STACK NZ Sep #66

MUSIC

FEATURE

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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 Be ast . 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

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.

songs which he initiated while on other musical

projects. In fact, one song, Drama Trauma, even

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SEPTEMBER 2015

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