“A ramshackle, rockabilly racket.”

Today Mark Moldre has released the video for ‘Leave Me Where You Found Me’, the second clip to come from his new album Fever Dreams (out Friday, June 21st on vinyl, CD and digital formats – best place to snag a copy will be HERE).

Premiered this week on The Music, the Dylan-referencing track is a ramshackle, rockabilly racket about a paranoid conspiracy theorist who has spent too much time alone in the basement (and in his own head). 

The song (and album) was produced by Jamie Hutchings (Bluebottle Kiss/Infinity Broke/The Tall Grass) and the accompanying clip was created by Michael Carpenter (MCMI Music Imaging).

“We recorded it live, the old fashioned way – straight to one inch tape,” explains Moldre. “I knew that I wanted it to be a louder album than my previous records. I wanted to capture what the band can do onstage when all cylinders are firing. A little more avant garde and left of centre than before, with more room for band members to improvise and be themselves.”

Fever Dreams is Moldre’s third solo album and the follow-up to his 2013 release – An Ear To The Earth. It contains some genre-hopping sonic bedlam, fractured Americana-hued ballads, jazz-tinged standards, old-school Jungle Book style reggae and ramshackle/rollicking noir blues, with the fingerprints of Dylan, Waits and Chet Baker buried deep in its DNA. 

From the gently undulating desert sounds of ‘Josephine’ to the raised-glass sway of ‘White Lightning’, the swagger and rockabilly of ‘Leave Me Where You Found Me’ and the gloriously cosmic and eclectic junk-shop jazz of ‘Full Moon Over Luna Park’, the album is defined by the range of its artistic vision.

“Anyone who is a fan of Tom Waits should investigate this guy” – Jeff Jenkins, ABC Melbourne

Over his career, Moldre has opened for artists such as The Church, The Backsliders, The Break, Jim Moginie, Tex Perkins, Steve Kilbey and many more. He’s played festivals such as Dashville Skyline and The National Folk Festival. A recent highlight was taking his complete band line-up to France in July 2018 for a series of successful shows at the Binic Folks Blues Festival (tour diary). Listen for the sound of the Binic bells at the start of ‘Leave Me Where You Found Me’!
 

Thanks to an extremely successful crowdfunding campaign we can now announce the release date of Fever Dreams across all formats. Best place to snag a physical copy will be at our BANDCAMP store. Below is some information about the upcoming release.

AVAILABLE FROM YELLOW MOON RECORDS
JUNE 21ST 2019
VINYL CD AND DIGITAL

Songwriting is variously described as channeling one’s muse, a vehicle for the subconscious and the manifestation of an artist’s wild imagination. For Australian songwriter Mark Moldre it’s all that and more on his richly vivid and varied new album, Fever Dreams.

This is Moldre’s third solo album and the follow-up to his 2013 release – An Ear To The Earth. Moldre returned to the studio with the very same line-up and walked out with an album that captures the same sense of magic and mayhem, this time woven into a looser rock ’n’ roll aesthetic.

“I knew that I wanted it to be a louder album than my previous records. I wanted to capture what the band can do onstage when all cylinders are firing. A little more avant garde and left of centre than before, with more room for band members to improvise and be themselves.”

Produced by Jamie Hutchings (Bluebottle Kiss/Infinity Broke/The Tall Grass) and recorded live and straight to 1” tape, Fever Dreams contains some genre-hopping sonic bedlam, fractured Americana-hued ballads, jazz-tinged standards, old-school Jungle Book style reggae and ramshackle/rollicking noir blues. 

The fingerprints of Dylan, Waits and Chet Baker are buried deep in the DNA of Fever Dreams. From the gently undulating desert sounds of ‘Josephine’ to the raised-glass sway of ‘White Lightning’, the swagger and rockabilly of ‘Leave Me Where You Found Me’ and the gloriously cosmic and eclectic junk-shop jazz of ‘Full Moon Over Luna Park’, the album is defined by the range of its artistic vision.

Lyrically, Moldre’s poetry blurs the lines between bad dreams, things that go bump in the night, claustrophobia, conspiracy theorists, modern day anxiety and twisted tales set in ever shifting Australian landscapes. His impressionistic tales are perfectly complemented by his accomplished, tough and tender guitar playing that draws on both traditional and more exploratory forms of folk, jazz, and blues.

