jamie hutchings

Everything I Need

February 2, 2014 — Leave a comment

Everything I Need is the 6th clip to be lifted from An Ear To The Earth. Filmed by Paul Melnyk in a home that was being gutted for renovations – in fact a home in which Mark spent a large portion of his childhood. This is also the first clip that features Mark’s band – the very same line up who recorded an Ear To The Earth a year ago in a empty guesthouse -live and straight to 1″ reel to reel tape – almost a year ago. Jamie Hutchings on percussion, Scott Hutchings on drums, Lee Hutchings on clarinet, Reuben Wills on double bass and Adam Lang on banjo. Mark posted a nostalgic ramble on his Facebook page a couple of days ago which provides a little background on the history of the house the clip is filmed in. You can read that piece below…

A couple of weeks back
We filmed clip no. 6 in a house
where I spent 1/2 of my childhood
A house where as a nipper
we ran around around the feet
of Jamie and Scott Hutchings’ Dad, Lee,
as he practiced his
clarinet
leaning intensely
over his charts
spread across the dining room table
Artie Shaw and Benny Goodman licks
Myxolydian Scales
Trills, triplets and fingers flying
I still say my love of jazz
comes from listening to him
and his record collection
hearing him play
tenor/soprano sax
flute
piccolo
oboe
Now
their old house in the Eastern Suburbs
is being gutted for renovations
it’s currently an empty shell full of memories
Of music we made as kids
9 years old
Charging our parents to watch us
Miming to Beatle records in suits
Then
Early noisy attempts at starting bands
writing
practicing
The Fallen Scarecrows (is what we called ourselves)
listening to
The Church, The Celibate Rifles, The Plunderers, Spy Vs Spy, Split Enz, Midnight Oil, Happy Hate Me Nots, Ups and Downs, The Stems mixed with Miles Davis, Chet Baker, Wes Montgomery and Charlie Parker
A barrage of happy noise

It was perfect timing for me
to return to their home
with the greatest of old friends
Scott, Jamie, Lee and
(their) Brother-in-law Reuben (brother I never had)
old (newer) friend Adam Lang
and film a clip
for one of the songs on
An Ear To The Earth that Lee played on
– Everything I Need –
amongst the demolition, bricks and debris
before it all disappeared
beneath a new facade
all those years in the rubble…

An Ear To The South

July 21, 2013 — Leave a comment

MelbourneTour2

During the month of September Mark Moldre will head south with his band in tow to give Canberra, Ballarat and Melbourne a taste of his new album An Ear To The Earth (Laughing Outlaw Records) after a successful tour that included shows in Byron, Gold Coast, Surfers, Newcastle, Sydney and the Central Coast. An Ear To The Earth has so far gained 4 star reviews, Best CD of the week in the Sydney Morning Herald whilst receiving airplay on JJJ, ABC, RRR and community radio across Australia. Jamie Hutchings – producer of An Ear To The Earth and one-time Bluebottle Kiss front man – will be special guest opener for all the shows (excluding Pure Pop Records) and will also join Mark’s set on electric guitar. Visit Upcoming Shows for more details. Our favourite blog of all things folk and Americana Post To Wire will be presenting the shows. Post to Wire also recently placed An Ear To The Earth in amongst their Mid Year Top Picks for 2013

To mark the occasion, this tour will also see the release of the 3rd film clip to be lifted from the brand new Long Player – album track no. 2 “Nowhere At All”. Folk blog Timber And Steel give the new song the thumbs up here. The new clip was produced by Brett Curzon using archived footage.

Mark’s contribution on the Laughing Outlaw Springsteen compilation also gets a favourable mention in STACK magazine and Sydney Morning Herald reviews. You can listen to Mark’s version of Jesus Was An Only Son from Springsteen’s 2005 release Devils And Dust below. It was produced by Jamie Hutchings and recorded directly to cassette tape on a TASCAM PORTA 05.

SpringsteenReviewSpringsteenHerald

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News From The Road

July 6, 2013 — Leave a comment

Stage Shot

As the first leg of our tour to launch An Ear To The Earth now nears it’s end and we begin preparing for our visit to the southern states of the East Coast I figured it was time for a short update. We’ve travelled a few thousand kilometres – playing shows from Sydney to Brisbane sharing the stage with Steve Kilbey and Martin Kennedy, Zach Miller, Talltails, Jep and Dep and labelmates Bambino Koresh. Tomorrow night (July 7) will see us play our last show for at least a couple of months at Lizottes on the Central Coast with Sydney troubadour Cam MacKellar. Whilst we take a touring break guitarist/producer Jamie Hutchings will continue mixing his brand new solo album (I’ve heard about half of it and you’re in for a guitar-noise/kraut rock/avant-garde treat) and double bassist Reuben Wills heads off overseas with his wife, pianist Sophie Hutchings, for her first tour of Japan.

During the tour we stopped in for a few radio chats at BayFM, 4ZZZ and FBi some of these interviews can now be streamed online – including a couple of songs live in the studio at FBi.

