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FEATURE MUSIC
Eden Mulholland on
multi-tasking and why he
opted for an outside producer
on his solo album Hunted
Haunted. By John Ferguson.
ith his dance and theatre work, bands such
as Motocade andThe Mots and his solo
career, Eden Mulholland is no stranger to the
art of multi-tasking. But for his latest Hunted
Haunted , he decided to share the load a little: it’s
the first time he has worked with an outside
producer, NewYork-based Victor Van Vugt, whose
credits include Nick Cave and PJ Harvey.
“I felt like I needed to break out of my own
tendency to do things the same way,” the
Brisbane-based singer-songwriter explains on
a visit to Auckland to oversee his latest theatre
production with the New Zealand Dance
Company, Lumina . “It was quite challenging
because Victor had his own ideas. But it really
opened my eyes and it was quite a wonderful
experience. Part of the great new energy that I
think has made it to the record are other people’s
ideas, which is really cool.”
After NewYork, Mulholland relocated to Los
Angeles to complete the record with engineer Neil
Baldock – whom he worked with on his previous
solo album FeedThe Beast – and Nick Gaffaney
(Cairo Knife Fight), who played drums on most of
the tracks on Hunted Haunted.
Completed with engineer Neil Baldock in Los
Angeles, the new record doesn’t stray too far from
the quirky yet melodic art-pop of FeedThe Beast.
However, Hunted Haunted is a more muscular,
rhythmic affair, thanks to the drumming of Nick
Gaffaney and the influence of Van Vugt.
“I think it is focused on the groove and that
was due to Victor’s input,” he says. “He was very
much about keeping the rhythms driving rather
than being too syncopated, which takes away
from the melody.”
As for the songs themselves, the album
is a mixture of new material and
songs which he initiated
while on other musical
projects. In fact,
one song, Drama
Trauma, even
dates back to his Motocade days.
“It is another strange collection of songs
from different eras,” he laughs. “River Of Hurt
was written before 2010 at least, so there are
songs that are over six years old. DramaTrauma
is a very old demo; I think we tried to play it
once and it didn’t quite make it. But I
have always wanted it on a record.
“I have all these songs knocking around in
my life and sometimes I haven’t got a place for
them.There are so many of those, especially
when I am writing for theatre and things like
that. I often come up with stuff really quickly and
a lot of it doesn’t work for whatever project I am
doing, so it sits there in the vault.This record
has found a home for quite a few old tracks that
I have rebooted.”
Mulholland is now looking forward to taking
the album on the road, although he has already
had the opportunity to try out a fair few of them
live while waiting for the album to be released.
He will kick things off in Australia in October
and then follow that with a national tour
here in November.
“It’s a duo, so I have just got a drummer
and I do a lot of triggering with samples and
play guitar and bass,” he continues. “I kind of
jump around on different things – looping and
textures and stuff. Because the record has been
finished for so long, I have had time to road test
what works and what doesn’t as a duo.”
As for his other music ventures, he is not
ruling out a return for either Motocade – whose
members include his brotherWill – orThe
Mots, which is essentially Eden, Will and their
other musical brother Jol (plus
honorary Mulholland Greg Hillier).
“Motocade are on a strange hiatus,”
he muses. “We never really broke up but
we never kept playing!We still stay in
touch and we are still keen to play some
shows, it is just a matter of being
in the same country and getting
the energy to get together to do
it. But we are still keen. As for
The Mots, I have been talking to
Jol and there is potentially some
interest in getting another record
together, which would
be cool.”
• Hunted
Haunted
by Eden
Mulholland
is out now.
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32 SEPTEMBER 2015