“Anxiety seems to have become the buzz word of humanity. Each song seems to tell a story of characters dealing with uncertainty, anxiety, stress, mental health issues, sleepless nights and loss. Without going into specifics – I’ve certainly had a difficult few years, with my fair share of waking up in a cold sweat. I worked hard though to write stories from the point of view of a series of outsiders, short vignettes into the lives of others – rather than stories of me.”

Carousing, shaping and ushering Moldre’s songs into the world was a group effort by a stellar set of friends and musicians in Jamie Hutchings (guitar), Reuben Wills (bass), Scott Hutchings (drums) and Adam Lang (lap slide, banjo) plus guests Tim Byron (Hammond organ), Lee Hutchings (saxophone) and Jadey O’Regan (piano). “We’ve played together long enough now that we’ve really found our sonic space. The band almost creates its own genre somehow. We can play calypsos, country waltzes, 50’s style standards, rock, blues, reggae, ballads and folk yet pull it altogether into a sound,” marvels Moldre.

An overwhelmingly successful Pozible campaign has demonstrated the level of support and respect Moldre receives from fans of his music. As a result, Fever Dreams has been pressed on hi-fidelity vinyl, which in turn gives listeners the opportunity to fully appreciate the exceptional cover art painted by French-Canadian luthier/artist Lenny Piroth-Robert of Daddy Mojo Guitars.

Over his career, Moldre has opened for artists such as The Church, The Backsliders, The Break, Jim Moginie, Tex Perkins, Steve Kilbey and many more. He’s played festivals such as Dashville Skyline and The National Folk Festival. A recent highlight was taking his complete band line-up to France in July 2018 for a series of successful shows at the Binic Folks Blues Festival (tour diary). 

Moldre has already released a film clip for ‘Fever Dreams I’ and will soon be revealing the video for the Dylan-referencing ‘Leave Me Where You Found Me’.

Chris Familton Publicity
+61 418 286 381 chrisfamiltonpublicity@gmail.com

I’d like to announce the upcoming release of my brand new album FEVER DREAMS. You may have already heard the first taster track – the title song FEVER DREAMS I. The whole album is now mixed, mastered, artwork is prepared and standing by for manufacture. The new tracks have been produced by Jamie Hutchings (Bluebottle Kiss/Infinity Broke/The Tall Grass).

It has long been a dream of mine to release an album on vinyl and to make this dream a (hopeful) reality I will be crowdfunding the vinyl pressing via the Pozible platform. I have tried to be as imaginative as possible so that there are plenty of interesting rewards for anyone who can help by pre-ordering from my POZIBLE PAGE. There you can also read some history about the album, my band and the fact that I recorded this record with a group of my oldest friends. The campaign will be live on Tuesday 12th March.

You can out my introductory Pozible video here:

I was lucky enough to have French-Canadian artist Lenny Piroth-Robert paint a series of portraits of me which he submitted for the album art. Lenny is a man of many talents – his main day gig is working as a guitar luthier at Daddy Mojo Guitars and over the years he has created incredible instruments for bands such as Wilco, U2, Band Of Horses and Jack White. I was lucky enough to have a guitar built especially for me (Rosetta!) which you can see me holding in the painting above. On the side he is an extremely talented artist and the surreal atmosphere that he has created in the album art will be something to marvel at in a vinyl sized format. I’m still pinching myself at how lucky I am to be surrounded by such creative types that are willing to lend a hand to my musical projects.

Finally Fever Dreams I has already been receiving some airplay on Sydney radio and the Doubtful Sounds website had this to say about the new track:

“‘Fever Dreams I’ is a jaunty, noisey and unsettling journey into the psychology of virally-induced broken sleep. Moldre’s previous releases have been more melodic and often folkier in nature where this track points to a wider embrace of noisier textures and a wider palette of sounds, Distorted guitar sprays hard panned from the right speaker while a competing and complementary banjo adds a manic, fevered quality to the song and the rhythm section marches on with ominous insistency.”

More News Soon
Love Mark X

Yellow Moon Records would like to announce the first “taster” track, FEVER DREAMS I from Mark Moldre’s upcoming album Fever Dreams.His first new music since 2013’s critically acclaimed, An Ear To The Earth. (Laughing Outlaw Records)

We say “taster” track as this is not a single – it’s more of a musical introduction that opens a door into the new album.  In fact it’s a sprawling 5-minute plus epic alt-folk/blues racket about bad dreams/insomnia and waking up in a cold sweat in the middle of the night.

You’ll hear a band at the height of their powers, re-energised after a successful mini-tour of France. This performance was captured live to 1” tape at a small mobile studio in a home at French’s Forest.

