WORKING with Broome’s Pigram Brothers on the soundtrack of the 2011 film Mad Bastards was a life-changing experience for eastern states singer/songwriter Alex Lloyd.
“It really influenced me, but the best thing I got out of it was enjoying the collaboration,” he tells the Herald.
Living in London at the time, Lloyd flew to the Kimberly for weeks at a time.
“Crabbing, fishing, playing music under the stars was an eye opener. We were doing Mad Bastards, and we were mad bastards.”
His more bluesy 2014 album Urban Wilderness was a result of that time, and Alan Pirgram is joining him at a Fly By Night show on Thursday, October 6.
• Alex Lloyd
In the early noughties Lloyd hit the big time with the album Watching Angels Mend, which went double platinum in 2001.
He’d been on the music scene since 1997 and the song Amazing from the album was the breakthrough he needed, making it to top song on Triple J’s Hottest 100 that year.
Moving to London, Lloyd all but disappeared from the local music scene, something he plans to change now he’s back home.
But it was becoming a father of four, not music that lured him back to his New South Wales roots.
“I wanted them to have a similar lifestyle I had growing up…London is a bit harsh outdoors. And I wanted them to have a relationship with their grandparents.”
Lloyd’s new album Acoustica is a re-working of his classic songs: “[Which] I’m trying to reinvent without losing, but enhancing them,” he says. “Some sound like different songs.”
Some of the songs were written when the now 41 year old was 20: “[That] guy was pretty clever. I feel like I knew more when I was younger and I thought I knew everything.”
The show at the Fly includes a reworking of favourites Amazing, Coming Home, Beautiful and Black the Sun.
“Doing these recordings really helped create a spark in me – it’s been great to re-address these songs, and I’m really happy how it’s turned out,” Lloyd says.
You can catch him at the Fly By Night, Victoria Hall, 179 High Street, Fremantle, Thursday October 6. Tix $30 pre-booked.
by JENNY D’ANGER
