“The record started in this really grandiose, hugely conceptual sort of way,” he says. “The original idea I had wasn’t even an album – it was going to be a string of five EPs, with each one covering the course of a decade. On each EP I was going to sample and utilise the sounds of each decade. I explored it. I did a copious amount of research and I had an endless pile of notes about things that happened in each decade. At the same time, I was struggling. I was suddenly trying to deal with newfound pressure on my time – my daughter, my work, my managing of other artists. As much time as I put into it, I felt like I was sinking into a quagmire of detail. Everything that I had compiled felt strictly academic. It lacked heart. It bored me.”
How then did Levinson turn himself around and create the fifth Urthboy LP, The Past Beats Inside Me Like a Second Heartbeat? Basically, a new willingness to digress from the initial concept set him on the right path. “I started writing freely, rather than academic or historically-accurate songs,” he says. “I was writing about the people in my life, I was writing about my family… the dam broke after that. I reached a point where I was finally able to compromise between what I had originally set out to do and where my writing had taken me. I wasn’t limiting myself anymore.”
The new record takes its evocative title from a poem by Irish writer John Banville. It’s a substantive and wide-scoping album, ranging from the sombre distance of lead single Long Loud Hours to the defiant energy of Running Through These Flames and the spirited bop of Second Heartbeat. Levinson hooked up with a long list of collaborators to complete the record – including Sampa the Great, Bertie Blackman, Jane Tyrrell and Caitlin Park – and says he gained a great deal from the process.
“I learn so much from a woman’s perspective. My mother and my sister have always held a huge influence over my growing up, and I like to bring that to raising my daughter as well. It’s the same when it came to people I wanted to work with. I knew I had to have people on board that would help this record stand the test of time. Sampa is pretty clearly one of the best MCs in Australia at the moment. Okenyo is at the very start of what’s going to be a very exciting career. Jane Tyrrell is someone that I’ve always worked with. Bertie Blackman is someone who I have such a great affection for – you can only speak in superlatives about her any chance that you get. Caitlin Park makes these incredible records full of interesting pop music. Kira Puru is a diamond in the rough of Australian music. What more can you say about these women? They’re doing incredible things. They’re brilliant talents.”
Levinson also says that working with people younger than him – such as Montaigne, who sings on Rubble of the Past, and MC B-Wise, who appears on Running Through These Flames – assists with getting a fresh perspective on his own creative process. “They’re really great artists, and they’re really open to working toward making the song the best that it can be,” he says. “I’ve learned that it doesn’t matter how old you are or how young you are. It’s about coming to a track as equals. If you don’t treat young people with the respect that they deserve, then you’re missing out. There’s no simpler way to say it. You need to have people that reject previous generations in favour of their own evolution of ideas.”
To coincide with the release of The Past Beats Inside Me, Levinson has two intimate launch shows in Sydney and Melbourne. At Northcote Social Club this Thursday he’ll showcase both the new material and a new, vocally-oriented live band, which he says sounds great.
“It’s been a while since I was under those lights. I feel like I’ve been backstage and side of stage for so long, just watching from the wings as acts like Hermitude and Horrorshow have just shined so brightly. There’s an undeniable element of performing your songs live that makes the process feel whole, in a way. You can write songs and get a great buzz from doing something you haven’t achieved before, but if you don’t perform those songs it feels like a real missing piece. It’s like you’re incomplete. I’m so excited about getting out there and performing songs that mean something to people.”
BY DAVID JAMES YOUNG
