Tell us about your new single/ album/ tour?
[pullquote]The lyric is about distance between people, and how intimacy can create isolation for two people. And Lego. [/pullquote]’All I Can See’ was written by me and Jac. I had the guitar line and chord progression, I kept playing it around the house, Jac said “That thing you keep playing – what is it? It’s good”. We were up north touring in the NT and at night we’d write music in motel rooms, sitting on badly coloured bed coverings. Jac asked me to play her that part again, we hummed melodies at each other, and they stuck. And we built the verses line by line together. It’s a co-write in the truest sense of the word – we built it together like when you’re a kid and you play Lego with a friend, and you build a house together bit by bit. Writing songs is that kind of meditative fun for adults. Can be if you don’t bicker too much.
Sonically we wanted it to somehow capture the landscape we were witnessing up there in the Territory, as much as you can do that. Sparse but deep. We recorded it with my cousin Shane O’Mara at Yikesville studio, he was on the same page, and helped us achieve that. It’s just me and Jac playing on the recording. I played resonator guitar, bass & drums on it, Jac sang and strummed her parlour guitar and did the percussion.
The lyric is about distance between people, and how intimacy can create isolation for two people. And Lego.
What’s your favourite work at this point in time? (your own or your group’s work)
Honestly, “All I can see” is probably the closest I’ve ever come to getting the sound and shape of a song I had in my head recorded and out into the world. It’s uncluttered. It was an effortless birth, quick labour, no complications. Couple of takes. I love Jac’s vocal on it too.
Tell us a quick, on the road or studio, anecdote.
We played at this bar in a resort in El Questro in W.A – played for people under the stars beside a bon fire out in this absolutely beautiful isolated part of the Kimberly. Parts of this resort are pretty luxurious, Mick Jagger’s stayed there. After the gig the manager was going to bus us out to our accommodation but a member of staff offered/insisted we stay at his spare lodgings – which was a dusty foam mattress on milk crates set on a sleepless angle, in a tent down a dirt track, lousy with cane toads and with one of those massive, roaming cows they have out there rubbing it’s face against the tent poles intermittently throughout the night. I don’t mind sleeping rough too much but when you’re on the road you get a bit dusty and when they bussed us out to the airport in the morning they stopped by at the accommodation we were supposed to say at – it looked like a Hollywood depiction of heaven. Beautiful cottages. Palm trees. Bar. Smiling staff in white suits handing out beer and cocktails and scented hand towels to people lounging on lush green lawns next to a swimming pool. We didn’t get out of the bus.
What, or who, inspires you?
Artists who are bold and uncompromising and hard working.
Which song do you wish you wrote?
Can I have three?
“Tangled up in blue” Dylan
“Into temptation” Finn
“Waiting” Van Walker
How would you describe your sound in food form and why?
Tea and toast, with a whisky sour chaser.
What’s next for you?
We’re launching the single at Some Velvet Morning Saturday Aug.13 at Some Velvet Morning with special guest Amarina Waters.
In October we’ll launch the album. And making more Lego for the next album in the meantime too.
What’s your scene?
Our scene is the alt-country, folk, country movement in inner city Melbourne. My other band Raised by Eagles is also part of that and I play with a few other bands here and there who are also part of that scene. It’s a blessing for a musician to be involved in something as vibrant and lively as this. Lots of fun nights and good music and friends, and talented people I feel lucky to play music with.
About Amarillo
“I was dying for a little while my darling, if you could walk a mile in these broken shoes”
Amarillo was formed in 2014 as a vehicle for Jac Tonks and Nick O’Mara’s songwriting. Nick O’Mara is a founding member and songwriter in alt country favourites Raised By Eagles. A renowned local guitarist, he has lent his skills on stage with Chris Altmann, Mick Thomas, Dan Parsons and Hayward Williams to name a few.
Jac Tonks is a songwriter, vocalist and guitar player. Trent Mackenzie joins them on bass, with Alex Rogowski on drums. Amarillo’s self-titled EP was released in 2014, winning them supports with the likes of Charlie Parr, a run of shows with Mick Thomas (Weddings, Parties, Anything) and shows around Melbourne, and in the Northern Territory and Western Australia.
Highly regarded Melbourne 4-piece AMARILLO announce the release of ALL I CAN SEE – the first single from the band’s upcoming album EYES STILL FIXED, slated for release on October 1 this year.
ALL I CAN SEE was written in motel rooms while Amarillo toured Western Australia and the Northern Territory, experiencing for the first time the vastness of this land and just how foreign your own country can feel. The song recognises you can have this same sense of remoteness and isolation even while surrounded by other people.
Instrumentation was kept sparse to evoke the sense of landscape it was written in, with Nick O’Mara playing resonator guitar, drums and bass on this track. Jac Tonks’ vocal is graceful, elegant and pure. There is nothing superfluous here to take away from the mood, the lyrics and the music. Effortlessly delivered, the song is a meditation on the physical and emotional distances between people.
ALL I CAN SEE offers a tantalising glimpse of what to expect on the upcoming album from this talented songwriting duo, which was recorded with Nick’s cousin Shane O’Mara at his Yikesville studio in Yarraville.
ALL I CAN SEE is available to purchase on Bandcamp and comes complete with 2 bonus tracks from the album; LEMONADE and title track EYES STILL FIXED.