Wolfmother’s Andrew Stockdale on why he decided to go the solo route on ‘Slipstream’
As Wolfmother’s Andrew Stockdale hits the road this week to preview his new solo album Slipstream, he put pen to paper on why he decided to go the solo route on this release.
He explains: “I went into my studio in Byron Bay earlier on in 2018 and started demoing songs by playing all of the instruments.
“Usually I would then put together a band, do preproduction, flesh out the parts, hire a producer and put it out as ‘Wolfmother’; though I was enjoying the creative process, so much so, that I’d see it through to the end just as a solo artist.
“The next port of call was to take everything I had produced on my hard-drive to LA and finish it off at Henson Studios.
“Whilst I was at Henson, I was inspired by the studio and decided to write a song on the spot which ended up becoming Slipstream.
“I noticed the grand piano, Steinway in the corner, and I heard that Paul McCartney had recorded there a few months before so I thought I’d have a go at that in order for his creativity to rub off on me, which resulted in the ELO inspired outro.
“Then once this was done, I thought ‘What if we add some cello over the top?’
“So I guess my point is, by the time I reached this stage of playing everything on demos in Byron to recording at Henson, laying on grand piano, adding cello, funding and producing the record myself, I thought, “I don’t really owe it to a band or a label to see this through as a ‘Wolfmother’ album.
“Maybe, I could put this out myself and tour it under my own name and see if this creative freedom, so to speak, could transfer into a show.”
“Whilst doing this, I didn’t really dance around other people’s schedules and I enjoyed the synchronicity of who would be available at any given time or place.
“A lot of artistic choices were made on availability and it was really interesting to see who I would meet as a consequence.
“For example, the alto-sax player turned out to be an attorney and offered to help out getting a record deal, which I didn’t follow up but it just shows that when you’re open to spontaneity some interesting opportunities may arise.
“With that flexibility in the studio which has always been there to an extent with recordings, why not translate that into the touring forum.
“The industry has a long standing tactic for success which is same band members, manager, label, producers, though there’s something to be said for keeping it fresh and chasing inspiration and that’s what I was pursuing on this record. Means of distribution are changing, means of recording are changing.
“There’s a lot more freedom available to artists this day and age and I just thought why not embrace this freedom that is there to empower the artist and see what opportunities arise.
“Essentially this record is me with a guitar and a hard drive visiting different players and different studios and putting together a body of work which I found really exciting.”
After kicking off his tour in Adelaide on Sunday, Stockdale can be heard playing the album at:
Tuesday October 9: Northcote Social Club, Melbourne
Wednesday October 10: Oxford Art Factory, Sydney
Thursday October 11: The Triffid, Brisbane
Friday October 12: The Northern, Byron Bay