AFTER nearly a decade on the road, Wolfmother Andrew Stockdale settled down the road in Byron Bay and now works out of his “shed” making jam videos for his fans and preparing for his live shows.
Not that he hasn’t been busy, with a surge of creativity that has become his first self-produced “Andrew Stockdale” album – Keep Moving.
‘Keep Moving’ is an honest exposé of Stockdale’s poetic point of view within his day-to-day experiences and relationships with people.
It’s undoctored, natural approach makes for a relieving listen in a hi-fi compressed supped-up pop-dominated landscape. With a culture fast becoming saturated with technology and sterile flawless lines, motion and sounds.
‘Keep Moving’ is soulful and real, an organic wild rock record that doesn’t drag or go stale, it keeps on moving.
The tracks spur imagery of riding in vintage cars, hanging on street corners, relaxing at barbecues, dancing in malls, storytelling and daydreaming …
Andrew spent the past three years writing in and out of studios and hotel rooms, recording with a variety of musicians and fine-tuning the record to a point where
he felt he gelled with it.
“I’m really happy with it,” Andrew says of the new album. “Totally, absolutely, I love it. I can live with it. I’ve listened to it 1,000 times.”
And now through his “Shed Sessions” fans have a chance (via his YouTube Channel) to witness Andrew and his band performing both acoustic and electric tracks off Keep Moving.
According to the Wolfmother frontman the process introduced “a lot more spontaneity in the sessions,” . Of the “shed sessions,” Andrew explains, “what I’ve done is filmed it in the sanctuary of the band’s recording space.
“You might see a dog, a surfboard against the wall. It’s a bit more random and it gives the viewer the experience of what it’s like to sit on a chair and watch while we play our songs.”
Players and engineers involved in the making of this record featured musicians from the old Wolfmother camp as well as new artists and crew that Andrew met along the way.
Some of them include: Ian Peres (Bass, Keys); Vin Steele (Rhythm Guitar); Elliott Hammond (Wurly, Harp); Hamish Rosser (Drums); Will Rockwell-Scott (Drums) and Dave Atkins (Recording and Drums). Keep Moving was mixed by Vance Powell at Sputnik Sound in Nashville, and the album was mastered by Chris Athens Masters in Nashville.
For an artist with a Grammy Award, numerous ARIAs and a growing collection of platinum and gold certifications in the bag, Stockdale still has great expectations for his career.
“My ambition,” he says, “is just to go wherever people like it. I just go wherever I’m invited. Every year I get offers to play in Europe — it just happens again and again.
I’ve been basing my plans around that. If I get offers in America, I’ll go there. That’s how I’ve been living, that’s how I’ve been planning my life. When we put out ’Cosmic Egg’,
Europe loved it. It went massive in Germany and throughout Europe. It went top 20 in the United States. We followed it. We followed the demand. We’ll continue to do that.”
To celebrate this long awaited album (out next week), Andrew will hit the road together with his band (ie; they guys from Wolfmother) for an up close and personal National tour with dates as follows:
Who: Andrew Stockdale
Where: Friday 28 June Coolangatta Hotel, Gold Coast and guests, tickets available from http://www.oztix.com.au
or
Travel down the highway on Saturday 29 June, The Northern, Byron Bay and guests: Tickets available from http://www.oztix.com.au
