Richmond Fontaine’s latest slice of brilliance, the dark and macabre short stories of The Fitzgerald, is the sort of release that inspires devotion in the converted, makes the likes of Uncut sit up and take a lot of notice, and has resulted in the band touring Australia for the first time as very special guests of Bluebottle Kiss.

At times, The Fitzgerald is one of the darkest alt.country albums heard for quite some time. Filled with characters and cast on an observation tone, vocalist Willy Vlautin writes in a classic Americana way – in many ways, The Fitzgerald is like a Raymond Carver novel put to music.

“Oh, hey, that’s like the greatest compliment!” Willy exclaims. “Raymond Carver is a huge hero of mine. He can from the Northwest where I live right now, and I discovered Carver through the Australian songwriter Paul Kelly. I became a fan of his because my brother came across a record called Gosford, and then he put out that record So Much Water So Close to Home, and there was a song on there called “Everything’s Turning to White” which was basically a rendition of Carver’s story, and I’d never even heard of Raymond Carver before that. I went down to a store and bought a Carver collection of stories, and I started writing stories myself a week after that. I’d never thought of myself as a story writer at all, and Carver inspired me so much. That was fifteen years ago I guess.”

Now in love with both writing songs and stories, in his teens Willy focussed solely on writing songs, but from 21, 22 years old he’s split his time between the two idioms. “So I’m influenced equally by both. Musically I’m obviously influenced by other bands I listen to, but as far as the lyrics within the songs a lot of that is inspired by novels I’ve read and writers I admire.”

Right now, Willy is in the process of piecing together a follow up for The Fitzgerald, a record that he expects to split the difference between being observation and more personal. “I’m trying to write this record about the western US, a record of drifters, so it is more observational.”

That hints at the influence of Jack Kerouac, and On the Road. “I’m trying to talk about the west from the viewpoint of drifters,” he asserts. “It’s hard to talk about a record I haven’t made yet. But a lot of the lyrics are about drifting from yourself – as you get older you move away from who you are and who you thought you would be, and sometimes it seems to be easier to hide away rather than keep trying.”

Again, it sounds much as if the next Richmond Fontaine release will captivate with the dark material that marks The Fitzgerald, rather than the brighter touches of Post to Wire. “When we were doing Post to Wire,” Willy explains, “I was trying so hard to write a record that would help the band out – a more catchy record, I guess, and I was really worried that we needed a record to do well. Post to Wire is the one that broke us through in Europe, and when that record started to do real well I’d been wanting to write all these folk songs and these darker songs that ended up on The Fitzgerald.”

Willy admits that the circumstances of life are what inspires his writing – it’s the situations that scare him or trouble him, and the hope you’ll figure it out or at least attempt to discover something different in it. A lot of times it’s a case of looking at the things that scare you and the more you look at them the less scary they are. “I tend to do that a lot,” he says. “I always figure if I at least admit them or approach them then maybe I’ll figure something out about myself. But who knows.”

The Fitzgerald feels like a record that’s been written as Willy has been sitting in the hotel from which takes its name in his home town of Reno, Nevada. “I go to the Fitzgerald because it’s where I grew up, in Reno, Nevada. My mum lives in the city, but I always stay at the hotel because she goes to bed at 8 and she hates if you leave because she’s worn out. Me and my brother made her live through hell.”

He sits there, gazing out the window, watching people go by, observing the streets below. It marks a great change from predecessor Post to Wire, a catchier and less demanding release that, whilst satisfying, is lacking the magic that so captivates on The Fitzgerald.

Willy believes that he uses music like other people wear clothes – he dresses up his lyrics in different music all the time, changing and moulding and piecing them together until everything fits just so. “A lot of it was that I wanted to capture a certain feel of myself and also of the city and the people in it, and capture a certain world.”

It’s certainly resulted in The Fitzgerald being a conceptual record, with reoccurring themes. “I like that a lot more than twelve pop songs,” Willy agrees.

Willy is hoping to have the follow-up’s recording completed by time the band hit Australia. “If we’re done then that means it went well,” he confirms. “If we’re still working on it by the time we get to Australia then that means we weren’t happy with it. The record won’t come out for six, seven months after that. I’m hoping to have it done; I think we have the songs.”

Richmond Fontaine’s The Fitzgerald is out now. Dates:
Friday 17 February - Karova Lounge, Ballarat, VIC
Saturday 18 February - Northcote Social Club, Melbourne, VIC
Sunday 19 February - INSTORE: Readings Bookstore, Melbourne, VIC
Wednesday 22 February - The Oxford Tavern, Wollongong, NSW
Thursday 23 February - ANU Bar, Canberra, ACT
Friday 24 February - Annandale Hotel, Sydney, NSW
Saturday 25 February - INSTORE: Pony Records, NSW
Saturday 25 February - Northern Star Hotel, Newcastle, NSW
Tuesday 28 February - Hopetoun Hotel, Sydney, NSW
Thursday 2 March - The Great Northern Hotel, Byron Bay, NSW
Friday 3 March - The Chophouse, Surfers Paradise, QLD
Sat 4 March - INSTORE: Skinnys Music, Brisbane, QLD
Saturday 4 March - The Zoo, Brisbane, QLD