Join Cheryl Lee - That Radio Chick on STILL ROCKIN' IT for news, reviews, music and interviews with some of our favourite Australian musicians.
Eskimo Joe's Kav Temperley opens up about the band's remarkable three-decade journey in Australian music and their electrifying new single "Miracle Cure." From their humble Fremantle beginnings to becoming ARIA chart-toppers, this conversation reveals the authentic storytelling and creative chemistry that has kept them at the forefront of Australia's music scene.
Growing up in Fremantle's nurturing artistic community, Kav shares how the town's creative atmosphere shaped his musical destiny from an early age. "If you wanted to be a professional artist of any description, no one would say 'what are you going to do for a real job?'" he recalls. This supportive environment fostered the connections that would become Eskimo Joe, when childhood friends and neighbors discovered their shared musical passion.
The band's evolution from campus band competition winners to multi-platinum selling artists showcases their remarkable resilience and adaptability. After taking a creative break in 2013, they've returned with renewed energy, embracing today's digital landscape while maintaining their commitment to meticulous songwriting. Their latest single "Miracle Cure" draws inspiration from what Kav calls "Australian Gothic" – blending their signature sound with influences from the vast Australian landscape they experienced during their storytelling acoustic tour.
Perhaps most fascinating is their intentional shift away from traditional album cycles, choosing instead to craft one perfect song at a time. "We are so annoyingly fastidious," Kav admits with a laugh, explaining their Beatles-influenced approach to songwriting. With a 20th anniversary celebration of "Black Fingernails Red Wine" on the horizon and more new music in the works, Eskimo Joe continues to demonstrate why they've remained relevant across generations.
Stream "Miracle Cure" now and discover why this beloved Australian band still rocks after all these years.
What have Eskimo Joe been up to lately? Let's find out!!
Get out when you can, support local music and I'll see you down the front!!
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
That radio chick, cheryl Lee, here.
Welcome to the Still Rocking itpodcast where we'll have music
news, reviews and interviewswith some of our favourite
Australian musicians and artists.
Hot off the back of their APRAaward nomination for most
performed rock work for theirsong the First Time, eskimo Joe
are thrilled to unleash theirbanger new single, miracle Cure.
(00:25):
Founding member Cav saysMiracle Cure is about the search
for redemption and how onlylove can pull us back from the
edge.
With six studio albums, salesin excess of $750,000 in
Australia alone, the band hasseen three of those albums debut
at number one on the ARIAcharts, with the Juggernaut
(00:47):
Black Fingernails Red Wineshining for a monster 62 weeks
in the ARIA chart top 50.
Foreignland from their fourthalbum, bringing home two APRA
awards for most played song onAustralian radio and the best
rock song of 2010.
35 ARIA nominations to theircredits so far, a number only
(01:09):
surpassed by four othersSilverchair Powderfinger, kylie
Minogue and John Farnham.
We were lucky enough to catchup with founding member
singer-songwriter bass guitaristKev Templey in the Zoom room
today.
To catch up on podcasts fromother favourite artists, simply
go to thatradiochickcomau.
Speaker 2 (01:29):
I'd like to welcome into the Zoom room today for the
first time.
Speaker 1 (01:34):
Eskimo Joe's Cav Tempoli.
How are you doing?
Speaker 2 (01:38):
Hello, I'm waiting for the crowd, the round of
applause and the crowd goes wild.
Very well, thank you yes.
Speaker 1 (01:45):
Thank you for joining us this morning.
I know you're a very, very busyman.
We've got some exciting news totalk about brand new song.
But before we go forward, canwe maybe just go back a little
bit?
Firstly, cavian.
I've never heard that namebefore.
Where does that come from?
Speaker 2 (02:00):
Well, it's an Indian name and there's a few different
variations of the same names,and I've never met another
Kaviyan before.
But there is Kavi, which islike another version of it, and
there's Kavisha, which is like afemale version of it, and I
believe that Kavi was a famousIndian poet from back in the day
.
Speaker 1 (02:18):
There you go.
I wonder whether that wasinstrumental in you becoming a
poet.
Speaker 2 (02:24):
Well, it's all worked out well for me.
Speaker 1 (02:28):
I'm going to ask you, and I think I probably know,
the answer to this question,because I think you left school
at age 16 to concentrate onwriting music when did you
realise that music was in yourDNA and music was your passion?
Are you from a musical family?
Speaker 2 (02:45):
I mean, I guess I'm from a musical family.
I mean my mum kind of played abit of music, my brother played
a little music, but it was neverlike this is going to be your
career.
But I was really lucky enoughto grow up in the small town of
Fremantle, which you know hasgiven birth to lots of great
bands.
Yeah, yeah, you know, in thetiny little bit of real estate
(03:06):
that is freemantle, you know,you've got tayman, parlor, john
butler trio, san cisco, you know, to name a few, and eskimo joe,
and so I think like growing uphere it was like if you wanted
to be a professional artist ofany description, you would just
say that and no one walking downthe street would say to you,
well, what are you going to dofor a real job?
Everyone would just kind of go,oh great, yeah, that's what
you're going to do, fantastic.
So it was never a conversationof like, well, you probably need
(03:28):
to knuckle down and get like anactual career, you know it was
just accepted that you could bea professional musician, which
is great.
But as far as, like you know,deciding or knowing when I was
going to be like a muso, whatkind of came first is my desire
for storytelling, like I love.
I loved telling stories from areally young age.
You know, I thought at onepoint in time I'd become a
(03:49):
writer, but clearly I was waytoo lazy to write a whole entire
book.
You know, I think there wasprobably a crossover between me
wanting to write stories andthen discovering that.
You know, when I played songs,you know, girls probably paid me
attention.
So I was just like, yeah, okay,well, maybe this music thing is
is good.
And of course, you know, thedeeper I got into it, the more I
was just like it's not aboutthe girls, it's about the music
(04:10):
uh, kind of my style ofsongwriting that emerged was
more about this kind of likedear diary.
