End Of Tour Interview And Show With Stu Larsen In Atlanta

  • Wednesday, May 13, 2015
  • Carmen O'Hagan

Australian singer/songwriter Stu Larsen played at Eddie’s Attic in Atlanta on Sunday, accompanied by Japanese instrumentalist Natsuki Kurai.

We caught up with Larsen before the show that night and chatted about everything from his homeland down under to a few of his favorite things.  Check out the interview below as well as a review of the show.

Q. When did you realize you wanted to play music full-time?
A. It was definitely in 2006.

 I was working at a bank; it was a good job. It was actually a building society which is the same kind of thing as a bank just more friendly.  I actually liked it, but I just realized I didn’t want to be doing that for the next ten, twenty, thirty years.  And I was playing shows on the side already and I thought, just why not play more shows.  So I quit my job at the bank and just went for it.

Q. Who do you credit with having the biggest influence on your career?
A. I think Passenger is a huge influence on the way I tour and the way I operate, in that regard.  But musically I guess guys like Ray LaMontagne and Damien Rice.  I just love their lyrics and their songwriting, what they put into their music.  The soul and realness that they put into their music is something that really inspires me and I want to be seen like that as well.  I want to be seen as putting myself into the songs and I always want to be genuine about it.

Q. Is it more about lyrics or melody for you?
A. Both.  I can’t separate the two.  If you have amazing lyrics and a really bad melody it’s nothing.  And if you have an amazing melody and really horrible lyrics, it’s horrendous.  Both are equally important for me.

Q. What’s your songwriting process like?
A. I usually write the melody first.  A melody will come and I’ll fit the lyrics into and around that.  I feel like my melodies don’t fit around my lyrics as well as my lyrics fit around my melodies.   I’ll pick up my guitar and start playing and then I’ll start singing whatever comes out and that is generally the first step for me to writing a song.  And then I spend hours or days working out what the song is actually about, writing proper lyrics and forming the song into what it needs to be.  Sometimes it just comes out right away.  I have a song called “San Francisco” and that came out within five or ten minutes.  I just sat down on the floor in a studio in LA and just started singing and playing and this song, it was there. 

Q. Do you have a favorite song from your album Vagabond - if so, what is it and why?
A. I think “San Francisco” is my favorite.  The chorus is still super relevant for me.  “I won’t know where I’m going ‘til I get there.”  I don’t have a plan or a goal or anything I want to particularly achieve.  I just want to follow what’s in front and keep playing music for people who want to listen to it.  It was kind of a turning point for me when I wrote that song.  I’d already been living in this way of wandering and exploring.  And when I sat down and wrote that song it was after a three month trip away from Australia.  When I wrote that song I was like, I want to be doing this.  I want to just follow what’s in front.

Q. Do you have a favorite song to play live?
A. I like playing “San Francisco”.   I like playing “Maybe I Am”, I feel like it’s really slow and sad. I feel like sometimes maybe the crowds aren’t ready for it.  We played it in Montreal about a week ago because someone called it out and it was a really nice moment.  So maybe people are ready for that kind of emotion.  Maybe.  Hmmm.

Q. This is the last show of the tour, what’s your plan for the rest of the year?
A. It’s strange to be finishing.  Natsuki will go back to Japan and Matt Sanders, who’s been opening, will go back to Tennessee.  We’ll part ways.  I’ve got six weeks off, which hasn’t happened in five years.  So that will be fun.  Then festivals in the summer in Europe.  Then back to Australia.  

Q. When you’re not on tour or working on music what keeps your interest?
A. Photography.  When I’m not touring I like traveling and taking photos.  Visiting my friends.  I don’t really have time off very often.  It’s generally only a few days between tours, so I’m going to learn the answer to that question in the next six weeks I think.

After some thought provoking Q & A, things got a bit more relaxed with some rapid fire fun questions:
Q. Favorite color?
A. I haven’t had one for a long time to be honest.  It was blue as a kid.  Then I went through an I like brown phase.  Maybe, brown leather, like aged brown leather.

Q. Coffee or tea?
A. Coffee. Definitely.

Q. Last song that was stuck in your head?
A. Delicate by Damien Rice.

Q. Cats or dogs?
A. Cats.  I love cats.  I’ll snuggle up with a cat any day. 

Q. Hugs or high-fives?
A. Hugs, yeah.

Q. Something that really annoys you?
A. A ticking clock in a room where I’m trying to sleep just does my head in.  I have to take the battery out or remove the clock from the room.  It gets awkward sometimes.  I used to stay with friends or sometimes people I didn’t know and I don’t want to touch their clock or take the battery out, I don’t want to move it from the room, I don’t want to be awkward about it so I’ll just sit there for three hours trying to sleep while there’s a clock ticking.

Q. Favorite flavor of ice cream?
A. Vanilla.  I love vanilla, just vanilla.  I don’t need anything else, just vanilla. It’s so good, oh my gosh, vanilla.  

