| Cameron: |
All the members of The Dearhunters played on the Lounge of Sound album,
when and why did you make the decision to start playing as The Dearhunters? |
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| Jodi: |
Well, a friend of ours, Kirsty used to book the Sandringham hotel and she
offered me a residency and suggested getting Tim, Raph and Greg along to play whatever we
wanted. Because we'd all played together before, we had all the Lounge-O-Sound songs and
we got together the guys' songs as well. It worked so well that we kind of kept going.
Then we felt that it was something different so we gave it a new name. |
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| Cameron: |
In the Dearhunters, Tim Oxley, shares much of the singing and songwriting.
Is that something that makes you feel more comfortable in a band by deflecting some of the
attention and responsibility? Do you and Tim write together as well as individually? |
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| Jodi: |
It's certainly a joy to play together and we have a definite bond with our
voices so it's become more focused as a band than we thought it would. We're all
supportive of any other musical pursuits though. Tim's going to do a solo album. I
will too later on. Greg is in a band with Brad Shepperd called The Monarchs and Raph
is in Stella One Eleven. Tim and I write separately. |
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| Cameron: |
Your debut release is going to be Ivy, on a split 7" with Melbourne's
The Hired Guns. Do you still listen to a lot of music on vinyl? |
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| Jodi: |
I listen to a lot of vinyl mainly because you can find such great old
music and it's so cheap. |
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| Cameron: |
Ivy is also the name of your daughter and, from the lyrics, I gather it
was written when she was only 6 weeks old. Is that right ? Did having Ivy
change your perspective on the world in any way? |
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| Jodi: |
Yes, she was 6 weeks old when I wrote it and she has changed my world.
The lyrics say it all really. |
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| Cameron: |
Some of the lyrics of Ivy are "Oh my god now I have everything that I
ever wanted here's the list I have ticked them all". Do you think happiness and
contentment are as likely to inspire emotional songs as sadness and melancholy? |
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| Jodi: |
Definitely. I think anything can inspire a song. |
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| Cameron: |
Having played in a relatively successful "rock" band through the
early and mid 90's, how do you find the infancy of The Dearhunters as a recording and
touring band ? Is it hard to find the energy to resume touring or are you excited by
the prospect of bringing your "new" music to old (and new) audiences ? |
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| Jodi: |
It's a lot of hard work starting something new. We were lucky to be
able to record right in the beginning because Cameron [McCauley] is a friend of ours and
we really started recording as an experiment. Cameron wanted to try out his computer
gear and we had a bunch of songs but actually getting it finished with no money and then
trying to get it released has been an arduous task and has taken a year. It's still
not out. We've played a lot of funny (some ha-ha, some not) gigs but people seem to like
it. We just love to play. There is a lot more organizing involved though when
you have a child. |
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| Cameron: |
One last (and maybe stupid) question. Ivy brought back memories of
the TV show Twin Peaks. If The Dearhunters were a character in Twin Peaks, who do you
think they would be and why? |
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| Jodi: |
I don't remember all the characters enough to answer that but I love David
Lynch's scary, beautiful worlds and if you remember that scene where Julie Cruise and the
band are playing in that evil pub, well that could be us. |
