No average Joe
Evan Alexander



The band - Stu Macleod is ar rightThe release of their sophomore long player A Song Is A City in May of this year saw 
Eskimo Joe ‘demurely’ shoulder their way a little further into our national consciousness. Well and truly established now, 
everything seems to be falling into place; the albums a killer, has received airplay on both commercial and alternative 
radio and the live shows are hot, heavy and regular. In fact the Joe have been to Brisbane three times over the last twelve 
months, not a bad effort for three young guys who live in Fremantle.

Guitarist Stu Macleod spoke to Evan Alexander about the tricks and traps of touring, recording, maintaining poverty lines 
and softball. Throughout the course of the interview he even manages to break two automobile laws, see if you can name em…


Where are you at the moment?
“Walking through the streets of Fremantle, I just got my last $40 out of the bank and I’m about to spend it”


What do you spend your last $40 on?
“I’m actually going to buy a couple of rasps and a file, I’m doing a talc sculpture, a soapstone sculpture. I figured I 
better do something creative today, I’ve been sitting on the computer for the last week solid, I thought I better go and 
do something outdoors. So I got a big rock, I’m going to buy a couple of files and start hacking in to it”


What have you been doing on the computer?
“Just website stuff”


So that’s predominantly you, who takes care of that stuff
“Yeh, that’s all me”


It’s done well, I noticed last night, whilst looking at the website, it does actually reads like the band has written it.
“Well that’s what I wanted to get, that real personal touch, so that when people log on it isn’t just another band site, 
they are actually communicating with the band”


You guys have been flat out lately, since before the release of the album, what do you do when you get time to chill out.
“I seem to spend a lot of time just updating the website, and I’m creating websites for some other bands, from around 
Perth. Kav and I just started boxing training, that’s keeping us healthy on the inside; I find that if you keep yourself 
healthy off the road it’s a lot easier on the road. Being on the road is not exactly the easiest thing health wise, 
considering that everywhere you’re going to eat is either going to be a roadhouse or a restaurant”


"just getting chewed out by a council worker - I’m parked in a loading zone"


How do you guys go about staying healthy on the road, what are the main components of the Eskimo Joe Tour menu?
“Well generally, if it’s a driving tour, then you’ll do a lot of roadhouses, you learn to avoid the pies and sausage rolls 
and go for the sandwich option, maybe a juice, just stay away from the fatty foods... listen to me, I sound like a fucking 
metrosexual. But it does help in the long run and you don’t get that festy tour monster smell, its just a question of doing 
as much good for your body as you can, cause you know you’re gonna mess it up on a nightly basis”


How many people, vehicles do you take on tour now? Who makes up your touring party and why are they there?
“Well 7 at the moment, that’s the core, seven, there’s 5 in the band and we got a stage tech and a sound guy. Now we’ve 
started taking a tour manager too, so that’s eight, and with this next theatre tour, I’m pretty sure we’re going to have a 
lighting operator, so that’s nine”


What were you doing before you had a tour manger with you.
“Generally, everyone shoulders a little bit of responsibility, our tour manger used to be our sound guy, so he can take 
care of a lot of the general, everyday stuff and we all sorta help out here and there. It saves a lot of cash but now we’re 
getting to the point where the tours are getting bigger, and the shows are getting bigger and it’s worth spending the cash 
to get someone in to make sure it all goes smoothly”


Stu in action with Eskimo JoeWhat’s your favourite axe?
“I'd say my brown tele, I think it’s an early 60’s re-issue, the entire guitar’s natural finished rosewood, it’s a bit 
heavy but it has this great resonance and sustain, that’s what we used, pretty much, for the entire last album. What I 
like about the tele is that when you switch onto the front pickup you’ve got this nice jangly, almost acoustic strumming 
sound and a nice glassy tone for your leads and then on the back you can really roar it with a good overdrive pedal”


How do you go about the writing process, do you have a set system in the way in you approach it, both as an individual 
and as a band?
“Yeh, these days we seem to have streamlined it down onto a single process, it’s generally the same every time, with a 
few variations, in terms of process. Generally Kav will write the lyrics and the basic roots for the bed, the germ of 
the song and then me and Joel will go over it with him, Joel is really good with arrangements so he’ll whip into shape, 
we’ll play it a couple a times with drums, bass, guitar and vocals in the jam room until the structure is good. When we 
know the structure is down we’ll start demoing it, maybe add some keys, and just start filling it up until it’s 
overflowing, and then we’ll cut it back and then we’ve got a song.”


