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HOT NEW KING OF
COUNTRY GOLDEN GUITAR WINNER ADAM BRAND TAKES US INTO HIS HOME - AND INTRODUCES US TO HIS LOVES He is the undisputed new king of country and his music reflects the life of the people he loves most - rural Australians. But fame has not spoiled this down-to-earth revhead. Adam Brand takes his success seriously. Despite having rocketed to the top of the charts, touted as the sexiest thing to hit Australian country music for a decade, and outshining established stars with a slew of seven Golden Guitars in the past two years, Adam is humble in the face of fame. This year at Tamworth's Country Music Festival, on the night of his 31st birthday, Adam scored his second hat-trick, taking the three most prestigious Golden Guitars - song of the year with Good Things in Life, male vocalist of the year, with Good Friends, and album of the year, Good Friends. The same week, Good Friends, his second album, was certified gold. Genuinely charming and caring, Adam says his success has simply served to make him even more aware of the real heartland and how his music can play a role in the lives of his growing legion of fans. Visiting 100 country towns last year to perform, Adam says he has the opportunity to see first-hand what country life is really like. "While some areas are doing well, other are struggling," he says from his home in the hinterland of Queensland's Gold Coast. "You go through a town and can feel people are doing it tough. I hear it from people at shows, and walking down the street chatting to people." Despite the myriad issues that adversely affect rural life, Adam believes strongly in Australians' ability to help each other in times of crisis. "Our ability to help each other out is what we rely on in tough times," he says. "We need to take responsibility, get out there and help our mates. "That's the reason why country artists are committed to helping causes - it's in our face every day. We do things for charity to help our mates; it's very important to us." He also believes country music performers have a responsibility to tell the real stories of the people they meet. "The average person in the city doesn't understand what's going on in the bush…they have shops open 24 hours a day, ATMs 24 hours a day, service stations on every corner. They can't understand what it's like for country people losing basic services. It's absolutely shameful what's going on - banks pulling out of towns, leaving people stuck." Despite his strong opinions and concerns, Adam has no desire to enter politics. He thinks any real power he might have will come through the messages in his music. "I just want to tell the stories and let others deal with them… I am willing to help, but don't know what I can do." Born in Perth but raised in the country in regional Victoria at Wallington and Colac, he would spend holidays with his grandparents, who were dairy farmers in Gippsland. "All my mates are off farms," he says. As a country boy, Adam always 'mucked around on motorbikes" though admits he's not had much time for that over the past three years. (He still has the 1986 XF Ford Ute he drove from Perth to Sydney in 1997.) Adam is a self-confessed revhead. He has raced sprint cars and loves nothing more that a trip to the speedway. For his fiancée Ann-Marie Peter, and introduction to speedway on their first date was fair warning of what was to come. "I didn't know what to expect," says Ann-Marie. "He said, 'don't wear anything dressy, just jeans and be ready to go out'." She went, and eventually fell in love - both with Adam and the speedway! Just as well, she says, as the man and his hobby are inseparable. Adam says acceptance of country music is widening. Certainly, its appeal to a younger audience is being led by performers like Adam and his female counterpart, Kasey Chambers. "It means country music is reaching a wider audience," he says. "Country music is expanding - although people in the cities look at it with preconceived ideas, many of them are discovering it for the first time and enjoying the music, finding it has relevance to their lives, not just to people living in the outback. "Australian culture has always been popular on television, with shows like A Country Practice and Blue Heelers drawing big audiences. City people drive four wheel drives, take holidays in the country, love the clean air and see country people as living the 'good life'. They (city people) are beginning to say 'maybe the country has it right'." Adam's touring schedule means he was home only three-and-a-half months last year. This year, Ann-Marie, who runs the office, will travel more with Adam. The couple will spend less time at their home behind Nerang, which "reminds us of Perth", with rolling hills, close to waterways and airports at Coolangatta and Brisbane. The centrepiece of the colonial replica home is the kitchen, with Adam's butcher block the source of his inspired Italian dishes. Adam grows his own herbs and vegetables, and his meals also feature freshly caught fish when he gets time. His cooking and entertaining skills, Adam says, are inherited from his Italian grandmother, who would hold centre stage in her kitchen, teaching, talking and entertaining family and friends. It's certainly rubbed off. Investing time in country children. Adam Brand is passionate about helping children, not only those who are sick or have a disability, but also ordinary children who can benefit from attention and recognition. He has already taken steps to help children in country towns. Over the past two years he has performed 60 free concerts at primary schools across rural Australia. Wherever he performed, he'd contact schools and offer to do a free concert, then turn up with his guitar and amp to play for delighted young fans. Earlier this year, he sang at Sydney's Westmead Hospital for the Starlight Foundation and the Children's Leukaemia Fund. Adam was eight when the first of his three sisters was born, so has done his share of babysitting and nappy changing - and knows what it feels like to be acknowledged as a young person. "When I was growing up, I remember when an adult took notice of me, treated me like a person, not just a kid. I think more children need that sort of attention. People are so busy these days that not enough time is invested in kids - but they deserve more than being stuck in front of a computer or TV." by Carmel Carrick SINGLE
OF THE WEEK Oh Lord, I don't know if it was the result of listening to ten commercially prefabricated pieces of music in a row, but when I came to Brand's simple guitar ditty delivering a tragic tale of love lost I came dangerously close to weeping. And therein lies a perfect example of the beauty and appeal of country music. by Martin Jones PRIMED FOR A HIT Able to belt out any number of big hits, Adam Brand has had a huge year on the country charts too! While the nation switched on to several major sporting events during 2000 - including the Olympics - one equally competitive tournament was unravelling on the golf courses of Queensland's Gold Coast. No, this wasn't the Queensland Open, the President's Cup or even the Australian Open - this was a match play tournament of great importance - The continuing saga of the Adam Brand vs. Lee Kernaghan gold tournament. You wouldn't have read about it in the newspapers, or watched it on Sports Tonight. This extremely personal duel between two self-confessed "hackers" was, fortunately for fans of good golf, well hidden from the public eye. But these two blokes don't need an audience to get motivated. In fact, they'll go to any lengths to gain the upper hand. Both of country music stars relocated to the Gold Coast's surrounding areas in recent years, so it was inevitable that they would meet up and share common interests. Surprisingly, golf was one of them. "It's been a ding-dong battle," Adam reflected, on the year's golf results. "In the very first game, I came out fighting and wiped the floor with him." Adam even has the scorecard to prove it - LK 60, AB 54. ("I kept it just in case he ever tried to deny it.") But, unbeknown to Lee, he had walked into an ambush on that very first encounter, scheduled for 2pm one afternoon. "Lee doesn't know this but, before that first game, I went out the driving range at 11 in the morning. After getting warmed up and perfecting my