I’ll
kick off by asking what does it mean to be a new traditionalist?
I think in some ways
I look at it as a bit of an honorary role.
It obviously means ties to the traditional country but it sounds like
it’s brand new material … I’m quite
happy to be called that and it is a bit of an honour to have that
branding. [I] take it pretty seriously
but I’ve always got somewhere to know where my roots are and where I come from
and I can always tell exactly where I’m at with my music because I have that
base that I’ve come from. So it’s good.
And
lineage is pretty important in country music.
A lot of artists are really aware of what’s come before and honouring
traditions and honouring lineages. You’ve
been playing since you were about seven – what was the music within country
that first appealed to you? Or what performers, rather?
I think it all
started when I was about seven my dad first brought home our first beta video
and it was Smokey and the Bandit and
I saw Sally Fields and, of course, black Trans AM as a pick-up truck and [laughs]
Jerry Reid playing guitar and singing and for me, it was just a very memorising
thing. It was just like America was this
land of loud V8 cars and pretty girls and this endless supply of fun and sort
of capitalism, I guess. And I don’t
know, my dad always drove imported American vehicles and my mum was a big fan
of Merle Haggard and Johnny Cash, Slim Whitman and that kind of thing, ’cause
my dad was a bush balladeer singer and sang Australian country bush music, and
I guess I just went in on that American route and I don’t think it was any too
big a surprise to anyone when I ended up moving there about eight years
ago. Americans seem to gravitate to what
I do because I have that Australian background and it’s something
different. And Australians – I’m doing
something different when I’m doing my American thing, but country music has
this wonderful attachment to all the different other music and a lot of country
acts are either working against the grain or you’re off the music or you’re
working with the grain of the music, and to me either way you’re doing it is
fine. The new styles of country are just
as fine with me as the old styles as well, but of course what I do is more
along the lines of the traditionalist because that’s just who I am, but I
appreciate it all.
I’m
still stuck on your line of you saw America as an endless supply of fun and
capitalism [laughs].
Well endless supply
of fun … and capitalism. As a child I
guess if someone tells you you can have an ice cream and then they tell you
there’s this land where you can eat ice cream all you want, as a child you have
this different perception of things, but of course as an adult going there and
choosing to live, it’s different than what I thought it was as a child. It’s still very good and it’s changed a lot,
of course, but it’s kind of like I have two homes now and when I’m here I talk
about going home there and when I’m there, I definitely talk about actually
going back home to Australia. So it gets
confusing [laughs].
And
it’s often a fraught decision for Australian country music performers to make
that move to Nashville and spend any amount of time there in terms of living
there, because sometimes people back here don’t react so well. I remember seeing Kristy Cox on Peel Street in
2014 on the Fanzone stage and the person who was introducing her talked about
her recording her album in Nashville and used a fairly accusatory tone as he
did it. But of course you have access to so much in Nashville that you don’t
have access to here in terms of session musicians and a range of studios. So it seems to be a logical thing to go to
Nashville.
I think all great
music that’s ever come out of anywhere has always been because of the artist
working a little bit against the norm, and it’s not really the fact that it’s
America so much, it’s just that it’s one of the places on the planet that at a
particular time in history had the ability and the right people in the right
place to make some great music. I mean,
you’ve got Nashville but then two and a half, three hours up the road you’ve
got Memphis, which is responsible for so much music in our rock ’n’ roll and
rock music today. And then of course there’s Louisiana, zydeco music and that
slippery sound that comes down Louisiana way.
So it’s just that America had the population and it had the ability at
the right time to be able to create new things.
Australia has that also, we have things here that are so unique and when
you take those unique things that are different and special to somewhere like
Nashville – and I’ve seen a lot of my brethren from Australia go to Nashville
and they really, really appreciate that something different. They say you can’t take coal to Newcastle –
it’s no good taking something that’s already been done to Nashville or to
Tamworth here in Australia and just doing an exact carbon copy of one of the
greats that we’ve had in the past.
