Still Rockin' It - Cheryl Lee
Still Rockin' It - Cheryl Lee
What has Eskimo Joe's Kav Temperley been up to lately? OR From Nintendo Detours to Platinum Records
Join Cheryl Lee - That Radio Chick on STILL ROCKIN' IT for news, reviews, music and interviews with some of our favourite Australian musicians.
Eskimo Joe's Kav Temperley opens up about the band's remarkable three-decade journey in Australian music and their electrifying new single "Miracle Cure." From their humble Fremantle beginnings to becoming ARIA chart-toppers, this conversation reveals the authentic storytelling and creative chemistry that has kept them at the forefront of Australia's music scene.
Growing up in Fremantle's nurturing artistic community, Kav shares how the town's creative atmosphere shaped his musical destiny from an early age. "If you wanted to be a professional artist of any description, no one would say 'what are you going to do for a real job?'" he recalls. This supportive environment fostered the connections that would become Eskimo Joe, when childhood friends and neighbors discovered their shared musical passion.
The band's evolution from campus band competition winners to multi-platinum selling artists showcases their remarkable resilience and adaptability. After taking a creative break in 2013, they've returned with renewed energy, embracing today's digital landscape while maintaining their commitment to meticulous songwriting. Their latest single "Miracle Cure" draws inspiration from what Kav calls "Australian Gothic" – blending their signature sound with influences from the vast Australian landscape they experienced during their storytelling acoustic tour.
Perhaps most fascinating is their intentional shift away from traditional album cycles, choosing instead to craft one perfect song at a time. "We are so annoyingly fastidious," Kav admits with a laugh, explaining their Beatles-influenced approach to songwriting. With a 20th anniversary celebration of "Black Fingernails Red Wine" on the horizon and more new music in the works, Eskimo Joe continues to demonstrate why they've remained relevant across generations.
Stream "Miracle Cure" now and discover why this beloved Australian band still rocks after all these years.
What have Eskimo Joe been up to lately? Let's find out!!
Get out when you can, support local music and I'll see you down the front!!
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That radio chick, cheryl Lee, here.
Speaker 1:Welcome to the Still Rocking it podcast where we'll have music news, reviews and interviews with some of our favourite Australian musicians and artists. Hot off the back of their APRA award nomination for most performed rock work for their song the First Time, eskimo Joe are thrilled to unleash their banger new single, miracle Cure. Founding member Cav says Miracle Cure is about the search for redemption and how only love can pull us back from the edge. With six studio albums, sales in excess of $750,000 in Australia alone, the band has seen three of those albums debut at number one on the ARIA charts, with the Juggernaut Black Fingernails Red Wine shining for a monster 62 weeks in the ARIA chart top 50.
Speaker 1:Foreignland from their fourth album, bringing home two APRA awards for most played song on Australian radio and the best rock song of 2010. 35 ARIA nominations to their credits so far, a number only surpassed by four others Silverchair Powderfinger, kylie Minogue and John Farnham. We were lucky enough to catch up with founding member singer-songwriter bass guitarist Kev Templey in the Zoom room today. To catch up on podcasts from other favourite artists, simply go to thatradiochickcomau.
Speaker 2:I'd like to welcome into the Zoom room today for the first time.
Speaker 1:Eskimo Joe's Cav Tempoli. How are you doing?
Speaker 2:Hello, I'm waiting for the crowd, the round of applause and the crowd goes wild. Very well, thank you yes.
Speaker 1:Thank you for joining us this morning. I know you're a very, very busy man. We've got some exciting news to talk about brand new song. But before we go forward, can we maybe just go back a little bit? Firstly, cavian. I've never heard that name before. Where does that come from?
Speaker 2:Well, it's an Indian name and there's a few different variations of the same names, and I've never met another Kaviyan before. But there is Kavi, which is like another version of it, and there's Kavisha, which is like a female version of it, and I believe that Kavi was a famous Indian poet from back in the day.
Speaker 1:There you go. I wonder whether that was instrumental in you becoming a poet.
Speaker 2:Well, it's all worked out well for me.
Speaker 1:I'm going to ask you, and I think I probably know, the answer to this question, because I think you left school at age 16 to concentrate on writing music when did you realise that music was in your DNA and music was your passion? Are you from a musical family?
Speaker 2:I mean, I guess I'm from a musical family.
