With the arrival of our newest Lurker – Griffin Cubby born May 2011 – we’ve been quiet for a few months.
Welcome to the world Griffin Cubby!
Baby climate activist
Griffin at his first protest
2 weeks old and braving the leeches
Practicing with his dad
But we’re coming out of hibernation, with a new album on the way, and a tour in July with Melbourne bands Ducks in the Mud and A Commoners Revolt. The Eat The Rich tour will take us to the SOS conference in Albury, the Phoenix Bar in Canberra, followed by shows at Jura Books and Dirty Shirlows in Sydney.
Eat the Rich Tour 2011
We’re also playing at the Winter Magic Festival in Katoomba in a few weeks, and a new album in the pipeline! The album will be launched on September 17th at the Red Rattler in Marrickville.
After a brief two-hour stop over in Syderlee, The Lurkers continued the wonderful adventure south to Tathra and Pirate Studios with Dave Sparks. In 2010, guitarist Daniel Champagne suggested that we get in touch with Dave because of his great studio. We booked in for five nights and four days with Dave doing the audio engineering.
The attentive Mr Sparks
Working with Dave was a pleasure. His style is carefully attentive and not too gentle – he’ll always go for one more take it he thinks we can get the best take. Dave’s background is in punk and because of this his recording style gets a genuine sound that we are really happy with.
The way we’ve been recording is pretty straight musically where we set up a room mic plus mics on each of the three instruments and just go for it. Some songs take longer than others – there was a memorably epic 28 takes for one song. Normally one f the first few takes are the best.
After recording the backing music the lead vocalist will go and do their take.
After the main vocals are done, then the harmonies and any instruments to put over the top like mandolin or solos.
Occasionally, there are some sound effects to our tracks. The little touches make all the difference.
We didn’t want to waste Dave’s time so we’d practice after he’d gone off to bed. Our working day was nine till ten or eleven with breaks for lunch and dinner. Still by then end of the four days our ears were pretty worn out from concentration and our egos shattered from hearing our own selves back over and over again. Tempers were frayed by the end of each day because recording takes a specific musician – perfectionistic attention to detail. Not The Lurkers, but we work hard to get there.
As expensive, difficult and unrewarding it can be recording is unavoidable for a small independent artist. You’ve got to have something to take on the road and give people. Also, getting played on the radio is a massive help if you’re playing in towns you’ve never been. Community radio will often play your songs and promote your shows getting punters who might buy your cd.
In the end of the four days we had recorded eleven songs and mixed six. We’re going back in March with Mim Jones to help out on fiddle for a few tracks and to record a couple more. We’re aiming now to have the album out in June/July under the working title ‘Padlock and Chain’. Joel Tarling is doing design and art for the package and you can check out his art here.
Some of you in the big lurky family might already know (or have noticed) that I’m about five and a half months pregnant. From what I’ve found so far, there are two types of difficulties with being pregnant and travelling round being in a band:
1 – the actual physical and emotion constraints, and
2 – coping with other people’s judgmental comments.
One of the first things someone said to me when they found out I was pregnant was ‘oh you’ll have to stop doing gigs then’. This was astounding news to me. All I could say was ‘um, I disagree’. (This comes along with a litany of other unhelpful advice along the lines of: you’ll have to get a bigger house, sensible car and buy heaps of plastic crap).
5 months pregnant at Peats Ridge Festival: yes, that's lemonade
Why is it that when you announce you’re pregnant, people assume that you have to get a lobotomy and start living a suburban nightmare?
Admittedly, there are definitely some physical and emotional constraints that are very real and need to be factored in:
Oh wow, the exhaustion!
I had no idea I could feel so utterly utterly buggered. For the first couple of months, I would come home from work, sleep for a few hours, eat some tea then sleep for another ten hours. It felt like being on some kind of sedative 24/7. Feeling tired and crap for the first couple of month made rehearsals a bit unproductive. Also, Pretty Boy Floyd and the Weary Hobo have been doing most of the driving when I’ve been feeling so sleepy I could fall asleep any time, anywhere.
