One thing we know about The Whitlams is that when they are played on the radio they sell albums. There's no other explanation for a band that sells over 350 000 albums from a non-hyped, lyric-driven, melodic dreamworld. And after 1999's double platinum "Love This City", Tim Freedman, The Whitlams' singer-storyteller-piano man had a dream himself. He wanted to record the band's fifth album at home, with the regular live band, and without some of the widescreen trappings of Love This City, an album that Tim now admits "got a little out of control".
So the band spent March and April last year in a house on the south coast of NSW arranging the songs together from scratch. "This is the first 'band' record I've made since [1995's] Undeniably the Whitlams ", Tim says looking back over the year. "It's recorded by the one band and sounds like the one band". But the lure of Sydney studios, especially Studio 301, recent home to Silverchair and Midnight Oil, became too much. "We missed all the toys" he grins. They moved in last June, and now 10 months later emerge blinking into the sun, with "Torch the Moon", the most focused, tuneful and cohesive album of the band's decade-long existence.
It's tempting to attribute The Whitlams' success to the old adage - "good songs, played well". And if good songs are back in fashion, and melody is back, and strings are all over the radio, it's The Whitlams who led the charge back in 1997 with the antipodean bittersweet symphony, "No Aphrodisiac". "Torch the Moon" continues the tradition of well-orchestrated songs of depth. "You have here the usual half-act plays of love and drunkeness from real life, but you'll find it all sounds a bit groovier. That's the band", says Tim.
Jak Housden, sometime Badlove, has joined on guitar. His distinctive solos add a dangerous edge to many songs. Joining Jak is drummer Terepai Richmond (D.I.G., Multiball) who became a Whitlam prior to Love this City, and whose modern sensibility underpins the album. Bassman Warwick Hornby, also a regular, is wonderfully versatile as the feel of the album moves from groove to rock to ballad.
Daniel Denholm, who produced "Blow Up the Pokies" and "Thankyou" from "Love this City", produces the bulk of the album; he also arranged the heavenly string parts that elevate such tracks as the dubby "Cries Too Hard". Daniel mixed most of the album. David Nicholas, who produced George's wonderful Polyserena, helps out with some mixes, as do 2 ARIA Producers of the Year, Steve James and Nick Mainsbridge.
Sophie Michalitsianos, an Australian from New York, shares the singing on the first single "Fall for You". She was most recently heard on Sparklehorse's "Good Morning Spider". Richard Tognetti adds violin to the gothic folk of "Kate Kelly". One of the 2 surf tracks boasts a string quintet composed by Australia's father of modern classical music, Peter Sculthorpe. And a 30-piece school choir lifts the last half-minute of the the Phil Spector-ish "Best Work". "We thought it's a big lovelorn ballad, let's go to town and add a choir over the trombone section" says Tim.
The band managed to record a double album's length of material over the year. "We've erred on the side of discretion and picked a 13 song record", admits Tim. But some of the "more ambitious" material will appear on a "premium release" of the album as a bonus disc: "Side 4". This will contain work recorded with ex-Whitlams Chris Abrahams (The Necks) and Ben Fink, material destined to become the chill-out room for longterm fans.
There's also some history on "Torch the Moon". The instrumental beds of 4 songs were the last things ever to be recorded at the legendary Festival Studio A (soon to be a carpark). "That was a sad night because we were putting a magical studio to sleep". For the trainspotters, the piano on "Royal in the Afternoon" was the last instrument put to tape in that historic space.
The title Torch the Moon has a duality that appeals to Tim. "It's the first phrase of the first song, and though quite a dark image, it can be misconstrued romantically. A bit like the 'eternal nightcap' - hopeful and melancholy".
The first single from the forthcoming album is "Fall for You". It starts with the drums-bass-guitar of the writing sessions last year. Tim's Wurlitzer piano pokes in slowly and then the track lushes out as those months in the studio pile on. The song is re-mixed on track 2 by Rob Taylor (producer of the first 4 Whitlams' albums) and his new group "Atomica". Tracks 3 and 4 are versions of the JJJ favourite "I Will Not Go Quietly" (Duffy's Song), an early incarnation of which appeared on the ABC show "Love is a Four Letter Word", and though not released, was voted number 42 in last year's JJJ Top 100. Track 5 is an out-take from the Memphis sessions of "Love This City". Track 6 is "Atomica" going to town with "Fall for You".
First single FALL FOR YOU available 17th June 2002
New album TORCH THE MOON available 22nd July 2002