Since their debut album, The Fire Is On The Bird, came out in 2007, Melbournians Jackson Jackson haven’t wasted any time. A year later, the band are releasing their second album, Tools For Survival. The duo, Jan Skubiszewski (electric/acoustic guitars, synths and beats) and Harry Angus (vocals, acoustic guitar and synths) make a great team. Jan’s background is in producing hip-hop, while Harry is well known for his work with The Cat Empire.
The two met a few years ago when Jan was the assistant producer on the first Cat Empire record. Together they’ve co-produced the new album.
“[We] recorded wherever we could find a bit of studio space. This one was mainly recorded at Jan’s parents house, his dad’s a film composer. We recorded wherever we could plug in a computer,” says Harry. “The record took about 6 months to make. We worked pretty hard on it and it took longer than the last record because it’s a bit more layered and structured.”
The two friends have an honest partnership and have settled on a creative groove together.
“I love working with Jan he’s not afraid to tell me if my ideas are terrible and vice versa, which is kind of important with a collaboration,” the vocalist explains. “We’ve always been writing different kinds of music but I think this project was more about the collaboration between us. We wouldn’t be making it if it was just one of us. We really tried to make music that reflects both our personalities and it’s a collaboration on all levels.”
“We’re [already] talking about the next album. We haven’t started recording it yet. But we do work very fast, so I’m sure there will be another album before too long.”
This album has deliberately taken a new direction not only with insightful lyrics and a choir added for good measure. Inspiration came from the likes of Talking Heads, Lenard Cohen and Arcade Fire, though the electro beats are still strong.
“I’ve always found it very hard to write songs about things most people write songs about like your own feelings or being in love,” admits Harry. “I like the fact that there was really no reference to some of the apocalyptic things that took up the last album. In a way the things that we are talking about that seem more basic, things like ‘love’ [are] more important than anything we spoke about on the last album.”
To promote the album, the pair worked with video maker Ruben Fields who came up with the concept for the clip for their single ‘All Alone’.
“I really liked that it was kind of a classic music video from like a George Michael album, but that it also had some interesting digital effects going on,” enthuses Harry. “It’s so good to just do an old fashioned film clip. There’s no pretense of acting or trying to create some amazing story line, which is what everyone tries to do with a film clip. It’s a music video. This is what a music video is supposed to look like and this is what it looks like.”
Tools For Survival out now through Virgin/EMI.
Jackson Jackson play The Zoo Thursday 16 October and the Caloundra Music Festival Friday 17 October 2008.