The production on “A Song Is A City” highlights certain clarity of texture, there’s a crisp top end sparkle whilst 
maintaining the rumble in the bottom end. Were there any particular approaches you took whilst recording, mixing or 
mastering to capitalise upon that?
“Well no, we don’t really do anything intentionally; it’s all just what happens on the day. If we’re in the jamming 
process and Kav’s on the acoustic then I’ll jump on the bass, and so for that song the bass line will be me or when we’re 
demoing Joel will write a bass line so that will be his, we swap around quite a bit and that tends to make every song a 
bit fresh. There’s a lot a different influences in there.”


How did that differ from the approach to “Girl”, recording that?
“With “Girl” we did demos but I guess the more you do it the more comfortable you become with it, it was more like Joel 
was the drummer, I was the guitarist and Kav was the bass player, Joel did play some guitar as well, but that was generally 
the way it went, whereas with this new album we've all had a hand in everything.”


You’ve been spending a fair bit of time in the studio lately, are you starting to develop an idea of what sort of sounds 
it is your after and how to replicate them accordingly?
“Yeh, I think you get better at….” at this point in the interview, scuffles and yelps can be heard in the background as 
Stu trails his sentence off into “I’m just about to…..Yeh, I’m on the phone… sorry man, just getting chewed out by a 
council worker, I’m parked in a loading zone… no we’ve gotten to the point now where if we’ve got a sound I our heads 
and we try to replicate it, it tends to work out.”


What sort of stuff were you listening to before recording the album?
“A lot of Wilco, that was the real influence, “Summer Teeth” and “Yankee Hotel”, a bit of Grandaddy as well, the new album 
is good and Dusty Springfield actually…” more scuffles and yelps “…I’m just moving the car at the moment, you’ll have to 
pardon the noise, I just got beeped at by a guy in a truck as well so… it’s time”


What was the last album that you really got into?
“Probably The Shins, it’s magic, I put it in the stereo and it didn’t leave the CD player for about a month or so, that’s 
the first album I’ve really, seriously caned for a while”


"Food and sleep, I’m a big fan of both."


Now that ‘A Song Is A City” is out, how has the response been?
“Its been really good, you can’t get much happier than this, it did really well early on which we didn’t expect, but it 
didn’t do ridiculous amounts, so it’s kind of a good middle ground I think. Commercial play helps with being able to play 
bigger venues and we’re really happy about that”


But you’re still down to your last $40?
“It’s a problem isn’t it, no how much money you make the shows get bigger and you have to spend more”


Have you been able to establish yourself financially at all?
“No, just generally living week to week”


Did you watch the Olympics - Why or why not?
“Yeh I watched the Olympics, I actually really enjoy watching sport and what I like about the Olympics is that you just 
watch sports that you’d never ever watch. I mean I’m never going to tune into diving, or you know, softball - who watches 
softball? I can’t believe they don’t let them play baseball, you can tell they want to bowl overarm, it can’t be too good 
for the hips”


What do you look forward to at the end of the day?
“Food and sleep, I’m a big fan of both. I like making a good meal, sitting down with friends, eating it… and then going to 
bed”.


What do you dig the most about what you do?
“I think just the freedom of being able to do it anywhere, not having an office and just the fact that this is what we’d be 
doing in our spare time anyway, so to be able to pay yourself money to do what you really love, yeh well, that’s about all 
you can… dream really”