Augie March

Sat 7th Nov, 2009 in Features

While you may have already heard by now, Augie March keyboardist Kiernan Box has categorically confirmed the bad news for fans all over the country “we’ve pulled the pin on touring…we’re kind of in hibernation at the moment. We didn’t want to do any more touring until there was a new album, and we haven’t got around to working out how and when a new album would be made.”

But for Augie March supporters, all is not lost. The boys will be periodically poking their heads out of the figurative hidey hole for various special projects, including the Paul Kelly Tribute Concert in Melbourne next week and Escape to the Park in Perth’s beautiful King’s Park in early December – at which, incidentally, they will be on the line-up with Paul Kelly himself.

“Right at this moment, [we’re] learning all his songs,” Box confesses with a week to go, “By the time it comes to the King’s Park show, we’re going to know his set! If anything happened to his band we could get up and do the show with him.” God forbid anything happen to Kelly’s band, but it would provide a nice little treat for Perth punters to see the Aussie legend play with one of the country’s biggest bands of the moment.

Despite some very slight concerns about King’s Park bushfires, Box and the Augie March boys are big fans of their Perth fans too, “We’ve always had a very good relationship with Perth and we’ve always been able to do interesting things. It’s definitely a happy place!”

It will certainly be a sad day for some to see Augie March go into hiding come December. They are a favourite of both the public and the industry, Box humbly informing me that the band places an “enormous importance” on the support they receive from the Australian public. “Our popularity has exceeded [our expectations]. That was an astonishing thing to have happen to us. I don’t think anyone in the band had any idea or any notion of what had happened” he says of their 2007 single One Crowded Hour which reached number one in the acclaimed Triple J’s Hottest 100. And how did Box find out about the win? “…I did a Google search. Yeah, that’s not a good habit.”

Googleable or not, Box is content with Augie March’s successes and wouldn’t have it any other way. “We were in America when Britney [Spears] made her big comeback, which was widely reported and criticised…I have no idea what it’s like to work under that level of the spotlight and media scrutiny.” It’s is entirely likely that Augie March are far too loveable to cause a media circus and, in terms of musical pursuits, have not yet put a foot wrong. Although when it comes to inspirations “I quite like some of her early songs, she’s pretty good!” Kiernan Box a Britney fan – you heard it on FL first!

Quirks aside, Box is one talented character. Aside from punching the keys for Augie March, he also plays with The Blackeyed Susans – with whom he is touring at the moment – and is about to start writing arrangements for another wonderful orchestral collaboration; the West Australian Symphony Orchestra featuring The Panics. “It’s a big side project! The advances in computer software make it far less daunting than it would have been in the days of paper and ink, but that will taking up a bit of time and thought in the next couple of months.” WASO and The Panics will bring Box’s musical gems to King’s park in February 2010, mark your calendars and keep an ear to the ground… “I just have to compose the score and then mail it off; leaving it in the capable hands of WASO and their conductor.”

While Box makes it sound simple enough, the WASO/Panics project is a huge undertaking, and will certainly keep him busy while Augie March take some time out on the cooler. You can catch the last Augie March gig at:

Escape to the Park @ King’s Park on the 4th December. Tickets available from Ticketmaster.