Hodgkins is emphatic. “Do work with your brothers and sisters. We don’t always get along, but it’s easy to love them even when they do something to piss you off. Grudges don’t seem to build up and you can let go of stuff. It’s also easier to be open, lay it on the table and be honest.”
Hodgkins is calling from the road. The band are touring at the moment to promote their glorious second album, Jumping On The Highwire, which was released in March this year. It had an 11 month gestation period, during which it was carefully and lovingly crafted. Hodgkins is duly proud of the effort and excited to talk about it.
“The whole process started in April 2013. We wanted to try group songwriting for the first time and come up with a whole album of collaborative songs. Previously, we wrote the songs independently. This time around, we thought, ‘Gosh, let’s see what happens when we do this together’. So, we rented a beachside holiday house down in Rye and came away with nine songs. It was really productive.”
According to Hodgkins, the collaborative process wasn’t always easy. However, it was clearly worth it.
“We approached it in structured way. We each did a lot of writing. We’d come up with a character and write a few paragraphs, then we’d put it in the middle and decide what we’d like. There was a lot of real honesty and bluntness – it would’ve been hard to muster that with other people. There was a lot of, ‘Eileen, that line’s crap’. We’d write a lot of junk, but there’d be some golden lines as well. While there was a lot of criticism, with every idea you put out there, you’d get instant feedback.
“It’s a lot different to writing alone in your bedroom by yourself. From there, we’d narrow it down to the best possible outcomes. There were definitely times when we had disagreements, but not so much that we couldn’t move forward. They weren’t differences that stymied the idea. They were more guides to working out different options … and we have similar tastes really. Some songs would become a little bit more someone else’s baby, but we’d keep going until we were all happy and had exhausted all possibilities. It took longer, but we got there.”
The band recorded and produced their last album, Tall Tales, themselves. On reflection, Hodgkins feels that the band were “too involved”. Determined to have a different experience, this time they worked with their friend and studio engineer Joe Ferguson. They toured a bit first and then came back to record the bulk of the album with Ferguson at a farmhouse in Melbourne’s North. More touring followed, but whenever the band had time, they were back in the studio, ultimately recording two more tracks as well as the over-dubs.
They are pleased with the effort. “The journey’s been amazing. It surprised even us. It was so productive and it’s opened the door for more collaborative work in the future,” says Hodgkins.
With this album comes a shake up in image. The band are no longer just a Jugband – they are a “psychedelic Jugband”.
“We started thinking about our name and what it conveys. ‘Perch Creek Family Jugband’ sounds a bit old-fashioned. It conjures up pictures of a cute, wholesome family, which stems from the truth! We are brothers and sisters and we did grow up there. We are inspired by skiffle and Jugband styles, but I feel we’ve taken a new direction. Some of the new songs are not what people might think – they are a bit psychedelic. Not necessarily in that drug-taking, long-haired way, but more that raw energy kind of way, like Neil Young’s ‘70s rocky, ballad sounding stuff. We wanted to put a word there that shakes the image. It’s not punky, but we’re more energetic than what the name might convey”.
As for the album’s title, it comes from a line in one of the tracks, Mother of My Mother. Hodgkins explains the attraction.
“It’s not because that song was the lynch pin to the album. We just loved the metaphor and the imagery. This album is a big leap for us. It’s very exciting, because of all of these new songs. That image, the leap, the risk taking resonates with us. Also, we have a circus spirit to the band. There’s a colourful dynamic in what we wear onstage; we have the family thing, we have five strong personalities and we clash and meld all at once. That energy is reflected in the circus imagery of the title”.
BY MEG CRAWFORD
