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PAUL KELLY |
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 On this page:
*Paul Kelly interview
*Paul Kelly Discography (all available on Whammo)
*Paul Kelly Australian Tour dates
PAUL KELLY - THE WHAMMO INTERVIEW - APRIL 19, 2004
Search the internet for references to Paul Kelly and you'll find a recurring theme. Most reviews, whether they're based on live performances or his many releases, will begin by telling the reader that Kelly is a celebrated Australian songwriter and possibly the country's finest. He's been compared to Bob Dylan and Bruce Springstein, not as a reference to style but an indication of how this unique visionary captures the spirit of the people and places of his homeland. Kelly was unheralded for an entire decade before his breakthrough album, Post, launched him to the top of critics' lists in 1984/85. In an environment of pub rock bands and keyboard-powered neuromantics, Kelly's celebration of Australian culture struck a chord with listeners who, since that time, have always warmly welcomed the release of his studio albums (10 in total), countless collaborations, side-projects and movie soundtracks. While Kelly's heart belongs to Australia, his following has spread globally after regular tours of North America, Europe, UK and Ireland. It's not surprising to find that Americans, in particular, are keen to discover the magic of Paul Kelly's music, considering their love for roots music; a broad genre that bests describes the troubadors latest offering Ways And Means. Once again, a collection of songs has emerged that could potentially offer enough fuel to generate a hundred films, so vivid is the imagery. But Kelly doesn't pretend to be a master of his trade. Like most true artists, his creations are born of compulsion, not ego...
Paul: I feel incomplete if I'm not writing. I was writing stuff from when I first left school. It wasn't about songs then. I was writing stories and poems. I wanted to be a writer. Then I started playing guitar and puting words to music. I've been hooked on that. I just find it so allusive. It's so much fun when you manage to write a song. That's the kick. It's from inside; the need to write songs is inside me.
Whammo: Now I'm interested to know if you do any other type of writing besides music.
Paul: Not really. I keep a journal often , when we travel, but nothing for publication. Songwriting is the main game. I don't feel like I've quite got a hold of it. That's the nature of songwriting and poetry: you never quite get the hang of it.
Whammo: (laughs) But most other people would consider you to be among Australia's finest songwriters, yet you still think you've got a ways to go before you perfect the art.
Paul: I don't know if it's anything you could perfect. It's not something you could entirely control. It's not like being a carpenter, making a table, where you go "I know how to make a table: I'll just get the materials and follow the steps, use the right methods...and make a table". It doesn't work like that for songs. Sometimes you've just got to sneak up on it somehow (laughs).
Whammo: Do you think that's one of the more intriguing facets of art: never quite having the time to master the medium?
Paul: ‘Art is never finished, it's just abandoned.’
Whammo: Nice.
Paul: Someone else said that, not me. I don't know who said it.
Whammo: I'll consider it yours.
Paul: (laughs)
Whammo: Your lyrics are quite poetic.
Paul: Well, I've always been interested in language and words, so to me words are important. On the other hand, music comes first. I don't really write words before music. So to me it's songwriting, but I like the words to be vivid.
Whammo: You've said before, that you don't write autobiographically, so I'm imagining you as the sort of person that likes to sit back and absorb situations.
Paul: I like to participate as well. You'd have to ask other people, but I think I'm a participator. Sometimes I am at a loss for words in social situations. Maybe I listen more than I speak. I think songwriting, in particular, is a matter of keeping your ears open and a lot of songs start from what people say.
Whammo: You've worked with quite a few indigenous artists and through your music you've been able to shed some light on the plight of indigenous Australians. Once you'd met enough people did you feel a duty to write songs about the subject or was it something you just needed to express.
Paul: I've never written out of a sense of duty and, again, i don't really have messages in my head that I then try to transfer to paper. Sometimes things just strike you and you end up writing about them. I've been involved, through my travels and meeting other artists. Way back, I met Bart Willoughby from No Fixed Address, then crossed paths with Yothu Yindi a few times and went up to work with them, then Archie Roach and Kev Carmody. You just get involved and it's been a two-way street for me, learning from other artists and being influenced by them, as well as the other way around.
Whammo: We have a lot of Paul Kelly fans among our subscribers. Quite a few in the US. In fact, I just received an e-mail yesterday from a big fan, Deborah, who said she'd chatted with you a couple of times.
Paul: Yeah, we've just been there.
Whammo: How did it go?
Paul: This last tour was very good. We're still playing small clubs but the numbers have been steadily picking up in the last few years, so we're probably averaging 300 a night. That's about the size of the clubs we play and it seems to be building up. We're getting some national public radio play over there. We'll just continue to keep playing there. Canada's pretty good to. This last tour was probably the best one. We did a lot more radio this time -radio shows as well as live gigs - so it seems to be improving.
Whammo: With North Americans loving their roots music, I'd assume that your latest album, Ways And Means, has been well received over there.
Paul: When people get to hear the record and come see the band, they seem to respond positively. It's just a matter of people knowing about it. You could tour America forever – there are so many places to play - but I just haven't got the time.
