ESKIMO JOE - The 'Main Event
JOE CIPRIANI
Posted on August 17, 2005 05:33 PM


No matter what terms you choose, be it record sales, gig attendance, or perceived profile, Eskimo Joe are one of the 
biggest acts to ever come out of Perth. On Friday, August 19, they headline the X-Press 20th anniversary reader's 
party Eat Cake, at the Perth Concert Hall. It is a fitting placement for a band that started out like any other 
Perth act, but became the stuff dreams are made of. MIKE WAFER discusses with Joel Quartermain.

Like many other people in the local scene, I saw Eskimo Joe when they were but weeks old, having a laugh at the Campus 
Band Competition. The first time I reviewed the band, they were the opening act. The first time I interviewed them it 
was because their debut CD Sweater (part of the prize package for winning the aforementioned competition) was being 
released. They are now platinum-selling artists who spend more time on the road than at home. To deny this is the 
result of anything other than talent and hard work is to be cruelly unfair.

"We've just got back from a six week tour, so we're all pretty happy to be back at home now," says Joel with a tone of 
exhaustion in his voice. "The first four weeks were awesome, and everything was smooth, but in the last two a bit of 
cabin fever started to set in (laughs). We were driving for most of the tour, because we were mainly doing regional 
shows, so after a while of that you start to get a little bit on edge. Me and Kav and Stu have been touring together 
since '98, so we're used to it now, and you get better at it the more you do it. I don't mean you get better the 
longer the tour is, but the more times you go on tour, the more you know how to deal with it. It's like a marriage, 
the longer you stick it out the more you know what works and what gets on other people's nerves, and you just behave 
accordingly."

For these the three core members of Eskimo Joe, the band is a lot like a marriage. Close friends and mutual admirers, 
the trio are oft found talking one another up, showing their respect, and commenting on the skill of one another. Their 
friendship is strong enough to have seen them through many ups and downs, and their respect for one another's skill the 
source of their success.

"Everyone in the band has their own strengths, and we learned early on to make use of those. We figured out what everyone's
 strengths were, and what our weaknesses are, and we utilised what we learned to make our songwriting stronger. Actually, 
I was just watching the documentary about U2's making of The Unforgettable Fire, and Brian Eno was saying that he had 
recorded so many different bands, but when U2 came in he didn't have to do anything to them because they were already aware 
of what their strengths and weakness were, so they had it worked out before he needed to show them. That's kind of what I 
mean. We all have our strengths and weaknesses in the band and we play up the strengths and play down the weaknesses."

The songwriting process is never a singular affair, according to Quartermain, as the dynamic outlined above relies on the 
natural and developed chemistry between the three main members of the band.

"Well there's the recording members of Eskimo Joe, which is me and Kav and Stu, and there's the live members of Eskimo Joe, 
which is a five piece. When we write it's usually all three of us, and we swap instruments. If Kav has a guitar in his 
hands I'll have a piano, or if he has a piano I'll have a guitar. Stu always has a guitar in his hands, but he can play 
piano as well. What'll happen is we'll go over to Kav's for a songwriting session, and the three of us will just work on 
ideas and develop them together as we go. We don't write on the road because we don't have the time. Usually we drive to 
the venue, set up our stuff and sound check, then go back to where we are staying and maybe do some washing or whatever, 
and then head back to the venue to play, then we're off again (laughs). We have one new song that we had on the road that 
we would muck around with during soundcheck, but it's just not the way we work."

Given how much time the boys spend on the road, they certainly work fast once they're at home though, as they are already 
half way through writing their next album.

"We want to have it out by November," Joel reveals, "We've got half of the songs written, and we're really happy with them. 
We want to have about 14 songs to choose from when we go to record, so we can cut it back down to about 11 or so, depending 
on what songs service the record the best. We spend a lot of time on pre-production so that when we eventually get into the 
big expensive studio we don't waste time. We know exactly what we want to do and how to do it, so we don't waste time and 
money."

"This new record is going to be quite different from the last one. The last one is a lot more introspective, because it's a 
break-up record. This next one is probably going to be a lot less mellow and a lot more up beat I think."