You know, like I would do thesekind of reports from the war
front of my life.
And you know, it probablywasn't until, I guess, the
Blackfinger N's Red Wine albumthat I started to dress those
songs up a little bitdifferently and still tell these
like real stories but justmaybe give them a bit of a
(04:31):
vessel that could kind of go toa larger audience.
Speaker 1 (04:34):
You're telling me that there was never actually
any plan B if this music thinghadn't panned out for you.
Speaker 2 (04:40):
I just no, no.
I just started playing musicFor you.
I just no, no.
I just started playing musicand the one thing my mum said to
me when I first started, shewas like okay, if you're going
to do this, you have to do it100%.
So ever since that day, I'vedone it 100%.
Speaker 1 (04:54):
Good on you, mum.
Good, you caught up with Stuartin high school, so how did you
likely let me?
Speaker 2 (05:03):
Well, kind of.
I mean, he actually moved nextdoor to me when I was about five
years old and our parents, youknow, were mates, and so we kind
of spent a lot of you knowchildhood hangs together and
then, you know, we kind of didour own thing.
But it wasn't, you know, tilltowards the end of high school
that we came back together againand I was already deep into the
songwriting and, you know,deciding to be a muso thing.
(05:23):
Me and Joel had already formeda bad funk metal band you know
that was doing the rounds.
But Stu was one day was on hisway to buy himself the latest
Nintendo and he segued past likecash converters and when he got
home he bought himself a guitarinstead.
So that was kind of like asliding doors moment for him.
And then, when I discovered thathe was getting into music too,
(05:45):
we started jamming.
I mean, I had my thing withJoel, but we started jamming and
because me and Stu connected onsuch a kind of, you know,
brother-like level we'd knowneach other all our lives we
started playing music you know,versions of our favorite songs
at little cafes around FremantleAt a certain point in time,
when I was about 19,.
Joel kind of came in and thenthe chemistry between the three
of us was just like.
It was just obvious.
You know, if you've been indifferent bands and had
(06:07):
different combinations of people, when you get the right
chemistry of people, it's justreally obvious.
So we just knew straight awaythat this was easy.
And you know, here we are,almost 30 years later, still
doing it.
You are listening to, stillRocking it the podcast with
Cheryl Lee.
Speaker 1 (06:23):
Here it is the title track from Black Finger Nails
Red Wine, the third studio albumby Eskimo Joe from 2006.
The album became their firstnumber one on the Australian
ARIA albums chart and certifiedfour times platinum.
Then back to speak to KevTemperley, founding member of
(06:44):
Eskimo Joe.
Very soon, that's a lot longerthan a lot of marriages.
Speaker 2 (06:55):
Yes, absolutely.
Speaker 1 (06:57):
Well done and it's been, you know, the static
lineup really the whole time.
Speaker 2 (07:01):
Yeah, well, I mean, there's the three of us who
write and record everything.
But you know, when we go out onthe road we have to try and
play the records live, becausewe're, you know, absolute
tragics to try to reproduce thealbums.
So we'll often have differentsession players who play with us
over the years.
Right now, you know, we've gota guy called Paul Keenan on the
drums and he played with usagain, which is great.
And then we've got a guy calledTimothy Nelson who plays
(07:28):
keyboards with us at the momentand he's an amazing
singer-songwriter in his ownright.
So even that is a greatchemistry, you know, like you're
just getting differentcombinations of people together,
you just know when it's right.
And, yeah, even with oursession band at the moment, it's
a really great combo of people.
Speaker 1 (07:42):
So I'm going to take you back to your first gig in
97,.
Speaker 2 (07:45):
University of.
Speaker 1 (07:46):
WA, when you won that heat and then you went to the
final in Sydney and you won thenational final.
Would you say that was aturning point for you or just a
stepping stone along the way?
Speaker 2 (07:57):
Well, I guess it kind of put a bit of wind in our
sails.
But we started thinking,wouldn't it be nice if we won
the campus band competition?
And that was a big deal inPerth in the late 90s because
Perth was so isolated fromeverywhere in the world at that
point in time.
So to get a plane ticket out ofPerth was a pretty big deal,
and if we won the campus bandcompetition we would get a plane
ticket to the national finals.
(08:18):
So we did it and we won thewhole thing and that was like
our first like three or fourshows that we'd ever played.
So we were like okay, we're in100% and luckily from that
competition we won.
Part of the prize was we got arecording and with that
recording we went to Sydney andrecorded the Sweater EP and and
that the title track got pickedup by Jane Gazzo on Triple J and
(08:38):
then and then we were away.
Speaker 1 (08:39):
Basically we just said the rest is history that's
right, that's right.
Waste Lanes in 2013, the album,and then in 2020, the Say
Something single.
And now, have you noticed anychanges between then and now
with the whole recording process?
The industry, Because we've hadCOVID in there.
Speaker 2 (09:01):
Yeah, yes, we did.
I mean, when we took a break in2013, I mean we had been on
this two-year cycle of, you know, write a record, record the
record, tour the record, andaround, around we went and I
think we kind of like felt, youknow, in the air, that like we
didn't want to stop being eskimojoe, but we're like this feels
like a good time to just kind ofdisappear for a little while
(09:21):
and maybe have people miss us,um, and so we all went off and
did some other projects.
You know I'd produce otherbands and I've done some solo
records.
Joel has done a whole lot ofwriting and recording with other
bands.
Yeah, it was.
It was funnily enough, yeah,during the whole covid
experience, that we were like,well, wouldn't it be cool to
write another song?
And and me and joel kind of gottogether one afternoon and did
(09:42):
something kind of felt good andthat was the say something
single.
So we put that out right in themidst of you, you know, the
full on COVID affair.
And then, you know, did anothersong called 99 Ways.
But it wasn't really until weput out the third of those songs
a year ago, called the FirstTime.
That was, you know, post-covid.
