A few weeks ago I spent a few days recording at Toolebewong House. It was intended to be a week but I got sick halfway through. The days we did spend recording were fabulous, however, and we recorded two songs. The whole thing was set up by Julian, who also supplied the audio engineering, producing, musical vision, and as always, fabulous humour.  I met Jules when I was studying at LaTrobe Uni and he wrote a review of our (Alto Avenue) album ‘Your Worlds’ for the student paper. Over the years we have played music together, set up a music management company for a while, set up various home studios together, and generally kept in touch while we had families and our home and work lives took us in a range of directions. Over the last couple of years Jules moved back to Melbourne, and we’ve slowly been building towards this musical collaboration. I’d hate to try and count the hours we’ve spent talking, exchanging texts or otherwise about music. What it means to us. Songwriting. Arranging. Different approaches to recording. Being attached to outcomes, avoiding the traps, honouring the process, working out what the process is. What’s involved. Why we love it. Every part of it up for examination – often at great length and with much detail, often looping back, but ultimately always going somewhere and building to something, even if we can’t see it yet. A fabulous indulgence.
Here is the first song from this new collaboration, and some photos of the Toolebewong House session, with thanks to Julian, Melchior, Michaela, Rose & Caitlyn.
Bandcamp: https://taobak.bandcamp.com/album/rising-up-2
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/track/5T4raCWAZgwJukMRx3i9qO?si=8d0d4490b9dc475f
