Late Bloomer

On the eve of his album launch, SAM FELL talks to Brendan Welch about life as a solo artist, his late introduction to songwriting and working with Something For Kate’s Paul Dempsey on debut LP 'The Gleaner'.

Plastic Palace Alice will not only be supporting you at your launch at the Northcote Social Club, but will be your backing band for the evening. How did that come about?
I’ve been friends with them for a while, I used to live with them. When my band started to disintegrate, I called on them, which is a good idea, I think. My long-term drummer left the country, and he sorta held it together. So we’ve been rehearsing, and hopefully it goes well.

Was your drummer’s departure the catalyst for the disintegration of your band?
Yeah, he’s gone and I’ve been rotating keyboard players, so there was only ever one main member aside from the drummer and that’s the guitarist (Thom Devery). He’ll be playing at the launch.

So, aside from Thom, none of the artists on The Gleaner are playing at the launch?
No … I no longer play with the keyboardist [Adrian Vincent], he’s got his own business going on. The drummer [Paul Daniel] has left as I said; the violinist [Ben Chessell] was a bit of a ring-in; and Paul Dempsey, who played a lot of the music, is really busy at the moment, so he couldn’t be involved. But Thom will be playing, and I might get one or two people up to play. It should be good.

Before we talk about the record itself, tell me how you got into music in the first place. Did you grow up with it?
Well, not really. I didn’t play music – guitar – until I was about 17. None of my family play any instruments … I was more into painting and stuff like that at school, I was never one who hung out at the music room or anything. I was never in a band, and in fact I’ve still never really been in a band. I mean, I’ve had my own band, but I haven’t put together an outfit or anything. So I just started writing songs the year after getting a guitar. And I never really started a band because the people I started listening to in the beginning were on their own anyway, like old blues musicians and Bob Dylan.

What made you start writing songs?
Well, I think I always sorta wrote stuff, not necessarily lyrics. As soon as I really got into music, I just thought I could do it. This was probably around the time I started listening to Dylan, he made it seem a pretty cool thing to do. I started giving it a go and had some success pretty quickly. I’ve since decided those songs are awful.

Do you recall your first performance?
I used to do an open mic night at what is now the Wesley Anne [in Melbourne]. I did that for a long time and people seemed to like it and people wanted to help a little bit. I played a few times early on at the Rochester, and then I entered a few song competitions and won one of them, won some recording time. The people who run that studio [Salt Studios], where I’ve recorded ever since, really liked it and said they’d love to help me make something.

“I was more into painting and stuff like that at school, I was never one who hung out at the music room or anything.”

Obviously you’re very much Brendan Welch with a backing band, but in the future would you look to form something where the focus is off you and on the band as a whole?
Yeah, I do. I think for me it’d probably be an album-by-album thing. I’d like to have a stable bunch of people to work with to achieve a certain thing. I don’t think I’d lose my name from the equation … I don’t see myself working with another songwriter … As it stands, I’ll always be into the solo thing, but I do prefer playing with bands now in terms of live music. It’s much more fun.

So from winning that recording time, you’ve gone on to release two EPS: The Unbeat and That Ghost. When did they come out?
The Unbeat was in 2005 and That Ghost was 2007. I finished this new album more than a year ago, so it’s actually been that long between, and it’s been a while for it to find it’s way out.

Why has it taken so long to put out?
Originally the idea was to have one of the bigger labels pick up the finished product and give someone some money, but it didn’t really pan out that way for a bunch of reasons. And so I just waited around for the right distribution deal, and we had a few release dates organised but then postponed them for various reasons. Then we had a change of publicist who recommended we wait again and I almost went insane – and then it came out.

Is the album still as relevant for you now as it was when you were recording it?
I’ve tried not to listen to the record very much. But, yes, a couple of songs are quite old, regulars I’ve played many times, so sometimes it’s hard. But if I’m playing them with a band, which is kinda rare for me anyway, it’s [almost like] a different song. For the most part, it’s not really a problem.

How did Paul Dempsey get involved in the album?
The guys who own Salt Studios, they know him, he’s done some stuff there. They’ve got an interest in my success, so I guess they play my demos to a lot of people, and he [Dempsey] really liked the songs. They gave him about 20 and asked him if he’d be interested. He was looking for something different to do, we met and hit it off, and we started making the record.

Did he do any co-writing as well?
Not to do with the actual composition of anything, but in terms of the arrangements and some of the directions of songs he was pretty influential. I gave him the publishing split for a couple of songs, because it’s the difference between how I started, how it was and how it ended up. But in terms of lyrics, he didn’t do much. But he was huge, he really produced it.

Tell us about Paul’s involvement as produced. What did he bring to the table?
Well when I first met with him, because we spent two weeks with just the two of us rehearsing and demo-ing songs at Revolver, he already knew the songs at that point and had ideas. He knew the songs almost better than I did. From that moment on, he’d play things and I’d add things and work out what we should do, and from that point on, he had the record in his head I think. He was just really efficient. He played all the bass and some of the drums and was very open as well. For the most part, I was very happy with what he did.

When you first began, what were you looking to do with The Gleaner? And how much did it evolve over time?
Well, I agreed to the idea of it [Dempsey producing] because it fit with what I wanted. I wanted someone to be in charge, someone really musical. I wanted a produced record … The EPs had been done sorta live-ish, and I do want to do that again, but for this one I wanted it to be tracked. I wanted the songs to be very bare and have a history. So I wanted someone with a real musical head to sort it, and it ended up pretty close to what I thought.

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Brendan Welch will launch The Gleaner tonight (June 5) at the Northcote Social Club in Melbourne.

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