It's a really funny thing, youknow, even if you've had, like I
mean, big records, you know,like records that have stayed on
(10:04):
the ARIA charts for weeks andweeks, weeks.
There's something about gettingin front of a live audience
that gives you this reminder ofyour musical identity, is the
best way to say it.
And so when we went out andstarted playing shows and
finally the world opened up abit and we were playing this
show called good things, and itwas a huge gig and it was like,
you know, like big day out stylecrowds, it was amazing, um, and
(10:27):
it was just like such a buzz.
You know that we went home andwe were like, yeah, we want to
write a song that sounds good infront of an audience like that.
And that's where we started.
We started, you know, playingsongs and then going out and
going well, that worked.
What if we did that on the nextsong?
And on we went.
So we did this song the firsttime and it was just electric
kind of return to form that we'dhad in a while.
Speaker 1 (10:46):
Like rejuvenated.
Speaker 2 (10:48):
Yeah, absolutely.
And we've just been nominatedfor an APRA award for that for
this year and that's a hugeaccolade.
Even you know not that weexpect to win, but just to have
a seat at the table is prettyamazing after almost 30 years.
So on the back of that we werelike, well, this is great,
people are enjoying it again.
And it was the opposite to thattime when we decided to take a
break.
We were like it feels likepeople are really enjoying us,
(11:09):
like a multi-generational kindof amount of people, like from
eight to 80 year olds, are intoour music now.
So let's put out another song.
And so we did with this newsong, miracle Cure.
And that song again was like areaction to the gigs that we
were playing about a 30-odd-dateacoustic tour across the
country where we did this bigstorytelling kind of show where
(11:30):
we played the songs, but intheir more bare-bone version, in
these beautiful country towntheatres everywhere, and then
backstage we had acousticguitars.
So we just chipped away at asong that became Miracle Cure
and that was really inspired andinfluenced by being in front of
you know the people that wewere in front of and telling the
stories and also being in thisvast Australian landscape.
You know the people that we'rein front of and telling the
stories and also being in thisvast australian landscape, you
(11:50):
know.
So all of these things kind ofseep into your songwriting.
As far as you know, yourquestion goes about.
You know what's changed in themusic industry between then and
now.
You know, when we took a breakit was just at the beginning of
the massive social media andstreaming services being a big
right.
So we kind of stepped away atthe stepped away at the end of
the traditional album cycle.
You know, sell some physicalcopies, go out and promote it,
(12:13):
do in-stores, and so I feel likenow we're kind of playing a
little bit of catch up, you know.
So if you look at the amount ofpeople who listen to us on
Spotify, you know you're intothe millions.
But you know we probably don'thave as many people following us
on social media because of theera that we came from.
It's all catching up prettyquickly, but it's just a
different landscape, you know.
But the rules are the same.
You know.
You find your band that youlove, you get obsessed with them
(12:36):
, you try and consume as much asyou can and go see them play
live shows.
The difference now is you knowyou've got to get all of these
people from all these differentplaces and funnel them into one
place so they know where you areand what you're doing.
And that's just the continuousevolving thing of the music
industry.
But it's more about live showsnow, as far as you know, bands
making a crust out of what theydo.
You've got to go out and play agig if you want to pay your
mortgage.
Speaker 1 (12:56):
Get in front of the fans Exactly Still off on the
podcast with that radio chick,cheryl Lee.
We obviously will play theMiracle Cure before the podcast
is out, but right now let's hearFor the First Time, and then
back to speak to Cav againstraight after this.
Speaker 2 (13:13):
Drinking on a Saturday night used to be so
easy.
Speaker 1 (13:19):
Don't you want to feel like it's the first time?
I really, really love this.
We'll talk about the songMiracle Cure, but I saw on your
socials that your wife Beth isyour miracle cure.
Aw, how did you two guys meet?
Speaker 2 (13:38):
We're both second-time rounders, so we both
were married, had previousmarriages and had very young
kids when we met each other.
But our two youngest kidsbecame best friends.
For anyone who's got kids, youknow, it's like when you find
two kids, like when they'rethree years old, and they just
they're happy playing for hours,and then you're like this is
amazing, another gin and tonic,why not?
You know what I mean.
We got into this groove of justhanging out all the time
(14:01):
because our youngest kids justloved hanging out with each
other.
And eventually, you know, wewere in denial, probably for a
long period of time, but then wefell in love and and then we
had to inform all the kids thatthey were now brothers and
sisters and they were like whatthat was you know about 10 years
ago now.
Speaker 1 (14:15):
so we're really further down the track
congratulations, and how manykids all together like the
partridge family well, there'sfour of them.
Speaker 2 (14:23):
So yeah, we know the brady bunch a bit of a Brady
Bunch situation, for sure.
Speaker 1 (14:26):
That's lovely.
It is a fabulous song and itcomes with a really groovy film
clip as well so where can theyfind that film clip and have a
listen and a look at the song?
Speaker 2 (14:37):
Well, youtube, which is one of my favourite places to
peruse, is where you'd find avideo clip.
The coolest thing is that, youknow, we recorded the song in my
little studio in Fremantle andthen the video clip is recorded
literally next door at this bigart gallery that's kind of
attached to my studio.
So it all kind of happened inthis little place.
But I was really inspired, youknow, especially with the whole
(14:57):
traveling around Australia, thisidea of what I was calling
Australian Gothic.
I'd just gone to see, you know,robert Eggers' Nosferatu and I
loved the kind of, you know, thegothic nature of it.
But then, looking at Australia,you know we've got these vast
landscapes and this kind ofvacuum, you know, that exists
between, you know, the originalAustralians and the settlers,
(15:18):
and I think it's an interestingand very Australian story to
explore.
So I kind of tried to bring allof that imagery and that
feeling and into the photo shootthat we did for the song and as
well as the feeling of the songand as well as the video clip,
was that in the historic oldcustoms house?
that's right.
Yes, yeah, so the old customshouse is this amazing building
(15:38):
in the middle of freemantle, uh,that they gave to the arts when
um freemantle had the america'scup.