Speaker 2:I mean my mum kind of played a bit of music, my brother played a little music, but it was never like this is going to be your career. But I was really lucky enough to grow up in the small town of Fremantle, which you know has given birth to lots of great bands. Yeah, yeah, you know, in the tiny little bit of real estate that is freemantle, you know, you've got tayman, parlor, john butler trio, san cisco, you know, to name a few, and eskimo joe, and so I think like growing up here it was like if you wanted to be a professional artist of any description, you would just say that and no one walking down the street would say to you, well, what are you going to do for a real job? Everyone would just kind of go, oh great, yeah, that's what you're going to do, fantastic. So it was never a conversation of like, well, you probably need to knuckle down and get like an actual career, you know it was just accepted that you could be a professional musician, which is great.
Speaker 2:But as far as, like you know, deciding or knowing when I was going to be like a muso, what kind of came first is my desire for storytelling, like I love. I loved telling stories from a really young age. You know, I thought at one point in time I'd become a writer, but clearly I was way too lazy to write a whole entire book. You know, I think there was probably a crossover between me wanting to write stories and then discovering that. You know, when I played songs, you know, girls probably paid me attention. So I was just like, yeah, okay, well, maybe this music thing is is good. And of course, you know, the deeper I got into it, the more I was just like it's not about the girls, it's about the music uh, kind of my style of songwriting that emerged was more about this kind of like dear diary.
Speaker 2:You know, like I would do these kind of reports from the war front of my life. And you know, it probably wasn't until, I guess, the Blackfinger N's Red Wine album that I started to dress those songs up a little bit differently and still tell these like real stories but just maybe give them a bit of a vessel that could kind of go to a larger audience.
Speaker 1:You're telling me that there was never actually any plan B if this music thing hadn't panned out for you.
Speaker 2:I just no, no. I just started playing music For you. I just no, no. I just started playing music and the one thing my mum said to me when I first started, she was like okay, if you're going to do this, you have to do it 100%. So ever since that day, I've done it 100%.
Speaker 1:Good on you, mum. Good, you caught up with Stuart in high school, so how did you likely let me?
Speaker 2:Well, kind of. I mean, he actually moved next door to me when I was about five years old and our parents, you know, were mates, and so we kind of spent a lot of you know childhood hangs together and then, you know, we kind of did our own thing. But it wasn't, you know, till towards the end of high school that we came back together again and I was already deep into the songwriting and, you know, deciding to be a muso thing. Me and Joel had already formed a bad funk metal band you know that was doing the rounds. But Stu was one day was on his way to buy himself the latest Nintendo and he segued past like cash converters and when he got home he bought himself a guitar instead. So that was kind of like a sliding doors moment for him.
Speaker 2:And then, when I discovered that he was getting into music too, we started jamming. I mean, I had my thing with Joel, but we started jamming and because me and Stu connected on such a kind of, you know, brother-like level we'd known each other all our lives we started playing music you know, versions of our favorite songs at little cafes around Fremantle At a certain point in time, when I was about 19,. Joel kind of came in and then the chemistry between the three of us was just like. It was just obvious. You know, if you've been in different bands and had different combinations of people, when you get the right chemistry of people, it's just really obvious. So we just knew straight away that this was easy. And you know, here we are, almost 30 years later, still doing it. You are listening to, still Rocking it the podcast with Cheryl Lee.
Speaker 1:Here it is the title track from Black Finger Nails Red Wine, the third studio album by Eskimo Joe from 2006. The album became their first number one on the Australian ARIA albums chart and certified four times platinum. Then back to speak to Kev Temperley, founding member of Eskimo Joe. Very soon, that's a lot longer than a lot of marriages.
Speaker 2:Yes, absolutely.
Speaker 1:Well done and it's been, you know, the static lineup really the whole time.
Speaker 2:Yeah, well, I mean, there's the three of us who write and record everything. But you know, when we go out on the road we have to try and play the records live, because we're, you know, absolute tragics to try to reproduce the albums. So we'll often have different session players who play with us over the years. Right now, you know, we've got a guy called Paul Keenan on the drums and he played with us again, which is great. And then we've got a guy called Timothy Nelson who plays keyboards with us at the moment and he's an amazing singer-songwriter in his own right. So even that is a great chemistry, you know, like you're just getting different combinations of people together, you just know when it's right. And, yeah, even with our session band at the moment, it's a really great combo of people.
Speaker 1:So I'm going to take you back to your first gig in 97,.
Speaker 2:University of.