Fever Dreams Iwas produced by Mark’s long-time musical partner & friend Jamie Hutchings (Bluebottle Kiss/Infinity Broke/The Tall Grass).

For a limited time Fever Dreams I will be available as a free download on Moldre’s BANDCAMP PAGE.

Or for your viewing pleasure a kooky/eccentric clip created by Scott Hutchings, Infinity Films.

Plagued by Fever Dreams and can’t sleep? Hearing strange noises from the kitchen? Insomnia has a grip on you? Waking up in a cold sweat? Here’s “Moldre’s Top 10 Tips For Insomniacs”

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*vintage illustrations from Wikipedia Commons

BINIC, FRANCE

2018 certainly had a few highlights here at Moldre HQ – particularly our French mini-tour culminating in shows at the Binic Folks Blues Festival. We debuted a handful of new songs over there which will be tickling your ears early next year. More info on a brand new album very soon.

A few live clips have surfaced from the festival in Binic. You can have a squiz at a couple below:

If you missed reading my Tour Diary you can check it out here.

MYAGE PODCAST

I also had the pleasure of having a very long chat with my old friend, Joel Attenborough, who runs a podcast called MYAGE PODCAST – we just about covered most of my musical life and history in an epic (almost) 3 hour chat including songs from Neil Young, Midnight Oil, The Beach Boys, Midnight Oil, Miles Davis and Tom Waits. Listen in below:

 

THE SUPAHIP: THE TWO SIDED FACE

2018 also saw the release of the long awaited Supahip album – in fact, 12 years since the last. Recently Michael Carpenter and I recorded a clip for our cover of Simon & Garfunkel’s “The Only Living Boy In New York”

You can snag a copy of the album “The Two Sided Face” at Bandcamp.

“Not a single note of filler here, and considering the quality of the tunes it makes my top ten list for 2018. Super Highly Recommended. 9/10” POWERPOPAHOLIC.COM

“The Two Sided Face is easily one of my favourite albums of the year so far.” POWERPOPNEWS.COM

DADDY MOJO GUITARS

One of my favourite guitar luthiers – Lenny P. Roberts at Daddy Mojo Electrics – has recently featured me playing their Rosetta model, which has been my go-to guitar for the past few years. Lenny has created guitars for Jack White, members of Wilco, Band Of Horses and even The Edge. This clip contains a guitar solo from the upcoming new album.

 WIRE BLUTHE

Finally, I had the pleasure of meeting a really interesting gent a couple of years ago and ended up co-producing an album for him with Michael Carpenter. The result is “Stuck In The Songs” – for fans of 70’s AM radio singer/songwriters and lovers of Cat Stevens take note. You can have a listen and show him some support on Bandcamp.

That’s the end of year wrap. Lots of musical plans to be unleashed in 2019. We’ll keep you posted. All the best to everyone over the New Year.

Love Mark x

What a time was had in France at the Binic Folks Blues Festival. A trip that went way too fast and was cram packed with goodness. If you’d like to hear the whole story – head on over to the Doubtful Sounds website where our good friend Chris Familton has uploaded my Tour Diary. A warning first – grab a cuppa or beverage of your choice, it’s a long read. There’s also loads of great snapshots too, many taken by Infinity Broke drummer Jared Harrison.

DOUBTFUL SOUNDS

 

Sideshows and Festival dates have been confirmed for our upcoming visit to the north of France for the 10th Binic Folks Blues Festival. This tour will feature my complete band line-up – they’ll be busy bees as they will also be completing the line ups of fellow Oz travellers Infinity Broke and The Tall Grass.

BON VOYAGE SHOW (SYDNEY)

Fri July 13 : The Factory Floor with Infinity Broke + The Tall Grass
8pm $18 pre/ $20 at the door
Tickets HERE 

FRANCE DATES
24th July : Le Galion-Lorient : Infinity Broke + Mark Moldre + The Tall Grass

25th July : Place aux Artistes-Saint-Quay Portrieux : Mark Moldre + The Tall Grass

26th July : Folks Blues 10th Anniversary Party-Binic : Escape-ism + Bench Press + Infinity Broke + Mark Moldre + The Tall Grass

27/28/29th July : Binic Folks Blues Festival-Binic (2 shows) : Saturday 28th and Sunday 29th July

For more info on the Binic Folk Blues Festival go to http://www.binic-folks-blues-festival.com