swing, I came home and had a high calorie, high carb lunch. I went back, feeling good - and slaughtered him." Lee had his revenge in the next match up, and the one after. "I have to be fair, he killed me," Adam confessed. In their most recent encounter, the former Perth resident bounced back. With the scores level after 18 holes, the two multi - Golden Guitar winners opted to play an extra hole to determine the outcome, but again the scores were even. "Commonsense prevailed, we shook hands and we decided we'd both won," Adam said. The tournament is certain to continue throughout 2001 and, according to Lee, is usually played at courses where 'there's no dress regulations, and you can carry a beer with you". And Lee has his own philosophy on the prospective outcome of this continued rivalry. "He went out and bought brand new graphite shafts, and I know that's given him an edge, but I think I'll eventually wear him down," Lee grinned. Adam could have other ideas. He's had a competitive spirit since the days when he raced quarter midgets on the speedway track in his home town of Perth. In fact, he says he's been going to speedways "since I was in nappies". These days he's just another fan at the track, although the connection remains, particularly with his song, "Dirt Track Cowboy" being used as the promo theme for Sydney's Parramatta Speedway. That same search for excellence is reflected in his music career. The release of his second album during the year, Good Friends, followed on from the success of his platinum-selling self-titled debut in 1998. Containing crowd-pleasing songs such as "I did What?", where Adam says the line "I mooned who?" has enticed a few people into dropping their strides", Good Friends has seen further development in the career of this relative newcomer. "The second album has progressed in a different direction," he said. "I don't want every album to sound exactly the same. "I obviously want to give people what they come to expect from me, but I want to keep improving." by Greg Bush BRAND ON
THE RUN On stage in Tamworth in January Adam Brand told the story of how, at the age of 10, he was in and out of hospitals undergoing tests for a mystery affliction. Finally, a doctor broke the news to his mother: "Mrs Brand, I'm sorry to tell you this, but your son Adam….will always be….a revhead." Now a favourite at speedway gigs, Brand relishes the new all-mod-cons you-beaut ute Ford presented to him in Tamworth at the Australian Country Music Festival, where he picked up three Golden Guitar awards including Male Vocalist and Album of the Year for Good Friends. He has spent the past two years revving around in a speedy dirt-track haze of awards, adulation ("Australia's sexiest country singer", declared Cleo magazine) and non-stop touring. He arrived in Tamworth four years ago as a busker and breezed back in 1999 to win his first swag of Golden Guitars. He also acquired the image as Australian country music's new golden boy. Unlike that other golden boy of country music, Keith Urban, Brand's focus is solely on the home turf. At a time when Australians are having an impact on the US country charts, with Urban hitting number one and Kasey Chambers critically acclaimed from LA to New York via Nashville, staying at home is all that Brand wants. He went to Nashville on the obligatory writing trip two years ago (and heads back again this year), but while graciously absorbing the disciplines learnt from working in the world's songwriting capital, he doesn't aspire to international recognition. "It's not the burning desire for me," he says frankly. "It's not what drives me. For a lot of country artists it's their whole dream, their Holy Grail, to go to Nashville. I didn't feel that. I got much more or a thrill going to Tamworth the first time. I would get more of a thrill standing on the main strait at Daytona. "I went to the Knoxville National in Iowa, the most prestigious sprint car race in America, and sang Dirt Track Cowboys on the main strait on the night of the main race. I got more of a buzz out of that. To me, that was more the Holy Grail than going to Nashville." Brand's style of country-rock reflects the influences of his youth: Elvis Presley, Neil Diamond, Roy Orbison and the Everly Brothers. His voice is deep, warm and wise, belied by his youthful looks. With humour and affection he sings about the characters in his family, or hooning around with a fast engine and the punters in the clubs and woolsheds love it. Songs like You're a Revhead and When I get My Wheels have fans in utes driving doughnuts in the car park after the gigs. But there is a deeper sensibility at work, highlighted in songs like Good Things in Life. Written with Graeme Connors, the song describes in plaintive yet heartening fashion the demise of Brand's first marriage. Brand says it was a cathartic writing experience. "The message is a fairly special one that I would like people to hear, knowing what it did for me," he says. "I've seen so many people brought to tears or come up to me and say, that song really hits home." Some of Brand's fans hang on every word when he sings Good Things in Life or the poignant Last Man Standing, while others "are just there to party and have a good time". He pleases them all. "I think my role as an artist and a songwriter is to give people something positive to think about in my music," he says. "The revhead, mischievous side is a part of me, and it's always going to be a part of what I do. It appeals to those of us who just want to have a good time. "But entwined in all of that are the deeper songs. And maybe not everyone will get them on every night. I don't want either side to take over. I want a balance." by Debbie Kruger. © Debbie Kruger. Reprinted with kind permission
COUNTRY'S
WINNING BRAND OF SONGWRITING Two relatively new songwriters and three old hands were in line for this year's APRA Song of the Year at the Toyota CMAA Country Music Awards. The winning song, "Good Things in Life," came from a magical combination of the new and the old. Adam Brand's collaboration with Graeme Connors - a plaintive yet heartening song about the breakdown of Brand's first marriage - was in competition for country music's primary songwriting award alongside compositions from veterans John Williamson and Don Walker, newcomer Sara Storer, and Nashville-based Keith Urban. Brand breezed into Tamworth two years ago, a winning new talent who quickly garnered several Golden Guitars and an image as Australian country music's new golden boy. Although he had been singing for most of his life, influenced by the 1950s and '60s rockabilly style of Elvis, the Everly Brothers and Roy Orbison, he only started writing songs in 1996. His first composition was created ad hoc while driving; he was not proficient enough on guitar to play what he had written. "I had to get a mate who was a guitarist and I'd sing the tune to him, and get him to show me what chords they were, and he taught me," Brand recalls. His writing skills developed quickly. Collaboration with Clive Young on his first album, the song "Last Man Standing," won him the APRA song of the year in 1999. While admitting he is still "on a huge learning curve," Brand, with the encouragement and guidance of his manager/producer Graham Thompson, is on a winning streak. His second album Good Friends, which picked up the Golden Guitars for Album of the Year and Male Vocalist of the Year, displays a growing confidence in his own writing and an astuteness for picking the right material from others such as Don Walker, who contributed three songs including the title track. Brand's collaboration with Connors stood out. "The message is fairly special, one that I would like people to hear, knowing what it did for me. I've seen so many people brought to tears, or come up to me and say, that song really hits home. It's what a song can do when it talks about something that is real." He had first teamed with Connors in 1997. Explains Connors, "Graham Thompson asked me if I would consider doing some co-writing with Adam on a sort of development basis, a mentor basis. We met first in Sydney and we wrote a song called 'Here and There' which appeared on his first album. We were both very satisfied with the outcome but felt we could have probably done better. So Graham arranged to have Adam come up to Mackay and join me there, which puts me on home turf