And when the america's cup cameto freemantle, it kind of
changed.
Freemantle had the America'sCup.
When the America's Cup came toFremantle, it kind of changed
Fremantle forever.
They had this, you know, acouple of derelict buildings,
and you know the government atthe time made the very wise
choice to give this hugebuilding to the arts and now
that's where my studio is andit's a huge art space.
Speaker 1 (15:59):
Beautiful, yeah, very lucky.
Speaker 2 (16:02):
Mm, you are listening to Still Rocking it the podcast
with Cheryl Lee.
Speaker 1 (16:09):
I won't keep you in suspense any longer.
Here it is the new song byEskimo Joe Miracle Cure.
Check it out on YouTube and, ofcourse, you can get it from all
the usual places.
And then we're back to finishup with Kevin Temperley,
founding member.
I've been looking for a miraclecure.
Silver bullet to a heart that'sso pure.
(16:32):
Do you have any spinal tapmoments?
Have you got like when you'reperforming?
Is there something that youhave to have on your rider or
you're not going on, you guys?
Speaker 2 (16:41):
Look, we're pretty practical and not too precious.
You know, we've been doing itfor enough years that we just
appreciate being there a lot ofthe time.
I mean, there's probably therewas probably times, you know,
where there's a mixture ofrising to fame and anxiety that
hits at the same time.
But we probably had someridiculous moments where we
overly thought things, but theywere.
They're very like, un, you know, romantic, unspinal tap moments
(17:03):
like you know, just takingridiculous amounts of gear on
the road with us that weprobably didn't need, or having
millions of people on the roadwith us so we probably didn't
need with us exactly these.
These days we're, we're prettylow maintenance.
We rock up to a show.
We want the show to sound andlook amazing.
We want everyone who comes tothe show to feel like they've
had the best time ever.
You know we're in the you knowthe cheer me up business.
(17:25):
So we that's how we approach itwe're just like well, our job
is to make sure everyone isfeeling good.
So we don't tend to get tooridiculous about things these
days and I'm just trying tothink, you know we're, even
though we're ridiculous, and ofcourse we're we're musos, so
we're complete weirdos, um, butwe're probably some of the more
down-to-earth musos that you'regoing to meet.
You know there's a couple ofthem that you'll meet around
(17:47):
Australia and they're, funnilyenough, all from our era of
bands.
You know bands like the LivingEnd and Jebediah and those kinds
of you.
Meet those people and they'llbe the nicest, most chilled-out
people you meet.
It's people who come from, whoare, you know, brand new to the
industry, like the ones just onthe way.
Find they're having the biggestSpinal Tap moments out of
everyone.
Speaker 1 (18:06):
You're obviously sort of hit your groove again, so is
this maybe the first song likean album in the watershed, not
that we planned on.
Speaker 2 (18:19):
You know we're at the moment because we kind of you
know, obviously do all theseother creative projects outside
of Eskimo Joe.
You know we have lots ofmultiple things that we do.
We've kind of worked out thatwe can probably get away with
writing and recording one, maybetwo songs a year.
So at this rate we should havean album in about 12 years time.
Speaker 1 (18:36):
That's one thing I think that has changed, because
previously it was all about thealbums.
Speaker 2 (18:42):
Look, I love making records and I'll probably make
records in my solo world untilthe day I die.
But I guess for us you knowwe're not a band who goes in
there and just jams we're like,yeah, let's just jam on this
riff, yeah, cool, that's therecord.
We are fastidious and we'll goover every chord and every lyric
to try and write the bestpossible song we can.
(19:03):
That's just our process, youknow we are are, you know we
grew up listening to the beatlesand those kinds of bands and,
and so we we take songwritingand record production really
seriously because we are soannoyingly fastidious.
Unless we were gonna like canceleverything in our lives and and
just work on that for sixmonths to a year, then you know,
I think one song, we can dothat to our our level, um,
(19:24):
without messing about.
And it's not about that wedon't want to make records
anymore, it's just that you know.
We know that we can do onereally good song if we focus on
it completely, and so that'sjust where we're at, and we're
pretty cool with that, becausewe've got lots of albums that we
put out before.
At this stage in our careermaybe we'll go do another record
one day, who knows?
Speaker 1 (19:52):
But the way we do things we just take way too long
just to get one song done.
So yeah, one song a year, Ireckon you'll get from us.
Yeah, we'll look forward to.
Speaker 2 (19:54):
That's a scoop, everyone.
There's an album out in 12years time.
You heard it this year exactlyand another song, maybe next
year.
Speaker 1 (19:57):
So what I was hoping you're gonna say is yeah,
there's an album and a tour, soany plans of touring?
Speaker 2 (20:02):
like.
I've been away every weekendfor about the last year and a
half, so we've just finishedepic amounts of shows.
I think we've played everyfestival you can play.
So we'll have a bit of acreative little downtime,
probably work on some new music.
Hopefully that'll turn intoanother song that'll come out
sometime soon.
But we're getting ready for 20years of black fingernails red
wine.
So next year will be um thatand we'll make sure we do some
(20:25):
touring around that we'll make abig fuss about that record
because that was a an album thatwas, you know, really important
to us and really important toour fans absolutely.
Speaker 1 (20:33):
Where should they go to keep an eye on that?
Speaker 2 (20:36):
there's a eskimo joe website yeah, there's that, but
you know people don't reallyhang out on websites too much
these days.
Just social media yeah,instagram or facebook is
probably where we're mostprolific, though you know we're
dipping our toe in the tiktok,we're in all those places.
And you know youtube we'retrying to kind of post a lot
more on youtube because youtubeshorts are great and all the
rest of it.
But really, yeah, instagram orfacebook if you want to keep an
(20:58):
eye on what's going on I've gotno idea how long we've been.
Speaker 1 (21:02):
I'm sure my time is up.
Is there anything else that youwanted to say that we haven't
covered?
