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Dan Brodie.
 If you look at the quality of music currently coming out of Australia, you'd notice it is extraordinarily high. Melbourne's alt-country/pop artist Dan Brodie is no exception: his latest offering 'Beautiful Crimes' has put him up there among the country's most credible singers-songwriters. And when he isn't basking in the glory of his well-received new release, you'll find him scribbling lists of his favourite foods, watching Happy Days, and enjoying "wild times" at the Gimpie Muster. "I really enjoyed it," he enthuses. "It's like a Big Day Out for country lovers, with four thousand people just going crazy."
Most folks would probably remember Brodie and his old band The Broken Arrows as a country/rock act from Victoria. However, with the release of his latest album 'Beautiful Crimes', Brodie is dabbling in catchy pop tunes like Lost Romance, Broken Radio, and the album's first single Wanna Shine, which has been well received by Triple J. He describes his own use of pop on the record as "drawing more from the '70s form, lots of harmonies, and backing vocals, and orchestra stuff," but at the same time admits that he is undecided on the issue of pop in general today.
"There's some stuff I like, there's some stuff I don't - a lot of these songs have been laboured over for a really, really long time purely with the aim of having it stick in your head. I think the trick to a great pop song is to try capturing the original emotion which forces you to write it in the first place, whatever words spew out of your mouth at the time of the writing... but you still need a melodic hook."
According to Brodie, his living arrangement had the most impact on the record, "It was written when I was constantly moving around, there's a kind of feeling of temporality, and it's just about trying to find some stability, comfort... just trying to find somewhere to live!" Anybody need a housemate?
With 'Beautiful Crimes', he just wanted to make the best record he could about the way he was feeling at the time. "It's a snapshot," he states. "There has been much more work done and consideration put into the lyrics and song structure this time than in the last two records."
He and bassist/vocalist Paul Mileham have also managed to mix in some bluegrass into the record, thanks to Mileham's double bass and banjo skills, especially on songs like Wanna Shine. "We were playing a bit of bluegrass for some mates and drinking Melbourne longnecks, and we just realised we had a real synergy going together." Later the two decided to add Mileham's voice in the backing of the track. "On the first single, there's that melting of voices which you get in blue grass, that kind of style."
Producer Barry Palmer was the guru-of-choice on 'Beautiful Crimes' due to his previous work with Deadstar, "I was familiar with the stuff he did with them, but we've both also appeared on a Vika and Linda Bull record, and his songs really stood out for me, they were so well crafted, he was the ideal person to help me realise the songs on '...Crimes'."
Although ballads come more naturally to Brodie, "because of the pub culture in Australia you have to turn things up and play quite loud and fast to make any impact. The point is, if you get up there with an acoustic guitar in a pub, you're like a lamb to the slaughter. You have to rise above the drunks and the clinking glasses and boredom and indifference."
In the end it's worth it, though, "I'm glad I'm doing this for a living. I love doing gigs, and meeting fans especially when they say my music has really helped them through something. And getting to hang out with my brother Chris [guitar/vocals], we share our lives together."
Despite his love, believe it or not, he still gets nervous playing live. "Sometimes I still get really sick, there's a lot of factors involved in it, sometimes it's just the energy of the room. It's about what you've been doing beforehand, it can all rapidly disintegrate into a fucking nightmare if you're not in a right frame of mind."
Nina Bertok
 | Dan Brodie's 'Beautiful Crimes' is out now through EMI. |
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