With each member of Dear Stalker still holding down a day job to subsidise the band’s musical activities, a career as a full-time musician remains a dream. “Isn’t it every muso’s dream to be a full-time musician?"
Just over eighteen months ago Lisa Maxwell was looking toward recording the songs that would become her second solo album. She was also playing a gig, on the same bill as bands featuring drummer Alan Murphy and bass player Adam Learner. Murphy and Learner were enthusiastic enough about Maxwell’s material to offer their services as a rhythm section for her forthcoming solo record, and the seeds of their band, subsequently christened Dear Stalker were sown.
Within a short time, however, it became apparent that the newly established trio were more than just an eponymous performer and an anonymous rhythm section. “During our first rehearsal we were jamming on songs that I was intending to put on my second solo album,” Maxwell explains. “But as we played, it became pretty obvious that these guys weren’t just hired guns – this was a band.” Learner offers his own observation. “We just fell in love with Lisa,” he laughs.
Maxwell grew up in Benalla, in north western Victoria, and has recently moved back to Benalla after living in Melbourne for a short time. “I moved down to Melbourne, but it didn’t work out,” she explains. Growing up in an Australian country town has its ups and downs; despite her familial fondness for Benalla, the town wasn’t necessarily the source of a lot of excitement. “It was pretty frustrating,” Maxwell says. “There wasn’t really a lot to do – with country towns if you play sport then there’s a lot to do, but I wasn’t into sport,” she recalls.
Maxwell had started performing as a solo artist in 2003, releasing an EP, Bad Day in 2005 and her debut album, Select Vacancy in 2006. The meeting with Murphy and Learner provided Maxwell with a welcome change from the pressures of being a solo artist. “Being in a band is less pressure,” Maxwell muses. “And being in a band is more rewarding, creatively. I’ve been a lot happier being in a band situation.”
Prior to hooking up with Maxwell, Learner had played with Blue Ruin, while Murphy had been playing in a variety of local bands, most notably Black Pony Express. “Around the time we formed Dear Stalker I was playing in about eight or nine bands,” he laughs. “But since then this band has become my main focus.”
Maxwell’s country town origins continue to provide the odd inspiration for Dear Stalker songs. “I think a lot of my early writing had a fair amount of teen angst when I first started playing,” Maxwell figures. “But now I’m getting more quirky small town stories. I used to refer to Benalla as Twin Peaks – which I suppose isn’t very nice,” she laughs.
For Dear Stalker’s debut record, an eponymous five-song EP, the band headed into Sing Sing studio with engineer David Pidoto, who’d worked previously with You Am I, Little Birdy and The Pictures. “David was appointed as the engineer by the studio,” Maxwell says, “and as the recording went on, he unofficially became the producer as well.” She pays tribute to Pidoto’s ability to capture Dear Stalker’s live feel and sound. “He has an amazing ability to get some fantastic sounds,” she admits. Learner agrees. “We really wanted that live sound, and it’s really hard getting that sound.” Murphy notes that Dear Stalker had spent a few weeks prior to the recording process getting the songs ready for recording. “We’d spent a long time beforehand getting the songs right,” Murphy says. “So when we came into the studio, David was able to bring out the best in the band.”
So far Dear Stalker have kept their focus local – “I think Ruby’s out at Belgrave is as far as we’ve gone”, Maxwell says – but hopes, courtesy of some favourable US college radio play, to get to the United States. “We managed to get a song on a compilation put out by a Hollywood label, 272 Records,” Maxwell explains. “They put out compilations called Riot On Sunset, and we got a song on there.”
It seems surprising that a Hollywood label would choose to feature a Melbourne band – this, however, is the pervasive power of the Internet. “They came across our music through MySpace,” Murphy says. “There’s all this commentary about what technology is doing to the music industry, but this was actually one of the positive effects of technology,” he says. With the compilation featuring only two bands not based in the United States, Dear Stalker are understandably pleased to have been given the opportunity to raise the band’s profile overseas. “We’re hoping to get enough interest to allow us to tour,” Maxwell says.
With each member of Dear Stalker still holding down a day job to subsidise the band’s musical activities, a career as a full-time musician remains a dream. “Isn’t it every muso’s dream to be a full-time musician?” Maxwell laughs. “We look up to a band like Magic Dirt that’s been around for ages, and release a new album and tour every couple of years, and they’re still really good,” she says. But Magic Dirt were notorious in their early years for intra-band dysfunction. Is that the same with Dear Stalker? “Oh, yeah, heaps!” laughs Maxwell. “Actually we’re very harmonious at the moment. We’ve all played in lots of bands over the years, and we’ve got all that stuff out of our system,” Murphy grins.
DEAR STALKER launch their – quite brilliant – self-titled EP at The Arthouse on October 28. They’re joined by The Statics, The Mercury Theatre and Seri Veda. The entry price also includes a free EP – how good is that!? See you there.