Speaker 2 (21:07):
yeah, go out there and stream miracle cure and
hopefully we'll see you all onthe road soon it got its first
play on my monday night showlast night oh, wicked.
Speaker 1 (21:15):
Thank you very much and we'll keep spinning it.
It's a great song.
I really love it.
Well done and we'll lookforward to seeing you when you
are next in our town.
I'll see you down the frontyeah, sounds wicked awesome,
thank you, so much for your time.
Enjoy the rest of your day.
Cheers, bye-bye.
Still rocking that podcast withthat radio chick, cheryl lee,
we're going to go out with oneof my favorites.
(21:37):
This one is courtesy of triplem, 30 years of rock, and it's a
live version from the sea.
Here they are Eskimo.
Joe you're with Cheryl Lee thatradio chick.
(21:59):
Thank you so much for joiningme on the still rocking it
podcast.
Hope to catch you again nexttime.
Get out when you can supportAussie music and I'll see you
down the front.
That radio chick, cheryl Lee, here.
Welcome to the Still Rocking itpodcast where we'll have music
news, reviews and interviewswith some of our favourite
Australian musicians and artists.
Hot off the back of their APRAaward nomination for most
performed rock work for theirsong the First Time, eskimo Joe
are thrilled to unleash theirbanger new single, miracle Cure.
(00:25):
Founding member Cav saysMiracle Cure is about the search
for redemption and how onlylove can pull us back from the
edge.
With six studio albums, salesin excess of $750,000 in
Australia alone, the band hasseen three of those albums debut
at number one on the ARIAcharts, with the Juggernaut
(00:47):
Black Fingernails Red Wineshining for a monster 62 weeks
in the ARIA chart top 50.
Foreignland from their fourthalbum, bringing home two APRA
awards for most played song onAustralian radio and the best
rock song of 2010.
35 ARIA nominations to theircredits so far, a number only
(01:09):
surpassed by four othersSilverchair Powderfinger, kylie
Minogue and John Farnham.
We were lucky enough to catchup with founding member
singer-songwriter bass guitaristKev Templey in the Zoom room
today.
To catch up on podcasts fromother favourite artists, simply
go to thatradiochickcomau.
Speaker 2 (01:29):
I'd like to welcome into the Zoom room today for the
first time.
Speaker 1 (01:34):
Eskimo Joe's Cav Tempoli.
How are you doing?
Speaker 2 (01:38):
Hello, I'm waiting for the crowd, the round of
applause and the crowd goes wild.
Very well, thank you yes.
Speaker 1 (01:45):
Thank you for joining us this morning.
I know you're a very, very busyman.
We've got some exciting news totalk about brand new song.
But before we go forward, canwe maybe just go back a little
bit?
Firstly, cavian.
I've never heard that namebefore.
Where does that come from?
Speaker 2 (02:00):
Well, it's an Indian name and there's a few different
variations of the same names,and I've never met another
Kaviyan before.
But there is Kavi, which islike another version of it, and
there's Kavisha, which is like afemale version of it, and I
believe that Kavi was a famousIndian poet from back in the day
.
Speaker 1 (02:18):
There you go.
I wonder whether that wasinstrumental in you becoming a
poet.
Speaker 2 (02:24):
Well, it's all worked out well for me.
Speaker 1 (02:28):
I'm going to ask you, and I think I probably know,
the answer to this question,because I think you left school
at age 16 to concentrate onwriting music when did you
realise that music was in yourDNA and music was your passion?
Are you from a musical family?
Speaker 2 (02:45):
I mean, I guess I'm from a musical family.
I mean my mum kind of played abit of music, my brother played
a little music, but it was neverlike this is going to be your
career.
But I was really lucky enoughto grow up in the small town of
Fremantle, which you know hasgiven birth to lots of great
bands.
Yeah, yeah, you know, in thetiny little bit of real estate
(03:06):
that is freemantle, you know,you've got tayman, parlor, john
butler trio, san cisco, you know, to name a few, and eskimo joe,
and so I think like growing uphere it was like if you wanted
to be a professional artist ofany description, you would just
say that and no one walking downthe street would say to you,
well, what are you going to dofor a real job?
Everyone would just kind of go,oh great, yeah, that's what
you're going to do, fantastic.
So it was never a conversationof like, well, you probably need
(03:28):
to knuckle down and get like anactual career, you know it was
just accepted that you could bea professional musician, which
is great.
But as far as, like you know,deciding or knowing when I was
going to be like a muso, whatkind of came first is my desire
for storytelling, like I love.
I loved telling stories from areally young age.
You know, I thought at onepoint in time I'd become a
(03:49):
writer, but clearly I was waytoo lazy to write a whole entire
book.
You know, I think there wasprobably a crossover between me
wanting to write stories andthen discovering that.
You know, when I played songs,you know, girls probably paid me
attention.
So I was just like, yeah, okay,well, maybe this music thing is
is good.
And of course, you know, thedeeper I got into it, the more I
was just like it's not aboutthe girls, it's about the music
(04:10):
uh, kind of my style ofsongwriting that emerged was
more about this kind of likedear diary.
You know, like I would do thesekind of reports from the war
front of my life.
And you know, it probablywasn't until, I guess, the
Blackfinger N's Red Wine albumthat I started to dress those
songs up a little bitdifferently and still tell these
like real stories but justmaybe give them a bit of a
(04:31):
vessel that could kind of go toa larger audience.
Speaker 1 (04:34):
You're telling me that there was never actually
any plan B if this music thinghadn't panned out for you.
Speaker 2 (04:40):
I just no, no.
I just started playing musicFor you.
I just no, no.
I just started playing musicand the one thing my mum said to
me when I first started, shewas like okay, if you're going
to do this, you have to do it100%.
So ever since that day, I'vedone it 100%.
Speaker 1 (04:54):
Good on you, mum.
Good, you caught up with Stuartin high school, so how did you
likely let me?
Speaker 2 (05:03):
Well, kind of.