and more relaxed. We wrote 'Good Things in Life' in about three days." Neither artist knew at the onset that the song would be so profoundly personal. "We got in the room and we just played away" says Connors, "and for some reason, 'I wish you every happiness and may you always have the best of the good things in life' is the line that I sang, I don't know why." He had been digging deep into Brand's past during conversations by the pool. " We were talking about my life and his life, just what we'd done," recalls Brand, "and basically my story abut being married young, it not working out, and then trying to move on with life, it fitted in with that line." It was a cathartic experience for Brand. "I didn't know it was happening while we were writing. But I knew something was happening because we were really drained by it." It was only when he took the demo back to Sydney to play for Thompson that the full effect of what he had written became evident. Brand heard it again and wept. "You know, I'm fairly level-headed and I can deal with things quite adequately. So I thought I'd dealt with it and I'd put it to rest. I thought I'd moved on with my life. But really it was under there and it took this song to unlock that." Connors rarely collaborates. "Of my catalogue of works I would say as little as 1-2% would be co-writing." But the multi award-winning singer/songwriter, whose many Golden Guitars had already included four for APRA Song of the Year, felt this was a worthwhile endeavour. "I have a wealth of personal experience that may not be the exact experience of another person, but one uses it to vicariously step into their life. And I think that's what the trade of writing is about, it's the ability to take your personal experience and turn it into someone else's, someone who says, yes, I identify, I feel that way." A seasoned writer and producer, Connors was also able to guide Brand through the structural process of putting the song together. " I write not so much from a technical point of view but always from the heart," says Brand. "Graeme is a real craftsman. Obviously he puts a huge amount of heart in what he does, but he's also very much a perfectionist. And I'm not that much of a perfectionist. I'm not a studio junkie and I'm not an incredible musician, I just hear the heart of the songs and the heart of the music. So that's what I bring to the table, and then he comes and rounds it out nicely and crafts it." Don Walker was a finalist for "Looking Forwards Looking Back," the title track of Slim Dusty's 100th album. And for Walker, no emotional connection was necessary. "It was written totally for Slim and it's not personal for me at all," he says. "I knew it was his hundredth album so I wanted to come up with something that pointed to his long history but at the same time also pointed to a long future." Unlike Connors, who delved into Brand's heart and mind to write their winning song, Walker took a more detached approach. I don't know that it would be possible to get inside Slim's head," he says wryly. "And I don't think the song is that profound at all. I was trying to come up with something that in my imagination Slim would feel comfortable with and get a kick out of singing." Walker has written for several country artists over the last decade, Challenged by the requirement to craft a simple song, after more complex writing in the past. "Writing a simple song is also the most difficult to do," he remarks. Put to him that an early Cold Chisel song such as "Breakfast at Sweethearts" was also relatively simple in its structure, and asked to compare it to "Looking Forward Looking Back," Walker quips, "Well, Slim doesn't take speed as far as I know. And I don't these days, either." For John Williamson, whose Corroboree 2000 anthem, "This Ancient Land," was a finalist, all his writing comes form the heart, and his affinity with the land and the history of Australia is palpable. Recorded as a duet with Jimmy Little, " This Ancient Land" was a song Williamson had written some time earlier. "I was up at Springbrook where I've got a cabin in South East Queensland on the edge of a rainforest. I actually was proving to a journalist who'd come to stay with me for the weekend that I could write a song on the spot. So I had this idea about ancient land and how I feel Aboriginal about it. I've often said, and I've said it to Aboriginal people, that I feel like a white Aborigine sometimes because I really relate to the land. Without the nature of this country, if it was taken away, it would take me away too. I couldn't live here any more; it means so much to me. So I try to express that in my songs." The song interested the Corroboree organisers. "The elders listened to it and they said, well it would be nice if we could include an Aboriginal presence as well. So that really made the song for me because then I was able to write 'I am Aborigine' for the first verse. I've respected Jimmy for a long time, like everybody, and I thought it would be just beautiful that he would agree to do it. I was able then to write it as an Aborigine for the first verse and then come in the second verse and say I feel that way, too, as a white person. And that to me has been my message all the way. The whole ancient spirit of this land is really behind 90% of my songs. New Talent of the Year winner Storer cites Williamson as one of her greatest influences. Until less than a year ago she was teaching in the remote Northern Territory town of Kalkaringi, singing songs around the campfire. She first picked up a guitar when she was 17, playing John Williamson and Paul Kelly tunes, and wrote her first song, "Buffalo Bill," in 1995, never dreaming it would take her to Tamworth with five nominations in 2001. Inspired by ex-buffalo catcher friend Harry in the nearby town of Camooweal, she awoke one night and it all flooded out. "It was about 1.30 in the morning and I got up, and I don't know why, I might have been down at the pub and had come back, with my brain still sort of ticking over. And I thought, I'll write a few things down about Harry. So I just started writing this song and mucking around on the guitar, and within that night I had the tune and most of the song written." After surprising herself with her first composition, Storer wrote a swag of songs. "It took a while, because I had to have a sudden hit of inspiration. Sometimes it took weeks or months." A prize in a talent quest gave her a scholarship to the CMAA College of Country Music last year. The College has produced such award-winning talent as Brendon Walmsley, who took out the Heritage Song of the Year award this year, and it was life-changing for Storer. The Bushwackers took her under their wing, urged her to play her songs for producer/writer Garth Porter, and within months she was recording an album. Storer found the College both inspiring and intimidating. "They were going through all the rules of songwriting, because there's a certain format to follow. And I just went uh oh, I don't do that, and I've done that wrong, and I've done that wrong. Choruses shouldn't add new information, you know, if you think of something write it down because you'll forget. I still don't write it down, I kick myself the next day. I'd broken all the rules. But Roger Corbett had heard a few of my songs, and said, don't worry about it, we're going to let you get away with it, Sara." by Debbie Kruger. © APRA. Reprinted with kind permission
BRANDED RED
