“No, I don’t feel that it’s a soul record,” he states in relation to the LP’s many soul elements. “I feel that it’s a record with a lot of songs that lend themselves to soul, that we could have done in an outright soul way, but we kind of held back and kept it a little more simple than that and a little more primitive than what I would call the full soul sound,” he muses.
One of the foremost aural signifiers that Justin has embraced on Nothing’s Gonna Change The Way You Feel About Me Now has been a somewhat minimal horn section, which contrasts with the singer’s subdued croon to great effect. “I wrote a lot of the songs and wrote them to have horns on them. I thought that it was a good way to show that soul element. A lot of Stax recordings, especially those early ones, they did like a two-horns sound that was just trumpet and alto-sax. That’s pretty much what we did, trumpet and alto, with really simple parts,” he reveals. “I’ve always loved that sound form the early to mid ‘60s.”
Against all of the odds, Justin has emerged from a tumultuous young adulthood, avoiding the so-called 27 club and into his fourth decade of existence. “I think that it was only out of sheer stupidity that made making it out of my 20s a challenge, and making it out of my teens. I’m a young man in most of the world’s eyes, but I do think I’m too old to die young,” he laughs. “It’s not cool once you’re 30.”
Such a lifestyle bears a silver lining in the form of a high density of life experience, something that Justin is quite adept at transforming into a high pedigree of songwriting. “I think I’m a songwriter first and foremost. It’s what I’ve always wanted to be, all the people that I look up to – that’s what they are. I think every parts vital – the melody is vital, the instrumentation is vital, everything’s vital. But I do believe that without the songwriting you have no reason for the rest of it. I definitely hold songwriting in a higher regard, I don’t think that just anyone can do it. Even people that do know how to do it still have to practice all the time, otherwise it won’t be any good,” he muses.
Though hopefully his turbulent years are now well behind him, Justin is assured that his source pool of inspiration isn’t imminently finite. “You know, I really don’t see that happening. It seems to happen to a lot of people, and I think it happens to people that veer from the course that they originally set out. At this point particularly, I’m full steam ahead. I have no intention of turning that off,” he reasons.
On previous visits, Justin has received an invariably rapturous response. There was a time when such a reaction was contained solely within our isolated little part of the world, but as Justin explains, the rest of the world is starting to catch on. “A few years ago I was getting that reaction just in Australia, like everything got really exciting really fast there. Here in the States it was only very recently, like in the past year, where it got to the point where I was really stable in the music business, whatever that means – starting to see bigger crowds and more excited crowds, like the Aussies knew all the words. These days it is more widespread, but I’ll always love coming to Australia because it always will be the biggest crowds I play in front of, that will still stand. It’s a tonne of fun and the crowds are great,” he beams.
On his last visit in 2011, Justin initiated what was precariously close to widespread fainting at Golden Plains when he performed his signature take of The Replacements’ Can’t Hardly Wait sans shirt. Justin remains pragmatically aware of such a reaction. “I’m very much into fashion and things like that – I’m into clothing and I have really expensive taste and things like that. So I started doing a little bit of modelling and it sort of changed a little piece of the persona that I have,” he laughs. “I’m definitely not known as a quite meek singer songwriter, you know. It’s something that’s no doubt helped my career, but I’m sure my girlfriend would have something to say.”
BY LACHLAN KANONIUK
