in comparison to Black Fingernails Red Wine.
Would you say that was an intimidating step to take give, that Black Fingernails was such a big hit. How did you
guys approach that, was it more of what you were saying with getting back to being a band and doing what you
guys wanted or was it just experimental?
Probably all of the above. I mean, I guess with Black Fingernails... we kind of experimented with that album.The
funny thing is,when you have a big hitthat kind of quantifies you as a band, likethat’s who you are. Up until that
point, if you listen to our albums goingup to Black Fingernails..., likeour firstalbum, Girl was very kind of like... we
were listeningto Blur and Granddaddy and a lot of these very indiebands and Supergrass.Then there’s A Song is a
City where I was listeningto a lot of Neil Young and David Bowie’s Hunky Dory. Wilco was a really biginfluence
then and you can kind of hear its influences there. Goinginto Black Fingernails..., I was still writingthe same songs
but we kind of wanted to dress them up a littlebitdifferently and have a bit of fun with it, so we kind of justdrew
on a lot of those influences likethe Eurhythmics and INXS. We started to kind of put this idea together of what we
would be likeif we were a stadiumband. We kind of justpretended to be that and everyone juststarted treating
us likethat. Then the two albums after that, which I’m still really proud of the songs,this kind of weird thing
happened were you start to become the band that people expect you to be.
I don’t disliketherecords we made, but I feel likewe losta sense of adventure through those, likewe became a bit
safe. I was at the point with the lastalbumwhere I justreally wasn’tenjoyingthe industry as a whole, just
everything from doing the gigs to sittingdown in a room and justgoingthrough the whole thing. I can only say for
myself, but I really needed to mix things up and do something that was going to surpriseme and make me want to
do something that was interestingand fun and make a record that I could show my friends and they’d be like,
‘that’s cool'.That’s justwhat itneeds to be about - the creative competitiveness. I felt likewe were on cruise
control a littlebit. It was about havinga bit of danger and a bitadventure whilestill justtryingto write the best
music that we can write and that’s where we came out. When we started the record,when we got into the studio,
everyone knew that’s what we needed to do creatively as a bunch of people to move to that next placetogether.
Everyone had very different ideas of what the new sound was goingto be so that why we decided to bringin a
producer, Burke Reid, who we've known for years, but he’s really leftof center and he’s great and has a reputation
for cominginto people’s bands and changingstuff in a really positiveway.So we got him to come in because there
was no way that the three of us were going to agree on what type of record we wanted to make.
So with his help, we all arrived atthis new placetogether and what we did was basically decidethatinstead of
sittingdown a guitar and piano and knockingout the chords until they were perfect and then buildinga song

3. around that, we decided that we’d justhave this really awesome bass and drumgroove that would make you want
to dance- that’s not something we've done before. Not electronic,but justa wicked groove, and then put the
vocals over the top. I had this old keyboard called a Jupiter 4, which I’d bought off of this crazy old cowboy; I’m not
terribly amazingwith keyboards and neither is anyoneelse in the band, so anythingwe did on itwe were so
surprised and amazed with ourselves,like'Wow that sounds amazing!',and we’d be like,'Quick record it!' - that’s
how the albumcame together.
We knew the vocals were a bit more subtle and all therest of it. We kind of got this great drum and bass groove
happeningwith the vocals over the top and put these keyboards and every time we tried to put a guitar in we
were like, 'Eh this sounds silly'.Wejustkept goingand ended up with this record; we had no plans to make this
kind of record, we justknew we wanted to make something that was fun and made us all smilein a good way. I
kind of really wanted to make a record that wasn’t so emotionally tappingas well but what ended up happening
was,I think I kind of ended up writing my most confrontingand emotional lyricsfor a coupleof albums,perhaps
sinceBlack Fingernails.... The funny thing is,we put it to this kind of upbeat dance LSD sound,so it’s like,'I’m so
sad but I justwant to dance', and I think that’s the best description of the new sound.
I guess it would be safe to say you've almost returned to your roots whilst still producing a raw sound?
I think it is,but I think we justthrew out everything and didn'treally try to think of itin terms of 'Okay, we've got
to write a singlethat’s going to work on this radio station',or anythinglikethat. We were justlike, 'Let’s do
something that’s really fun and cool and if we think it’s awesome, then hopefully other people will too'.So I think it
was,in a lot of ways,the most dangerous album.
With giving up the producing side of things, was that something that was difficult for you guys? Is it hard to give
up that bit of control?
Yup, pretty much. All of us in the band are horrendous control freaks.We did have a meeting beforehand and I
think I was the firstone to say itto the guys, as we were trying to come up with the new sound,'Dudes we need to
actually geta producer in this round' and they were all like,'No, no we can do it'. The next day I think Joel came in
and was like,'Yeah, I agree with you, let’s to do this',then we had this bigsitaround in a circle,going'Okay if we’re
going to do this,we have to agree to be the band, to situp the back and justbe the band.We can’t be the
producers,we justhave to followthe lead of the guy who we’re getting in to do this'.Everyone was like,'Yup, I
agree'. We made that decision beforeand to everyone’s credit, they justlet it happen.
So you said that you’re all horrendous control freaks and you've known each other for quite a while and of
course business endeavors with friends can be quite stressful at times, if you’re all control freaks how do you
guy’s cope with spending so much time together, going on tour, making big decisions – has there been any
challenges in your friendship?
Oh god of course there has!Every day is a challenge.You become more likethis family,marriage,brotherhood
thing where you know what each other’s triggers are and where not to step. Inevitably spendingthat much time in
one another’s pockets... you get the shits with each other. The same things that made us fight when we were like
18-19 years old are the same things we fight about now - we’re justkind of more adultabout it. I won’t go into any
nitty-gritty, but we’re pretty much full grown men now. We checked into a hotel the other day and I was like,'Stu’s
getting the singleroom' and he’s like,'I think we should check to see who’s name is on the room' and Joel’s like,
'Dude your name's going to be on the room becauseevery singletime we've done promo the lastthree months
you've got the singleroom'. He’s like,'That’s not true!' and we’re like,'Yes it is Stu!', and the people atthe counter

4. are lookingatus like'Ooookay'. So it’s the same argument we've been havingsincewe were 19 years old!It’s just
that we pretend that we’re a lotmore mature and adultabout it. It comes down to that age old thing of
communication,where if there are things goingon and you’re feelinghurt or whatever about stuff, if you
communicate right away then it makes ita loteasier.If you don’t nip itin the bud, itturns into a monster and you
end up havingthese big interventions and we’ve had many of them.
I think that’s the hardestthing; if you ask any band, what’s the secret to longevity, it’s remainingfriends and
getting over your problems on a regular basis,likeanything.
On an extension of that, would you say that communication is the biggest key to a successful band?
Yeah, well writingreally good songs helps.I think despite the obvious,I think the most important thing is if you can
stay communicatingand stay friends and actually havea beer outside of work, then I think you’ve got every the
chancein the world of stayingtogether for a longperiod of time. Also,enjoying one another’s company, because
no one wants to be stuck on a leaky boat where everyone hates each other.