Historical Tales

Suite 101 caught up with the promising Aussie country singer to discuss his debut single and album.

Two thousand and twelve sees the release of Melbourne-born singer-songwriter Jake Jackson's first single, an impressive little number inspired by his time spent working on the land throughout his native Australia - something he set off to do at the age of 15 - entitled Hired Hand. An album with the same title, featuring eight self-penned tracks, is set to hit the shelves next year.

While still a teenager, Jackson played guitar with Aussie singing star Bobby Bright, and then from the age of 19 to 21 studied a variety of musical styles at the Melbourne Conservatorium of Music, despite not having finished school. All of these early experiences have stood the dedicated family man in good stead for his current musical venture, a venture that's been a long time coming.

Jake Jackson: Good Times

"Yeah, look it’s been great lately," enthuses the talkative singer-songwriter, who drifted away from the music scene for several years while he had a family and raised his two children (his son Ben is a member of Kyowa, a fast-rising indie band). "The song Hired Hand’s been out and it’s been doing really well, so it’s all pretty exciting at the moment…

"We’re in the top 10 in the Great Southern Charts, which is a chart they do here which is basically just an industry chart. Lot of interviews, a lot of interest and a lot of stuff... Just trying to get the penetration out there so we can get set up for a tour over here next year and set ourselves up for getting some good audience participation, some songs that they know!"

Jake Jackson: Hired Hand

"Look, I think it’s an interesting album," replies the hard-working perfectionist, who toured the pub circuit in Melbourne and Sydney in his younger days in bands such as Kid Gloves and The Automatics, commenting on the soon-to-be-released record.

"There is some strong country there, there’s some tracks that are a little more urban and a little more cross-over. The next track that’s coming up for a single is a song called Josephine, which is a beautiful song about… well, obviously about a girl, but it’s a real feel song, a really nice melody.

"The songs are all laden with good melodies and lots of good hooks and some of those songs have been crafted over a fair bit of time and I’ve put a fair bit of time into making sure that they are accessible and the album is, in my opinion, really accessible.

"Shifting Sands is another really nice song. It’s the first track on the album. It’s a bit rocky and it’s got a bit more going on. I think Hired Hand is obviously my favourite track on the album and that’s why we released it first, but hey I love them all, so I guess they’ll all sort of filter through."

Hand Hired: A Long Time in-the-Making

No one could ever accuse Mr. Jackson of rushing into things, as the artist who cites John Hiatt, The Rolling Stones and Brazillian composer Heitor Villa-Lobos as his main influences began writing the songs that would make up Hired Hand in mid-2010, finishing them at the end of 2011, following a writing trip to Ireland.

"Oh look, I wrote some of the songs in Ireland," he confirms, "and I guess when I was there, I was basically just trying to conclude it all. I had a lot of ideas in my head and a lot of things I wanted to get done and I was only in Ireland for probably about a month or so, six weeks.

"But I really just wanted to get some conclusions to where I was going musically. It was a great place to do that. I don’t know if you’ve been there, but the whole place is about music and I was able to really sort of cement all the songs down and all the arrangements I wanted to run with and finish off some words.

"I wrote a couple of songs – I wrote a really nice song called West, which was about exactly that. I went out to the west coast of Ireland and found myself in a little village out there, completely on my own, and just had one of those social experiences that I ended up knowing everybody in town and jamming with everybody. It was a great experience and it certainly was what I needed.

"I needed a moment to sit down and say: 'Okay, well these are the songs that I want to really finish and really craft and make sure they’re okay'. It’s a funny thing with songs. Sometimes you just keep playing them in their three-quarter finished state...

"Even live you’ll be doing that: shoving the first verse onto the last verse at times and that sort of thing. But when you’re doing an album, you can’t do that sort of stuff. You need to be more coordinated."