HOT A rising star in the new guard of country music, heart-throb Adam Brand tells Mark Chipperfield how "the common man's poetry" helps him connect to the audience. The story of a lonesome drifter with a guitar on his back is as old as country music. However, when Adam Brand hit the big smoke he found fame, fortune and unlike so many country ballads - a happy ending. Less than four years ago, the young West Australian Singer was living out of his Ford Ute and busking for a living. Today, Brand is being hyped - with some justification - as one of the hottest things on the Australian country music scene. Apart from selling an astonishing 50,000 copies, Brand's self-titled debut album has already brought him four Golden Guitar awards and the sort of media hype that would stamp a grin on the fact of the most sad-hearted cowboy. Good Friends (Compass Bros. / FMR), the follow-up album that sees Brand team up with songwriting luminaries Don Walker, Colin Buchanon and Graeme Connors, has been enthusiastically received. Despite the accolades, Brand still finds it difficult to believe that he has really fulfilled his teenage dream of becoming a full-time country music performer. "I was just a weekend warrior back home in Perth," he says with a disarming smile. "One day I just decided I wanted to go to Tamworth. Three and a half years ago I was busking in the main street". Pin up power It is not only his musical talents that are drawing positive comment. Brand's boyish good looks have drawn gasps of teenage excitement normally associated with pop heartthrobs Human Nature and Savage Garden. This year, Cleo magazine featured Brand as its Guy of the Month for July, calling him "Australia's sexiest country singer". His Web site offers a gallery of soft focus portraits of the photogenic singer. This cohort of female fans will be delighted to learn that Brand is even more handsome in the flesh, with those deeply tanned, well-scrubbed looks you usually associate with young Aussie tennis stars. While this 'beefcake with guitar" image hasn't exactly harmed Brand's record sales, it doesn't seem to rate particularly highly on the singer's list of priorities. His looks, he says with another trademark grin, are a gift from his Sicilian father and Russian-Polish mother."Yes, I think a lot of people in country music would be surprised to learn that I'm half Italian. At 30, Brand is clearly old enough to enjoy the popstar adulation without letting it go to his head. Like the archetypal Aussie battlers who crop up in his songs, he has a failed marriage, a string of jobs - including sign writing, belt salesman and dental technician - and a few false starts under his belt. At its core, he says, country music is 'the common man's poetry", and these personal experiences, however painful or damaging, allow him to make a real connection with his audience. "What matters to me is people doing it tough - people who overcome adversity because that serves as an inspiration to everyone else. I try to steer clear of those crying in your beer country songs." Ups and downs While the new album has plenty of upbeat, good-time songs, one track in particular ('Good Things in Life') is a painful account of coming to terms with a disintegrating marriage. The song contains the lines: "I came home one morning Brand says that while 'Good Things in Life' deals with a familiar broken-hearted theme found in many country songs, it is far from being maudlin or depressing. "You hit your late teenage years, maybe early 20's, you've had a girlfriend for a few years and marriage seems like a natural progression. Your families expected it so it just happens. That's partly what happened to me," he says. "I went along with what I thought we were supposed to do. So that's what the song is about - but, hopefully, I've put a positive angle on it." Love found, love lost, racing cars, goin' bush and singing country songs are constant themes in Brand's work. Much of his teenage years were spent in small country towns, travelling from place to place and generally looking for his direction in life. This seems like an ideal preparation for a career in country music. However, Brand did start with one great disadvantage: coming from Western Australia, he was seen as an outsider, someone who needed to cut his teeth on the country music circuit. "When I came over here, I didn't know anyone. I didn't have a network," he says. "But in another way, that was good. I had no preconceived ideas and I came with a completely clean slate." Brand's interest in music began early. At 10, he sang gospel songs and played drums at the local church. He later played with a string of rock bands in Perth. His fascination with country music evolved quite naturally. "I was brought up on The Everly Brothers, Elvis, Neil Diamond and Roy Orbison. They all had firm roots in country-based music and rockabilly. I wasn't reared on Slim Dusty, Buddy Williams, that kind of stuff," he says."But a I got older, I found myself leaning towards songs that told a story. Songs that had a lyric you could follow. I like the simplicity of the music. Country is totally lyric based, the story always comes first, every time" Intimacy of country Now based in Queensland, Brand doesn't underplay the rigours of constant touring, but says the travelling lifestyle of a country singer allows him to connect with his audience in a way that would be I possible for a rock singer or DJ. "We tour really hard and go to all the little towns like Narrabri, Moree, Charters Towers, Broken Hill, Whyalla. There isn't this huge gap between us and the audience. Country people can spot a fake a mile away. If you're not one of them, forget it. But if you are, you'll make the most loyal friend son earth." As part of the new guard of Australian country music (along with Lee Kernaghan and Troy Cassar-Daley), Brand believes that his rockabilly style can speak with equal force to people in the city and the bush. During the Olympics, Brand and his band performed to 40,000 people in the city's famous Domain. The previous week, they'd performed at the Gympie Muster. "Certain songs are certainly geared towards people in the country, but country music is changing" he says. "It's now less about the location and more about the people. I've got a song called 'When the Needle Hits the Vinyl', which is about some kids watching their parents dance to an old vinyl record. That's a real country scene; but it could be in the city as well. It's unfortunate that so many people associate country music with hay bales and banjos" While clearly flattered by his new-found success, Brand is disarmingly modest about his abilities both as a singer and a songwriter. As a self-confessed late starter on the country music track, he says he has a lot more to learn. As for Nashville, that can wait. For the moment, Brand's biggest thrill comes from performing in dusty outback towns before big-hearted Australian audiences. "I've been to Nashville, but there's nothing like and Australian crowd," he says. "We've got the best audiences here I reckon we've got the Yanks over a barrel" by Mark Chipperfield SPREADING THE WORD ABOUT
THE GOOD THINGS IN LIFE Adam Brand's circle of good friends is growing dramatically. Just like his tally of awards. There seems to be no demarcation line in his extraordinary career - with city and country dwellers alike coming on board to share his appreciation of the good things in life. Though it seems hard to grasp, it has been for not much more than two years that Adam has been a part of Australian country music's hierarchy. In that time his first album is near platinum, his second album has gone gold (and still climbing), he has had six number one country singles, and he has had bestowed upon him seven CMAA Golden Guitars and two MO awards. At the same time, he has become a huge live drawcard, his showmanship and deft touch with audiences compared often to that of Lee Kernaghan. Believing strongly that "Country music is the common man's property" Adam has explained : "To me it's all about making a connection. If I can meet someone, learn their story then write about it and have people feel an empathy with the song then I'm doing o.k. "We tour really hard and go to many of the smaller towns as well as the bigger regional centres and cities. There isn't this huge gap between us and the audience. Country people can spot a fake a mile away. If you're not one of them, forget it. But if you are, you'll make the most loyal friends on earth." If it is a theme to which he keeps returning it is because it is unquestionably the centrepiece of his musical and personal life. During his modest and entertaining acceptance speeches at Tamworth in January 2001 as he graciously accepted Golden Guitars for Best Male Vocalist, Best Album and, most impressively, APRA Song of the Year, he related how, when he drove across the Nullarbor from Perth to make his play for country music success the man who would become his manager and producer, Graham Thompson, was the man who helped him "unload the ute." "To me, Good Friends sums up how I have got here. I've got a great manager, great producer and great songs from the writers. It is my family, the good times. They are the most important things in my life. We can get caught up in our jobs, our houses and