Interview & Article

A few years ago on a particularly big night, a friend of mine (who had at that point consumed ALL of the alcohols,) stumbled down a Melbourne street singing a (then) unknown song in an outrageously loud manner. “IT’S THE GREATEST SONG I’VE EVER HEARD!” he proclaimed, and with a vague melody and sloppy whistle he continued on his merry way. At the time I had no idea what he was trying to sing and credited his outrageous claims to the evening’s liquor. On that night I was unwittingly introduced to the songs of Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros and upon hearing the recorded (un-slurred) version of their song Home around a month later, I was instantly in love.

Nowadays, the band hardly need an introduction. There’s something about their delicate blend of folk, gospel and psychedelic rock that has the world captivated by its spell. The group’s lively sound has been known to turn even the gloomiest days around and over the past half-decade they’ve made a point of bringing their live show to anyone willing to listen. Having experienced said performance a few times in the past, I can confirm that night’s spent with the Ed Sharpe crew are easily some of the greatest. Lucky for Australia they’ll be hanging out on our side of the island next April to play a collection of gigs all around the country. Don’t mind if we do...

On a fine morning not too long ago, we had the pleasure of conversation with Josh from the band who courteously paused cleaning his garage to have a chat. These are the resulting stories. Read on.

From what I hear, Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeroes spend a whole lot of their time on the road. Are you on tour at the moment?

J: We got done with about 5 months of touring about a month ago and recently put on a circus in Los Angeles, but apart from that I think we’re pretty much done for the year. It’s four nights in a row, in a circus tent and a whole lot of fun stuff. We headlined every night and a bunch of our friends bands came out to play as well. We also had a bunch of charities that we’re really into there on the nights to spread their awareness, so it was really exciting.

I can imagine 5 months on the road being pretty intense, I trust this little break is pretty welcomed by you all?

J: Yeah, its nice but I mean the last five months have definitely been good. I think its been really good for the band, obviously everybody’s a little bit tired now, traveling that much gets physically exhausting but I think we ended things on a really high note so cannot complain at all! 

What was your favourite place to visit during that tour?

J: Gosh, well we did some shows with Mumford & Sons over in Ireland, Europe and the UK. Those were always really fun because we’ve known those guys for quite a while now and its definitely an honour to be able to play with them at shows and at their festivals. I think the show that most stands out for me was when we played in Lewes in the UK, its this tiny little town with an old castle. Just a beautiful place and was a good day out for all.

Word is that we can expect to see your faces Down Under in the new year. How do you feel about coming back to Australia?

J: We’ll be there in April and are all pretty excited. I love coming to Australia, its always been a fun time and we tend to have some really good shows so its definitely excited. Especially since now we’ve got the new album out, we’ve been playing a lot of the new tunes but by then we’ll be doing even more. 

Considering the amount of time you all spend in transit, I’d imagine you’d have a travel playlist well and truly sorted. What three albums make the top of that list?

J: Let’s see. I mean I listen to a lot of Jazz so I’m going to have to go with what I usually listen to. There’s an album called Criss Cross by Thelonious Monk, and then a box set by Wynton Marsalis of him playing live at the Village Vanguard -- there’s like 50 songs on it so that definitely helps the time go by. Then probably like The White Album by The Beatles.

As a band, you seem to be quite an eclectic bunch. I’ve always wondered how you came to play together?

J: It was kind of one of those weird things that almost freaks me out too. There wasn’t really an rhyme or reason to it, it just happened. Christian, one of our guitarists, grew up with Alex so have known each other since they were like 3 or 4 years old. Christian and I later played in a band together, which is how I met Alex... It was just kind of like weird little friends of friends coming together then all of a sudden we were a band. The really interesting thing is that most bands will come together, start a band, start doing shows and then they’ll record an album or whatever. We sort of came together while writing the first album, rather than playing shows so it turned out to be a really interesting process to see work out.

Speaking of your albums, your latest release is rather spectacular. I realise this is probably an impossible question to answer, but is there a highlight track on there for you? 

J: I’d swing between If I Were Free and the last track, This Life. If I was going to die this second though, I’d probably have to say This Life. Its a very emotional song, when we recorded it I teared up while we were playing it. Its a heavy track for all of us to play and even when we perform it live we haven’t really practiced it because it has a very deep emotional attachment to all of us. For us to make the song sound right we’ve got to be 100% there and in it, so I think that would be my song.

I’ve had the pleasure of seeing you guys play on a few occasions and every time walk away even more excited by your music. Is there a lot of time and thought that goes in to the preparation of those shows?

J: We are definitely not a band who thinks about doing this or that. We’ve never kept to a set list, well actually one time we tried but it just didn’t feel right. Lately we’ve been getting on stage, not knowing what song we’re going to play first so immediately, at least for the band, its exciting because we don’t know what we’re going to do next. You know, the cool thing is that now we’ve got three albums out and Alex can call out to the audience so if someone yells out a song there’s a pretty good chance we’ll play it. We’ve been letting the audience decide the set list lately.