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MEDIA RELEASE
On the eve of his 60th birthday, Joe Camilleri sits down to share The Art of
Conversation, interview style, with creators of the TAOC®
game series Louise Howland and Keith Lamb.
Joe tells tales, talks special guitars, shares a Maltese recipe
of his Mother’s, and, best of all, speaks of music.
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Joe Camilleri, one of Australia’s most successful and
dedicated musicians, has spent his life making music. With around 40
albums, a similar number of years touring, several ARIAs, Joe is a
singer, songwriter, saxophonist and producer. He has recorded some 40
albums, fronted at least a dozen bands (including Jo Jo Zep and the
Falcons and the Black Sorrows), won several ARIAs, been inducted into
the Rock n Roll Hall of Fame, sold over a million albums, had chart
success with numerous singles including So Young (covered by Elvis
Costello), Hit and Run, Shape I’m In, Harley and Rose, Snakeskin Shoes
and many more, founded his own record label Joe is renown for the
energy and passion of his live work. Born in Malta (he emigrated with
his family to Melbourne at 2 years of age), Joseph Vincent Camilleri
turns 60 on May 21. |
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Louise: What was the very first song you learned to sing?
JC: Crying in the Rain by Johnny Ray. I taught myself from the
record and copied it as closely as I could. With 10 children in our
family, (I was third) I was keen to get some of my parents’ attention.
They were busy and they did a great job. But there was not enough time
to go round everyone. So I would go into their room and stand next to
the bed and sing to them, sing at them really.
10 children are enough to play to a sizeable audience within the
family…
Yes! My first public performance was at my sister’s wedding. I sang
with the wedding band “I’m Gonna Knock on Your Door”.
Keith: You were collecting records by the age of 8. What did music
mean to you at 8, and what does it mean to you now?
JC Music in a way meant everything to me as a child. It was my
chance to get lost. It is a safe nurturing place to be. I need music;
it’s a satisfying thing that brings comfort. There’s always been a deep
connection with music. No matter what happens I have music and no one
can take that away.
Louise: Your music encompasses many genres and you have combined
soul, blues, funk, zydeco, r&b, country, and reggae. Is there a
style of music that you love but don’t perform?
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JC: The language of jazz music has always inspired me. I love the
freedom and joy that it brings but I could never be a jazz musician.
Louise: I would have thought that there was a good element of jazz in
your work – the way you improvise on a theme with your sax for example.
JC: I guess there are jazz aspects that I have to my work, I know a
lot about the jazz feeling, the challenge, looking inside yourself and
finding what you can, digging deep. But I don’t think I’m a jazz
player. Listen to Pharaoh Saunders, John Coltrane, Charlie Parker
…I am more a great appreciator and a fan,
Keith: A TAOC® question that yields some great stories is one
about people’s collections. You have a guitar collection worthy of a
mini series at least. Can you name your top 5, and tell us a little of
the story of each?
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JC: |
1. 1967 Gibson. Special. Unknown to me when
I bought it, it’s a custom, very rare. This guitar yielded me Harley
and Rose. Came back from England, took it out strummed that
progression, got the hook then the song was written.
2. J200 Greach, 1969 white falcon. The most expensive
guitar on the market. You see it and you want it. It has a fine looking
massive headstock. Although it hasn’t yielded me any songs I think it
makes me look thinner and richer, or maybe poorer (laughs)
3. 1952 Gibson Les Paul gold top. One of the rarest
electric guitars, the player’s version worth between 50-100K. I bought
it in NY when I was taking my musicality somewhere else. To play in NYC
is like a badge of honour in this country. We played the Bottom Line in
the Village, amongst other places. It was a memorable place- we’d had
some radio and did lunchtime gig. They brought in the most enormous
salamis. Anyway I recorded Lucky Charm In New York in 1994. I wanted to
record there, to do some work there and feel part of the place. This
guitar is beautiful sounding, just to play chords on it still sounds so
nice. 52 was the prototype. It has no serial number as they thought it
wouldn’t last! They became popular with the doo-wop bands. .
4. 1961 Fender Strata caster. A guitar you just want
around your neck. The Sorrows had just changed from Vika and Linda. I
wanted a more elastic, fluid Sorrows, needed more freedom in
expression. It was when I had Stuart Fraser playing with me and he
liked my guitar playing, which is kinda down home. I didn’t play much
acoustic then, not live. Thus was the first time I felt that I had to
run the band, lead then band and set the feel. This guitar gave me the
power and strength as I learned on the job.
5. 1962 Fender Telecaster I had a national metal
mandolin. It was annoying, loud and rude, made to to get above the
orchestra without amplification.
I circled a shop in St Kilda like a falcon. The guy had about 20
guitars in there- I just loved the headstock, engraved in pearl. Anyway
he swapped it for the mandolin.
This became my gig guitar when I wanted to play electric. I wrote quite
a few songs on it and it is tough. I can throw it out of the plane and
it stays in one piece.
It is one of the guitars I play on the new DVD, 4 Days at Sing Sing.
From there, on it goes, up to about 105 They’re nearly all in storage.
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Keith: So besides an enormous guitar garage, which feature would you
most like to have in your ideal home?
