If you like your blues with a bit of funk & plenty of soul then look no further than Brisbane-based 5-piece Blues Arcadia who have been riding high in the Australian Blues & Roots Airplay Charts for the last few weeks before finally hitting the #1 spot with their wonderful debut album ‘Carnival of Fools’. It contains a varied collection of genres & styles, with each song sending your emotions on a string of different tangents from upbeat numbers like ‘Seven Days a Week’ & ‘Bad Boogaloo’ to the stunning slower tracks like ‘Remedy’ & ‘Good Thing’ with two constant factors to pulling this altogether – the first is the diversity created by the immensely talented group of artists in Blues Arcadia; Chris Harvey (guitar), Jeremy Klysz (bass), Parmis Rose (keys), Casper Hall (drums) & the second is the fantastic vocals of Alan Boyle. Here at The Rockpit, we had a feeling we’d listened to something a bit special and this was soon confirmed by its rising chart position and glowing reviews. The band is currently on the road touring through Queensland, New South Wales & Victoria to showcase their hard work (see dates below). We managed to chat to Al shortly after the album was released and at the time of our chat, the band still weren’t sure just how ‘Carnival of Fools’ would be received…
Sean: Hey Al, how are you?
Al: Good thanks Sean.
Sean: I’ve got to start by saying what a wonderful album ‘Carnival of Fools’ is. I’ve had it on countless times and it just gets better every play.
Al: Thank you. Glad you like it.
Sean: It’s got everything – a bit of funk & soul, some Motown in there and plenty of blues…it ticks every box and more. After a long hard day at work it’s one of those albums that takes the edge off the stresses and strains of everyday life.
Al: That’s pretty high praise so I’ll gladly take that, thank you. It’s so validating to hear stuff like that, particularly when it’s taken so long making the album. I think it’s pretty representative of where we are coming from as well I think. We actually received the discs only the other day so I only got to spin it for the first time yesterday – when you’re listening to mixes & masters it’s just not the same. So, we had a break of about four or five weeks before we all got to hear the final CD and it’s pretty amazing for us.
Sean: Not being a musician myself, I can only imagine the feeling of finally holding something in your hands that you’ve all worked so hard to create… It must be such a proud moment.
Al: Funny you should say that because I caught up with a friend earlier today and she’d just had a baby. The baby was just six days old and she asked if I wanted to hold it – I can tell you the feelings aren’t that dissimilar if you know what I mean, apart from the fact the baby is worth so much more and will take a lot more time & money [laughs]. It’s not a hard luck story for us but we did have a lot of things happening to make it difficult to get the album out so when I got home to find sixteen boxes sitting in my doorway [laughs]… I had to get my daughter to give me a hand to carry them to the garage. So, yes I’m very, very proud of what we’ve achieved so far. Without being egotistical… and it is a bit of an ego trip anyway, the whole thing about recording & making music for yourself and for others to listen to is a big fuckin’ ego trip regardless.
Sean: You touched on the difficulties you had during the writing and recording of ‘Carnival of Fools’, which makes the final results even more rewarding… the phrase I heard was ‘band implosion’. I don’t want you to feel you need to go into detail because it’s more about the celebration of what came out of it all at the end but what
Al: It’s kind of the first time we’ve spoken about this. We had a bit of a revolving door for a while and we were working with someone who was incredibly talented but just wasn’t the right fit for what we were trying to do. Being in a band is also more than just making music – it’s kind of like being married in a way. So we had a situation where we couldn’t continue and we ended up hitting a wall, which pretty much wiped the band out. One person said they were leaving because of another person until it finally turned into a shit fight so-to-speak. It’s interesting because we’d stalled with writing too at the time – Harv & I had been writing pretty consistently up until that point – I just finished Uni and started a job at the Commonwealth Games and was completely out of my depth and when it was over I had a kind of PTSD moment and just stayed in bed for three weeks. Then all this stuff with the band started happening – we’d been on hiatus while I’d been working – and it just felt like my world was just imploding. All the momentum that we’d gotten over the past year by playing shows and hearing people’s excitement about what they were seeing & hearing… we have this dynamic energy on stage but it felt like part of that energy was the possibility of watching a car crash – you just didn’t know if it was going to come off the rails a little bit and there was a bit of danger there – I don’t think it was a conscious thing either, it was just the culmination of all five of us on stage. It was exhilarating & dangerous and there’s not a lot of that around anymore.