I mean, he actually moved nextdoor to me when I was about five
years old and our parents, youknow, were mates, and so we kind
of spent a lot of you knowchildhood hangs together and
then, you know, we kind of didour own thing.
But it wasn't, you know, tilltowards the end of high school
that we came back together againand I was already deep into the
songwriting and, you know,deciding to be a muso thing.
(05:23):
Me and Joel had already formeda bad funk metal band you know
that was doing the rounds.
But Stu was one day was on hisway to buy himself the latest
Nintendo and he segued past likecash converters and when he got
home he bought himself a guitarinstead.
So that was kind of like asliding doors moment for him.
And then, when I discovered thathe was getting into music too,
(05:45):
we started jamming.
I mean, I had my thing withJoel, but we started jamming and
because me and Stu connected onsuch a kind of, you know,
brother-like level we'd knowneach other all our lives we
started playing music you know,versions of our favorite songs
at little cafes around FremantleAt a certain point in time,
when I was about 19,.
Joel kind of came in and thenthe chemistry between the three
of us was just like.
It was just obvious.
You know, if you've been indifferent bands and had
(06:07):
different combinations of people, when you get the right
chemistry of people, it's justreally obvious.
So we just knew straight awaythat this was easy.
And you know, here we are,almost 30 years later, still
doing it.
You are listening to, stillRocking it the podcast with
Cheryl Lee.
Speaker 1 (06:23):
Here it is the title track from Black Finger Nails
Red Wine, the third studio albumby Eskimo Joe from 2006.
The album became their firstnumber one on the Australian
ARIA albums chart and certifiedfour times platinum.
Then back to speak to KevTemperley, founding member of
(06:44):
Eskimo Joe.
Very soon, that's a lot longerthan a lot of marriages.
Speaker 2 (06:55):
Yes, absolutely.
Speaker 1 (06:57):
Well done and it's been, you know, the static
lineup really the whole time.
Speaker 2 (07:01):
Yeah, well, I mean, there's the three of us who
write and record everything.
But you know, when we go out onthe road we have to try and
play the records live, becausewe're, you know, absolute
tragics to try to reproduce thealbums.
So we'll often have differentsession players who play with us
over the years.
Right now, you know, we've gota guy called Paul Keenan on the
drums and he played with usagain, which is great.
And then we've got a guy calledTimothy Nelson who plays
(07:28):
keyboards with us at the momentand he's an amazing
singer-songwriter in his ownright.
So even that is a greatchemistry, you know, like you're
just getting differentcombinations of people together,
you just know when it's right.
And, yeah, even with oursession band at the moment, it's
a really great combo of people.
Speaker 1 (07:42):
So I'm going to take you back to your first gig in
97,.
Speaker 2 (07:45):
University of.
Speaker 1 (07:46):
WA, when you won that heat and then you went to the
final in Sydney and you won thenational final.
Would you say that was aturning point for you or just a
stepping stone along the way?
Speaker 2 (07:57):
Well, I guess it kind of put a bit of wind in our
sails.
But we started thinking,wouldn't it be nice if we won
the campus band competition?
And that was a big deal inPerth in the late 90s because
Perth was so isolated fromeverywhere in the world at that
point in time.
So to get a plane ticket out ofPerth was a pretty big deal,
and if we won the campus bandcompetition we would get a plane
ticket to the national finals.
(08:18):
So we did it and we won thewhole thing and that was like
our first like three or fourshows that we'd ever played.
So we were like okay, we're in100% and luckily from that
competition we won.
Part of the prize was we got arecording and with that
recording we went to Sydney andrecorded the Sweater EP and and
that the title track got pickedup by Jane Gazzo on Triple J and
(08:38):
then and then we were away.
Speaker 1 (08:39):
Basically we just said the rest is history that's
right, that's right.
Waste Lanes in 2013, the album,and then in 2020, the Say
Something single.
And now, have you noticed anychanges between then and now
with the whole recording process?
The industry, Because we've hadCOVID in there.
Speaker 2 (09:01):
Yeah, yes, we did.
I mean, when we took a break in2013, I mean we had been on
this two-year cycle of, you know, write a record, record the
record, tour the record, andaround, around we went and I
think we kind of like felt, youknow, in the air, that like we
didn't want to stop being eskimojoe, but we're like this feels
like a good time to just kind ofdisappear for a little while
(09:21):
and maybe have people miss us,um, and so we all went off and
did some other projects.
You know I'd produce otherbands and I've done some solo
records.
Joel has done a whole lot ofwriting and recording with other
bands.
Yeah, it was.
It was funnily enough, yeah,during the whole covid
experience, that we were like,well, wouldn't it be cool to
write another song?
And and me and joel kind of gottogether one afternoon and did
(09:42):
something kind of felt good andthat was the say something
single.
So we put that out right in themidst of you, you know, the
full on COVID affair.
And then, you know, did anothersong called 99 Ways.
But it wasn't really until weput out the third of those songs
a year ago, called the FirstTime.
That was, you know, post-covid.
It's a really funny thing, youknow, even if you've had, like I
mean, big records, you know,like records that have stayed on
(10:04):
the ARIA charts for weeks andweeks, weeks.
There's something about gettingin front of a live audience
that gives you this reminder ofyour musical identity, is the
best way to say it.
And so when we went out andstarted playing shows and
finally the world opened up abit and we were playing this
show called good things, and itwas a huge gig and it was like,
you know, like big day out stylecrowds, it was amazing, um, and
(10:27):
it was just like such a buzz.
You know that we went home andwe were like, yeah, we want to
write a song that sounds good infront of an audience like that.
And that's where we started.
We started, you know, playingsongs and then going out and
going well, that worked.
What if we did that on the nextsong?
And on we went.
So we did this song the firsttime and it was just electric
kind of return to form that we'dhad in a while.
Speaker 1 (10:46):
Like rejuvenated.
Speaker 2 (10:48):
Yeah, absolutely.
And we've just been nominatedfor an APRA award for that for
this year and that's a hugeaccolade.