Speaker 1:WA, when you won that heat and then you went to the final in Sydney and you won the national final. Would you say that was a turning point for you or just a stepping stone along the way?
Speaker 2:Well, I guess it kind of put a bit of wind in our sails. But we started thinking, wouldn't it be nice if we won the campus band competition? And that was a big deal in Perth in the late 90s because Perth was so isolated from everywhere in the world at that point in time. So to get a plane ticket out of Perth was a pretty big deal, and if we won the campus band competition we would get a plane ticket to the national finals. So we did it and we won the whole thing and that was like our first like three or four shows that we'd ever played. So we were like okay, we're in 100% and luckily from that competition we won. Part of the prize was we got a recording and with that recording we went to Sydney and recorded the Sweater EP and and that the title track got picked up by Jane Gazzo on Triple J and then and then we were away.
Speaker 1:Basically we just said the rest is history that's right, that's right. Waste Lanes in 2013, the album, and then in 2020, the Say Something single. And now, have you noticed any changes between then and now with the whole recording process? The industry, Because we've had COVID in there.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yes, we did. I mean, when we took a break in 2013, I mean we had been on this two-year cycle of, you know, write a record, record the record, tour the record, and around, around we went and I think we kind of like felt, you know, in the air, that like we didn't want to stop being eskimo joe, but we're like this feels like a good time to just kind of disappear for a little while and maybe have people miss us, um, and so we all went off and did some other projects. You know I'd produce other bands and I've done some solo records. Joel has done a whole lot of writing and recording with other bands. Yeah, it was.
Speaker 2:It was funnily enough, yeah, during the whole covid experience, that we were like, well, wouldn't it be cool to write another song? And and me and joel kind of got together one afternoon and did something kind of felt good and that was the say something single. So we put that out right in the midst of you, you know, the full on COVID affair. And then, you know, did another song called 99 Ways. But it wasn't really until we put out the third of those songs a year ago, called the First Time. That was, you know, post-covid.
Speaker 2:It's a really funny thing, you know, even if you've had, like I mean, big records, you know, like records that have stayed on the ARIA charts for weeks and weeks, weeks. There's something about getting in front of a live audience that gives you this reminder of your musical identity, is the best way to say it. And so when we went out and started playing shows and finally the world opened up a bit and we were playing this show called good things, and it was a huge gig and it was like, you know, like big day out style crowds, it was amazing, um, and it was just like such a buzz. You know that we went home and we were like, yeah, we want to write a song that sounds good in front of an audience like that. And that's where we started. We started, you know, playing songs and then going out and going well, that worked. What if we did that on the next song? And on we went. So we did this song the first time and it was just electric kind of return to form that we'd had in a while.
Speaker 1:Like rejuvenated.
Speaker 2:Yeah, absolutely. And we've just been nominated for an APRA award for that for this year and that's a huge accolade. Even you know not that we expect to win, but just to have a seat at the table is pretty amazing after almost 30 years. So on the back of that we were like, well, this is great, people are enjoying it again. And it was the opposite to that time when we decided to take a break. We were like it feels like people are really enjoying us, like a multi-generational kind of amount of people, like from eight to 80 year olds, are into our music now. So let's put out another song. And so we did with this new song, miracle Cure. And that song again was like a reaction to the gigs that we were playing about a 30-odd-date acoustic tour across the country where we did this big storytelling kind of show where we played the songs, but in their more bare-bone version, in these beautiful country town theatres everywhere, and then backstage we had acoustic guitars. So we just chipped away at a song that became Miracle Cure and that was really inspired and influenced by being in front of you know the people that we were in front of and telling the stories and also being in this vast Australian landscape. You know the people that we're in front of and telling the stories and also being in this vast australian landscape, you know. So all of these things kind of seep into your songwriting.
Speaker 2:As far as you know, your question goes about. You know what's changed in the music industry between then and now. You know, when we took a break it was just at the beginning of the massive social media and streaming services being a big right. So we kind of stepped away at the stepped away at the end of the traditional album cycle. You know, sell some physical copies, go out and promote it, do in-stores, and so I feel like now we're kind of playing a little bit of catch up, you know.
