The Gin Club

Thu 8th Jul, 2010 in Features

For five years, an ever-changing rock pop collective called The Gin Club have gently built a reputation as one of Australia’s finer artists.

The recently released fourth album Deathwish is perhaps the band’s most cohesive to date: a short(er) collection of traditional rock tracks, the album embodies hints of country, folk and blues to again create that quintessential Gin Club sound. Vocalist Ben Salter chats to FL about the recording, Brisbane, and why it’s just about being in a band.

Deathwish comes two years after the band’s last record, the double-disc Junk. With such a mammoth effort last time, what was the approach going in to create Deathwish? Were you purposefully out to make a shorter, more succinct record this time round?
Well, we didn’t want to do a double again. Even though we had enough songs to probably do another double, we probably just couldn’t afford it – it’s twice the expense for about 10% extra income so not worth while. We limited ourselves to 45 minutes – the length of a vinyl – as a semi arbitrary target and stuck with that.

The album was recorded at an isolated farm property outside of Rockhampton. Can you tell us about the recording experience?
We recorded all of Junk there so we were pretty used to it… a lot of still and calm… a lot of dust. A fire every night. Different people working on stuff while other people cook or play cricket or chop wood (thus Chopping Wood ). Cows. We had all the girlfriends up for a week so that was pretty awesome. We also had Australian songwriting legend Mick Thomas up for a few days. That was amazing. A lot of drinking and shenanigans. But a lot of work as well – I mean we got around 34 songs recorded.

There are seven songwriters in the band. How does it all work? Is it a very collaborative environment to be in, or do you all write individually and take it to the other members?
There are actually more like ten people who have contributed songs… on this album there are nine songwriters.. Myself, Ola, Bridget, Conor, Scott, Adrian, Gus, Dan and my brother in law Gordon who contributed Book of Poison. It is a bit of both. Sometimes people come with songs fully formed, sometimes bits and pieces, and sometimes we write things totally collaboratively.

One of my favourite things about The Gin Club is that you have a very recognisable sound. Yet each writer brings their own style, so there must be a great connection and understanding within the band to achieve this. Can you explain that?
It is true, and it’s just cause we’re a band. We play together a lot. We know what we like and what we don’t like, we share roughly the same tastes in things and so that manifests itself in the recordings and live. There are not as many variables as you might think apart from the songwriting.. Bridget plays all the cello, Dan plays all the organ, Ola plays all the piano, etc etc.. mainly though, we’re a band. We’re a gang. We’re not just a bunch of people lumped together.

Is it something that has developed over time?
Absolutely.

The band seems very loyal to their hometown Brisbane: you often record there, use local producers, you reference the city in songs and after a number of years it is still your base. Can you explain that special connection with the city?
Well, we’re mostly all from regional Queensland originally – Townsville, Hervey Bay, Biloela and Toowoomba… a couple of Brisbane boys as well. And some Melbournites and a Swede! But we love Brisbane, it’s where we live! We wouldn’t stay here if we hated it I don’t think. It’s not perfect and we’re not parochial to the point of “fuck everywhere else” – I mean we love Melbourne too – but we are proud Queenslanders.

Has the idea ever floated of moving elsewhere? Somewhere more “central” to the industry?
Yes, several times. I mean three of our members currently live in Melbourne, one is in Stockholm and one in Vancouver so we have roots down all over the place. But several of us are happy in Brisbane and have ongoing commitments here so Brisbane it is for the time being, for them at least. Nowhere is that central anymore; but the larger populations of Sydney and Melbourne are attractive.

Many of you are involved in a number of other musical projects (The Wilson Pickers, Giants of Science, Megafuana). You’ve been together for a few years now but has it ever been difficult to manage and balance everything? Or has The Gin Club always come first?
The Gin Club has not always come first at all. It does now. With all the other acts it’s really a case of prioritizing and planning… it’s not so difficult. If we were wildly successful and being asked to play shows every week it might be different but as it stands there is plenty of room for all the projects. There are 52 weeks in the year!

You’ve been compared to artists like The Triffids and The Go-Betweens – both who might not have sold a gazillion records but now sit as some of the most important artists in Australian history. How do you feel about that idea of artistic longevity versus being commercially successful? Is it something you are mindful of?
Well I suppose we could try and write or behave according to what we thought might sell, but there is still no guarantee we would be successful and it goes against everything we believe in. We all LOVE music, we worship at the altar of rock and roll and art. As Tom from Nation Blue said recently of his band, we don’t have the mugs for the fame game anyway, with the possible exception of Conor. It’s just not what we’re about. Any success has to be on our terms or it’s no success at all.