THE COVER OF THE GOLDEN AGE, JOEL SARAKULA’S FIRST UK ALBUM, SEEMS TO HAVE THE AUSTRALIAN SONGWRITER DIALLED UP AT ONE PART WOODY ALLEN, ONE PART JARVIS COCKER, ONE PART BECK.
His bohemian outsider retro-pop suggests Beck and Cocker figure as more than mere feint blips on Sarakula’s aesthetic radar, but there are also bright signs of Ben Folds Five in THE GOLDEN AGE’s heavily piano-oriented sound. Well-travelled Sarakula recently chatted to The Mouth Magazine about the album, and some of the experiences which have fed into it. He also explained why his live gigs have been described as “straddling the spiritual and the profane”…

YOUR MUSIC HAS BEEN DESCRIBED AS “RETRO-POP” – I CAN HEAR SOME CLASSIC / TRADITIONAL INFLUENCES IN THERE – BUT AS A HANDLE FOR PEOPLE NEW TO YOUR WORK, HOW WOULD YOU DESCRIBE IT?
Retro-pop. Underground-pop. Piano-pop. I’ve heard all of these handles before – and they’re all pretty close.

WHERE DOES YOUR SOUND COME FROM?
I grew up with The Beach Boys, Bowie, Fleetwood Mac, ABBA… It was always about the hooks and harmonies. Along the way I learned to love the real headstrong iconoclasts: Beck, Jarvis Cocker, Sly Stone, Curtis Mayfield, Dylan – and I’m letting some of those guys in now, too… But I can’t escape that perfect harmony I hear in my head.

THE PIANO IS A STRONG FEATURE OF YOUR MUSIC…
Yes, I played piano as a child. It started with a little home organ in my parent’s garage in suburban Sydney. I’d spend a lot of time just messing about on that, picking out melodies from TV show themes I’d heard on my chubby little fingers… I went on to have formal piano lessons – I was jealous of my sister who had piano lessons – I wanted in too! And it’s a rock n’ roll cliché, but I then taught myself how to sing and play guitar and formed bands as a teenager. And I started writing a lot, I found I had a lot to talk about. And it’s just been a matter of shaping it over the years, getting closer to what I want it to sound like. I find it impossible to listen to my early recordings and not get incredibly embarrassed. It’s like looking at your naked baby photos. With your girlfriend. As they’re projected onto a giant public billboard.

YOU’VE “TRAVELLED THE WORLD IN SEARCH OF A MUSE”… WHAT DID YOU SEE ALONG THE WAY?
I’ve spent most of my adult life travelling and playing in clubs, festivals, dive bars and the forgotten discotheques of Europe. I tour a hell of a lot. I even played a stint in a casino in the Caribbean years ago where I ended up getting car-jacked – and survived by the flip of a coin. That was interesting… You get a new take on the value of your life… I feel that I can hopefully see the world from different views – you know, take a deep breath and spin the world around and then look at it from someone else’s eyes… I’ve met some pretty amazing people along the way… I guess these experiences have all fed into my lyrics, music, the overall atmospheres and textures. I’ve written everywhere I’ve gone: on notebooks, at the piano and guitar, in dive bars, beaches, flights…

… AND YOU’VE SETTLED IN LONDON. WHAT IS IT ABOUT THE PLACE?
I first came to London a long time ago, when I probably wasn’t quite ready for it. It’s a tough city. You need to be dynamic, quick to move and you need to work hard to get heard. But it has a heart too. And it’s a global city, I love that it’s full of different cultures and their food and music. Most importantly there is a great music scene here in London, so many good bands are coming up at the moment.

YOU’VE DESCRIBED YOUR LIVE SHOW AS “AN AUTHENTIC MUSICAL EXPERIENCE THAT STRADDLES THE SPIRITUAL AND THE PROFANE”…
I don’t prescribe to any organised religion, but I am a spiritual man. We are all connected, that’s a simple fact. And I think our short existence here on this planet begs us to make some kind of difference or statement. I try to do it through music and art. So I end up talking a lot on stage and trying very hard to make that statement, even if it’s in a small way. But, I don’t want to take myself too seriously of course, it’s great to just have a laugh sometimes. Maybe that’s the profane bit.

YOU’VE ACTUALLY RELEASED THREE ALBUMS IN AUSTRALIA…
Yes, I have: MYSTERY MORNING, SOUVERNIRS and CITY HEART. I like to write. A lot. But I have only been building up a bigger presence in the UK and Europe over the last few years and this feels like the right time for THE GOLDEN AGE.

… THE GOLDEN AGE… YOUR UK DEBUT…
I wrote and recorded a lot of it in Sydney, but the experiences that went into the songs stem from years of travelling. David Skeet (the producer) and I were consciously creating a piece of pop-art. I wanted every song to reflect a certain mood and be quite stylised: like a dusty photo album of ten beautiful images. You can hear some 1960s Britpop in there, there’s a nod to 1970s disco etc… Simultaneously, I wanted it to be MY statement and not seem like an exercise in nostalgia, the songs are very personal. We recorded a lot of it at Skeet Music in Sydney a couple of years ago with a great band featuring Jeff Doukakis on drums and Nick Weaver on Bass guitar. Nick is the bass player with Deep Sea Arcade and he’s now based in London too. I worked really hard on the vocals and tried to get a focused emotion with each song. Since those recordings, I picked up some more tunes, and recorded those with two members of my current band Geno Carrapetta on Drums and Paul Housden on Bass Guitar. We recorded MATCHSTICK GIRL quite recently in London and David mixed the song back in Sydney. It’s a very contemporary album in that way – it’s border-less. This album has seen some mileage…

WHAT ARE YOUR EXPECTATIONS FOR IT?
Naturally an OBE and MBE and a fleet of Rolls Royces… All right then, about a free ticket on the 38 bus and a couple of ‘likes’ on Facebook? Look, I think an artist has two goals: make a record which they are really proud of and then have it heard by as many people as possible and I’ve achieved that first part at least.

YOUR SINGLES HAVE BEEN PICKED UP BY RADIO, SO THAT’S A GOOD START ON THE SECOND PART…
BOHEMIAN, I WILL DELIVER and ONLY ONE STILL DANCING have all had spins on BBC 6, XFM, and Radio 2… I’ve played The Great Escape, Hop Farm, and Cornbury Festival… It’s great to get out there. I feel like I’m making a (very small) mark…