Carus Thompson
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Carus Thompson

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Carus dutifully built up a dedicated following in Europe which, he says, is growing all the time. “The first time I went over [to Europe] I just had my guitar and backpack and just played wherever I could. Someone would send an email saying ‘hey, I can put on a gig for you in my lounge room and I can bring 20 friends’ and I’d just go ‘OK, let’s do it!’ And I just kept going back and it kept getting bigger and bigger,” he says.


Carus dutifully built up a dedicated following in Europe which, he says, is growing all the time. “The first time I went over [to Europe] I just had my guitar and backpack and just played wherever I could. Someone would send an email saying ‘hey, I can put on a gig for you in my lounge room and I can bring 20 friends’ and I’d just go ‘OK, let’s do it!’ And I just kept going back and it kept getting bigger and bigger,” he says.

Carus started writing songs at the age of 12, and as soon as he was old enough to play in a bar he became a regular of the Fremantle pub circuit. Now based in Melbourne, but spending most of his time playing shows in Europe, this self-confessed troubadour enjoys life on the road, saying it enhances his ability to write good music. He’s only been back in the country for a few days after his latest European jaunt and is already gearing up for a string of Australian shows.

“The great thing about being on the road is this emotional intensity and emotional pressure that comes from touring,” Carus figures. “You’re in a really emotional space because you’re missing your loved ones, you’re on your own, you’re constantly traveling and you’re constantly tired, and that can take you to a really good place as a songwriter. There’s something about the introspection and that emotional fragility that a couple of good songs will definitely come out of.”

Carus has just released Caravan, his third solo, “real” album, which was written mostly on the road over the past year. “People tell you ‘don’t record on the road, don’t write on the road’, you know. It’s the wrong headspace because in the studio you need to be more subtle than you are on stage,” he muses. “When you’re on stage you sort of really go for the jugular, but on a record you need to be much more subtle.”

However, with over twenty years of touring, writing and recording practice, Carus reckons that he’s figured out the art of writing on the road. In fact, he says, since he spends most of his time on tour anyway, Caravan is a true representation of who he is as a musician. “I wanted to make this record really representing who I am and the road has been part of my story; I mean I’m constantly touring and writing on the road so yeah, I sort of wrote these songs on tour and recorded them on tour.”
With all of his travels, it’s not surprising that he’s got a network of friends and musicians around the world that he can work with. “I’ve got a great band in Europe and a great band in Australia,” he explains. “My younger brother sings great harmonies and I’ve got a mate in England who’s a fantastic violin player.”

Caravan is essentially Thompson bringing all of these connections together to create an album with wide-ranging influences, unusual flourishes but all the while carefully composed, lyrical songs. “I wanted to try and do a record where the best of all the connections I’ve got from all around the world and are put onto one record and I thought that would be a really honest way to do it, to capture who I am.

“That’s who I am; I’m a troubadour, I guess. I travel around, playing my songs with different people,” he says.

In early years, Thompson was greatly inspired legendary Australian singer songwriter Paul Kelly. “I just see myself as a continuation of the tradition of guys like Paul Kelly, Tim Rogers and Nick Thomas. I mean, they’re all the guys that I listen to and I’m just trying to write songs that will hang around like their songs have,” he says.

Now, however, his loyal fan base, international reputation and the positive reception of Caravan have put his name amongst theirs when people talk about acoustic music. Even in Vienna, Austria, Carus says that word-of-mouth creates the biggest draw to his shows.

Indeed, it’s in places like Austria, Germany and Switzerland where Thompson has played some of his favourite gigs, purely because his fans are so appreciative, and he’s surprised and chuffed with their enthusiasm. “To be playing and going ‘wow, I’m Vienna’, and you know there’s a full room of people that are all from Austria and they’re paying money on the door to see you, I think you’ll always remember that,” he grins.

“We had a really good gig in Switzerland this time. Some people were saying ‘oh, we can’t wait to get the new album, we’ve got your last four releases, we’re real fans’. And that happens,” he says, amazed.

“But I’m like, ‘hang on, this is Switzerland!’” he laughs.

And so the tradition of Australia’s singer songwriters is continued in Carus Thompson, one of the hardest-working men in music. But it’s all worthwhile, he says. All he asks is that people enjoy his work. “If I wanted people to think one thing about me,” he says, “it’d be ‘Oh, Carus Thompson? He can write a song that guy’.”