An Eskimo In New York

ESKIMO JOE

BELIEVE IT or not, but Eskimo Joe are celebrating their tenth birthday this year. But while many bands could be slowly 
sliding down the other side of Mt Success, this Fremantle trio are perched on the very attractive real estate at the 
top. It also doesn’t look like they have any chance of slipping just yet, either.

With three albums to their name, including their latest chart-stormer Black Fingernails, Red Wine, it’s hardly 
surprising to hear guitarist Stuart MacLeod admit his highlights from the past decade.

“The best things that happen are recording each new album,” he says, after a nostalgic pause. “There are moments 
within that process that you’ll never forget, and generally the process as a whole is such an amazing memory. It’s 
such a great time; we love being in the studio  -  we’d live in there if we could. For us that’s the most memorable 
and rewarding time.”

The past year alone has been pinnacle in Eskimo Joe’s rise to the top of Australian music, largely due to their Top 
10 single ‘Black Fingernails, Red Wine’. The song even ended the year in the number two position in Triple J’s Hottest 
100, one position higher than their previous entry ‘From The Sea’ in 2004.

“That song really has done some amazing things for us this year, that’s for sure,” MacLeod says. “I remember when we 
were writing it and jamming it in soundchecks while we were touring  -  we all felt there was something good going on 
there.”

But ‘Black Fingernails…’ is old news now! ‘New York’ is the single du jour, and the reason why the three-piece are 
hitting the road again. While the song itself is an album highlight, the Bob Dylan- and John Lennon-inspired film clip 
is also winning hearts.

“Me and Kav were doing a test shoot of it on my camera, of Kav taking his shirt off on the street,” MacLeod says, of 
the video’s idea. “We got back to my house and I was doing some editing, and I was trying to slow it down and it just 
wouldn’t do it. I pressed the reverse button just to see if that would work, and it did, and it looked fantastic so we 
rang the director and said we have to do the whole thing backwards!”

Filming in song’s namesake city, frontman Kav Temperley had to spend a day walking through Manhattan stripping off layers 
of T-shirts, each one with the song lyric he was singing printed on them.

“[It was] funny actually, but not as funny as the fact that he had to learn the entire song backwards in a day…he really 
enjoyed that one!” he laughs. “He had to sing it backwards so when we reversed it he was singing forwards (even though it 
doesn’t look like he’s singing).”

Choosing ‘New York’ as their third single was never an issue  -  the song had been a favourite from the early days of 
writing the album, initially being their musical guideline.

“When we were writing [Black Fingernails…], that was the first real key song on the album. It was the first benchmark 
track, if you will,” he says. “So when it came along we were pretty excited and we knew it was a special song. It became 
the standard that we had to beat for a while, and then Black Fingernails came along.”

Eskimo Joe play The Tivoli Thursday May 3 and Friday May 4. Black Fingernails, Red Wine out on Warner.

DANIEL CRICHTON-ROUSE