our cars, or wearing the right clothes with the right brand, that that kind of stuff. But all that we really need in life are good friends." Since the Good Friends album - with its insights into the life of the 31 year old son of a Sicilian father and Russian-Polish mother - was released, Adam has toured Australia extensively, reaching every state and territory. He has not just filled halls and clubs but become a hot festival attraction. The demand for him has been near unquenchable. The day after the Tamworth awards he was in a radio studio in Sydney participating in Andrew Denton's Musical Challenge - giving his own unique take on Wheatus' Teenage Dirtbag . From Tamworth's Northern Daily Leader to the Sydney Morning Herald his face was beaming and his sentiments bounding out of eminently favourable features. Once named as Cleo's Guy of the Month and described (to his mild embarrassment) by the magazine as "Australia's sexiest country singer", Adam has been profiled and highlighted everywhere from to Aussie Post to the Australian Women's Weekly. "People in the cities have more connection with country music than they realise" he insists. "It's come a long way from an old bloke in his hat riding the ranges playing his banjo. Certain songs are certainly geared toward people in the country but the music is changing. It's now less about the location, more about the people. I've got a song called When The Needle Hits The Vinyl which is about some kids watching their parents dance to an old vinyl record. That's a real country scene but it could be in the city as well. It's unfortunate that many people associate country music with hay bales and hayseeds." "I wasn't reared on Slim Dusty, Buddy Williams, that kind of stuff. I was brought up on the Everly Brothers, Elvis, Neil Diamond and Roy Orbison. They all had firm roots in country-based music and rockabilly. But as I got older I found myself leaning towards songs that told a story, like what Slim has always done. Songs that had a lyric you could follow and identify with. I like the simplicity of the music. Country is totally lyric-based, the story always comes first, every time. And you don't have you be born on a sheep station to understand the songs. It's often about the man next door and what he does on Sunday sort of stuff." With two albums under his belt and preparation well underway for his third, Adam is evolving as an impressive, intuitive songwriter. A fact underlined by the award achieved by his co-write with the great Graeme Connors. "I had no idea I was going to win Song of the Year for Good Things In Life " he explained after the ceremony. "When they called my name. I just couldn't believe it. I hadn't been expecting it so I wasn't nervous at all." "Writing doesn't always come easy to me - it'd be great if inspiration was something you could just turn on and off like a tap but it doesn't work that way. I work very hard on my songs. What matters to me is people doing it tough - people battling. My songs are often people's stories and they deserve to be told. I'm interested in positive stories, the people who overcome adversity, because that serves as an inspiration to everyone else. I try to steer clear of those crying-in-your-beer country songs." Two and a half years after the first album was released and a year after the second, both are still firmly lodged in the APRA Country Music chart Top ten and Adam Brand has one of the most popular and most recognisable musical faces in Australia. With indefatigable energy, he makes himself available to schools and hospitals, speedways and showgrounds, towns and cities. "I was just a weekend warrior back in Perth" he told Pulse magazine at the beginning of 2001. "One day I just decided I wanted to go to Tamworth. Three and a half years ago I was busking in the main street there." He may well have had those humble origins in the back of his mind as he played to large, sold-out shows in the town around the time of the awards in which he featured so strongly. Shows marked by his remarkable gesture of inviting hearing-impaired Ann-Maree Marshall to expressively 'sign' the songs Good Things In Life and Come From The Heart to audiences that included many deaf or near-deaf fans who had travelled from all over the country for the experience. As Adam walked to the podium three times to collect Golden Guitars this year he admits that he was thinking : "What am I doing here, how the hell did I get here?, I'm just some little bloke!". A little bloke with a large heart and a clear focus. "There's no pot at the end of the rainbow for me" he insists. "I just hope to be doing something that matters in five years …and for me that's singing." ANOTHER HAT TRICK
FOR BRAND Australian Country music star ADAM BRAND is certainly no stranger to GOLDEN GUITAR AWARDS, but on Saturday night at the Tamworth Regional Entertainment Centre he confirmed his place among the greats of Australian country music. The 1999 triple Golden Guitar winner performed his second hat-trick by scooping the three most prestigious Golden Guitar Awards at this year's event, the same week as his second album GOOD FRIENDS was certified gold. This brings Adam's Golden Guitar total to an amazing 7 in three years. Nominated alongside Slim Dusty, Lee Kernaghan & Keith Urban, Adam proved he's one of Australia's brightest stars by walking away with Golden Guitar awards for: · APRA SONG OF THE YEAR 'Good Things In Life' For Adam Brand, the GOOD THINGS IN LIFE are certainly GOLD, GOLD and more GOLD in 2001. Adam's stable mate BRENDON WALMSLEY picked up the HERITAGE SONG OF THE YEAR Golden Guitar for 'LAST OF THE BIG GUN DROVERS', the new single from his critically acclaimed album 'A LITTLE TIME'. This prestigious award has previously been won by country music greats such as John Williamson, Lee Kernaghan and Colin Buchanan. This is Walmsley's second Golden Guitar award having won BEST NEW TALENT in 2000. 'LAST OF THE BIG GUN DROVERS' also took out best heritage song at the TAMWORTH SONGWRITERS ASSOCIATION AWARDS last week. Good Friends indeed, Adam Brand has been surrounded by them since he began to seriously make music. His champions and his collaborators - from both country and rock music - have helped shape a rapid deployment career in Australian Country Music that has so far resulted in four Golden Guitar awards and more than 50,000 sales of an impressive debut album. One of his first good friends was singer Melinda Schneider, whom he met when they were both about 14." It was in a swimming pool" he relates with a smile. "Both our families took holidays on the Gold Coast and one day I was teaching my little sister to swim. Melinda thought that was cute so she came over and chatted me up! We kept in touch through letters over the years and when we met again in Sydney after my first visit to the Tamworth festival, I gave her a tape of some of my songs and she passed it on to her boyfriend." That good friend was Graham Thompson, bassist alongside Andy Durant in Adelaide 70's band Stars and later in a slew of country bands, such as Goldrush, Flying Emus and the Anne Kirkpatrick Band. After being bombarded with more tapes, Graham, who had also begun to produce acts (such as Red Rivers) signed Adam to a publishing deal with Rondor Music and quickly signed him for management. Shortly thereafter master songsmith Graeme Connors came to Sydney and co-wrote a song (Here And There ) with the new young signing, also becoming a good friend in the process. Cold Chisel's Don Walker, another Rondor writer of legendary stature, took a shine to the honest, open, enthusiastic and plainly talented newcomer and knocked off My Mama Told Me (Not To Play The Guitar) for him. Around the same time the genial and uniquely talented Colin Buchanan threw his hat in the Brand ring and the pair knocked out Losing Streak . The Flying Emus' John Kane and old buddy Melinda also unleashed their pens. It was friends, friends, friends as far as the eye could see and the result was an engaging debut album which won admiration from one end of the country to the other. It also won him new friends, every night, as he took to the road in support of "Adam Brand" , driving hundreds of thousands of kilometres to deliver cookin' sets in towns and cities, bars and halls, while an eager national press got excited about "the glamour looks of James Blundell and the everyman appeal