Sean: That edge of your seat performance…
Al: Exactly, especially when it’s a bunch of white people playing the blues. So, for all that to come apart it took a real look time for us all to come to a point where we could start the machine again. In that period it felt like we had lost so much momentum… that’s what it felt like anyway. Sometimes you look back at something like that and feel it just had to happen but other times you think ‘fuck we wasted a whole year there’ [laughs]
Sean: But do you feel those trying times actually improved what you were trying to achieve with the album? In a way it must have given you a sense of regrouping and refocusing?
Al: Oh, absolutely. There’s a sense of perspective that definitely wasn’t there before. We were taking a lot of the music for granted & also taking the fact we had something special going on for granted maybe as well or just getting too used to that. It’s good to be reminded of the fragility of human relationships & creative endeavours and all that sort of stuff. So yes I would say it’s definitely been for the greater good.
Sean: Well it certainly will be an album that will be revisited frequently in my collection. I remember I had a stressful couple of days going on, so I played the title track ‘Carnival of Fools’, ‘Liars & Thieves’ and ‘Good Thing’ and I have to say, listening to them turned right up in the car….wow, the emotions in the music & vocals is just incredible. The power of music right there – it took the edge off it all.
Al: That’s great to hear Sean. It’s so humbling to hear that. Thank you so very much.
Sean: It needs to be said because we are blessed with some incredible artists here in Australia and there is some fantastic music being recorded & released. So you have a tour to support the album coming up end of March & the first few weeks of April up & down the east coast.
Al: Yeah, sadly no shows in the west as yet but it’s something we’d love to do. We just need to be asked or invited to a festival of two over there.
Sean: You touched on that edge of your seat feel just now and I can’t wait to catch you guys live because even just hearing this album on CD you can feel these songs are going to create so much energy when played live.
Al: We always try to play the songs slightly differently every time – I mean the form is always the same, unless Harv decides to go on a mad tangent [laughs]. The songs are like these slippery eel type things [laughs]… you just try to stay on top of it and hope nothing goes wrong [laughs].
Sean: Looking back you had previously released an EP as well, which I haven’t managed to listen to yet…
Al: Yes, our first one, which was self-titled, was out around 2015 or 2016.
Sean: I’ll get onto it.
Al: Our next plan is maybe to do a live album and revisit the earlier stuff because we still play a lot of those tracks. Our goal has always been to be a completely originals band so now we are at the point where we have about an hour and a half of original material… all killer no filler sort of thing.
Sean: I always like to ask band based in different parts of Australia about the live scene in their neck of the woods, so with that in mind, what’s Brisbane like for live music?
Al: It’s hard to say but I think it’s comparatively healthy with places like Sydney. There are a couple of really good venues – the first that I always name drop is The Royal Mail at Goodna, which is a little bit out of Brisbane on the way to Ipswich. They won an award from the Blues Foundation in Memphis Tennessee. So they have been recognised for putting on great music every night of the week and two or three bands a day at the weekends. I think the biggest problems that everyone seems to be facing today is an ever aging audience and also in a lot of areas the live scene is contracting or changing with the next generation pushing through and the blues is still not seen to be cool… it was never meant to be cool. The good thing is if you connect with people and they kind of really excited over what you’re trying to achieve then they will work hard to make the effort to get to a gig. At the end of the day there is nothing like a live gig – it was always the fuckin’ point and the record was to remind you of the live gig and the tee-shirt was to tell people you went to that live gig. I’m not sure that exists anymore but I think the scene is relatively healthy but we don’t play a lot of gigs in Brisbane – we playing more festivals and hitting Sydney & Melbourne for the first time on this up & coming tour.
Sean: Well I’ll try catch up with you after the tour to see how it all went.
Al: Definitely.
Sean: Shooting back to the album for a second but something that just came to me… there is a track on the album – and apologies if this offends but it’s in no way meant too – but I got a Jamiroquai vibe from one of the tracks…
Al: Now that’s funny because my wife said exactly the same thing. Is that the track ‘Two Wrongs Don’t Make a Right’?
