Their second album, Farewell Fitzroy, is in the bag and ready to be unleashed on Australian ears. The duo recorded the series of songs with Nashville producer Brad Jones, well known for his work with artists such as Missy Higgins and Justin Townes Earle. “It was different, it was very different,” says Marou. “Comparing it to the first album where we tracked everything individually and everything was tracked perfectly…this album we went into the studio and recorded it all live all in one room. We did say we wanted the sound we get at our live show on an album and that was one of the big reasons we chose Brad, he can record live very well.”
“The good thing about Brad is, it’s good having a muso as a producer. He changed the structure of a lot of songs, put in bridges and chord changes. He played a big part in that whereas in the first album that was up to Tom and I to do off our own back. I didn’t agree with all of the things he did and we changed a couple of the songs after when we got the masters back, but that’s just how it works. In terms of learning stuff and the whole Nashville experience, it was a lot of fun and we learned so much.”
Asked what reaction he expects Farewell Fitzroy will receive, Marou muses. “We’ve definitely got expectations. Tom and I want to keep doing music full-time. In order to do that, the album has to sell; it has to get a lot of airplay. We want a song that charts, we want the album to chart, to go gold at least. That has a lot to do with signing with Warner as well. The first album was just ours. Our family bought it. Our expectations for this album are a lot higher than the first one. We feel confident about it, all the feedback we’ve got so far has been very positive and if we can go out there and do a cracking tour and display what we’ve got then that will give it a bit of a boost as well. There’s definitely some big expectations that we have for the album and if we meet them we meet them and if we don’t we go and do another one.”
Busby Marou recently played the Boomerange Festival and Caloundra Music Festival in their home state of Queensland. “To be honest it was the first time we played in about six months as a band,” says Marou. “We played a lot of new ones and it was like we rehearsed for a year – it felt good! Early days festivals were like ‘we’re on at 10.30 in the morning’ but in the last twelve months they’ve been much more fun. You’re always collaborating with other artists. You bump into other musicians you know and you pull them straight on stage to do a song. People love watching that sort of thing. We make sure we take the next day off so we really get amongst it, we really try and make the most of it.”
BY JOSH FERGEUS