You’ve got to have your own thing going on, but I like to look at myself
as a citizen of the world because I’ve done so much travelling and I’ve played
in so many different countries and the one thing that is always common is that
I find that Americans say everything’s bigger and better in America. It is bigger in America but not necessarily
always better; it’s just different. We
have musicians and songwriters and performers here in Australia that are just
fantastic, and there’s good performers and songwriters and singers everywhere
you go. There’s always a good musician
and a good songwriter is always needed and always wanted and always appreciated
no matter where they are. Kristy and I were
touring through the Netherlands just before we came back to Australia and we
met some acts there, just blew my mind how fantastic they were. And you just think to yourself, wow, music is
a worldwide thing, it’s not just in one place at one moment; it’s everywhere
all the time.
It’s
really interesting how country music is interpreted in different places,
because there’s an emerging British country music scene. Americana has had a
presence there for a while but the country music that’s coming through from the
UK now is quite American in nature in the Taylor Swift sort of vein of country
music – not that she’s country anymore apparently, but it’s interesting how
that’s been interpreted. There’s two
strands there: Americana or country pop, country rock and not a lot in
between. Whereas I think in Australia
there’s such a variety amongst the performers here and the songwriters that
it’s one of the thing that makes Tamworth such an extraordinary festival. There’s just so much on offer really.
We have a lot of
music here that there’s no different and not dissimilar in its styling to
America. America just tends to brand
more things country based. We’re in an
age where depending on where you are on the planet, things are constantly
rebranded all the time. You’ve got the
same product but it’s rebranded or branded or promoted differently in different
countries and in different regions. So
what Americans might perceive as Taylor Swift coming from the country scene –
and now I think she said herself that she’s no longer considers herself to be
country, but that’s just her growing as an act and odds are that one day she’ll
return to her roots, but I think it’s all good.
I think that the only way an artist can grow is to not pigeonhole
themselves into one area; you have to take everything in so that you can grow
as an artist. And that’s what makes
things special and different. That’s how
you get the uniqueness out of things, and I think Australia doesn’t have a fear
of losing itself or its originality because with the geographical separation,
it’s always coming up with new, exciting totally individual sounds all the time
and it’s been responsible over the years so much for new sounds. We’ve got so many famous Australian acts that
have done so well worldwide because of that, I feel.
And
I also think that Tamworth as an event seems to be a catalyst for a lot of
creative connections as well as just creativity full stop. I’ve talked to so many performers who have
met producers or who have met co-songwriters or all sorts of people in Tamworth,
and not that we can quantify that effect but it does seem – and, obviously, a segue
into talking about you being in Tamworth – but it does seem like it’s this
extraordinary thing that happens, that everyone’s in the one place and you have
opportunities to connect with each other and amazing things come out of it.
Totally. I go to Tamworth and I do what they call the
new traditionalist or some people call it honkytonk music or some people would
even brand it maybe Americana, because in America Americana means a bit more
traditional American way of doing things and elsewhere in the world Americana’s
going into this soup which is a little bit different interpretation. But at Tamworth I do my thing and I think
it’s about variety. I think people want
to see different things, they want to see a little bit of this and a little bit
of that, and you can get that at Tamworth.
I think that’s a good thing and I know there are people who like to see
Tamworth going in one particular direction but that’s uncontrollable. You can’t control the trends and the talents and
the people – it’s going to grow into what it’s going to grow into and I
appreciate that. You’ve just got to let
it do its thing and that’s beautiful in itself.
I
know you have quite a few shows to play in Tamworth and this has to be one of
the heaviest rosters of anyone coming into the next Tamworth, and quite a few
different venues as well. So you should
see a few varied audiences, I would imagine, but are you going to wear yourself
out?
Well, it’s not so
much the workload with the singing. I’ve
got nine, ten full shows, one show on every day, and then I’ve got a whole
series of small appearances and small guest spots and of course promo stuff to
do, but I am a little concerned because any day now I’m going to be a father
for the first time, and me and Kristy are – her schedule’s very, very busy as
well. And we do have a couple of full-time babysitters organised for the
festival but both of us have a very, very, very heavy roster. So fitting the new family thing into that is
going to be interesting but we are used to living out of suitcases and we’ve
been in for the tour before we came to Australia, we were in eight different
countries under 30 days. So we’ll
continue to do that except next time we’ll probably be dragging a pram as well.
