NED COLLETTE & WIREWALKER

Price

$15.00

Bookings

(02) 9550 3666

Mode

General Admission

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We live in a world of just-add-water rock stars, where pastiche is mistaken for progression. Quite obviously invisible but powerful forces manipulate the back end of just about everything to give the mistaken impression that we are discovering new sounds for ourselves, when in fact we are fed from a very long corporate-branded spoon.

In spite of all this, Ned Collette has taken the quiet back road to a place some distance out from obscurity, heading at his own speed for a destination of his own choosing. That chosen road is without doubt a leafy and sun dappled one, and that destination pastoral and perhaps even a little bucolic. Ned may hint at a past age of music (Robert Wyatt, John Martyn, Brian Eno, Soft Machine, Jerry Garcia, Nick Drake) but he moves everything defiantly forward with his elaborate arrangements, slow building melodies, gradually revealed hooks, looped and layered guitar parts and optimistic yet world weary lyrics. And while everyone else seems to be shouting, Ned is singing.

If Collettes musical adventurousness and the terrain he chooses to cross make him more a contemporary of current international musical voyagers than current Australian artists, then that can ultimately be only a blessing for music here and overseas.

The making of album three from Ned:

'Some of you may remember that about a year ago we went in to Headgap studios here in Melbourne to record my third album, but our first together as a band - what was to become Wirewalker. We did that with the esteemed Neil Thomason and thought it was all hunky dory and finished. We even mastered it with Byron J Scullin, mentor and friend, but disappointingly no relation to James Scullin former PM of Australia.â&128;¨â&128;¨Then we went on tour in Europe, I lived in Glasgow, more touring, New Zealand, home etc… and we all realised that we didn't like the album all that much after all. Luckily we hadn't rushed it out before we went, so no one was privvy to a series of what I think were fairly pedestrian renditions. Bit rock, but not rockin. Close, but no cigar. We got better in Europe.â&128;¨â&128;¨

So we headed up to Joe's folks' farm in Taggerty in April. This is just north east of Melbourne - bush fire territory in fact. The fire went straight through there but fortunately they stayed and defended and survived, and the house and studio are all perfectly in tact, but the tractor melted.â&128;¨â&128;¨Two lovely weeks there saw us laying down a bunch of new songs and reworking some of the tracks from last year. We now have fifteen songs - four from last year, and eleven new ones, which we are currently whittling down intosomething of album length proportions. â&128;¨â&128;¨..and then Joel and I headed for New York City - Brooklyn in fact - to spend a week mixing with Joel Hamilton. He's worked with Tom Waits, Nina Simone, Sparklehorse, Lou Reed, Elvis Costello - really, a shitload of diverse and impressive stuff - but it's not that important because we're us and not Lou Reed - it's his whole philosophy that seems pretty sturdy. Joe knows more about him than me - he was already a fan - I think they both hang out on forums devoted to things I don't understand. They know what an OHM is. Anyway, for those of you who think it's quite extravagant of us to be flying to NYC to mix our album, you are absolutely correct…. aren't we just a couple of cardsâ&128;¨â&128;¨And that's that - we mix the album, it sounds good, we put it out….. somewhere, sometime. More news on that as it comes to hand.'â&128;¨â&128;¨

'Plays like all your favourite acoustic pauses burnt to one disc' Sunday Age

'Listening to Ned Collette is like falling in love' Drum (Perth)

'A voice that can break hearts at a hundred paces' Drum Sydney

'Ned Collette establishes himself and shines fantastic' dB Magazine

'Impressive and ever changing' Mess and Noise 'Never less than compelling' Inpress