Whammo: Was Ways And Means always going to be a double album?
Paul: We knew, before we went in to record, that we were going to try and do 24 songs. I booked the studio for three weeks and thought 'whatever we get done, we get done' but we ended up moving along pretty quickly and got all the songs recorded. I tried to treat them as two separate records. The first one is more of a Saturday night record and the second one is more of a Sunday morning. I don't like CDs that are too long. I think 40 to 45 minutes is a good length for a record, so that's why I thought fairly early, that instead of making one long CD, we'd go for making two, so people can listen to them as different records, depending on what mood they're in.
Whammo: What else were you trying to achieve through the record? Was there any binding element or thing that you wanted to communicate in particular?
Paul: The really exciting thing was that it was a new band; two really young guys in the band; the two Dans: Dan Luscombe and Dan Kelly. When we first started to jam together, their interplay was a real defining feature as a band. I just wanted to make sure that we didn't lose that when we recorded. I wanted a studio big enough, so that we could all set up and just play. I invited Tchad Blake in as a producer, who was thinking along those lines as well. He didn't want to polish things up; wanted to capture the band playing together. That was what we set out to do.
Whammo: It's a very cohesive album because of that. It seems to be bound together by the relationships, musically.
Paul: Very much so. We worked the arrangements for a long time. By the time we came to record, we'd been playing the songs for a fair bit and we had the arrangements sorted. We could just relax and enjoy playing the songs. I think that comes across on the record. It was really a lot of fun to make.
Whammo: I guess, after coming so far since 1984, you must be pretty thankful to the fans you had before you recorded Post, for keeping the flame alive.
Paul: That's probably what's helped me over the years: people coming along to hear the music, regardless of radio play or media attention. That's really the one thing you can count on. |
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 PAUL KELLY
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2 cd pack
I'd like to think that Whammo stops for no one, but the arrival of Paul Kelly's new album has proven me wrong. I instantly - and respectfully - dropped whatever I was doing to review Ways & Means, a 2CD set that treats long-standing fans to 21 superbly crafted tunes by the man generally considered the be Australia's greatest songwriter. For a man who has mastered most genres and definitely dabbled in every possible subject matter, challenges may be dwindling, yet Kelly sinks his teeth into the hardest trick in the book; to write optimistic love songs 'without being banal, sentimental or smug' (his own words). Ways & Means is exactly what you'd expect: exceptionally written, lovingly produced and precisely played. Paul's nephew Dan is credited with many collaborations and as usual, our favourite storyteller has gathered a high profile backing band: Dan & Peter Luscombe, Bill McDonald, Dan Kelly, Graham Lee and Bruce Haymes. Most tracks have a country/folky feel but songs like Heavy Thing and Crying Shame manage to dredge up a growling, electric style of blues that shows Kelly can create a solid and dirty groove. If Kelly's destination was beauty and optimism, Beautiful Feeling and My Way Is To You travel different paths to reach the goal; that's a key to Kelly's genius; a mixture of approaches, all stylised by that distinctive voice, always telling his fans a new story with the intimacy of a close friend. The world seems to have a very low opinion of itself at the moment and there's never been a better time for a gentle reminder of that L.O.V.E thing that we supposedly live for. In Paul Kelly we have writer/performer that manages to catch our most precious commodity and package it. Having said that, Ways & Means is one hell of a package.
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NOTHING BUT A DREAM + THE GIFT THAT KEEPS ON GIVING (SPECIAL 5 TRACK BONUS EDITION)
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 PAUL KELLY
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2 cd pack
The success of Paul Kelly's current single About to Break has led to the release of this special bonus pack. Nothing But A Dream is his 9th studio album and features hit singles Somewhere In The City and Would You Be My Friend? with trademark backing by Nick Cave's right-hand man Mick Harvey. This special bonus edition includes a five track bonus disc of Paul's versions of songs from The Women at the Well tribute album. A must for Kelly's loyal fans.
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SILENT PARTNER: ORIGINAL SOUNDTRACK
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 PAUL KELLY
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cd
Australia’s pre-eminent songman, Paul Kelly doesn’t make bad albums, it’s more a question of how good. His first solo work since 1998’s Words And Music, Nothing But A Dream is a solid return. From the wonderfully eclectic Professor Ratbaggy and Uncle Bill records and the hugely successful Roll On Summer EP, he returns in 2001 with his 9th studio album, Nothing But A Dream, lead by the classic single, Somewhere In The City, and featuring Would You Be My Friend? with trademark backing by Nick Cave's right-hand man Mick Harvey, and the acoustic ballad of a homeless man in Smoke Under the Bridge.
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 PROFESSOR RATBAGGY
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cd
Originally released in April 2000, this eponymous debut has been re-issued. Professor Ratbaggy is Paul Kelly and Andy Baldwin; it is, if you like, PaulÂ’s electronic voice in his folky wilderness. Leaning heavily towards dub, KellyÂ’s obvious intention is to maintain the standards of traditional songwriting while applying the diversity of sounds that electronic production allows. So donÂ’t expect underground, experimental club tunes; this is still about a pleasing song. He keeps it fairly minimal, which is probably why heÂ’s gone to dub and breakbeat for drum lines and open melodies with the odd lyric to remind us itÂ’s good old Paul Kelly at the helm.
