There were a few things swirling about in the universe that were the catalyst for the band.
The first thing was Jodi’s voice. Jodi played on my last album, which we recorded as Steve Tyson & The Train Rex, and she joined my touring band playing keys and a bit of guitar. In the studio, she added these beautiful harmonies, and every night live, I would hear this voice and think, ‘I need to hear more of that.’ We introduced the song ‘Back to The Bar’ into the live set, and it’s a duet. That just made me more determined to find a way to get Jodi’s voice front and centre.
At the same time, I had really been listening to the Robert Plant / Alison Krauss collaboration, and just loved that close interplay with their voices. Then Sal (guitarist Ian Shawsmith) introduced me to Birds of Chicago, the duo featuring Allison Russell and her husband JT Nero. Again, that beautiful duet thing, but then they would each do songs solo. That prompted me to go back and rediscover those classic Tammy Wynette / George Jones duets.
I’m also a huge fan of Willy Vlautin, both as a songwriter in his band Richmond Fontaine, and as an author. His new band The Delines I'm really into. It combines Willy’s wonderful little pieces of fiction, little snapshots of American life, with a female voice, Amy Boone, taking the lead.
I had also been rediscovering some stuff I played and listened to when I first started playing in bands, the soul stuff put out by Sam & Dave, Otis Redding, and Joe Tex. I really loved ‘Show Me’, Joe Tex’s big hit. But then I discovered all this other stuff Joe wrote and produced, and it was country music. He wrote and produced a whole album for the Australian singer Diana Trask way back. That crossover thing, that country-soul thing really interested me. You get that from Ray Charles of course. One of the greatest R&B performers singing country songs.
Plus Sal and I are both drawn to that alt.country thing with a bit of a tougher edge. Bands like Blackie and The Rodeo Kings.
So all this stuff was floating around in my head, when the first couple of songs came to me. And I was hearing them either as duets, or with Jodi taking the lead. I’ve always been a story-teller through my songs, but they have mainly been my stories. Things that have happened to me on my travels, or family stories. But these new songs were emerging as other peoples’ stories. Just little bits of fiction, little vignettes of other peoples’ lives.
There are a couple of true stories, or observations. Like the song ‘Water’ is just a reaction to what I could see looking in my own backyard. Not literally, but Australia’s back yard. ‘Jessie’ is the story of one of Australia’s few female bushrangers Jessie Hickman. But most of the songs are about ordinary characters. Decidedly Australian characters, Australian stories, Australian places, or Australians in other worldly locations.
As far as finding the right people to be in the band, who to add to complement Jodi, Sal and me, I had a very clear vision for these songs, and I knew we just had to have pedal steel incorporated into them, so we were very happy to bring Jeff Spencer on board. The songs were crying out for that sort of approach and Jeff just ‘got it’ right away.
When I first picked up a guitar, I started a band at school at the age of 12 with a bloke named Stu Hoffman, who could borrow his big brother's drum kit. We eventually went our separate ways but remained lifelong friends, and I am so happy that we have come full circle, and he is now the drummer in the new band.
The other thing I was very clear about is, this is not a Steve Tyson band. This is a whole new project, with everyone bringing ideas to the table. It needed a new name to reflect that. Keeping North it is….. (Steve Tyson)