Speaker 2:So if you look at the amount of people who listen to us on Spotify, you know you're into the millions. But you know we probably don't have as many people following us on social media because of the era that we came from. It's all catching up pretty quickly, but it's just a different landscape, you know. But the rules are the same. You know. You find your band that you love, you get obsessed with them, you try and consume as much as you can and go see them play live shows. The difference now is you know you've got to get all of these people from all these different places and funnel them into one place so they know where you are and what you're doing. And that's just the continuous evolving thing of the music industry. But it's more about live shows now, as far as you know, bands making a crust out of what they do. You've got to go out and play a gig if you want to pay your mortgage.
Speaker 1:Get in front of the fans Exactly Still off on the podcast with that radio chick, cheryl Lee. We obviously will play the Miracle Cure before the podcast is out, but right now let's hear For the First Time, and then back to speak to Cav again straight after this.
Speaker 2:Drinking on a Saturday night used to be so easy.
Speaker 1:Don't you want to feel like it's the first time? I really, really love this. We'll talk about the song Miracle Cure, but I saw on your socials that your wife Beth is your miracle cure. Aw, how did you two guys meet?
Speaker 2:We're both second-time rounders, so we both were married, had previous marriages and had very young kids when we met each other. But our two youngest kids became best friends. For anyone who's got kids, you know, it's like when you find two kids, like when they're three years old, and they just they're happy playing for hours, and then you're like this is amazing, another gin and tonic, why not? You know what I mean. We got into this groove of just hanging out all the time because our youngest kids just loved hanging out with each other. And eventually, you know, we were in denial, probably for a long period of time, but then we fell in love and and then we had to inform all the kids that they were now brothers and sisters and they were like what that was you know about 10 years ago now.
Speaker 1:so we're really further down the track congratulations, and how many kids all together like the partridge family well, there's four of them.
Speaker 2:So yeah, we know the brady bunch a bit of a Brady Bunch situation, for sure.
Speaker 1:That's lovely. It is a fabulous song and it comes with a really groovy film clip as well so where can they find that film clip and have a listen and a look at the song?
Speaker 2:Well, youtube, which is one of my favourite places to peruse, is where you'd find a video clip.
Speaker 2:The coolest thing is that, you know, we recorded the song in my little studio in Fremantle and then the video clip is recorded literally next door at this big art gallery that's kind of attached to my studio. So it all kind of happened in this little place. But I was really inspired, you know, especially with the whole traveling around Australia, this idea of what I was calling Australian Gothic. I'd just gone to see, you know, robert Eggers' Nosferatu and I loved the kind of, you know, the gothic nature of it. But then, looking at Australia, you know we've got these vast landscapes and this kind of vacuum, you know, that exists between, you know, the original Australians and the settlers, and I think it's an interesting and very Australian story to explore. So I kind of tried to bring all of that imagery and that feeling and into the photo shoot that we did for the song and as well as the feeling of the song and as well as the video clip, was that in the historic old customs house?
Speaker 2:that's right. Yes, yeah, so the old customs house is this amazing building in the middle of freemantle, uh, that they gave to the arts when um freemantle had the america's cup. And when the america's cup came to freemantle, it kind of changed. Freemantle had the America's Cup. When the America's Cup came to Fremantle, it kind of changed Fremantle forever. They had this, you know, a couple of derelict buildings, and you know the government at the time made the very wise choice to give this huge building to the arts and now that's where my studio is and it's a huge art space.
Speaker 1:Beautiful, yeah, very lucky.
Speaker 2:Mm, you are listening to Still Rocking it the podcast with Cheryl Lee.
Speaker 1:I won't keep you in suspense any longer. Here it is the new song by Eskimo Joe Miracle Cure. Check it out on YouTube and, of course, you can get it from all the usual places. And then we're back to finish up with Kevin Temperley, founding member. I've been looking for a miracle cure. Silver bullet to a heart that's so pure. Do you have any spinal tap moments? Have you got like when you're performing? Is there something that you have to have on your rider or you're not going on, you guys?
Speaker 2:Look, we're pretty practical and not too precious. You know, we've been doing it for enough years that we just appreciate being there a lot of the time. I mean, there's probably there was probably times, you know, where there's a mixture of rising to fame and anxiety that hits at the same time. But we probably had some ridiculous moments where we overly thought things, but they were. They're very like, un, you know, romantic, unspinal tap moments like you know, just taking ridiculous amounts of gear on the road with us that we probably didn't need, or having millions of people on the road with us so we probably didn't need with us exactly these.
Speaker 2:These days we're, we're pretty low maintenance. We rock up to a show. We want the show to sound and look amazing. We want everyone who comes to the show to feel like they've had the best time ever. You know we're in the you know the cheer me up business. So we that's how we approach it we're just like well, our job is to make sure everyone is feeling good.
