we’re washing in dirty water
cause we never flaunt our assets or our business schemes
take 15 grams of Quinine with a bottle of Sal Volatile
smoke Chesterfield non-filters and then jump in the sea
when Dr Suess is painting in the sky
you’ might catch a glimpse if you raise your focus higher
(Dr Seuss is painting in the sky, off Wake 2013)

If Dr Seuss was painting in the sky we would all look up, take a moment to pause, allow ourselves to imagine a world beyond ourselves. This is the opening gambit that Australian songwriter and musician David Bridie, of Not Drowning, Waving, My Friend the Chocolate Cake, producer and film composer, on his new album Wake, challenges us with.

Bridie now comes full circle to where he began in the early 1980s, creating his own work as a singer-songwriter. Five years on from his third solo album, Succumb which followed 2003‘s Hotel Radio and 2000‘s acclaimed Act of Free Choice, it was time…

“I wanted to forge my own direction on this record, write the best songs I could, joining together all the various influences, gathering together all the musicians I have an affinity with, to come up with something that I could say I was proud of” he says. “I needed to stop being distracted, to lose myself inside the process, and make the best record I could, a record of substance.”

Wake is classic solo Bridie – 11 original songs (and one Hank Williams cover, yes really) of shifting moods, textures and sound oddities, harnessed into perfect finality by Bridie’s unfailing knack for an infectious melody, evidenced in the album’s first single already gaining wide airplay, The Shortest Day of the Year.

Original plans were to make a slow, stripped-back record. Songs written on piano with a few added instruments. “That was the idea in the beginning, I was listening a lot to the Blue Nile’s Paul Buchanan and I loved the space in that record”.

Things got more involved from that simple premise, with the album being recorded across Victoria, New South Wales and New Zealand, with musical contributions from a plethora of guest artists representing a full spectrum of genres and styles.

Marita Dyson of Melbourne band the Orbweavers lends her serene and steady voice to tracks including the dreamy, beautiful album opener, Dr Seuss Is Painting In the Sky. Blackeyed Susans singer Rob Snarski fulfills Bridie’s long-held desire to record with him, lending his honeyed tones to the strident ballad, Old Lovers. Other guests include former Powderfinger guitarist Ian Haug, NZ artist Eden Mulholland, Ashley Naylor (Even, Paul Kelly Band), leading lady of The Bamboos Kylie Auldist, PNG-born singer Ngaiire, drummers Dave Folley and Michael Barker, long-time collaborator Helen Mountfort on cello, and guitarist wunderkind John Phillips.

The mixing of Wake was similarly itinerant, with half the tracks mixed in the Melbourne beachside suburb of Black Rock by Simon Polinski, the other half in San Francisco by Ryan Coseboom of the band Stripmall Architecture. Coseboom’s partner Rebecca, also in Stripmall Architecture, is another of the guests on Wake.

Bridie remains one of the most distinctive voices and songwriters in Australian music, not only to the ear but to the heart. His soulful rasp offers unique insights, deep empathy and asks hard questions into the human condition. His is a voice of conviction, passion and integrity. In the song Treason, over lush strings and strident piano chords Bridie challenges those who put border protection ahead of human decency. “The brave ones fled on a pea-green boat/set fire to them, ignore them, see if they’ll float.”

Delegate sees Bridie challenge the listener with provoking and confronting commentary – “the people who have lost the most are the ones who hate the least” – the music purposefully anthemic.

“Everyone has a take on the world .Maybe the best writers are outsiders. I feel strongly that artists of all sorts should be like slightly mad jesters commenting on the court, standing on the periphery looking in, kicking against the pricks. It’s a valuable role, and certainly much needed in Australia,” says Bridie.

Though wry observation and barbed commentary is Bridie’s stock in trade, there are introspective songs as well. Wake has some wonderfully melancholic moments. You’re no Flower and Chatter are songs of immense musical beauty, relationships wryly observed in bloom and in decay. Stoned in Kabul and Black Islands, on the other hand venture offshore and explode with layers of rhythm and distorted texture amid foreign tales.

This is one of Bridie’s greatest records. Up there with NDW’s Claim, Cake’s Good Luck and his first solo album Act of Free Choice.

David launches his album live via a national tour, and for the first time in 15 years, Bridie’s Not Drowning, Waving co-founder John Phillips will also join Bridie on the album tour, along with Dave Folley and for most shows presenting New Zealander Eden Mulholland as a special guest.

Wake is out on June 7 through Footstomp Music and distributed by MGM.

http://www.facebook.com/davidbridie

Wake Tour Australian dates:
Friday 14 June 2013: Governor Hindmarsh / Adelaide SA
Saturday 15 June 2013: Barossa Regional Art Gallery / Barossa Valley SA (call 0417 084 191)
Saturday 22 June 2013: The Street Theatre / Canberra ACT
Thursday 11 July 2013: Mullum Civic Memorial Hall / Mullumbimby NSW
Saturday 13 July 2013: Powerhouse / Brisbane QLD
Thursday 18 July 2013: The Loft / Warrnambool VIC
Friday 19 July 2013: The Ararat Hotel Red Room / Ararat VIC
Saturday 20 July 2013: Northcote Social Club / Melbourne VIC
Thursday 25 July 2013: The Clarendon / Blue Mountains NSW
Friday 26 July 2013: The Basement / Sydney NSW
Saturday 27 July 2013: Lizottes Central Coast / Kincumber NSW
Sunday 28 July 2013: Lizottes Newcastle / Newcastle NSW
Friday 2 August 2013: The Memo / Healesville VIC
Saturday 3 August 2013: Caravan Music Club / Oakleigh VIC
Sunday 4 August 2013: Montrose Town Centre / Montrose VIC
Saturday 17 August 2013: Republic Bar / Hobart TAS
Sunday 18 August 2013: Brookfield Margate / Margate TAS