Interview by Stuart Blythe
With the imminent launch of his highly anticipated debut album ‘Picture Window’, Sydney’s classically trained composer (Conservatorium of Music) turned alt-pop pioneer Jack Colwell takes time out to chat with Life Music Media.
 
LMM: You’re about to release album “Picture Window”
How was the recording process and working with producer Chris Rollans (Lanie Lane, Cloud Control)?

Jack Colwell: Studio Ripple is a special studio as it holds a vintage feel, (think new york studio apartment 1964) It’s where Picture Window was recorded.
Chris Rollans is a producer who comes from a really ‘old world’ idea of recording, I’d gotten to know him over the years as he worked as the sound guy at a club where I was the band booker. He has a lot of really interesting ideas, mainly from Pink Floyd records and early 60s / 70s recordings which is what I wanted for my sound. I’d created lists down to every 30 minute block of the night recording sessions and I think Chris patiently worked through my meticulously organized schedule. My best memory from recording the album is attempting to imitate the vocals from ‘Great Gig in the Sky’ and our few discussions on Clare Tory’s vocal work on that track.

 
 
LMM: Your first two singles “Hopechest” and “Captain’s Melody” received glowing reviews. For the uninitiated, how do you describe your sound/music?

Jack Colwell: A lot of reviewers have called my sound ‘Chamber Pop’, ‘Freak Folk’, ‘Baroque Pop’ and probably (as it’s most lazy) ‘Singer – Songwriter’.
I keep getting asked what I think about being compared to Patrick Wolf and Nick Cave and I can only really say that they’re both two great artists who I’ve had a crush on at different points in my life. I have a PJ Harvey tattoo…
 
 
LMM: Which bands did you grow up with, and who still inspires you now?

Jack Colwell: My parents (thankfully) had great taste in music; my mum is a classisist (Middle name is ‘Wolfgang’) , and my dad likes anything from the Rolling Stones (whom I’m named after, ‘Jumping Jack Flash’) and Supertramp. I went through a grunge phase in my teens listening to Hole, early PJ Harvey (To Bring You My Love) and the darker Tori Amos works, some Nico and Kate bush for measure; I’m still really inspired by those artists but I’ve really gotten into Beach House of late – I think people skip over lyrics in songs a lot, they just like to listen to the ‘feel’, and for me lyrics are really important and I’m constantly amazed at how Victoria Le Grand can capture such a feeling with her lyrics, such “momentary bliss”.
 
 
LMM: What would be the biggest obstacle as an artist in the music industry today?

Jack Colwell: People judge you before they even hear you. Everyone has an atheism atheistic, you can’t deny that and I think for artists starting out that’s a really difficult thing to overcome as it can take a while to build up an idea of what you and your music is like while you’re still testing the waters.
 
 
LMM: You’ve shared the stage with Architecture In Helsinki. How was that experience?

Jack Colwell: Amazing. It was for VIVIDLive 2011, to say you’ve sung on stage with one of Australia’s biggest bands at a venue (Opera House) that everyone from your grandma-ma to your hot school crush knows is definitely something to be proud of. I said after that I’d be happy if that’s all I really got to do which I think, in lots of ways, describes how much the experience meant to me and how great it was.
 
 
LMM: Recently, you were invited to assist with Karen O’s “Stop the Virgens- a Psycho Opera” as part of Vivid Live 2012?

Jack Colwell: Yes! The team at VIVIDLive asked me back! (two years in a row, Toot Toot!) Someone from their department remembered me and thought I would be good to assist in helping find young women to make up the 30 strong female chorus as I was “Sydney’s Andy Warhol”. I was more than happy to oblige and now that I’ve helped get them some truly talented young women I’m assisting with the co ordination of the ‘Virgens’.
 
 
LMM: You’ll be performing the “Picture Window” album launch in Sydney this June. What can fans expect at the shows?

Jack Colwell: For ‘Hopechest’ buzz single launch I had more a 60s rock band atmosphere at FBI Social, then my music was arranged by classical composers Hayden Woolf & Miles Horler (whom I’ve worked with extensively) to be showcased in its true classical nature with an orchestral ensemble (along with surreal electronic artist Rainbow Chan) at Sydney’s Conservatorium of Music for the ‘Captains Melody’ single launch, and I think with the album launch being at GoodGod I want to create a really dark and intimate nature – have it be an intense and in your face kind of performance; there’s the possibility of a choir, maybe?

Interview by Stuart Blythe

SYDNEY | 6 JUNE, Good God Small Club, Sydney
w/ Packwood, Moon Holiday + Glamour Attack DJ’s
** Event News: Jack Colwell & The OWLS ‘Picture Window’ Album Launch @ Good God Small Club, Sydney – 6 June 2012

Read more interviews – Click here!