Speaker 2:So we don't tend to get too ridiculous about things these days and I'm just trying to think, you know we're, even though we're ridiculous, and of course we're we're musos, so we're complete weirdos, um, but we're probably some of the more down-to-earth musos that you're going to meet. You know there's a couple of them that you'll meet around Australia and they're, funnily enough, all from our era of bands. You know bands like the Living End and Jebediah and those kinds of you. Meet those people and they'll be the nicest, most chilled-out people you meet. It's people who come from, who are, you know, brand new to the industry, like the ones just on the way. Find they're having the biggest Spinal Tap moments out of everyone.
Speaker 1:You're obviously sort of hit your groove again, so is this maybe the first song like an album in the watershed, not that we planned on.
Speaker 2:You know we're at the moment because we kind of you know, obviously do all these other creative projects outside of Eskimo Joe. You know we have lots of multiple things that we do. We've kind of worked out that we can probably get away with writing and recording one, maybe two songs a year. So at this rate we should have an album in about 12 years time.
Speaker 1:That's one thing I think that has changed, because previously it was all about the albums.
Speaker 2:Look, I love making records and I'll probably make records in my solo world until the day I die. But I guess for us you know we're not a band who goes in there and just jams we're like, yeah, let's just jam on this riff, yeah, cool, that's the record. We are fastidious and we'll go over every chord and every lyric to try and write the best possible song we can. That's just our process, you know we are are, you know we grew up listening to the beatles and those kinds of bands and, and so we we take songwriting and record production really seriously because we are so annoyingly fastidious.
Speaker 2:Unless we were gonna like cancel everything in our lives and and just work on that for six months to a year, then you know, I think one song, we can do that to our our level, um, without messing about. And it's not about that we don't want to make records anymore, it's just that you know. We know that we can do one really good song if we focus on it completely, and so that's just where we're at, and we're pretty cool with that, because we've got lots of albums that we put out before. At this stage in our career maybe we'll go do another record one day, who knows?
Speaker 1:But the way we do things we just take way too long just to get one song done. So yeah, one song a year, I reckon you'll get from us. Yeah, we'll look forward to.
Speaker 2:That's a scoop, everyone. There's an album out in 12 years time. You heard it this year exactly and another song, maybe next year.
Speaker 1:So what I was hoping you're gonna say is yeah, there's an album and a tour, so any plans of touring?
Speaker 2:like. I've been away every weekend for about the last year and a half, so we've just finished epic amounts of shows. I think we've played every festival you can play. So we'll have a bit of a creative little downtime, probably work on some new music. Hopefully that'll turn into another song that'll come out sometime soon. But we're getting ready for 20 years of black fingernails red wine. So next year will be um that and we'll make sure we do some touring around that we'll make a big fuss about that record because that was a an album that was, you know, really important to us and really important to our fans absolutely.
Speaker 1:Where should they go to keep an eye on that?
Speaker 2:there's a eskimo joe website yeah, there's that, but you know people don't really hang out on websites too much these days.
Speaker 2:Just social media yeah, instagram or facebook is probably where we're most prolific, though you know we're dipping our toe in the tiktok, we're in all those places. And you know youtube we're trying to kind of post a lot more on youtube because youtube shorts are great and all the rest of it. But really, yeah, instagram or facebook if you want to keep an eye on what's going on I've got no idea how long we've been.
Speaker 1:I'm sure my time is up. Is there anything else that you wanted to say that we haven't covered?
Speaker 2:yeah, go out there and stream miracle cure and hopefully we'll see you all on the road soon it got its first play on my monday night show last night oh, wicked.
Speaker 1:Thank you very much and we'll keep spinning it. It's a great song. I really love it. Well done and we'll look forward to seeing you when you are next in our town. I'll see you down the front yeah, sounds wicked awesome, thank you, so much for your time.
Speaker 1:Enjoy the rest of your day. Cheers, bye-bye. Still rocking that podcast with that radio chick, cheryl lee, we're going to go out with one of my favorites. This one is courtesy of triple m, 30 years of rock, and it's a live version from the sea. Here they are Eskimo. Joe you're with Cheryl Lee that radio chick. Thank you so much for joining me on the still rocking it podcast. Hope to catch you again next time. Get out when you can support Aussie music and I'll see you down the front.