Morning sickness
Performing with morning sickness was a bit of a challenge. At a gig at The Shack in Narrabeen, I was dry wretching through the show which was a bit tough while trying to sing. Here’s a video of that show:
Crazy mood swings
I feel very lucky that there’s a lot of love and trust in The Lurkers and the Weary Hobo and Pretty Boy Floyd are extremely accommodating with my mood swings and unexplained tears. Playing music makes me feel so much better and usually the tears dry up after a song or two. A cuddle, some singing and not being treated like a freak are a pretty good cure for pregnancy mood swings.
Travelling
Actually travelling so far has been great. We toured to Melbourne and Adelaide when I was 11-13 weeks pregnant. I was feeling tired and sick for the first bit, but turned a corner about a week in. Being on the road was really great at that time – playing music and travelling with The Lurkers makes me feel good despite the weird hormones pumping through my body.
At the Switch off Hazelwood rally in Victoria (3 months pregnant)
Despite the travelling, it was much easier than being at work, where it’s not really appropriate to cry during meetings.
We’re planning to go back to Melbourne and also do another stint in the rehearsal studio in March, at which point I’ll be 7 months pregnant. We might need to take the driving slowly and plan in a few extra rest breaks than usual.
In our last recording session, the baby actually started kicking in time after listening to “I’m in love with a skinny man” for 90 minutes. I’m hoping that means it’s starting to recognise the music and will therefore feel safe and happy at gigs.
At Pirate Studios near Tathra (5 months pregnant)
Playing at Peats Ridge Festival was awesome, though the heat was full on. Your body is already hotter when you’re pregnant, and it definitely makes the heat harder to cope with. So the chai tent at 40 degrees on a summers afternoon did take it out of me. You can see in this video my hair is drenched cause I had to duck backstage and douse myself in a bottle of cold water halfway through the set.
Performing while very pregnant
This logistical challenge is still to come! My tummy is sticking out a bit, but I can still hold the banjo with no dramas, and I haven’t had any breathing troubles yet. We’ve got a song on an upcoming compilation of Eric Bogle songs, which is being launched at The National Folk Festival at easter – by when I’ll be eight and a half months pregnant. I’m hoping we’ll be there to perform at the launch, but we might just need to see how we’re faring then. There are so many changes in such a short time it’s really hard to know what it will be like.
Hibernation period (baby arrival time)
After the baby is born (due 8th May), we’ve put a line through all of May – no gigs and no pressure as we spend some time hibernating and showing a new little person around this amazing word of ours. But we’ll ease our way back in gently, with a show at Hornsby Folk Club in June, and then our album launch in August.
Lurking with a baby
We’re also contemplating a trip up the NSW north coast in October. We’ve put a window in the back seat of the Lurker van so we can bring this new little character on the road.
Also, before you ask, no – The Lurkers are not planning to become a kids band.
All offers of baby holding during gigs will be taken seriously and are very much appreciated.
The Lurkers spent last weekend down at a friend’s beach shack to work on some new recordings. There’s still a long way to go before we have a new album, but we’re on the path – writing new songs, listening back and looking at how they might all fit together in a new album.
Our beach shack studio
We recorded 17 tracks – some that we’ve been playing at gigs for a while – like ‘Aint done Nothing’ and ‘Little Crooked House’, some that we wrote after getting back from Copenhagen like ‘Kitchen’, ‘Skinny Man’ and ‘Peabody Coal’. And some we’re working on some newies as well.
Playing on the verandah
We’re farming the recordings out to trusted ears to get feedback on how it all hangs together – at the moment I feel like the the balance is tipped too far towards slow songs and we need a few more hoedowns… Can’t start a revolution in absence of the hoedown! Though I’m voting to cut ‘Darlin you can’t love one’ from the mix – even though it’s fun it can get really annoying after a few plays.
Punk bluegrass ratbags The Lurkers released their first album "Shoot to the Moon" in 2009. They spend much of their time travelling the country in a biodiesel powered yellow van, playing at festivals, parties and protests. Their second album is due for release in 2011.
Lurkerlust 