“Originally I had planned to call this album Journey to the End of the Day,” he says. “I often map out albums – this album, you could say it’s from midnight to midnight. There’s a middle of the night, there’s a morning, there’s an afternoon, there’s an evening and then there’s the end. It’s seasonal, even – it’s cyclical. The last album had a very similar opening sentiment – an opening of the eyes, seeing the world around it and thinking ‘What’ve I got to deal with today?’ There’s a lot of existentialism. That can be positive, and it can be not so positive. It can be ‘Why do we bother?’ but it can also be ‘Why shouldn’t we bother?’”
Perkins is, as one might expect, the kind of interviewee that takes whatever ball you throw his way and runs with it. Much like in his songwriting, he mixes gentle ramblings and meanderings with vivid imagery and the occasional bit of storytelling. Fittingly, his approach to creating new music is the next subject we touch upon. As far as Perkins is concerned, everything he creates is both contextual and circumstantial.
“A lot of the songs that I write are stemmed from their environment,” he says. “Through the various bands I’ve been in, sometimes a song would spring out of nowhere – it would just appear in front of me. I’d have to decide which band it would come to life with. I think the best way, though, is to assemble those musicians and start playing. Hopefully someone’s recording your ramblings, and you pick out the parts that seem to work. You could be jamming for 20 minutes and find ten seconds of that whole jam and be like, ‘Hey – that part.’ It can build up again completely from there.”
As you’d expect, Perkins and The Dark Horses are following the release of Tunnel with a national tour. When it comes to his demographic, Perkins is incredibly self-aware: there’s the rock-oriented folk that are best acquainted with the man through acts like Beasts of Bourbon and The Cruel Sea; he’s also drawn in a crowd with his quieter solo material; likewise his many tribute show appearances, including his portrayal of the legendary Johnny Cash. There is, however, something that binds this broad selection of fans.
“What I’ve really noticed is that my core audience is my age; late-40s, early-50s,” Perkins says. “That’s who I generally see – the people that have known about me for the last 20, 30 years. You also tend to notice different people that come to shows depending on the venues that I’m playing. If we’re playing a sweaty, rock’n’roll club, it’s a rock’n’roll audience. If we play a nice comfortable club, you’ll get the people that like the nice comfort. I don’t think I’m picking up the teenage audience – they’re not really in tune with what I’m doing. It’s still pretty broad, though. I try to put the right crowd in the right venue, and therefore the right audience will come.”
Of course, there’s no rest for the wicked, and Perkins has proven to be one of the most wicked figures out there. As well as dates with the Dark Horses, Perkins has some forthcoming regional dates with long time cohort Charlie Owen (remember Tex, Don & Charlie? He’s Charlie). On top of that, he has a run of shows coming up with television personality and occasional chanteuse Justine Clarke.
BY DAVID JAMES YOUNG