You
may need to talk to Brooke McClymont about how to do this because I think she
had a very small baby or after she had her daughter, she played Tamworth not
long after. So she might be able to give
some tips on how you juggle all of that.
It helps that she has sisters in her band, I think.
Yeah, it does. The support team no doubt is going to be
really important. Like I said, we’ve got
a couple of full-time babysitters coming to help and Kristy will be on the red
carpet 20 days after her giving birth and a new mother. And I’m sure she’ll be looking fantastically
beautiful too. bBt it’s going to be a lot of fun and Tamworth always is a lot
of fun, but you can wear yourself out. I guess you just pace yourself.
And
make sure you’ve booked a holiday not long afterwards.
Yeah. Actually we were talking about that the other
day, but I am looking forward to this new album and seeing how that goes over
with my shows and with the people in Tamworth and the tour in August, September
that me and Kristy had, the new material, it was very well accepted I think and
I’m hoping to continue that in Tamworth and just display some of the new work
that I’ve been doing and getting out and having some fun and playing.
So
the new album is out, right, because that news passed me by completely that you
had an album out in October.
Yes. October the 17th and I released a
single, “In This Corner”, to radio and I’ve got a new video clip just about to
go to CMC, and [the album is] in stores:
Sanity, JB Hi-Fi and it’s on iTunes, and you can of course purchase it
from my website travislist.com. It’s the first actual release to radio that
I’ve done in this country. I haven’t
actually ever done one in Australia before and I was really honoured. It went to number 12 and that was probably
higher than I expected for a first release, but it was really encouraging and
there’ll be three or four more releases off that too including maybe a duet of
me and Kristy.
This Corner is out now. Travis's website is travislist.com.
TCMF 2015 dates:
Thursday, 15th January 2015
Tamworth Country Music Festival
Tamworth West Leagues Club – 8:00pm
Phillip St, Tamworth, New South Wales
BOOKINGS: (02) 6765 7588
Friday, 16th January 2015
Tamworth Country Music Festival
Tamworth South Bowling Club - 7:00pm
11 Margaret St, Tamworth, New South Wales
BOOKINGS: (02) 6765 5766
Saturday, 17th January 2015
Tamworth Country Music Festival – Pure Country Spectacular
Tamworth Capitol Theatre - 10:00am
Peel St, Tamworth, New South Wales
BOOKINGS: www.capitoltheatretamworth.com.au
Sunday, 18th January 2015
Tamworth Country Music Festival
Tamworth South Bowling Club - 3:30pm
11 Margaret St, Tamworth, New South Wales
BOOKINGS: (02) 6765 5766
Tuesday, 20th January 2015
Tamworth Country Music Festival
Tamworth South Bowling Club - 3:30pm
11 Margaret St, Tamworth, New South Wales
BOOKINGS: (02) 6765 5766
Thursday, 22nd January 2015
Tamworth Country Music Festival
Tamworth South Bowling Club - 12:00pm
11 Margaret St, Tamworth, New South Wales
BOOKINGS: (02) 6765 5766
Thursday, 22nd January 2015
Tamworth Country Music Festival
Tamworth Wests Diggers - 7:30pm
Kable Ave, Tamworth, New South Wales
BOOKINGS: (02) 6766 4661
Friday, 23rd January 2015
Tamworth Country Music Festival
Tamworth West Leagues Club – 2:00pm
Phillip St, Tamworth, New South Wales
BOOKINGS: (02) 6765 7588
Saturday, 24th January 2015
Tamworth Country Music Festival
Tamworth South Bowling Club - 12:00pm
11 Margaret St, Tamworth, New South Wales
BOOKINGS: (02) 6765 5766
Sunday, 25th January 2015
Tamworth Country Music Festival
Tamworth West Leagues Club – 8:00pm
Phillip St, Tamworth, New South Wales
BOOKINGS: (02) 6765 7588
Monday, 26th January 2015
Tamworth Country Music Festival
Tamworth Wests Diggers - 7:30pm
Kable Ave, Tamworth, New South Wales
BOOKINGS: (02) 6766 4661
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