We are very pleased to premiere the new single ‘Roustabout’ from living icon Jamie Hutchings (formerly of nineties indie legends Bluebottle Kiss and currently in noise merchants Infinity Broke) with news of a new solo album on the way. Hutchings for me is one of the main architects of what I label the Marrickville Sound – bands mostly emerging from the inner west of Sydney with an esteemed pedigree (members from prominent bands in the eighties and nineties) and a new level of energy and creativity.
‘Roustabout’ veers away from the visceral noise of Infinity Broke with something subtle and gentle – an air of melancholic antipodean Americana with a wide open expanse and an endless horizon.
There is a Jimmy Webb grandeur as expressed through Glen Campbell in the instrumentation and delivery, Hutchings’s vocal less acerbic and barbed-wire than in his other bands but nonetheless just as soaked in aged barrels of whiskey and regret.
Hutchings sings of the fateful nature of existence:
And if I shovel dirt on what’s been troubling you / And you slap me down / Turn my smile upside down / Then that’s what you have to do.
He says:
This was one of the first songs I wrote for this album, which is going back some time. I remember I hadn’t sat down and written a song in the traditional way, that is – on my own with an acoustic guitar…for ages,”
The studio process, with engineer Tim Kevin, allowed for some key moments that became integral to the success of the song’s recording. Hutchings observes:
We slowed the backing vocal down in a bid to channel Elvis, and the percussion is a nod to Phil Spector, Dusty Springfield and the like. I think Tim Kevin’s piano is particularly special on this song, we were thinking of ABBA when he tracked those octave parts.”
There is certainly a majestic sixties timbre to the track with its big pounding drums and dramatic delivery, all beehive hairdos and kohl eyeliner:
‘Roustabout’ is available to download and stream through the link above and through all the usual sites tomorrow. It is the first single from Hutchings’s sixth solo studio album ‘A New’, set for release on 13 October. The album will be launched on Sunday, 16 October at the venerable Petersham Bowling Club.
He also plays his first Perth solo headline show in more than five years, at Vinyl Cafe on 28 October – tickets here.
