Perth Music

Twenty-five year-old Carl Riseley has always had music in his veins. Carl played the trumpet throughout school, but it was only towards the end of high school that he really felt he could make a career from his talent. When a good friend joined the Royal Australian Navy as a trombone player, Carl was inspired to do the same and signed up the following year as a full-time musician in the Navy. Then came the chance of a lifetime when Carl decided to do something different and try out for Australian Idol. And what a decision that was as Carl made it all the way to the top 3. Carl Riseley’s debut album The Rise is out now through Universal Records and he chatted to Justin Middleton for this exclusive interview.

Click here to download the podcast of the entire interview. (12:57 - 1.5Mb)

“At the end of Idol John Foreman, who produced the album, said to me that if nothing comes from Idol that we should just make an album anyway and have a bit of fun. We had become good mates and he was originally a jazz pianist so it was a good opportunity for him too. We ended up just hanging out for a few weeks, almost a month just kicking tunes and arranging them.”

I asked Carl if it was difficult in choosing the songs that eventually ended up on the album. “A lot of these songs are songs that reflected really nice memories of my past. My favourite part was standing in the recording studio when we had 36 muso’s in the room all recording at the one time. They were all just the finest dudes in the country and they only ever did two or three takes of each song, they were that good. It ended up only taking a couple weeks in the studio so it was an amazing adventure. We did long hours, it was rough. We did 16-17 hours a day in the studio for the two weeks and just smashed it out.”

“We all loved the songs and we all could relate to them so we just wanted the best outcome. I think there was about 5 tunes we had that were on a backup list but we only ever recorded 13 songs. We discussed 13, we agreed on 13 and we went in and recorded 13 songs. So there are 12 songs on the album and the 13th will be the bonus track on iTunes.”

With Guy Sebastian releasing his Memphis album, Human Nature releasing their Motown albums and David Campbell releasing his Swing albums there is plenty of public interest in music that isn’t necessarily pop/rock at the moment. I asked Carl if he noticed this as well. “These guys like Guy and Human Nature and myself are just trying to bring a bit of a different taste out there than this pop and rock stuff that keeps coming out. I mean I haven’t listened to the radio for about a year now, since the start of Idol, so I don’t know what’s out there but I think it’s really nice to have this different style come through. It gives everybody options.”

The lineup of songs on The Rise features new arrangements of much loved hits including first single This Guy’s In Love With You, Girl From Ipanema, Pure Imagination, Lido Shuffle, We’ve Only Just Begun and even Waltzing Matilda. I asked Carl how much fun it was creating new arrangements for the classic songs. “It’s really a very special experience. I remember so clearly sitting down with John (Foreman) in his studio thinking about The Letter and what we can do with this. And we sat down and probably talked about it for two minutes and then we just started…and then we got on a roll and when we were doing it there seemed so many options but I can’t imagine it any other way now.”

Carl is set for a string of tour dates in May and June and the shows are set to be quite spectacular. Each show will consist of two sets - one with Carl backed up with a quartet and one with Carl backed up with a Big band. No Perth show is locked in as of yet but Carl did hope he could make his way over to the West. “I know we’ve locked in dated for Brisbane, Melbourne, Sydney and Adelaide and we are still negotiating Perth and Hobart but we have to get it Perth. I’ve got good mates over there at the moment. I love Western Australia, I’ve been to Broome and I’ve spent a lot of time in Fremantle as well as Perth so I love it.”

The Rise is out today. For more info on Carl Riseley visit www.carlriseley.com.au

Carl Riseley Tour Dates
Wed 28 May - Governor Hindmarsh Hotel, Adelaide
Fri 30 May - Bennett’s Lane, Melbourne
Sat 31 May - Bennett’s Lane, Melbourne
Wed 4 June - Troubador, Brisbane
Fri 6 June - Rooty Hill RSL, Sydney
Sat 7 June - The Basement, Sydney
Sun 8 June - The Basement, Sydney

This entry was posted on Saturday, April 26th, 2008 at 11:50 am and is filed under Album Releases, Touring, Interviews. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.