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 PAUL KELLY
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cd
Having returned to Australia and formed a new back-up band made up of old friends who happened to also be the elite of Melbourne’s music scene, Paul Kelly was back to his best with 1998’s Words And Music. There were hit singles (Tease Me, It Started With A Kiss), as well as a handful of other diverse instant classics (Nothing On My Mind, Melting).
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SONGS FROM THE SOUTH - GREATEST HITS
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 PAUL KELLY
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On the back of his studio album Deeper Water, Paul Kelly’s Greatest Hits, released in 1997, became by far the most successful album for this artist - and one of the highest selling Australian albums of the 1990s. There’s hardly a track among the 20 songs collected here that isn’t an established Oz rock classic. Songs From the South confirmed once and for all Kelly’s legendary status in Australian music.
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LIVE AT THE CONTINENTAL AND THE ESPLANADE
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 PAUL KELLY
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cd
Originally only available as a mail-order album for fans, this collection of live tracks was finally commercially released in the middle of 1996. A raw warts-and-all recording made up of three shows recorded in Kelly’s adopted home town of Melbourne between 1994 and 1995, it includes perennial Kelly live favourites such as To Her Door, Pouring Petrol On A Burning Man, Dumb Things and Darling It Hurts.
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 PAUL KELLY
Add to basket. Normally ships within 10 days $16.95 (US $10.48) (UK £5.86)
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After a music career already spanning over three decades, Wanted Man - released in 1994 - was Paul Kelly’s first solo studio album. Backed by a band of mostly American session players (Kelly was living in America at the time), it was a fairly straight-ahead presentation of a new set of Kelly compositions. Stand-outs included God’s Hotel (based on a poem by Nick Cave), the lilting Song From The Sixteenth Floor, the reggae-tinged We’ve Started A Fire and the tongue-in-cheek rock of Everybody Wants To Touch Me.
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 PAUL KELLY
Add to basket. Normally ships within 10 days $16.95 (US $10.48) (UK £5.86)
2 cd pack
Released late in 1992, this is a double-CD capturing the heart and essence of Paul Kelly’s acoustic tour earlier that year. A mix of two shows, one at Perth’s Regal Theatre and the other at Melbourne’s Athenaeum Theatre, the recording is a sparse affair littered with fan favourites (To Her Door, Wintercoat, Same Old Walk, Dumb Things) and some new songs (Foggy Highway, I Was Hoping You’d Say That, Just Like Animals).
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SO MUCH WATER SO CLOSE TO HOME
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GOSSIP (REMASTERED + 3 BONUS TRACKS)
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 PAUL KELLY & THE COLOURED GIRLS
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2 cd pack
Paul Kelly is Australia's greatest songwriter and Gossip is arguably his greatest album. Finally, after so many years, this seminal double LP has been re-issued for the first time, remastered and repackaged in a collectors' edition 8 panel digi pak featuring the original 12" vinyl artwork including lyrics and 3 bonus tracks featured on the original vinyl release. Originally recorded in 1986, Gossip made Paul Kelly a household name and cemented his reputation as a songwriter of rare quality. Hits like Darling It Hurts displayed Kelly's knack for communicating tragedy and the darker side of the Australian psyche. The breakthrough album was more than a collection of 24 catchy tunes; its emphasis on Australian names, characters and stories proved the existence of an Aussie culture and Gossip's success also proved that Australians wanted to hear songs that defined that culture. Kelly paved the way for us to sing about ourselves and value the characteristics - good and bad - that make us Australian. The song Marilinga also signalled the beginning of Kelly's proactive interest in the plight of indigenous Australians; a concern that has led to several insightful compositions penned by the award-winning songwriter and his collaborations with performers like Kev Carmody and Archie Roach. Gossip also introduced Kelly to American audiences when it was released in the US during 1987. It's an introduction that has blossomed into a love affair and led to Kelly's reputation spreading across the globe. For so many reasons Gossip is a 'must have' for discerning music lovers and all those who appreciate good songwriting.
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 PAUL KELLY
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Now regarded as an all-time classic, this 1985 album exhibits the raw talent which has since grown and expanded to make Paul Kelly one of Australia’s most lauded narrative songwriters and popular performers. Opens with the seminal Melbourne vs Sydney anthem From St Kilda to Kings Cross.
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Paul Kelly : Australian Tour Dates
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April
23....Canberra Royal Theatre, Canberra
24....Geelong Performing Art Centre (GPAC), Geelong
27....Melbourne Concert Hall, Melbourne
May
5.....Her Majesty's Theatre, Adelaide
8.....Bunbury Entertainment Centre, Bunbury
10....Perth Concert Hall, Perth
11....Goldfields Art Centre, Kalgoorlie
14....State Theatre, Sydney
18....Newcastle Civic Theatre, Newcastle
26....Queensland Performing Art Centre (QPAC), Brisbane |
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