Andy Bull is in every sense charming: his music, manner, on-stage banter, presence on social media, and his views in general. He recently played the spectacular Laneway Festival, and some of us were lucky enough to catch him amongst the big names on the bill. Jen Taylor catches up with Andy on his current tour.
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You speak very fondly of the whole ‘Laneway’ experience.
It’s funny because I don’t normally hang out for festivals but I’ve always enjoyed Laneways. Being on a festival that you like is obviously pretty amazing, but being on that particular line-up, and with the shows themselves just being really good all-around was a dream, like a career highlight I guess.
Andy has released two albums and two EPs in his career and has become an important part of the Australian music scene. He takes his work seriously, and has interesting views on the difficulties of writing music.
It feels like problem-solving a lot of the time. It’s like almost being able to speak – some songs just never get there. Others feel like you really said what you wanted to say.
It’s such a mystery why some things unlock a response from you and others don’t. When you write a song you’re using all these bits of vernacular – words, chords, music, rhythms, and they communicate something that’s non-verbal… or super verbal; like you’re feeling something as an actual physical, intellectual and emotional experience that’s hard to describe because it doesn’t really exist in a logical way.
That’s when you feel really moved by music. It speaks to you, which is what you’re trying to do when you write music – communicate things you’re not able to in regular speech.
A song Andy particularly succeeded in is ‘Baby I Am Nobody Now’. It uses a perfect mix of sparseness and driving keyboards and vocals to convey strong emotion to listeners. It’s also one that particularly stands out in his live set, and even he believes it’s one of his strongest.
I’d written a verse and part of an intro but I couldn’t get to what I wanted to say. I tried different arrangements, thinking that maybe if I used different instrumentation it would satisfy me.
But then I got burnt out and got the flu and when I came out of feeling feverish I had this idea to just go to a different chord after one of the verses. That became the beginning of the chorus and the song suddenly made sense. I finished it all in an evening!
I’ve never done anything quite like that before, I got really excited and I was dancing around the studio. It was a bit of a journey, but I really like when people say they like that song.
To me that song – the extended version – is the heart of the record, the very core of it, that’s the one.
Andy was last here in September, and it begs the question of what we can expect might be different this time around. If his recent Laneway show is anything to go by, it will be a very alive set, differing slightly from his more stripped back gig at Transit Bar late last year.
It’s going to be a really live show with all live instruments and we’ve arranged the songs to take them places they don’t go on the record. It’s a really fun show to play so I think it’ll be fun to watch.
We’re going to have a bass player so I’m looking forward to playing ‘Talk Too Much’. That’ll be a new one for me; I can’t remember the last time I played with a live bass player – probably not for about eight years.
This is the second tour of Andy’s album ‘Sea of Approval’ released last year. It is obvious to wonder whether his next move will be another album, and if so, would it be another solo work, or would he look at doing collaborations again?
I can’t promise anything but I would really like to write with a view to the tour that would follow. I think playing live has brought a lot of cool ideas – like extending sections and adding instrumental parts and I want to bring that to the next record. I wouldn’t mind working with some other musicians again.
I’d produce it myself but I don’t I want to spend quite so much time alone if I can manage it. It’s slow working that way and I want to get more momentum and get things done faster.
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Andy has a way of really making his music come alive onstage. His songs are well written and he plays with some very good musicians. His rescheduled gig at ANU Bar on Friday 12 June will be well worth attending.
Click here for tickets and more information.
