"I'm using the analogy of climbing K2," JEFF MARTIN says of The Armada's upcoming acoustic tour. "But I'm very confident that the three of us are going to pull it off. If we do, I would say collectively and individually it would be the most rewarding thing that we've done as artists in our careers."
The man certainly isn't exaggerating. Listening to him list the incredible amount of instruments the trio will be carting around the country for the 24-date trip, you can't help but pity the poor roadies who'll have to deal with it all. "Basically my guitar tech Kenny Watt is officially the world's hardest working guitar tech," Jeff agrees. "I think over the course of my career it's getting close to 38/39 different tunings. That's quite an accomplishment I guess, but it's a fucking nightmare for Ken," he laughs.
Following his 2006 solo LP and a couple of live records, The Armada once again sees Jeff heading a power trio after he disbanded his previous group The Tea Party in 2005. Originally a collaboration between Martin and Irish percussionist extraordinaire Wayne Sheehy (who's played with the likes of Robert Palmer and Ronnie Wood), The Armada has expanded to a three-piece for live shows with Perth multi-instrumentalist Jay Cortez (previously of The Sleepy Jackson and End of Fashion) filling out the sound. "I can guarantee you that Australia's never seen anything like this," Jeff says. "It's basically a combination of a live Dead Can Dance show meets Page and Plant Unleaded."
Though his work has always been informed by his love of Indian and Middle Eastern music, Jeff explains that The Armada's acoustic tour will heavily focus on the "world music aspect" of the band. This long held fascination began at a young age, when he heard an older cousin's copy of Sgt Pepper's... and was immediately struck by George Harrison's sitar-led track Within You Without You. "I don't know what your thoughts are, your personal philosophies on past lives, things like that," Jeff says, "but something went on with me and I knew I heard that before. Everything was familiar." From then onwards, the ten year old Jeff would travel from his hometown of Windsor, ON in Canada to Detroit every weekend to scour the city's record stores for any LPs which featured a sitar on the cover.
"When The Tea Party began and we started travelling, I started slowly picking up these instruments from different parts of the world," Jeff explains. "I instantly knew the scales, the tunings even, which is kind of inexplicable. I think that as far as rock and roll is concerned, the only way to move forward is using elements of world music," he concludes. "It's not just a case of following the trends now and rehashing something that happened in the '70s - enough of that, move forward."
Jeff Martin and The Armada play at the ANU Bar on Wednesday November 18. Tickets are available through Ticketek and Oztix.
