Not known for his up-and-at-‘em enthusiasm for interviews at the best of times, talking with Callahan is like trying to get blood from a stone, the attempt to rumble up some excitement for his impending Australian appearances exhausting.
Nevertheless, here’s an opportunity to speak with one of Americana’s most influential country music persons still living. Callahan has made his mark in music, producing 12 studio albums under the alias Smog before dropping the moniker and releasing a further five albums. Though he may seem bland and surly to speak with, once you have him on stage, Callahan’s voice rumbles forth like that of an aggrieved angel. The stage is where he wants to be seen and where Callahan’s true voice is known.
It’s his unadulterated ability to captivate an audience that has Callahan with us today. He’s solidified an exclusive six show, three night residency at Howler, an intimate get up in comparison to Callahan’s grandiose 2015 sold out appearances. His residency at Howler is a first in Australia but with other such events in cities around the globe, these performances should be old hat to Callahan by now. “I got the idea to do residencies about a year and half ago and tried it out in New York,” he says.
“I played two shows a night for three nights and then I liked it and did one in London for about a week, and the Australian people were spying me online and they approached me. The guy that books me wrote and said ‘If you wanna do what you’re doing up there, down here we can set it up.’ ”
It’s an interesting format indeed, one that Callahan appears to enjoy for he doesn’t strike as the sort of man to do anything he wouldn’t take joy from. “I’m sort of trying this out for a little bit to see what it’s like, and it seems to work. You go to a big city and play one show to a couple thousand seats or something, these [residencies] are more of a chance to get it right.
“Australia is the last planned residency and I’ve probably just about exhausted my options of cities to do it in really. I’m writing a record and a few other one-off shows in the states, that’s about it [for this year] after this.”
For as frequent a visitor Callahan is to our shores, it’s interesting to ask his perspective of the Australian take of Americana and country music and indeed, refreshing to find a topic that Callahan, albeit with monotony, has such passion and reflection on. “Going back to something like The Birthday Party – which was pretty heavily influenced by American music I think in the late ‘80s – that stuff blew me away. The effects, the guitars, they were totally painting the song – [not] anyone had been doing it, [and] at the time it exploded western and country music.
“I don’t know how that happened in Australia but it did – since then, people are, it’s just a universal thing really, in Germany it’s very popular, get the feels to people and like not even in a nationalistic way. It’s more about spirit and the way people want to be themselves and tell the story of their lives to themselves, or wanna hear other people doing that. I think that can be related to lots of different countries. Australia seems to be a mix of American and British cultures and other tons of nationalities that have a big influence on the sort of national sound of people.”
Evidently not a man to speak much about himself, the colour and grace of Callahan’s music is finally reflected in his speech when the topic turns to others – and it’s in others he finds many words.
By Anna Rose