of Lee Kernaghan". "I went at it hard on the road, I didn't just sit there waiting for the guy with the big cigar" he says. "I subscribe to the theory that the harder I work, the luckier I get and I've been pretty lucky. I love touring, I just love performing. I'm not really a studio junkie - I get my buzz from being in front of people. Country music fans can spot a fake from a mile away so I was very happy that my songs struck a chord with the people out there. I feel pretty raw, still. Technically I'm not there. I'm not slick. I make mistakes and I carry on; my shows are very off-the-cuff. And the biggest thrill of all is stepping on stage with a song you've spent so long writing and having the crowd sing the words back to you." In January 1999 the Tamworth Country Music Awards acknowledged his dramatic debut by handing him three Golden Guitars. "I thought I had a shot at Best New Talent" he admits, "but Song of the Year for Last Man Standing - you could have knocked me over with a feather. I was pretty shell shocked! It wasn't much more than two years before that I was busking there in front of Grace Bros. and in an arcade, playing a bit of Elvis, some covers, some of my own stuff." The third award was for Best Video - the stylish and striking Last Man Standing clip directed by mate Chris Watson, who was in a gospel music band in Perth with Adam more than a decade ago. Another good friend. "A lot of people really took a punt on me and I am just thankful that they did" he observed during that eventful year. Years, or at least their span, have come to have a certain symbolism for Adam. He's fascinated by the the way things fall into line, fall into place. "I left Perth on July 13, 1997 and drove to Sydney in my 1986 XF Ford ute with guitars and suitcases in the back" he explains. "My first album was released on July 13, 1998. A lot happened in that year." Perhaps more than anything, the former dental technician, belt salesman, sprint car racer and signwriter became a real songwriter, one able to tap into the rich vein of experience in this extraordinary country, one able to write a work as powerful as Last Man Standing , a saga of the disintegration of a farming family. "To me it's all about making a connection" he told Rolling Stone magazine "If I can meet someone, learn their story, then write about it and have people feel an empathy with the song, then I'm doing o.k." The brightest light of new Australian country music is doing better than that and, once, again, good friends are to the fore. Adam returned to the Tamworth awards in January 2000 to take delivery of a fourth Golden Guitar, this time for Best Vocal Collaboration on the self-penned Love Away The Night with Melinda Schneider. This honour was added to his MO award, ARIA Awards nomination and four #1 Country Airplay singles. And now, with "Adam Brand" still top five on the ARIA Country Album Chart more than 20 months after release, comes Good Friends , rich-voiced Adam Brand's eagerly awaited second album. Produced again by Graham Thompson, the album kicks off with Big Old Car , one of three songs by the great Don Walker . The song has seen light before, recorded by Cold Chisel as a bonus with the first 10,000 copies of their reunion album. But now it is truly Adam's, reflecting one of his childhood passions. Don is not new to writing for country artists, having previously penned songs for Anne Kirkpatrick and her father, Slim Dusty. "Genre doesn't come into it" insists Adam, "Don Walker is just one of the best Australian songwriters of all." Graeme Connors returns with the revealing co-write Good Things In Life . "Graeme Connors was supportive of me before I'd even made a record and I'm a huge fan" says Adam. "I went up to Mackay and spent three days at his place. We poured our hearts into that song. Basically it's my story, the story of my first marriage. I was married at 20, divorced at 25 and I'm now 30, so I guess I have enough perspective to look back at things and them move on. That's what the song is all about." Colin Buchanan, who has written so masterfully with Lee Kernaghan, among others, joined with Julia Grace and Adam in the writing of Little Sisters , another reflective song of a rewarding and inspiring childhood, and the sassy, dust-in-the-pores You're A Revhead . "Working with Bucko is such a great vibe, he's really good fun, plus he's an honest songwriter, which is very important" Adam insists. "In my career and my life I want to be fair and just, those qualities matter to me." One of the most energetic outings on Good Friends dates back some 25 years and came to Adam from the record collection of Graham Thompson. "He played me Beating Around The Bush , a 70s hit by Jo Jo Zep & the Falcons because he thought it would really suit me" Adam explains. "I loved the song but I wanted to personalise it, to add some references to my situation, some bits about my life, like getting out of Sydney and building a house on a hill. So I contacted Wayne Burt, who had written it, and he had no problems at all with me changing it around a bit." Mark down another good friend. Musical influences and exuberance seeps out of Good Friends . Adam was playing drums in a church band at the age of 10. From that background came the Gospel Medley on the Grandpa's Piano single. "I did it at a show and it seemed to stick so started doing it at gigs and it always went over really well with country audiences. I play that stuff on the road and really crank it up - it takes me there. I heard a lot of different music when I was young. Lots of Elvis, Everly Brothers, Roy Orbison and then Travis Tritt, Lyle Lovett, John Cougar Mellencamp, Dwight Yoakam, Randy Travis. When you grow up with all those people, hearing them all the time, you either love it or hate it. I loved it! I still do." Embraced (literally!) by Slim Dusty, endorsed by the likes of Lee Kernaghan and Troy Cassar-Daley, and watched with interest by more than a few rock performers, Adam Brand is helping bridge two not-necessarily-opposed musical areas. "Country has always had a bit of an image problem" he concedes. "I think there's so much that people can get from it because it isn't just about some guy riding through the outback on a horse, playing a banjo." It certainly isn't with Adam. He's just as likely to be riding a speedcar on a dirt track, or his ute across the Nullabor, the speakers blaring out music as diverse, as earthy and as real as he is. "I love doing what I'm doing and I love writing songs that mean something to the people I play them to. I just want to sing songs from the heart and go where that takes me. I think I'm fortunate that I tend to make attainable goals -I wanted the first album to sell 5,000 copies. But I have to admit that I'm thinking a bit higher with this one." LAST
MAN STANDING Adam Brand doesn't mind getting a little dirt on his hands. He's firmly convinced that hard yards are as crucial as great tunes in achieving success. Just check the speedometer of his car - he's clocked up 25,000 kilometres in the last few months, as he spreads the country music word according to Adam Brand. Adam's grassroots policy paid off at the recent Toyota Country Music awards, when he scooped up Golden Guitars for Song Of The Year ("Last man Standing"), Video Clip Of The Year ("Last Man Standing") and New Talent. And earlier in the same week, Adam was awarded the coveted Tamworth Songwriter's Association Best New Songwriter award, for another of his own compositions, "Uncle Pete". But don't think for a moment that Adam simply strolled into a music career.Prior to answering the call of his country-pop yearnings, Perth-born Brand had sold belts off the back of a truck with his uncle, as well as trying his hand at sprintcar racing (a pursuit which Brand still considers his "number two love"). But music was and always will be in Brand's blood - he had no choice. Raised on a nourishing diet of gospel and the timeless pop of Roy Orbison, Gene Pitney and Elvis Presley, turned on by the new-country stylings of Dwight Yoakam, Vince Gill and James Blundell - and being a self-confessed Slim Dusty junkie - Brand realised by mid 1997 that the east coast was the place to be if he was to seriously pursue his musical hopes and dreams. Settling in Sydney, Adam's phone, car keys and guitar have rarely been left untouched in the past eighteen months. While racking up the