JC: My buddy has a sound proof room. It’s not a panic room! But somewhere he can
be as loud as he likes and play all night long. Now that beats a bread maker
hands down.
Louise: Are you skilful and creative
in the kitchen too?
JC: I love to cook in my Mother’s style. She was amazing. With 12 or
more people to cook for, she would still make people different meals.
If she were around now she would slap upside my head and tell me to get
out of the kitchen. I don’t use cookbooks. I know what I know and it’s
good most of the time.
Keith: Would you share one of your
Mother’s recipes with us?
JC: Grease a baking dish with lard. Stretch out some rump steak so it’s
thin- turn it into a dress. You slice potatoes and put the first layer
of potatoes into the baking dish. The second layer is of thinly sliced
onions. Crush 3 or 4 cloves of garlic over onions then comes the first
layer of meat. Season with pepper. Repeat the potatoes, then the second
meat layer. Next is heavy sprinkle fresh parsley, next a layer of
onions then two more layers of potatoes. A thin layer, then a thicker.
Brush on olive oil between each potato layer. Add a mix of white wine
and water to just under half way up. Sprinkle as much curry powder as
you like over the top. Cover with foil and bake until cooked. Take the
foil off and crisp up.
Let it go until it is saying hello lovely!
Louise: You are also well known for
your love of clothes and have got to be the best-dressed men in music.
You show determination even when the odds are against you. For example,
the deep muddy midnight quagmire that was the Gympie muster saw you
make your way though the swamps to the stage in a white suit with
plastic bags protecting your shoes. In which outfit do you look your
best and do you have “stage clothes” as such?
JC: No, I don’t have stage clothes. I like good civvies. The closest I
have come was when I wore a cowboy hat on stage. I love clothes and
would gladly change three times a day. I am not a jeans man, Suits are
more my thing, I think I am more of a girl than any girl I know. I have
been seen doing the gardening in a suit with new shoes.
Keith: What is the most difficult
aspect of your daily work?
JC: Finding a good idea, then finding the ins and outs so you end up
with something sweet on an empty page. Writing is very important to me.
If you haven’t got anything to say, you can’t exist on some levels.
Louise: Your live performances are
filled with incredible energy and passion, something that is difficult
to capture. Your sort of the spontaneity and can’t really be replicated
on the even greatest of live albums. Do you think your new DVD, 4 Days
at Sing Sing, is the closest you have come to giving people a recorded
version of your live work?
JC: Yes. It is genuinely 4 days of us at Sing Sin studios in Melbourne.
It’s raw and it’s us- you can see the music as well as hear it. You see
the moves and the work. It’s raw and it’s about the communication we
have with each other as musicians and as people. We talk about that
between the songs. 17 songs down in 4 days. It’s something of a
showcase for lots of things and people. Everyone shares a few thoughts
about the whys. I hope that people will enjoy connecting with us
through the DVD and it will bring them closer to the music. There are a
few guitars on show too including the green greach, like Brian Jones
played, a ’64. It’s pretty exciting – the running time is nearly two
hours. Maybe it goes on a bit. It’s bunch of musicians that I feel
proud to be playing with. Even in this day or mobile phones and digital
cameras when something can be up on Youtube before you get home form
the gig, it’s important to record or document yourself in your own way.
Keith: What potential do you think you
have that is, so far, unfulfilled?
JC: Life is a work in progress, so only on my death bed can I answer
the unfulfilled. For the next eighteen months I have some goals. For
example I want to make a country record in Nashville, tour Europe and
connect with some audiences who have no preconceptions about Joe
Camilleri. My new website (www.joecamilleri.com.au)
is coming together and I want to connect with people though that medium
also, write there about what’s happening. It will be a nice connection
while I am touring and working. I want to reach some fresh ears, play
some festivals, write more music, tour, play Carnegie Hall…
Louise: When do you believe that a
person becomes old?
JC: When he or she stops loving and caring about the little things,
stops talking, stops sharing. When someone loses their passion,
I guess it’s over.
Keith: How do you like to celebrate a
special occasion, such as a birthday?
JC: I don’t. I hide from it and avoid it. Maybe I’ll be grumpy about
it.
Keith: You have probably played
hundreds and hundreds musicians. Past and present company excepted,
with which musicians would you like to tour?
JC: The dream team? You know, I don't have one. I love playing with my
friends
we share all the up and downs. But, if Ray Charles or Otis Redding
wanted to sit in I could make room for them. Then you start thinkin’
and there 10000000000000000’s of them. I hope that I could sit in with
them.
Louise: What about your ideal
audience? What would they want to hear?
JC: Because you’re never really in sync with what your doing live,
people who come to see you play music without judging your past against
he now- hose who want the future with a pinch of he past and a taste of
the present-now that’s nice to be around!
The connection with people means more than the music on many levels.
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Louise:
That seems a shame when you have made
so many occasions special for so many people! I know we join thousands
of fans who wish you a very happy birthday Joe. We look forward to
hearing what’s to come.
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All rights reserved. All text,
graphics and sound files on this page are copyrighted. Unauthorized
reproduction and is prohibited by law.
Copyright © 2008 by Louise
Howland Keith Lamb 4 Days at Sing Sing will be available through http://www.joecamilleri.com.au |
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