“It’s called wake-surfing, that one,” Walker says about his Summer Sun clip, released in conjunction with 2011’s EP of the same name. Apparently you weigh the back of the boat down and get your mates to sit all on one side, “so it creates a little barrel”, and then you just surf down the river. “It’s pretty wicked fun, hey,” he laughs. “We create our own [waves].”
The country informs Walker’s general demeanour as a relaxed guy, but it’s the honesty in his voice which is collecting a lot of comment. He confirms that when performing, he does make an effort to mentally take himself to the place he was when he wrote the song, so that the rendition is honest and not just a repetition.
“I like to tell the audience what the song’s about,” he says. “For instance, Enough Is Enough is about the Kimberley’s situation. So I’ll talk about, I was there doing some gigs, and learnt about the whole situation at James Price Point, and spoke to locals, and the more I learned the more frustrated I got. And I guess it just keeps it refreshed in my mind, you know. Each night, talking about it. And if people aren’t aware of it for whatever reason as well… and it’s just me kind of venting a frustration, really. So that’s one I find I can get there fairly easily each night.”
In the 18 month period between the Summer Sun EP and Walker’s fresh release this month, the LP Sinners and Saints, the singer wrote down lines, phrases, and recorded little things on his iPhone with his acoustic guitar. But it was a particularly magical few days on The Ghan trainline from Adelaide to Darwin which provided the peaceful setting in which the album was completed.
“It was three days each way sort of on my own, and it was a really great time,” says Walker. “The steady noise of the train, looking out the window a lot of the time, it’s like outback Australia… I don’t know, there was something about it. I was actually reading Paul Kelly’s autobiography at the time, How To Make Gravy, and I think all those things together really helped everything come out where it needed to, and enabled me to finish the writing. You’re in kind of like your own space; you just feel like you’re a million miles away.”
Walker already has a few accolades under his belt including the coveted Most Promising Act at the Victorian Indigenous Performing Arts Awards for 2012. “It was really nice just to be recognised by the Indigenous community,” he says. “It’s not like you go out and write music and you’re thinking, ‘I hope I get this award.’ I just do it because I absolutely love to write music and play live.”
BY ZOË RADAS
