Aussie rockers Eskimo Joe follow reunion shows with new single Say Something, made for these times
Eskimo Joe are launching their first new music in seven years, inspired by the student protest for climate action and now the Black Live Matters movement.
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It was inevitable the halcyon Australian alternative rock era that kicked off in the ‘90s was going to have its moment again.
The surprise reunion of Powderfinger for their One Night Lonely concert, the imminent return of Something For Kate with their first new album in eight years and a new single from Eskimo Joe mean that the bases are stacked for an Australian rock revival.
The Eskies, as they have been affectionately known since emerging in the late 1990s, were one of several bands to announce an “indefinite hiatus” in the past decade.
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But unlike those who choose that euphemism for breaking up, Kav Temperley, Stu MacLeod and Joel Quartermain always harboured the intention of getting back together after taking time out to pursue other endeavours.
Temperley continued to write and record, Quartermain set himself up in Melbourne as a producer and writer for hire and MacLeod ran a community radio station in Western Australia and now promotes a folk festival.
The trio admit they needed some time away from each other to rejuvenate their friendship. At the time, they had spent about 17 years in each other’s pockets, a long stretch for any relationship.
“We’ve been doing it for over 20 years. And that’s a really long relationship to have with a bunch of people. And anyone who has gotten married or been in any kind of relationship like that for that long, you actually have to, at a certain point in time, break it all down and then rebuild who you are as a bunch people and how you relate to each other,” Temperley says.
The catalyst for the reunion was the chance to perform with the West Australian Symphony Orchestra – a bucket list gig for most Australian rock bands of their vintage.
That exercise fuelled further orchestral shows around the country in celebration of their 21st anniversary.
“Those shows took about two or three years to organise – it takes a while when you have that many pieces you have to fit together,” Temperley says.
“Coming off that stage, we were buzzing; it was a reminder that we have this amazing amount of songs we’ve written and fans who really love what we do.
“We got off with this new invigorated feeling of like, ‘oh, that’s right. We like each other. And we like these songs.’”
One of those songs was Black Fingernails, Red Wine, which made the cut on Triple J’s Requestival last month when fans got to program the youth network.
The trio are suitably chuffed their song made the cut – alongside a raft of weird and wonderful songs such as Taylor Swift’s Shake It Off and the Star Wars theme.
Quartermain said he is constantly surprised when younger artists, producers and engineers he now works with are impressed to discover he is an Eskie.
“I remember being backstage at the ARIAs the year Midnight Oil were being inducted into the Hall of Fame and went up to say congratulations,” Quartermain says.
“And he was like ‘Well, that’s what happens when you stick around for as long as we have’. I guess that is kind of happening to us with songs like that making it back onto Triple J.”
But like all Australian rock artists reigniting their career, it was imperative to the Eskies they do so with new music.
They release the uncannily prescient single Say Something, their first new music in seven years, at the end of the month.
Temperley and Quartermain began working on the song in Melbourne as Australia’s students took to the streets to demand action on climate change.
The onslaught of the COVID-19 pandemic, which demanded a united global front to battle the disease and now the ongoing Black Lives Matter protests in America and in Australia to advocate for urgent attention to indigenous deaths in custody, systemic racism and economic and life expectancy inequality, cast Say Something as a political statement from the band.
We are sooo excited to announce that after seven years we are releasing a brand new song!!
— Eskimo Joe (@EskimoJoeMusic) June 8, 2020
It has been such a joy to work on some brand new music.
Say Something will be released on Friday June 26th, and you can presave it here now: https://t.co/y93XAb4LtH#saysomething pic.twitter.com/LwhGpyw2TE
“We didn’t set out to write this song about (Black Lives Matter) … no one could have predicted what happened with George Floyd’s death … and Aboriginal people in Australia have been protesting for a really long time. It’s just that the rest of Australia is getting on board, which is really a really positive thing,” Temperley says.
“We were inspired by what was happening with the marches to do with the environment initially but really, what this song is about is, it’s time to take a stand.
“No one is allowed to sit on the fence any more. If you are in the schoolyard and you’re a teenager and some kid says something racist to another kid, you tell them that’s not right.
“And if you’re at the family dinner and some old person’s being sexist or making a joke about violence towards women you say ‘No, I don’t agree with that. This is what I stand for.’
“And really that is what this song means to us. At this point in time in the world, you need to actually get off the fence and take a stand.”
Eskimo Joe, like thousands of fans of the band, are also intrigued to find out Powderfinger’s next move.
Their One Night Lonely concert has clocked up more than 700,000 YouTube views and bolstered their streaming stats on Spotify and Apple Music.
Before the concert aired in May, I asked frontman Bernard Fanning if they would be getting back on stage for Splendour In the Grass (which has now been shifted to next July) or the all-Australian line-up for the Falls festivals over the New Year break.
He cryptically answered “I will not be announcing that” before going on to speculate about when festivals would be allowed to return.
“Who wants to be the crash test dummy? And if you end up with giant outbreak that is traced back to the festival … that’s the end of the festival. Who knows?” Fanning said.
“All I can say is that everybody is starting to grow accustomed to watching stuff online, which is good because that’s all we can really do at the moment. But there is no way the electricity of experiencing a live performance happen right in front of you can be matched. It just can’t be.”
With COVID-19 restrictions against mass gatherings now lifted for a range of events, maybe Powderfinger headlining Falls Festival in December isn’t such a pipe dream.
And it would make sense for them to be joined by Something For Kate, who are expected to release their much anticipated new album in the coming months.
Now we’ve just got to get Silverchair back together.
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