Written by Holly Throsby
Under the Town was my second album, released in 2006. I recorded it with Tony Dupe, who is a producer and friend. I had made my first album, On Night, with Tony and returned to his little farm house on Saddleback Mountain for Under the Town. I remember wanting the album to be richer and brighter in the arrangements and production. I also remember some of the songs were quite dark, lyrically, and we wanted to work against that with a playful approach to instrumentation. Bree van Reyk playing chopsticks against the side of the piano became the start of ‘Making a Fire’.
This was the first album Bree played on and marked the start of our relationship, both musical and otherwise. I was enamoured with her talent. Jens Birchall also played on the album and appears on the cover. Bree and Jens went on to become my live band for many years. I adore them both.
The cover photograph for Under the Town was inspired by the Yo La Tengo cover for And then nothing turned itself inside out… A strange nocturnal hyperreality. My friend Agatha Goth-Snape helped style it. We placed objects from lyrics to some of the songs in there and made it like a set. Agatha is pictured eating an apple (‘Under the Town’); and there is a wooden dear head (‘Come Visit’). Tamara Dean is an incredible photographer, she is so skilled at colour and mood.
For A Loud Call (2008), Bree and I went to Nashville to record with Mark Nevers. He had made some of my favourite albums (especially Master and Everyone by Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy). Mark is hilarious and pretty dark. He had this ancient dog and he fried it several eggs every morning for breakfast. He introduced us to proper Nashville fried chicken and brought in members of Silver Jews and Lambchop to play on the record. Will Oldham sang a duet, which I wrote especially for him, and that was such an honour. I remember we sang it live into the same microphone and I was so nervous and thankful.
Bree and I went on a road trip to Memphis and saw Scout Niblett play in a bar. I listened to Philip Glass’s Glassworks every day and became totally obsessed with it, driving around in a bit of a trance. When we got back to Australia I felt there was something missing and that was the creative input of Tony Dupe, so I went to Kangaroo Valley where he was living and we did some overdubs which completed the album for me. I am probably most proud of ‘Warm Jets’ and ‘Would you?’. But ‘Now I Love Someone’ was used on a juice commercial in Portugal and we got to play a big show in Lisbon because of that.
The shows we did for A Loud Call were probably some of the biggest ones we played. Our tours were always very lengthy with lots of regional towns. I was inspired by the Darren Hanlon touring model. He was, in turn, inspired by the Slim Dusty model. Australia is just enormous and Bree and Jens and I wanted to play as many places as we could.
Team (2011) is my favourite of the albums I have made. I made it with Tony in a nineteenth century sandstone church he was renting in Wildes Meadow, NSW. It was quite a magical recording environment and I spent many nights there, sleeping on a mattress in the kitchen with my dog, Jones. It got very cold at night. I bought a set of throwing knives and practiced outside while Tony was working away on mixes.
I don’t know what it is about Team, I think it all just fitted into place for me sonically and emotionally. There was such an ease to making that album, and also an excitement in experimenting with vocal layering. I was very inspired by the overlapping vocals in Pinback’s This is a Pinback CD. I spent a lot of time demoing on Garage Band on my own beforehand to find the right tone for the songs and work out how to vocal parts would relate to each other. I am really proud of what we achieved with ‘What I Thought of You’, ‘Hi, You Reckless Darling’ and ‘To See You Out’ – they are real heart songs. I remember feeling very raw and alive when we were doing those sessions. There was so much light and longing.
The cover image for Team was taken in my friend’s backyard by Yanni Kronenberg. I remember wanting it to be completely mundane but with a sparkle, so Yanni colourised the pegs on the Hills Hoist and smeared Vaseline on the lens. The ‘team’ on the cover is me and my dog, Jones, which felt very apt at the time. Yanni and I always had a good laugh at whatever it was we were trying to achieve, we have worked together a lot over the years. Yanni and I made the video for ‘What I Thought of You’ together – searching on the internet for super 8 footage and contacting film makers from across the world for permission to use their footage and then collaging it all together with the song. It is my favourite of my music videos. ◾
