Not even the touring element of the album release, the part of the process that usually wears musicians down, has been giving him grief. “The thing about Australia is you get the weekdays off when you’re touring,” he says. “It’s not about performing day-to-day. You’ll go away for three nights and come back and then rest. Our tour was like four dates over three weeks,” he says. “I can’t really complain about that.”
That said, underpinning all that success is the faint concern that something is going to go terribly wrong, and Pogson is upfront about his concerns. “There’s a lot more on our plate because there’s only two of us,” he admits. “We’d have a lot more support if there were more of us, I guess. If something goes wrong there’s nobody else to blame. That part can get a little bit tiring.
“But even though physically sometimes playing shows can be a little bit draining, we both put a lot into the show,” he says. “It’s always fun. The adrenaline always gets you through. Sometimes you feel like you couldn’t possibly get out onstage but then you go out and you feel fine. You feel fine afterwards too.”
Pogson’s chief creative collaborator in the band is Ella Thompson, GL’s vocalist and co-frontperson. Pogson has nothing but great things to say about his friend and artistic partner, and it’s obvious that the band is anchored by the very real sense of respect that he has for her. “There’s a lot less to hide behind when you’re a singer,” he says of Thompson’s onstage presence. “I don’t know how she does it, just being there with a microphone. There’s nothing to hide behind. I would never make that step, that’s for sure.”
Thompson is also an invaluable partner in the studio, a talented musician with a powerful set of pipes. “Ella’s great,” Pogson says. “She brings a lot to the table when we’re in the studio recording: I mean, she’s such a great singer. It’s almost like every time she opens her mouth it can spark a new idea, or it’s just always really good. We love playing live and working together.”
The pair’s working habits involves Pogson laying the ground work, and then Thompson coming in and constructing layers on top. It’s a method of writing songs they have always used, and one that has paid off in droves. “A lot of stuff is produced based on an idea I’ve come up with, and then we’ll get together and totally build it from there,” Pogson says. “It’s all about building it up and adding parts. Then, once we’ve decided how the song is going to go, Ella will come and record her vocals on her own. The thing I’ve always liked about it is that it’s always been easy. It’s always been pretty painless.”
Ultimately, for Pogson, enjoying time in the studio isn’t just a bonus – it’s an absolute requirement. “At the end of the day you do just want to keep it fun,” he says. “I think that’s pretty important. In the old days you’d capture just one moment of a band performing together and the results would depend on the vibe in the room. But constructing a GL song, it’s a very drawn-out process. It’s more about layering stuff. You need to capture some sort of energy. The more fun we have when we’re recording it, the more energy we capture.”
By Joseph Earp
