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Tamas Wells.
 It's been a while since we've heard from the Melbourne-based, sweet, introspective singer-songwriter, Tamas Wells. And you know, that's probably fair enough, seeing as he's spent that time in - of all places - Burma.
"My wife and I went there short term, about six months, in what was a community health development project in mainly the north of Burma. And I've got a job with TEAR, an NGO - and I've got a job to go back to Burma with them this year. I'm going to go for two years this time round. So the initial Burma trip was just to go around, and see if we'd like living in a country like that, longer term."
Wait a second - wasn't it not too long ago that Tamas Wells impressed me greatly by letting me know that by day he was a mild-mannered part-time physiotherapist in suburban Melbourne? "I haven't done that for a couple of years. I've done a Masters in international public health. So I did physio, then I did that, which led me more to international development stuff."
In the interim, Mr. Wells has been working on his second full-length album, 'A Plea En Vendredi'. It is just on the cusp of release, and not a moment too soon. "Now we're doing a quick national tour and then going overseas again." For two years. "Yeah! It's not probably the ideal way to release a record, but that's just the way it's going to happen."
Although there are obvious sonic comparisons - the expert use of ambience, the sweetness of Wells' voice - he tells me there were enormous differences in process between this album and his debut. "The first one was [with] Tim Whitten in Megaphon Studios in Sydney, which was a very pristine environment, and the way we made the songs was very track-by-track rather than live. But this one was done in my living room, pretty much all by ourselves. So we recorded it live, so I played guitar and sang rather than doing it in different tracks. So there's more of an organic sound to the album, that's what we wanted to get out of it. I think there's probably, perhaps a little more - there are a few slightly more melodic, subtle differences between this album and the last."
It's an obvious question, but a good one - in what way did the Burmese experience impact on the production of the album? "Not in music or lyrics - not directly, anyway. The music is not really influenced by Burmese music at all, because that's been influenced by really crap Western pop! I was disappointed by that. But I hope when we get back there that I'll have more of an opportunity to see what local music there is, that has survived after the invasion of Western pop. And lyrically, I find it hard - I don't like [being] overtly political..."
Perhaps, except for the ingeniously entitled single Yes Virginia, There Is A Ruling Class. "Well actually, that I found somewhere! It's just a line from a politics textbook. I'm glad you approve of that! It's there for people like you!"
So how does one go about marketing a record when one will not be gracing its home continent for two years? "We're going pretty much everywhere [in Australia], but we won't have time to do it all again. Our label, Popboomerang, is kind of formed around international connections and the Internet. So there's obviously a local element to a release, but there's also the international stuff, which doesn't require you to be anywhere in particular."
On a lighter note, please bear in mind that the reason why there's French in the title, is because it rhymes. "No-one else can get the rhyme! It's always 'A Plea En Ven-dred-dy'! You're probably the only person I've spoken to about the album who understands the title: a plea on Fri-dee, love! Just a bit of an ocker accent and it works fine."
Ben Revi
 | 'A Plea En Vendredi' is out through Popboomerang and Tamas Wells plays at the Grace Emily on Sun 19 March with Brendan Welsh. |
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