Fast forward almost a year and a half and the sandy-haired surfer from NSW’s south coast has managed to put his foot on the brake, slow down, and smell his favourite café’s coffee. “It feels very much like I disappeared into the shadows so it’s really nice to be back out in the world armed with music ready to come out and shows to prepare for,” he says.
His new single, aptly titled Breakneck Speed is out now and is a taste of what we can expect from his forthcoming album, due for release later in the year. “Since we last spoke there have been some enormous changes, but it was a labour of love. I’m quite an ambitious person and I pushed myself higher and harder than I ever have before.”
Churchill explains that in an effort to continue performing as a one-man-band, he set himself the challenge of mastering some very complex instrumentation. “I really wanted to keep the solo thing going, so I was learning all of these drum parts with my feet, with the kick drum and the snare drum, and the tambourine. I remember that was hard work,” he laughs.
After careful consideration he enlisted the help of two talented friends, Michael Hardy and Tom Myers. “Basically Tom and Mikey both have two floor toms and a snare drum each. Mikey also plays the piano parts, and they both sing the harmonies. It’s all layered around my one-man-band set up in the middle, so it makes for a really interesting live show. It’s like three people trying to exist together within a horse costume, and trying to make it look natural,” he says.
Today, the charismatic singer/songwriter seems more content than ever and reinvigorated from living life at a slower pace. “The wonderful thing about taking so long to record the album was that I was forced to stop touring, and suddenly I had all this quiet time that I’ve never had before. I didn’t realise how intense I was and how much I was wringing the life out of every day.
“I know that’s a good thing, living life to the fullest and all of that, but I finally discovered balance,” he adds. “I started painting watercolours and I started writing a lot more, which was really nice. Little short stories or poems or songs – just anything. And I began digesting enormous amounts of books and art – that was marvellous. I really needed to calm down and get back to lighting a couple of candles and listening to an audio book and painting a picture. That was such a wonderful way to spend an evening.”
While getting back to basics, Churchill has also spent time on the open road, back behind the wheel of his old tour van. “I’ve probably spent more time in the van in the last twelve months than I have in the three or four years before that, and it’s mainly because I have to be in Sydney so much. I could book a hotel room, but it’s much easier to park my van around the corner from a café I really like and get a shower at a friend’s place. It’s like getting a really cheap thing at a garage sale that should be really expensive – and I love it.
“You sleep in your van somewhere and you don’t spend a cent on accommodation. You maximise your sleeping time, as long as you can do it comfortably, and get up and brush your teeth and eat a bit of fruit and get on with your day. It’s the best,” he says. “I wake up at 7am and stumble into the café and order breakfast – so in many ways that was my dream to live out of the van, and it’s still well and truly alive.”
Inspired by his laid-back lifestyle, Churchill says he has also rediscovered his love for simple music. “I think the more I learn about songwriting the more I realise that if you can connect with something that you truly believe and truly feel, that’s 80 per cent of the trick.
“Of course there will always be a hipster art snob who might point out flaws in the lyrics, but I think that music should touch people and if you can connect with that honesty, the rest is peripheral.”
