"I’m named after a Rolling Stones song and one of my middle names is Wolfgang."
When a musician lists his type of influences as “quite dark; people like Bridezilla, Nick Cave and early Patrick Wolf”, coupled with the fact that he’s been trained as a classical pianist at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music and can also play guitar, double bass, autoharp and pretty much anything else that you can throw at him, you know he’s on track to make something pretty special. The young man I’m referring to is JACK COLWELL, the Sydney-based frontman for indie folk act Jack Colwell & The Owls. Colwell is in the midst of promoting his new single Hopechest and will soon be putting it on display for audiences to hear in Sydney, Melbourne and Canberra.
Given his classical background, it seems a little odd that Colwell is gracing the stages of intimate pubs instead of lavish concert halls. “Well, I wasn’t that good at writing classical pieces,” he offers. “I was okay, but I knew a lot of people who were better. [From a young age] I found it really easy to write songs. I’m even named after a Rolling Stones song, Jumpin’ Jack Flash, and one of my middle names is Wolfgang, which my Mum gave me after her favourite composer Mozart. So even in my name there’s a marriage between the two genres.”
Adapting genres and making them his own seems to be a bit of a trademark for Colwell, whose new single is a reworking of a song written in the ‘60s by an obscure English folk singer. “The song is an adaptation of a Vashti Bunyan song called Diamond Day,” he explains. “These days to do a rework of a song, certainly in terms of classical music – it’s not a big deal. Classical composers use themes from other people’s music to echo an idea but then take the idea further.” A technique another of Colwell’s idols, Tori Amos, has also employed on her latest album. He continues, “The melody from Diamond Day is used in Hopechest in order to echo that traditional English folk heritage, which is what my background is – being English and Welsh – but then it takes it into a view of my own.”
Normally Colwell plays live accompanied by a talented backing band, but for his upcoming Canberra show he’ll be treating fans in the capital to a special, one of a kind solo performance. “They’ll probably hear a mix of older and new material, rather than just the stuff that’ll be coming out next year on my debut album Picture Window,” he says. “I think doing a solo show is probably one of the scariest things you can do because it’s just so much about you. For a very long time I didn’t really believe in myself as a solo player. But since having a successful run with the band shows, that gave me the power back in myself to have that presence for a solo show and to really make sure that when I was singing these songs I really believed in what I was singing.”
Jack Colwell and his Owls will be launching Hopechest over the coming weeks in three shows on the east coast. For show and ticket details, check out the poster below.
If you'd like an idea of what a Jack Colwell and The Owls live show is like, get a glimpse with the following video - taken at his recent show at Sydney venue FBI Social:
Comments
Post a Comment