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Andy White.
Native Irishman Andy White is no stranger to our shores, having
played music around various parts of Australia for close to
a decade now. His love for the country has grown so fierce that
he’s decided to move here permanently, making Melbourne his
home. This life change is reflected wonderfully in his new album
‘Boy 40’ and songs like Let It Be Me ("I’m going where
the sun is shining / I’m going where the water is blue / I’m
gonna buy a one way ticket / so lord if you’ve someone to choose
/ let it be me.").
"Well there’s kind of love in every bar," jokes White of his reasons for the big move. "I guess the real decision came that first time I came to Australia for Womadelaide with ALT [his mid ‘nineties collaboration with Liam O Maonlai and Tim Finn]. That was ‘95 and I made a lot of close friends, and I’ve made a lot more friends since... It took a long time to get permission to come to Australia to live, but when it happened, I had to decide very quickly, and I think I made the right decision because it’s an adventure. It's a new country, it’s a new beginning."
The recording and release of Andy White’s new album ‘Boy 40’ also coincided with White’s 40th birthday (hence the title), and he agrees it is a dramatic and exciting time in his life. The album holds a hopeful energy and expresses his current love of life.
"The way it starts off it says ‘I’ve been singing on my own again, feeling sunshine in my hair, singing love songs, rock’n’roll again, revolution in the air.’ That’s the theme of the record. It’s a whole new start, ‘Boy 40’, bringing experience to a viewpoint that is spontaneous and quite naive in some ways. It’s got that innocent quality to it."
‘Boy 40’ is actually quite similar in feel and mood to ALT’s only album ‘Altitude’, one of my favourite collaborative albums of the ‘90s, and White seems pleased to reflect on the similarities between the two.
"‘Boy 40’ is kind of a half brother or sister to ‘Altitude’. It’s done in a very similar way, in a spirit of spontaneity, trying to capture the essence of the songs and portraying that vibrantly. With ALT, Tim [Finn] used to call it exquisite imperfection, mainly because we made lots of mistakes. There’s not quite as many mistakes on ‘Boy 40’, but I had a fantastic time making it. I started in London when I brought just my acoustic guitar and three songs in to my friend, a dance music producer. I just knew he could help me fashion them with some inspiration and ideas into a beautiful artistic record.
"Humanity is what it’s about. You’ve got to put it on a record, and you’ll find it’s on all the ones you really like, if it’s a Morrissey record, or David Bowie, or a folk record or a heavy duty record. What you don’t want to put on the record is a shade or a barrier between you and the music where you don’t know if it’s real or not."
Heading our way as part of the Fringe Festival, Andy White will reward Adelaide with two separate performances, approaching his new songs differently in highly contrasting performances.
"The first one is a real Fringe rock’n’roll gig at 10.15 [Sat 28 Feb at The Regal], and it’s got my band from Melbourne. We’ve been playing for about a year now, and it’s very rare that I would be able to bring the band because it’s just a long way to come. I’m really hoping people will be able to make it to the concert because it’ll be a rocking show. Sunday night will be an acoustic show without the band, and a bit more of a leisure night. It will be more a songwriter based evening. So two nights with a very different mix, but the songs are coming from the same place.
As our conversation draws to an end, White adds "Oh yeah, maybe you could stick the website in the article, that’d be good," he laughs. "I’m sure that Big Star stock the album, but it’s always good to let people know of www.andywhite.com"
I’ll sneak it in somewhere, I assure him. Won’t seem like a plug at all. Consider it done.
Steven Hocking
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Andy White launches ‘Boy 21’ at The Regal on Sat 28 Feb.
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