"Sorry, I'm eating toast," mumbles ESKIMO JOE frontman Kav, with his mouth full of, erm, toast. "Oh that's so rude, talking with my mouth full!" I don't mind in the least; however I do eye off my own peanut-buttered breakfast, which is going cold on the kitchen counter. Kav has more of an excuse than I do - calling from Perth, where the band hails from, he had to be up two hours earlier than me!
The distant city of Perth has become known as something of an Australian band breeding ground, with groups such as Little Birdy, the Waifs, John Butler Trio and The Panics calling the west coast home. Eskimo Joe, however, have truly transcended the Australian music scene: their second album, A Song Is a City, was certified double platinum, and their 2006 album, Black Fingernails, Red Wine, reached four times platinum. This success was followed by extensive international touring and the inspiration for the title of their new album, Inshalla, was gleaned in a coffee shop in Egypt.
Loosely translated, 'inshalla' means 'god willing.' So what does that say about the album as a whole? "There's a lot more hope on this record," Kav tells me. "On our last two records I think I was descending into a winter of my discontent or something, and we tried to write a couple of songs from that old place, but it seemed inauthentic. But happy is a scary place to write from." A lot of artists seem to say that and I'm intrigued - why is that? "For some reason it's easier to talk about painful things in a public forum. To do it [write from a happy place] and not sound cheesy is hard. Not end up sounding like a Ben Lee record, you know?" Far from 'god willing,' to that I say 'god forbid!'
There are, however, some darker elements on the album, with parts of their single Foreign Land inspired by Heath Ledger's untimely death. The band was in New York as part of the G'Day USA promotion at the time Ledger's body was found, and the line 'I smell the blood of an Australian' refers to his death. "Foreign Land is basically about the fact that no one wants to die alone," says Kav.
In light of this, I ask Kav what advice he would give to Aussie bands trying to make it overseas. "I guess just try and have fun together, and make jokes in a positive way, not a dark, sarcastic way. The humour you throw back and forth will get you through those dark times." Kav also says it's important to keep things in perspective, because "even though you're big in one country you could be nothing in another."
In my opinion, however, whether a band has truly 'made it' can be gauged by one thing: whether they have a pseudonym. And Eskimo Joe do indeed have one, going by the name 'The Andy Callison Project' when they want to test-drive new material or have a low-key practice in front of a crowd. The only problem being that nowadays most Eskimo Joe fans know exactly who The Andy Callison Project really is (ha, and even more people will once this article is published). "Yeah, now everybody knows the bloody name!" complains Kav, not sounding at all distressed (and actually alarmingly cheerful for 7am!). "We'll rock up to a gig and there'll be a full house, and it's like 'I thought it was meant to be a secret gig, man!'"
Of course, Eskimo Joe have been packing out gigs under their official name for many years, playing to around 45,000 people at the Australian leg of Live Earth in 2007, and also performing this year at the Sound Relief concert for victims of the Victorian bushfire crisis and the Queensland floods. I ask him whether he sees charity work and being politically outspoken, Bob Dylan-style, as duties which arise from being a successful musician and public figure. "We should do more charity stuff," he says several times. As for writing about political and current issues, he admits, "I'm personally really bad at it. I don't write about the outer politics - I find the inner politics way more fascinating. I don't know if we're wankers but we don't really care enough. We're more focussed on the smaller details, like having our shit together enough to play a gig." But then he says again, "we should do more charity stuff," and it's clear that he does care, even if he doesn't write about it.
Eskimo Joe are also old favourites of the Big Day Out festival, having played there several times since the band was formed in 1997. I'll never forget seeing them at Sydney Big Day Out in 2005, wearing khaki wife-beaters and mirrored aviators... let's just say it was hot, and not only because it was the middle of summer (insert winky-face here). I ask Kav if we can expect more exciting costumes on the upcoming Inshalla tour. "Nah, we're letting loose a bit more this time around. I think we've been around for long enough, we don't have to rely on gimmicks." I'm quite disappointed, but then he adds, "hopefully people will still like us." They may not have costumes, but with a new record as captivating as Inshalla and a back-catalogue of hits spanning twelve years, how could we not?
Eskimo Joe will hit up the ANU Bar on Saturday August 1. Get your tickets through Ticketek.