kilometres he's played hundreds of shows, at clubs, pubs and anywhere else they'll have him, swiftly cementing his position as a major new player in the local country community. A publishing deal with Rondor Music led in turn to a recording contract with Festival Records. His self-titled debut hit the streets in July 1998, with a rapturously received industry launch at The Cave nightclub at Sydney's Star City Casino. Not since Nashville mavericks BR5-49 were in town have so many music biz movers and shakers been spotted not only tuning in to the artist in the spotlight, but working up a major sweat on the dance-floor. "I think it was a turning point", Adam admits, when asked about the launch. "I know over the six months that I was recording the album there was a whisper in the wind that there was this guy around who had some good stuff, but there was no proof. A lot of industry people hadn't seen or heard me, so I really felt the pressure that night. "But in between songs the place was a whisper quiet, I got two encores, it was great. The industry got behind me from then on, that night was a real seal of approval." Since then it's been dozens more shows and a steady groundswell of recognition. Adam has featured prominently in various magazines and newspapers, including Rolling Stone, who awarded his debut album a three-star rating. The music bible praised Brand's "sharp ear for melody"; while stating that "there's enough spring in his step and quiver in his voice to keep you keen." Both rural and mainstream urban media have also praised the work of this modest, pragmatic singer-songwriter, who demonstrated with his debut album that he has soft spots for both classic pop and true-grit country. A golden voice isn't a bad attribute, either, as is his well-developed tunesmithery skills. Adam wrote (or co-wrote) ten of his debut tracks; these compositions include the award -winning cut (and first single) Last Man Standing and Adam's second single, Grandpa's Piano, which goes to show that he's much more than just a good-looking newcomer in blue jeans and boots. And Adam's dual loves of "pure" country music and sprinter racing has paid major dividends. Both Adam and his signature tune, "Dirt Track Cowboys", feature prominently in television and radio commercials for Parramatta and Newcastle speedways, while Adam's performance of the song at race meets has become as much a part of local speedway culture as smash-up derbies and the high-octane calling of Wade Aunger (who also does his thing on the recording of the song). In another coup, Adam has recently inked an agreement with Newcastle City Holden to appear in their radio, print and television advertisements over the next year. Now Adam Brand is not only Australian country music's Best New Talent, but he's also the face of Newcastle City Holden. Given that cars and country music have always maintained a tight relationship, what could be more natural? "It's been hard work", Adam readily confesses, "but I love what I'm doing. And these Golden Guitar Awards are really affirmation that I've made the right choice. Before winning the awards I'd covered a few bases, but now I've hit a home run." While he may have a trio of Golden Guitars resting on his mantelpiece, Adam Brand has no plans to slow down. His upcoming plans include a Victorian promotional tour and a video (to be shot by Chris Watson) for "Dirt Track Cowboys", which is the third single from the album, and yet another Adam Brand composition. There's no denying that this homegrown hero has now cemented his position as a country music star. The Dirt Track Cowboy has found his place in the world. A
BRAND NEW STAR EMERGES Festival Records are proud to announce that their new country music star, ADAM BRAND has won three out of five nominated Golden Guitar Awards in the 1999 Tamworth Country Music Festival. The very talented ADAM BRAND won: NEW TALENT OF THE YEAR Adam was also nominated for Album of the Year and Male Vocalist of the Year, but just lost out to country music veteran, Lee Kernaghan. No New Talent winner has ever won more than one Golden Guitar in their first Awards year. ADAM BRAND emerged on the country music scene from Western Australia just a year and a half ago, with little more than songs on a demo tape and the desire to become a country music singer of some repute. With his success at Tamworth, Adam is now well on his way to achieving this goal, and more. Adam's debut single "Last Man Standing" from his self-titled debut album, has charted at number one in the Music Network Country Airplay chart, and was in the Top 20 for 20 consecutive weeks. His second single, "Grandpa's Piano" is currently in the top 10. With the release of his debut album last year, Adam has drawn remarks that compare his good looks to that of James Blundell and having the everyday appeal of Lee Kernaghan. With this current success, Adam is set to become a star in his own right, with no need for comparisons. This unprecedented acknowledgement of his immense talents by his peers in the country music fraternity cements his stake and popularity in this growing genre of music. ADAM
BRAND Since arriving in Sydney in July 1997 Adam Brand has taken the Australian Country Music scene by storm with his own blend of traditional country music and the country pop of the 50's. His rich distinctive voice and evocative songwriting style have already won him a large and enthusiastic following as fans and hardened industry big wigs alike tout him as the freshest and most exciting artist to emerge in a long time. Born in Perth into a home filled with the sounds of Elvis Presley, Roy Orbison and The Righteous Brothers, Adam moved as a young boy with his mother to Geelong where his minister step father soaked him with the sounds of gospel music. By age ten he was playing drums in the church band and continued to do so after moving with his family to Colac in Western Victoria. At age sixteen Adam left home and hit the road with his uncle selling leather belts out of the back of a van. It was on these country roads that Adam discovered country music, developing an appreciation for the bush ballads and trucking songs of Slim Dusty as well as the new traditionalists from the U.S. like George Strait and Randy Travis. After a brief stay in Queensland Adam headed back to Perth and formed a country band inspired by the new wave of country artists from Australia and the U.S.like James Blundell, Lee Kernaghan, Vince Gill, Dwight Yoakam and Travis Tritt. During the day Adam worked at a variety of jobs and at night would play the music of his country music heroes. Adam soon began writing his own songs and after much soul searching decided he must follow his heart and move to Sydney to pursue a career as a country singer. Things moved quickly for Adam after arriving on the East Coast. A publishing deal with Rondor Music led to a record deal with Festival Records. Adam was in the studio before Christmas recording his self titled debut album which, since it's release in July has been climbing the charts with the first single from the album, "Last Man Standing", hitting the number one spot on the Music Network Country Airplay chart, number three on the Country Music Radio chart and receiving heavy rotation on Country Music Television. Adam is featured in the new television and radio commercials for Parramatta and Newcastle Speedways singing "Dirt track cowboys" his tribute to Sprintcar racing, his other great passion. "Dirt track cowboys" from the debut album has become a speedway anthem that is played religiously at tracks across the country on race night. Adam has also entered into a lucrative agreement with Newcastle City Holden to appear in their television, radio and press advertisements which will see him as the face of Newcastle City Holden for the next twelve months. With Grandpa's Piano just released as a single and 5 nominations in the CMAA awards, Adam is hard at work preparing for Tamworth '99 where he can be seen at West Tamworth Leagues Legends Bar from Thursday Jan.14th. to Tuesday Jan.26th. as well as Fanfest and other attractions. It's been said that Adam has the good looks of James Blundell and the everyday appeal of Lee Kernaghan. If you add to this a unique voice and songs that connect with an audience on first listening, Adam Brand is assured a very bright future in the Australian Country Music scene.
