Audio Shaman Interview

29 November 2007 by Em

Can you introduce your line-up...

Carey O’sullivan -production/Keyboards/ rhythm Guitar

Paul George-Production/Lead Guitar

For live shows we use different percussionists, VJs and scratch DJs depending on the show.

How did Audio Shaman come into being? What’s your background?

We’ve been playing together since we met in our first year of high school. We have both gone through many styles since then but we have always had a penchant for world music sounds, particularly Gypsy and Middle Eastern scales. I can’t say exactly why, but we could blame the more obscure side of our parent’s record collection. Our Peruvian percussionist “Chico” says we must have been Gypsies in another life, though he is referring more to the beat up cars we drive and our relaxed attitude to life than our heritage!

What would you say makes Audio Shaman different, what is your special focus?

It’s definitely unique and it’s not contrived to be that way, we just took our own influences and mashed them all together. We’ve used whatever sounds have come our way to create sound scapes over down tempo rhythmic loops. Most of the tracks will feature the Spanish style guitar, which in a way glues it together and gives us licence to go wherever we want. The album is different in that it sounds and smells of us!

Your album, Welcome Traveller, is out now. How long did it take to put together, and where was it recorded?

Forever! We recorded most of it while we were backpacking around Europe and India. Some of the songs we started about 6 years ago. We have used everything from hotel rooms to side streets as the recording studio. The past few years have been an adventure for us both. In some way the album is a collection of travel stories as seen from the perspective of two audio nerds! What makes the album isn’t just our own musicianship but a cast of friends we’ve met along the way.

The transition to recording is always a big step: what was the most difficult aspect for you guys?

As most of the songs were not recorded in a studio every situation has had its own difficulty; from car noise in the back ground, strange sounding rooms, to nervous or overly demanding performers. Having said that though there wasn’t a second of it we didn’t relish. The difficulties are just part of it, when it seems overwhelmingly hard I’m usually happiest!

Both name and musical style suggest you’ve seen a bit of the world. What has been your favourite destination so far, and why?

India for me, particularly Bombay or Mumbai as it’s also known. We had the pleasure of meeting some of the most talented musicians from all different walks of life, I learned a respect for music there that I hadn’t had before our journey. We also had adventure after adventure in the most bizarre situations, which is fairly normal for India! It’s beginning to feel like a second home to both of us and we plan to get back there as soon as we can.

Do you feel that the Australian music scene has been a good place to grow your music, or do you feel there are areas in which we should improve?

Hmm… I’m not sure how to answer that one although we get asked it a lot. I think in some ways it can be difficult for some, in that it is a relatively small scene for anything left field. So it could prove hard to make a living doing something a little different unless you want to chase government grants or take a second Job. At the same time I think people do want to hear something different and respect creativity. We have always played music to and for people, our only rule is that it comes from the heart and it’s worked well for us - Australia has nurtured us well. We don’t live in Hollywood style mansions but we make a humble living and are happy doing it.

Where do you go from here?

Our next release is for our more up-tempo side, we have been working hard on our other project “Tijuana Cartel” and that should be out in the next month or so. After that we plan to tour some of Europe and play in Beijing for the Olympics. We still have a large back catalogue of Audio Shaman songs we intend to finish sometime next year and we will preview some on our Myspace site- www.myspace.com/audioshamans. Other than that we will be playing a few venues and festivals around Oz, so look out for us!

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