Jonathan Boulet
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Jonathan Boulet

Between orchestrating his own self-titled folk-pop ensemble, drumming for art-rock group Parades and playing bass in hardcore/metal outfit Snake Face, Jonathan Boulet also finds time for production/engineering duties

Between orchestrating his own self-titled folk-pop ensemble, drumming for art-rock group Parades and playing bass in hardcore/metal outfit Snake Face, Jonathan Boulet also finds (or rather makes ) time for production/engineering duties (Little Scout, Megastick Fanfare) and remixing ventures (The Holidays, Wolf & Cub, Kyu). "The hardest thing is just the time management – I’m definitely not an organised kind of person," laughs the Sydney-bred singer/songwriter/multi-instrumentalist. "I’ve never really cared for organising things, but nowadays we kind of have to keep this big calendar of what I’m doing. If someone asks what I did on the weekend, I usually have to look at the calendar to see what I actually did. That’s the only hard part – the rest of it … is a pleasure."

Boulet and his band (comprising Ravi Gupta, Tim Watkins, Harrison Wood, David Rogers and Josiah Eastwood) have already played several shows of their ‘Here’s Johnny’ co-headline tour with The John Steel Singers, which reaches Melbourne this Sunday. "So far, it’s been ridiculous," Boulet asserts. "Everyone’s been really excited. It’s been good to see these rural towns that we’ve actually never been to. And surprisingly, we got really good responses from these towns – I kind of wasn’t expecting too much, so when they came out…in Toowoomba, there was this little mosh pit happening and just nuts – it was so much better than what I was expecting. It was just really encouraging."

Boulet first met The John Steel Singers at a friend’s birthday party in Brisbane: "They were all really nice, and then eventually we realised that it was the John Steel Singers. They’re just super, super nice and humble and they’ll all sweethearts. Each one of them is the nicest dude ever in their own way." Everyone who purchases a ticket to the tour will receive two free exclusive tracks: The John Steel Singers’ cover of Boulet’s You’re A Animal and Boulet and his band’s cover of JSS’ You’ve Got Nothing To Be Proud Of.

You’re A Animal is the first track that fans have been able to hear from Boulet’s forthcoming second album, which he hopes to release around mid-year. "I’ve got a couple of days this week to work on it, so it’s really close – it’s just a few important things like the vocals that we need to get done and it should be on its way," Boulet informs. "This time it’s been very thought-about. The first album wasn’t a conscious effort to produce the record. This time it’s more focused and I’ve got to think about the balance of the record. It’s challenging ’cause you don’t want it to be too soft or too same-y…."

The band that Boulet drums for, Parades, released one of the finest Australian records of last year with their long-awaited debut album, Foreign Tapes. "That was good to get out – that was in the works for way too long," Boulet affirms. "A lot of Sydney bands have got something really good to offer and then for some reason they just get held back and by the time it gets released, you’re almost over it because you’ve had it for however long, so it was really good to finally get that out."

Boulet’s openness towards new musical projects is directly aligned with his love of immersing himself in various genres. "When I first started doing music, I was very much into heavy music, so that place has always been there whether in a band or what we listen to," Boulet explains. "From heavy music, there’s always cross-over bands that have a little bit of electronic and it sort of snowballs from there. The Parades guys, we were all in a band together at school and we just wanted to play punk and hardcore music. We’ll be doing six dates in April across the East Coast," he says of Parades’ current plans. "We’ve had some days trying to get new ideas – we’ve had all these big meetings about direction and sound and trying to figure out what we want to do. It’s exciting – it’s definitely, hopefully, going to be different."

Boulet’s love of percussion was ignited after receiving a drum kit from his parents at the age of ten. "At that point, I had some serious ADD and needed something for me to do," he chuckles, "and vent, I guess, so they got me that. I got some lessons and then I went from there – just kept practising. You know how you go through high school and you listen to music, but you don’t really care about it … when I first started actually caring was when someone showed me Refused, and when Thursday came around and Poison The Well – just as we were growing up, they were starting to bring that new kind of screaming style in, which was really cool. It was interesting – we hadn’t really heard much of that before. As I was learning to record … [I realised that] you can’t stick with one style of music; it sort of gets boring after a while, so I’d just be trying different things. It might be really late at night, so I’ll pick up an acoustic guitar ’cause it’s quiet – it’s always good to have variety."

What drives him most when it comes to creating music? "I get a lot of drive out of watching other bands in Sydney (particularly Ghoul and Seekae), and what’s getting produced locally," Boulet ponders. "When someone puts something out that’s really good, it’s definitely encouraging – you’re like ‘people around you are putting out this really good music … I want to be a part of that; I want to help with the scene and try and produce something special’. When I go and see a good band around, I’m just like ‘yeah, let’s go home and write some music’. Same with a bad band – if I see a band that I really don’t like, it’s also really encouraging for me to write music. It’s like ‘that made me feel angry … I’m going to write some good music now’."