Even you know not that weexpect to win, but just to have
a seat at the table is prettyamazing after almost 30 years.
So on the back of that we werelike, well, this is great,
people are enjoying it again.
And it was the opposite to thattime when we decided to take a
break.
We were like it feels likepeople are really enjoying us,
(11:09):
like a multi-generational kindof amount of people, like from
eight to 80 year olds, are intoour music now.
So let's put out another song.
And so we did with this newsong, miracle Cure.
And that song again was like areaction to the gigs that we
were playing about a 30-odd-dateacoustic tour across the
country where we did this bigstorytelling kind of show where
(11:30):
we played the songs, but intheir more bare-bone version, in
these beautiful country towntheatres everywhere, and then
backstage we had acousticguitars.
So we just chipped away at asong that became Miracle Cure
and that was really inspired andinfluenced by being in front of
you know the people that wewere in front of and telling the
stories and also being in thisvast Australian landscape.
You know the people that we'rein front of and telling the
stories and also being in thisvast australian landscape, you
(11:50):
know.
So all of these things kind ofseep into your songwriting.
As far as you know, yourquestion goes about.
You know what's changed in themusic industry between then and
now.
You know, when we took a breakit was just at the beginning of
the massive social media andstreaming services being a big
right.
So we kind of stepped away atthe stepped away at the end of
the traditional album cycle.
You know, sell some physicalcopies, go out and promote it,
(12:13):
do in-stores, and so I feel likenow we're kind of playing a
little bit of catch up, you know.
So if you look at the amount ofpeople who listen to us on
Spotify, you know you're intothe millions.
But you know we probably don'thave as many people following us
on social media because of theera that we came from.
It's all catching up prettyquickly, but it's just a
different landscape, you know.
But the rules are the same.
You know.
You find your band that youlove, you get obsessed with them
(12:36):
, you try and consume as much asyou can and go see them play
live shows.
The difference now is you knowyou've got to get all of these
people from all these differentplaces and funnel them into one
place so they know where you areand what you're doing.
And that's just the continuousevolving thing of the music
industry.
But it's more about live showsnow, as far as you know, bands
making a crust out of what theydo.
You've got to go out and play agig if you want to pay your
mortgage.
Speaker 1 (12:56):
Get in front of the fans Exactly Still off on the
podcast with that radio chick,cheryl Lee.
We obviously will play theMiracle Cure before the podcast
is out, but right now let's hearFor the First Time, and then
back to speak to Cav againstraight after this.
Speaker 2 (13:13):
Drinking on a Saturday night used to be so
easy.
Speaker 1 (13:19):
Don't you want to feel like it's the first time?
I really, really love this.
We'll talk about the songMiracle Cure, but I saw on your
socials that your wife Beth isyour miracle cure.
Aw, how did you two guys meet?
Speaker 2 (13:38):
We're both second-time rounders, so we both
were married, had previousmarriages and had very young
kids when we met each other.
But our two youngest kidsbecame best friends.
For anyone who's got kids, youknow, it's like when you find
two kids, like when they'rethree years old, and they just
they're happy playing for hours,and then you're like this is
amazing, another gin and tonic,why not?
You know what I mean.
We got into this groove of justhanging out all the time
(14:01):
because our youngest kids justloved hanging out with each
other.
And eventually, you know, wewere in denial, probably for a
long period of time, but then wefell in love and and then we
had to inform all the kids thatthey were now brothers and
sisters and they were like whatthat was you know about 10 years
ago now.
Speaker 1 (14:15):
so we're really further down the track
congratulations, and how manykids all together like the
partridge family well, there'sfour of them.
Speaker 2 (14:23):
So yeah, we know the brady bunch a bit of a Brady
Bunch situation, for sure.
Speaker 1 (14:26):
That's lovely.
It is a fabulous song and itcomes with a really groovy film
clip as well so where can theyfind that film clip and have a
listen and a look at the song?
Speaker 2 (14:37):
Well, youtube, which is one of my favourite places to
peruse, is where you'd find avideo clip.
The coolest thing is that, youknow, we recorded the song in my
little studio in Fremantle andthen the video clip is recorded
literally next door at this bigart gallery that's kind of
attached to my studio.
So it all kind of happened inthis little place.
But I was really inspired, youknow, especially with the whole
(14:57):
traveling around Australia, thisidea of what I was calling
Australian Gothic.
I'd just gone to see, you know,robert Eggers' Nosferatu and I
loved the kind of, you know, thegothic nature of it.
But then, looking at Australia,you know we've got these vast
landscapes and this kind ofvacuum, you know, that exists
between, you know, the originalAustralians and the settlers,
(15:18):
and I think it's an interestingand very Australian story to
explore.
So I kind of tried to bring allof that imagery and that
feeling and into the photo shootthat we did for the song and as
well as the feeling of the songand as well as the video clip,
was that in the historic oldcustoms house?
that's right.
Yes, yeah, so the old customshouse is this amazing building
(15:38):
in the middle of freemantle, uh,that they gave to the arts when
um freemantle had the america'scup.
And when the america's cup cameto freemantle, it kind of
changed.
Freemantle had the America'sCup.
When the America's Cup came toFremantle, it kind of changed
Fremantle forever.
They had this, you know, acouple of derelict buildings,
and you know the government atthe time made the very wise
choice to give this hugebuilding to the arts and now
that's where my studio is andit's a huge art space.
Speaker 1 (15:59):
Beautiful, yeah, very lucky.
Speaker 2 (16:02):
Mm, you are listening to Still Rocking it the podcast
with Cheryl Lee.
Speaker 1 (16:09):
I won't keep you in suspense any longer.
Here it is the new song byEskimo Joe Miracle Cure.
Check it out on YouTube and, ofcourse, you can get it from all
the usual places.
And then we're back to finishup with Kevin Temperley,
founding member.
I've been looking for a miraclecure.
Silver bullet to a heart that'sso pure.
