Young Jonathon Boulet has achieved quite a lot for a 21 year-old. Aside from the success as a drummer in his other band, Parades, his solo project has seen him signed to much-hyped label Modular and his skills as a guitarist and a singer have been brought to the fore.
Young Jonathon Boulet has achieved quite a lot for a 21 year-old. Aside from the success as a drummer in his other band, Parades, his solo project has seen him signed to much-hyped label Modular and his skills as a guitarist and a singer have been brought to the fore.
When Mr Boulet calls, he’s just wrapping up a practice and preparing to record Sydney two-piece Kyu, who recently played a magical set at Meredith and have signed to Spunk. The connection is that Alyx of Kyu played in Parades, Boulet’s other band, for a while. “Yeah, she played with Parades for a bit, but now Parades is all guys. We finally made the call that it was just gonna be the four of us,” explains Boulet. With a string of unsuccessful girls singing, including Boulet’s old girlfriend, they eventually asked the Kyu girls. But in the end, it’s better to keep it simple.
Things are pretty simple for Boulet, it seems: living in Castle Hill in the outer suburbs of Sydney, he’s commandeered his parents’ garage and works on writing, recording and playing music from there. “Everyday I try to find somewhere to move out to and it’s hard to find somewhere where we can make noise… ‘cause we’re making so much sound all day and everyday I feel sorry for whoever lives near where we move into,” he laughs. Luckily though, living with the ‘rents isn’t as terrible as it could be, with their strong encouragement of his musical pursuits.
“My mum used to play acoustic guitar and sing a lot and my dad didn’t really do much, but every time I was practicing or I was mixing something new regularly they’d be like ‘Oh that’s nice, what’s that?’ And when I’m making lots of noise they’ll come in and say ‘That sounds really good!’ instead of ‘Shut up!’”
Despite the relative comfort, Castle Hill is a little bit far out of the scene for a touring band. So the plan is to find some neat warehouse space in Marrickville, a fast-growing inner-west Sydney centre of creativity and DIY-projects. Luckily, playing in Parades and his solo work has introduced Boulet to key figures in the local music industry.
“[I’ve met] a lot of new people and I’ve been lucky enough to in some way work with my most favourite people too,” he admits. For example, working with Megastick Fanfare, whose album Boulet has just mixed. “It’s such a good album,” Boulet says of their debut release, “but it’s weird ‘cause no-one or no labels are getting on it and backing that kind of stuff. It’s so strange; they’ve got such good music and people seem to not want a piece of it.”
Not so for his solo album, which was immediately picked up by Modular, home to Wolfmother, Muscles, Tame Impala and other big names. Boulet’s campfire-party indie drum-driven harmony-laden rock feels somewhat strange with bedfellows like that, but Boulet seems to appreciate what he calls ‘irony’ there.
“I’m very lucky,” he says bashfully. “I’ve got some kind of luck charm on me somewhere. I was working with independent labels from New York, Modular started talking to them and then they all started talking to me… we all kind of met and it all blossomed from there.” Being the odd one out doesn’t phase him at all: “I really like how it’s a little ironic as well,” he says cheekily. “It’s good for me cause I don’t have to compete with anyone.”
It’d be hard to compete with Boulet anyway. At his tender age his accomplishments in singing, drums, guitar, recording and mixing could put most professional musicians to shame. Drums are still his main focus, however. “I’m best on drums,” he says firmly. “I mean I can improvise and I feel comfortable sitting behind the kit.” It explains the percussion-heavy sound of his solo work in comparison to Parades. Despite rescinding drum-duties to other band members, Boulet’s songwriting is still percussion-focused and uses driving beats to power his songs.
His newest single, You’re A Animal, shows even more growth in Boulet’s music. And inventive titling, it seems. Boulet is surprisingly opaque about the meaning of the grammar faux-pas. “Whenever I go Garageband it always comes up with a menu saying ‘What do you wanna call it?’ And I’ll think of something,” he laughs. “There’s not much other than ‘Why the hell, why not?’ I don’t like explaining songs to people and I like it to be what they hear, like what they want it to be. It means something to me but I don’t want to be saying to someone that it should mean this to you.
With his new album to record, new digs to find, new skills to hone (he wants to DJ) and records to master, Boulet sounds like a busy boy. Luckily, at 21, he’s still got a whole lot of time ahead of him. No rush.
JONATHAN BOULET launches the grammatically freaked You’re A Animal single at The East Brunswick Club this Friday December 17 with Grace Woodroofe and The Parking Lots Experiments. Tickets from The East box office, 9388 9794 or eastbrunswickclub.com. JONATHAN BOULET is also playing the sold out FALLS FESTIVAL in Lorne over December 28-January 1. You’re A Animal is available now through Modular.
