an ear to the earth

Madeleine

December 14, 2014 — Leave a comment

Here we go –  the brand new clip to be lifted from An Ear To The Earth. This time round the dark/jazz infused Madeleine gets the video treatment – and this marks the 8th clip to have been created from the Ear To The Earth track list. In keeping with my plan of working with a close circle of talented friends – this time round I asked multi skilled producer/old chum Michael Carpenter to take a seat behind the camera – the result is lush/rich and dripping in atmosphere. The video was shot late one night at Love Hz studios and features the very same line up that recorded the album back in 2013 – including the albums producer (Jamie Hutchings: Infinity Broke/Bluebottle Kiss) The lyrics for Madeleine were scribbled down in a notebook back in the late 90’s and were inspired by Kim Novak’s character in Alfred Hitchcock’s classic Vertigo. I finished the melody and arrangement about 14 years after the song was started.

The Gypsy Caravan Hits The Road and Other Newsworthy Tidbits

June 15, 2013 — Leave a comment

 I’ve been busy rehearsing with my band before we embark on testing the water and playing the new material from An Ear To The Earth at a venue that is (hopefully) somewhere near you. We’ll be taking the whole gypsy caravan on the road – Jamie Hutchings on guitar/percussion and his brother Scott on drums, Reuben Wills on double bass and Adam Lang on banjo and lapslide guitar. We’ll be heading north for starters playing dates in Byron, Surfers, Brisbane – then heading back down to  play Sydney, Newcastle and the Central Coast. You can check all the dates here. And never fear Southern Australia – Melbourne, Canberra, Ballarat and South Coast dates are coming real soon.

Lot’s of tracks from the new album have been receiving radio play over the past few weeks. Special thanks to The Outpost Show on 2serFM, Roots N All on JJJ, The Inside Sleeve on the ABC, In The Pines on FBi, Folk Buddies on 4ZZZ, Between The Tracks on PBSFM for making An Ear To The Earth Essential Album of The Week.

Image

And below you can check out a live performance of Where Will I Be? on ABC 702 Weekend Spotlight with host Simon Marnie.

And finally you can read through my attempt at taking the Citizenship Test with website Mess and Noise – who called An Ear To The Earth “quixotic and genre defying” – here. Along with positive posts from:

DOUBTFUL SOUNDS

NO DEPRESSION

REVERB MAGAZINE

See you at a show. Make sure you come up and say hi.

Best

Mark x

Swallow

Where Will I Be?

June 4, 2013 — Leave a comment

Here’s the brand new clip – and the second single to be released from An Ear To The Earth. This clip was directed by an old chum – Scott Hutchings, who has previously created some brilliant clips under the YouTube moniker 6pixies7.

Where Will I Be? describes the joys of our eventual demise and imagined escape…of course there’s also dancing, grave digging cowboys, runaway coffins and the backdrop of the Australian landscape. A song about death, dirt, sin, redemption and bad weather.

Swallow

Want To Hear An Ear To The Earth?

April 7, 2013 — Leave a comment

An Ear To The Earth CoverArt

The big news is that the release date of my brand new album An Ear To The Earth has crept up on us. It’s already been receiving spins on JJJ, ABC, 2SerFM, RRR and FBi. You can now grab a copy of the brand new 10 track long player at the Laughing Outlaw website…and if you’re so inclined you can snap up a signed copy. It’s worth grabbing a physical copy just to see the excellent art that graphic artist Brett Curzon designed for the booklet. He’s a genius without a doubt. The album was produced by my old friend and musical wizard Jamie Hutchings and recorded live straight to 1″ reel to reel tape over a six day period. It was mixed by Chris Colquhoun (an absolute master of the controls). We’re all super proud of the results. You can pick up the album here:

LAUGHING OUTLAW RECORDS STORE

But, if you’re one of those people who’ve given up buying CD’s you can download a copy on iTunes. Great news is the iTunes version is a bonus edition.  It features 2 bonus tracks which were recorded during the Ear To The Earth sessions. One of them is a track that I found difficult to relegate to the sidelines of the album, but I’m really happy to be able to offer it to you now. Jamie and I co-wrote the song together – and recorded it together live, very sparingly – featuring only my vocal and acoustic guitar whilst Jamie played slide guitar in another room of the studio/guesthouse. It’s called Letters and I think for anyone who has purchased a copy of the album already – this is a track worth owning. The second bonus track is a revisit of an old Hitchcock’s Regret song called Small Town – from our first album Regretfulness – which originally came out way back in 2001. You can get the Bonus Edition of An Ear To The Earth here:

ITUNES BONUS EDITION

CDBABY

Love Mark

x

Swallow

Sneak Peek #2

February 28, 2013 — Image — Leave a comment

AlbumArtBoat

Swallow

An Ear To The Earth

February 10, 2013 — 2 Comments

An Ear To The Earth CoverArt

Here’s a first look at the album art for my latest recording which will be out on Laughing Outlaw Records on April 5th. The album is entitled An Ear To The Earth and contains 10 brand new tracks. Below you’ll find the track listing and credits – for any of you who’ve caught a show in the last year or so – well, you may recognise a few of the titles.

Side One

Everything I Need

Nowhere At All

Madeleine

Where Will I Be?

I Don’t Know What’s Become Of Her

Side Two

Killer Anxiety

Last Card

Four Winds

Bone Orchard

O, Dreamtime Blues

Produced by Jamie Hutchings

Engineered by Chris Colquhoun

Mixed by Chris Colquhoun and Jamie Hutchings

This long player was recorded direct to reel-to-reel tape, live at a small guesthouse at Avalon. (Thanks to the Mort family for the use of their space). Tape transfer was accomplished at Linear Recording.

The Players:

Mark Moldre: Vocals, Acoustic Guitars, Nylon String Guitar, Banjo, Melodica, Stomps, Claps

Jamie Hutchings: Electric and Acoustic Guitars, Percussion, Backing Vocals, Stomps, Claps

Scott Hutchings: Drums, Percussion, Stomps, Group Vocals, Claps

Reuben Wills: Double Bass, Group Vocals, Musical Saw, Stomps, Claps

Adam Lang: Banjo, Lap Slide, Pedal Steel, Stomps, Claps

Lee Hutchings: Clarinet

Jochen Gutsch: Trumpet

Gregory Bennett: Tuba, Trombone

All songs written by Mark Moldre except

I Don’t Know What’s Become Of Her (Moldre/J. Hutchings)

Arrangement assistance by Jamie Hutchings

Swallow