(16:32):
Do you have any spinal tapmoments?
Have you got like when you'reperforming?
Is there something that youhave to have on your rider or
you're not going on, you guys?
Speaker 2 (16:41):
Look, we're pretty practical and not too precious.
You know, we've been doing itfor enough years that we just
appreciate being there a lot ofthe time.
I mean, there's probably therewas probably times, you know,
where there's a mixture ofrising to fame and anxiety that
hits at the same time.
But we probably had someridiculous moments where we
overly thought things, but theywere.
They're very like, un, you know, romantic, unspinal tap moments
(17:03):
like you know, just takingridiculous amounts of gear on
the road with us that weprobably didn't need, or having
millions of people on the roadwith us so we probably didn't
need with us exactly these.
These days we're, we're prettylow maintenance.
We rock up to a show.
We want the show to sound andlook amazing.
We want everyone who comes tothe show to feel like they've
had the best time ever.
You know we're in the you knowthe cheer me up business.
(17:25):
So we that's how we approach itwe're just like well, our job
is to make sure everyone isfeeling good.
So we don't tend to get tooridiculous about things these
days and I'm just trying tothink, you know we're, even
though we're ridiculous, and ofcourse we're we're musos, so
we're complete weirdos, um, butwe're probably some of the more
down-to-earth musos that you'regoing to meet.
You know there's a couple ofthem that you'll meet around
(17:47):
Australia and they're, funnilyenough, all from our era of
bands.
You know bands like the LivingEnd and Jebediah and those kinds
of you.
Meet those people and they'llbe the nicest, most chilled-out
people you meet.
It's people who come from, whoare, you know, brand new to the
industry, like the ones just onthe way.
Find they're having the biggestSpinal Tap moments out of
everyone.
Speaker 1 (18:06):
You're obviously sort of hit your groove again, so is
this maybe the first song likean album in the watershed, not
that we planned on.
Speaker 2 (18:19):
You know we're at the moment because we kind of you
know, obviously do all theseother creative projects outside
of Eskimo Joe.
You know we have lots ofmultiple things that we do.
We've kind of worked out thatwe can probably get away with
writing and recording one, maybetwo songs a year.
So at this rate we should havean album in about 12 years time.
Speaker 1 (18:36):
That's one thing I think that has changed, because
previously it was all about thealbums.
Speaker 2 (18:42):
Look, I love making records and I'll probably make
records in my solo world untilthe day I die.
But I guess for us you knowwe're not a band who goes in
there and just jams we're like,yeah, let's just jam on this
riff, yeah, cool, that's therecord.
We are fastidious and we'll goover every chord and every lyric
to try and write the bestpossible song we can.
(19:03):
That's just our process, youknow we are are, you know we
grew up listening to the beatlesand those kinds of bands and,
and so we we take songwritingand record production really
seriously because we are soannoyingly fastidious.
Unless we were gonna like canceleverything in our lives and and
just work on that for sixmonths to a year, then you know,
I think one song, we can dothat to our our level, um,
(19:24):
without messing about.
And it's not about that wedon't want to make records
anymore, it's just that you know.
We know that we can do onereally good song if we focus on
it completely, and so that'sjust where we're at, and we're
pretty cool with that, becausewe've got lots of albums that we
put out before.
At this stage in our careermaybe we'll go do another record
one day, who knows?
Speaker 1 (19:52):
But the way we do things we just take way too long
just to get one song done.
So yeah, one song a year, Ireckon you'll get from us.
Yeah, we'll look forward to.
Speaker 2 (19:54):
That's a scoop, everyone.
There's an album out in 12years time.
You heard it this year exactlyand another song, maybe next
year.
Speaker 1 (19:57):
So what I was hoping you're gonna say is yeah,
there's an album and a tour, soany plans of touring?
Speaker 2 (20:02):
like.
I've been away every weekendfor about the last year and a
half, so we've just finishedepic amounts of shows.
I think we've played everyfestival you can play.
So we'll have a bit of acreative little downtime,
probably work on some new music.
Hopefully that'll turn intoanother song that'll come out
sometime soon.
But we're getting ready for 20years of black fingernails red
wine.
So next year will be um thatand we'll make sure we do some
(20:25):
touring around that we'll make abig fuss about that record
because that was a an album thatwas, you know, really important
to us and really important toour fans absolutely.
Speaker 1 (20:33):
Where should they go to keep an eye on that?
Speaker 2 (20:36):
there's a eskimo joe website yeah, there's that, but
you know people don't reallyhang out on websites too much
these days.
Just social media yeah,instagram or facebook is
probably where we're mostprolific, though you know we're
dipping our toe in the tiktok,we're in all those places.
And you know youtube we'retrying to kind of post a lot
more on youtube because youtubeshorts are great and all the
rest of it.
But really, yeah, instagram orfacebook if you want to keep an
(20:58):
eye on what's going on I've gotno idea how long we've been.
Speaker 1 (21:02):
I'm sure my time is up.
Is there anything else that youwanted to say that we haven't
covered?
Speaker 2 (21:07):
yeah, go out there and stream miracle cure and
hopefully we'll see you all onthe road soon it got its first
play on my monday night showlast night oh, wicked.
Speaker 1 (21:15):
Thank you very much and we'll keep spinning it.
It's a great song.
I really love it.
Well done and we'll lookforward to seeing you when you
are next in our town.
I'll see you down the frontyeah, sounds wicked awesome,
thank you, so much for your time.
Enjoy the rest of your day.
Cheers, bye-bye.
Still rocking that podcast withthat radio chick, cheryl lee,
we're going to go out with oneof my favorites.
(21:37):
This one is courtesy of triplem, 30 years of rock, and it's a
live version from the sea.
Here they are Eskimo.
Joe you're with Cheryl Lee thatradio chick.
(21:59):
Thank you so much for joiningme on the still rocking it
podcast.
Hope to catch you again nexttime.
Get out when you can supportAussie music and I'll see you
down the front.
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