Chat at 4ZZZ : Folk Buddies

Chat and Live Performance at FBi : In The Pines

Along with interviews in Brisbane’s Time Off and Sydney’s Drum Media:

TIME OFF “His 2010 solo debut The Waiting Room earned serious plaudits, and after a lengthy gestation period his new follow-up, An Ear To The Earth, has already proved a more-than-worthy successor. Possessing a vastly different tone to it’s predecessor, the album’s folk-tinged indie stylings are characterised by watertight songwriting, deft imagery and imaginative arrangements, and it has a far coarser feel overall than his previous fare” Steve Bell

DRUM MEDIA “Stepping way out of his comfort zone, singer-songwriter Mark Moldre delivers an album Nick Cave would be proud of” Michael Smith

Yesterday, An Ear To The Earth featured in The Sydney Morning Herald as CD Of The Week with a positive review from Bernard Zuel:

“This is music to drink to. Not to get drunk to, but to have on while you’re gabbing with your mates, while you’re sitting watching your kids play in the shallows and maybe even while knitting in the lodge. There’s a loose, almost ramshackle element to it, as if you’ve popped around the back to find a pick-up band rattling through some old country/folk/blues numbers for fun. Imagine a less garrulous and noisy Tom Waits (for example the New orleans brass and clarinet in Everything I Need Is Here) a late-night Ryan Adams (the droopy eyed Dreamtime Blues) and a kind of Sydney Willie Nelson (I Don’t Know What’s Become Of Her) and you’ll have a sense of the relaxed but never actually soft atmosphere here.” 

MarkM_SMH_CDWk5Jul13

And finally I also had the pleasure of meeting Byron Bay artist Yazz Ward of Sherfay Art and we talked about the upcoming tour – and she drew the portrait below. You can read the interview here.

More gig dates will be announced real soon.

SherfayPortrait

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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

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23 Laughing Outlaw Artists. Songs By Springsteen.

April 7, 2013 — Leave a comment

Springsteen Tribute

A couple of months back I recorded a cover of a Bruce Springsteen song called Jesus Was An Only Son from the album Devils And Dust – once again with Jamie Hutchings in the producers chair. As you can see in the pic below we were recording like it was 1984 – straight to a Tascam four track cassette recorder. The song was for a double album full of reinterpretations of Springsteen classics and it’s out now on Laughing Outlaw Records. The limited edition double CD also features extensive liner notes written by our illustrious label leader, Stuart Coupe, who has interviewed Springsteen on numerous occasions. You can purchase a copy of the 22 track release at Laughing Outlaw or on iTunes.

Jamie At The Controls

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Killer Anxiety

March 4, 2013 — Leave a comment

Here’s the first taste from the upcoming album An Ear To The Earth. It’s a calypso fuelled panic attack. A percussion driven nervous breakdown. Limbo as you sip a tequila and down Valium. An Ear To The Earth will be out real soon……

Produced by Jamie Hutchings. Mixed By Jamie Hutchings and Chris Colquhoun. Out on Laughing Outlaw Records April 5.

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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

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A While Between Gins…..

June 11, 2012 — Leave a comment

Hey Folks
Yeah, it’s been a while between drinks
Although it may not have seemed like much has been going on lately
(if you’re a regular visitor to this site)
Plenty has been going on behind the scenes
First I had to get over a mammoth bout of writers block
My first thankfully and hopefully my last
To reboot my brain freeze I pushed myself into unfamiliar territory
I started by writing no songs at all about myself…
No confessionals, no heart on the sleeve, no crying in my gin
This time I wanted to tell stories about others (more interesting already yeah?)
I also wanted to incorporate some of the other side of my musical background
Styles I’d usually try to keep seperate from my own music
This time some riotous Dixie, calypso (yeah I was even in a calypso band once)
Late night mexican infused jazz (?)
European and Country waltzes
And some good old fashioned holler and stomp
Next I also decided to record these songs differently as well
Throw myself into a completely new environment
Every album I’ve ever made so far has been with the help of my two very good friends
Michael Carpenter and timEbandit Powles (The Church)
They have been my long suffering creative partners from day 1 – my safety net
I’ve always wandered into their studios and sat down at the computers for a couple of weeks
And slowly crafted my songs with their generous help
This time I jumped into the deep end of the studio pool
And decided to record the whole thing as live as possible straight to 1″ tape
Not a computer in the room
I asked my good friend Jamie Hutchings to produce.
Jamie has produced the bulk of the Bluebottle Kiss back catalogue, his own solo albums and albums for The Maladies, Peabody, Browning and more
He added his familiar spit, grit and sandpaper to the tunes
We even co-wrote a couple
We all rehearsed hard for the months leading up to the recording
Jamie on electric guitar and percussion, Scott (his brother) on drums and percussion
Reuben Wills on double bass and Adam Lang on banjo, lap slide and pedal steel
Then it was next decided to take this recording out of the studio environment
We dragged engineer Chris Colquhoun’s home studio into a empty guest house at Avalon
We recorded the 5 piece band completely live over 3 days
Then we recorded a few sparse overdubs – horns and background vocals
It’ll be awhile now before we get the final results – a few months most likely
I’ll keep you updated here. I have uploaded a Recording Diary full of photos from the sessions here.
I’ve also started a tumblr page so as to keep a photo diary of the albums progress.
Have a browse, there’s plenty to see and read about the upcoming album already…

In the meantime I’m playing a show with two of the Central Coast’s finest – Sarah Humphreys and Mike McCarthy. You can find all the details on the Upcoming Shows page
Love
Mark

Work Begins On A New Batch Of Tunes

January 20, 2012 — Leave a comment

Rehearsal No 1