Q. Favorite place you’ve ever visited?
A. Japan.  Favorite country in the world.  Nothing beats Japan.  I also like Spain and Sweden and Scotland and Slovakia and Slovenia, South Africa, Somalia.  I’m just trying to think of “S” places.  South Dakota, South Carolina… 

Q. Beatles or Stones?
A. Beatles.  

Q. Blondes or brunettes?
A. I don’t really have a preference.  I’m very equal in that I think.

Q. Favorite food from the States?
A. Natsuki loves Philly cheesesteaks.  We had an amazing pizza in Chicago at like 2 a.m. after a show that was so good.  In-N-Out in California.  Fish tacos in Charlotte are amazing; currently my favorite American meal that I’ve had.   I have them every time I’m in Charlotte.  

Q. Cut your hair or shave your beard?
A. Aw, that’s so cruel.  Last time I shaved my beard my face looked tiny because my long hair did not like my face.  So I had to cut my hair that time. But if I cut my hair and had a beard, I haven’t actually had that look.  I don’t know what that would be.  I don’t want to cut my hair.  I don’t want to shave my beard.  I’d probably shave my beard before I cut my hair.  But if I did shave my beard, I’d cut my hair straight away.  So, yeah, it’s both or none for me.

Q. Place you’re dying to go?
A. So many places.  I wanna go to South America.  I wanna go to Africa.  I wanna go to Portugal.  I wanna go to like Kazakhstan or somewhere.  Russia, somewhere weird in there.

Q. Celebrity crush?
A. Jimmy Fallon.

Q. Shoes or barefoot?
A. Shoes.  I’ve only got one pair of shoes so I’ve got to wear them.

Q. Tattoos?
A. Do I have any? Six tattoos.  No it’s a lie, I have zero tattoos.

Q. Aussie slang?
A. How’ya goin’? 

Q. Hidden talent?
A. I can do a Rubik’s cube.  I haven’t done it for a while, so I couldn’t confirm that I could still do a Rubik’s cube, but I used to be able to do it in like 38 seconds or something.  My goal was to get it under a minute and once I achieved that I didn’t really do it anymore and have probably forgotten now.

Q. Do you name your guitars?
A. I don’t. I tried; nothing came.  I really wanted to name my guitar but nothing felt right.

Q. Pre-show rituals?
A. I don’t.  At my level there’s no consistency preshow. Some venues don’t have dressing rooms, whatever, it’s different every night.  I think when you get to a bigger level, someone who’s playing to thousands of people every time, when you’ve got a tour manager, and a crew, and you don’t have things you need to be doing, that’s when you have the three hours to yourself or whatever it might be, that’s when you need to come up with a preshow routine because you’re so bored.  So for me at the moment there is no preshow thing, normally just hanging out with people or soaking up the city, wherever we may be.  So yeah, no strange preshow superstition or anything like that, just chill.
 
Eddie’s Attic was the final stop on Stu Larsen’s North American tour that started in Vancouver in April.  
Matt Sanders, a Johnson City, Tn. native, opened the show.  Larsen later explained that he saw a Youtube video of Sanders covering Passenger’s song, “Heart’s on Fire” and loved it.  Daniel Davidson accompanied the Tennessee guitarist and vocalist with an impressive display of talent on the cello.  Sanders played a set full of smooth, heartfelt songs and explained the stories behind some of them.  The most impressive part was his voice, which blended effortlessly with the cello accompaniment and was highlighted perfectly during his cover of “Come Pick Me Up” by Ryan Adams.  He also infused his last song, “Wait for Me Carolina”, with a haunting acoustic version of “Habits” by Tove Lo to finish his set. 

Larsen and tourmate Natsuki Kurai took the stage at the intimate venue with the song “Cocoon”, soon followed by several tracks from Larsen’s album Vagabond such as “Far Away from Here” and “Ferry to Dublin”.  The latter of which, he combined with “Delicate” by one of his musical inspirations, Damien Rice.  

Kurai showed off his harmonica talent with a short cover of “Georgia on My Mind” much to the enjoyment of the Atlanta crowd.  Kurai’s accompaniment and solos greatly showcased his impeccable harmonica skills and musical talent.  He seems to be a bit of a nonconforming instrumentalist in that he has a set of homemade chimes that he used during the show that were made from a potato masher and several car keys.    

Larsen and Kurai make a great duo, feeding off of each other’s talents and clearly enjoying themselves on stage.  They met in Japan in 2010 when Larsen saw Kurai playing and asked him to perform with him only a few days later.  There is a clear respect between the two when performing together.  Kurai thanked Larsen for having him on tour with him and told the audience that performing in America has always been his dream.

Larsen and Kurai, both extremely down-to-earth and humble musicians, met and talked with fans afterwards.   

You can stream Vagabond on Spotify or purchase it on iTunes or stularsen.com.  If you want a rare treat of meaningful music, you should also catch Larsen next time he’s in the area.




  

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