Established Brute star Glenn "Bad Boy" Barnes congratulated Brand at the end of the day at the drivers meeting for the competent manner in which he wheeled the Ute around the tight Winton circuit. "Won't be very long at all before he gives me a run for my money," grinned Barnes, clearly looking forward to the challenge. "Revhead" Brand made his debut as part of the professional Ian McAlister run team that houses no less than three Ford Credit XR8 Utes campaigned by McAlister himself, Graham "Hurricane" Hunt and their newest member. Adam kicked the day off in style by crooning the National Anthem from his Ute on the main straight of Winton, just moments before his first race. He managed a solid 18th in his first race from a field of 24 after electing to start from the rear of the grid, coming back to the Pit Area with a grin you couldn't jump over. "That was amazing! I was just having a ball out there, it's more of a thrill than I could possibly have imagined," he yelled in an SBS Speedweek interview. He got quicker in Race #2, claiming a creditable 14th, and then rounding out the day with a 22nd position finish in Race #3. Team boss Ian McAlister was delighted with his new team-mate's efforts. "He's brought the car home straight, kept out of the rough stuff and jumped straight on to the race pace. I couldn't be happier," he beamed. The Ford Credit XR8 BRute Team enjoyed excellent coverage on the day from the SBS Speedweek and Fox Sport Cameras and will be featured prominently on the respective network coverage in weeks ahead. A constant flow of fans surrounded the Ford Credit BRute Racing transporter throughout the day with country music and Motorsport devotees alike keen to get a word with the new Racing Revhead himself. The team are currently working on striking promotional posters with artwork gurus "The Creative Ones" from Melbourne in a bid to have some spectacular goodies to hand out to fans at the next round of the Poolrite V8 BRute Championship. The next event for the team will be Round Five of the Championship from Queensland Raceway on Sunday, April 14, 2002. "I at least have some experience at Queensland Raceway," Brand grins, "I did a bit of my qualifying for my CAMS licence there so I at least know a bit about the track this time!" Exposure can also be seen at www.v8brutes.com.au
ADAM
BRAND “When you get to your fourth album, you have to take a step back and look at what you’re doing. You don’t want to keep producing the same old thing, but neither do you want to move too far away from what it is that your fans love about you. I took some time off, looked inside myself, and this is what emerged. Get Loud is certainly the most personal album I have made. It’s an accurate reflection of my life at this point in time. And you know what else? It rocks! It’s not called Get Loud for nothing!” Adam Brand is one of Australia’s most popular and successful contemporary country music artists. Since the release of his self-titled debut album in January 1998 he has received eight CMAA Golden Guitar Awards and three Mo Awards. His three albums to date have spawned innumerable #1 singles and he is one of a handful of country artists to achieve platinum album sales. Written at home and in Nashville and recorded in Sydney over seven weeks, Brand’s fourth album Get Loud marks a significant turning point for the artist. The familiar themes of girls, cars, friendship and good times are present but there are several fundamental differences between this and Brand’s previous albums: Sonically it is tougher and rhythmically it is sexier. It is at times chillingly personal. I’m gonna raise the Titanic I can do that with no sweat There is no doubt that recent events in Brand’s personal life have influenced the shape of this album… “Get Loud isn’t the slit-your-wrists kind of album people might think I’d come up with after the collapse of my marriage. It’s actually the opposite — my attitude with the album was to blast through the pain, blow the cobwebs out and celebrate what’s positive in life. So there’s a lot of raw energy on the album.” The title track is certainly positive and has energy to burn. In fact Adam has just given the Australian bush a brand new anthem. Country kids will be partying long and hard to Get Loud from the Kimberley to the Great Dividing Range. The band plays, cold beer flows
The swampy “She’s Country” is another anthem for the bush— a tip of the hat to all the hard working country girls out there. “There have been plenty of songs written about hard working big hearted country blokes, but nowhere near enough about the girls in the bush. ‘She’s Country’ is my dedication to the girls!” Put a roof on the old hay shed Another highlight is the tender “Food, Water, Shelter, Love” from the impressive writing team of Rick Price, Melinda Schneider and Tamara Stewart. “Right now I feel a strong sense of getting back to what’s important in life — and that’s usually the simple things, the core issues. At the end of the day, we need to strip back all that stuff we worry about unnecessarily, and look at what really matters. This song addresses that beautifully. I loved it the minute Melinda played it to me”. There’s also a reworking of the Jo Jo Zep and The Falcon’s 1970’s live classic ‘The Girl Across The Street Has Turned Eighteen’ albeit with less provocative lyrics than the original which were, according to Adam “Not quite right for me – a little predatory if you know what I mean.” Recorded in Sydney with long time producer Graham Thompson, Get Loud features a core of musicians that Brand believes were integral in shaping the sound of the album. “Mark Punch is a genius. His guitar playing sets the mood for most of these songs. He understood exactly what Graham and I were wanting to hear and took it much further. Terepai Richmond is a brilliant drummer – he and the old bloke (Thompson on bass) really lay it down like no other rhythm section I’ve heard. Mick Albeck’s fiddle is key to many of the songs. Garrett Costigan and Clayton Doley on steel and keyboards respectively are in a league of their own.” “Get Loud is the album I’ve always wanted to make. I believe everything Graham and I have done before this has brought us to the point where we were ready to make this album.” “I just love performing live - the shows are pretty cranked up and I really wanted to capture that with an album that was a bit harder edged, a bit more pumped. We really rock out live, and this album does exactly that.” Adam Brand has delivered his strongest album do date. His legion of loyal fans will love it. It will open new doors for him. And he’s right - it’s not called Get Loud for nothing! Get Loud is released on August 9th on Compass Bros Records. Distributed by Sony Music Australia.
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