It’s been quite some time since Jordie Lane has performed with a full band in Melbourne, so the good news is punters will have at least one more chance to see him live before he packs his bags and heads off overseas. “I haven’t done a show with the band in Melbourne I think since August, so it’s really cool to do a full band show. We’ve got some special guests; a couple of little surprises, people are getting up to do duets,” reveals Lane.
Primarily, Lane is heading over to the USA to undertake his first proper tour of the country but he will also be sketching out some new ideas and doing some pre-production for which will hopefully be album number three. “The US trips before have more just like been travelling and then maybe record. I did a handful of shows here and there but not really a tour.” This time though Lane will be playing as many shows as possible, although he won’t be accompanied by his band. “It will mainly be solo. I haven’t got a band there yet so yeah I’ll be enjoying (playing) solo and probably just slowly put together a band; (but) yeah mainly solo.”
After receiving critical acclaim for his last record, Blood Thinner, which included him receiving a nomination at the Jagermeister Independent Music Awards for best blues and roots album, Lane will again be teaming up with the man who he worked with on that album to slowly begin putting together the follow up. “I’m working again with a guy called Tom Miller who worked with me on the Blood Thinner record, working on new songs, recording sounds, like a pre-production for the next album,” he explains. “Yeah, so it might not be so long there [in the US]. We’re going to nick over to Europe and the UK, do a bunch of shows there and then back to the States again, so I have no idea just yet but I have to be back in Australia in November. There’s a solar eclipse; I want to see it so I told my manager I’ve got to get back for the eclipse,” he laughs. “So we’ll hopefully do some summer shows in Australia; that’s the plan.”
With his touring schedule having increased significantly in size since the successful release of Blood Thinner, Jordie Lane’s been travelling and playing his music far and wide and as a result there have been more than a few memorable shows and tours along the way. “We did a tour of New Zealand. Yeah, that really blew me away. It was bloody awesome” he admits. “The crowds were really, really fantastic and going there for the first time, you know, travelling through the country side there…that was probably my favourite.”
Lane also managed to score supports for USA native Joe Pug, plus Wagons, Jeff Lang and The Moody Blues. It’s that latter tour that he remembers most clearly, even if was a slightly bizarre experience. “I did The Moody Blues tour and that was just a spin out as well. A 25 person crew, a chef, you know, just treated like rock stars, which they are.”
For Lane, The Moody Blues tour was a rare chance to get a glimpse of rock royalty and all that goes with it, a far cry from playing the small, intimate pub shows of the local circuit. “Well I was playing solo and I got 12 minutes like each night. Exactly 12. Then you’re getting dragged of the stage,” recalls Lane. “You get walked to the edge of the stage then this little radio mic will announce you, ‘And now only from Melbourne…’” he laughs in his best American accent. “It was fun but trying to pack a show into 12 minutes was a very hard challenge.”
Twelve whole minutes. I’m guessing it’s the shortest set Lane has ever done by a long way. So then, how many songs is it possible to squeeze into such a short amount of time? “Well for me, usually just one song and a story. But I got up and got three songs in, just no talking,” he laughs. Now that’s using your time wisely
BY JAMES W. NICOLI