Sean: It was indeed. And that what’s so wonderful about this album – variation. There is definitely no way you can be pigeon-holed.
Al: I mean that could have bitten us on the arse to be honest and we are going to keep a running tally of people who say or feel that way about the album and people that say ‘fuck that’s not the blues, this is bullshit’.
Sean: I think the variation and diversity throughout this is wonderful – I don’t want to hear an album that has 12 tracks the same – I want to listen knowing that after the slow one is the funky one then the emotional blues track and the upbeat song… We’ve all taken someone to a gig in our lives who doesn’t want to go to see that certain artist because it’s not ‘their thing’. But if that artist plays one song that my plus one goes ‘wow, that was cool’ then that artist has done their job in my books.
Al: That’s great – I’m going to be reporting this back to Harv because you’re kind of touching a lot on a lot of the things we were worried about and I’m sure we’ll be fighting that stuff out with other people but it’s good to hear it from someone who isn’t in the band [laughs].
Sean: So, if you could pick your top three influences on you as a vocalist & artist who would they be?
Al: Phil Lynott would be my first choice, Elmore James was someone who kind of got me at the right time as well and because I’ve had a couple of beers now I’d probably say ABBA [laughs]…or Wham. But it’s all about the form right – if you can figure out the form then you can do whatever you want with it.
Sean: I hear what you’re saying because you can’t write songs that are recognised all around the world regardless of the genre, if you haven’t got that special something.
Al: Exactly right and I’m so glad you got where I was coming from there [laughs].
Sean: So, if you could invite three dinner guest from the music world, dead or alive, who would you choose? Al least it can’t be ABBA because there’s four of them [laughs]
Al: Oh Sam Cooke for sure, hmmm… dead or alive…
Sean: Not the band Dead or Alive? [laughs]
Al: [laughs] no not them. I’d say Eta James and also Phil Lynott because I get the feeling me & Phil would get pretty messy afterwards [laughs]
Sean: [laughs] I hear you! What was the last album you listened to?
Al: I listened to an Australian artist called Mollrat. She’s just put out her new EP but she’s been around on Triple J for a while. It’s kind of like slacker-pop but it’s also very clever. It’s very now and very cool. There are a lot of reasons to hate contemporary music but she is definitely not one of them.
Sean: I’ll check her out. Finally, any song ever written and you can claim it as your own – which somg would you like to be credited for writing?
Al: It’s a Kris Kristofferson song called ‘Casey’s Last Ride’, its fuckin’ amazing man. The whole album is incredible – it’s off one of his ‘best of’ albums and it is all just dripping in greatness.
Sean: I shall add it to my playlist. Alan, thank you so much for your time and we wish you and the rest of Blues Arcadia all the best for the album and tour and hope to see you over in WA sometime in 2019.
Al: Thank you Sean, it’s been a real pleasure. You’ve been one of our first interviews & to have such positive feedback is just wonderful, so thank you so very much for your support. Thanks mate.
Tour Dates
Fri 29 March 8pm
The Vanguard, 42 King St, Newtown NSW
Special Guests: Simon Kinny-Lewis Band
Sat 30 March 8pm
Club Windang, 2-6 Judbooley Parade, Windang NSW
Sun 31 March 8pm
The Brass Monkey, 115A Cronulla St, Cronulla NSW
Thurs 4 April 7pm
No. 5 Church Street, 5 Church Street, Bellingen, NSW
Fri 5 April 8pm
The Stag and Hunter, Mayfield, NSW
Sat 6 April 8pm
Basement @ Port Macquarie Panthers, 1 Bay St, Port Macquarie NSW
Thurs 11 April 8pm
Hume Blues Club, 19 Harding St, Coburg VIC
Fri 12 April 8pm
The Fyrefly, 34 Inkerman St, St Kilda VIC
Special Guest: Mike Elrington
Sat 13 April 1pm
The Workers Club, 51 Brunswick St, Fitzroy
Special Guest: Charlie Bedford
Sun 20 Oct Time TBA
Wingham Akoostik Festival, 1292 Gloucester Road, Wingham NSW
