Project Description

Interview with 

SHAUN KIRK 

Interviewer: Jemma Bird

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Hi Shaun, how are you?

S: I’m good thank you, how are you?

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I am good thank you. Firstly, I just wanted to get into your musical background a little bit. Was there a specific time or event that you could pin point when you decided that music was something that you wanted to make a career out of?

S: I first picked up a guitar when I was 16. I was a bit of a troubled teenager and my mum left it in the corner of my bedroom one day hoping that it would change things and it kind of did. I picked it up one day and learnt Deep Purple’s ‘Smoke on the Water’ and then found myself on stage at an open mic night in the outskirts of Melbourne after one too many drinks that gave me a bit of Dutch courage. Everyone clapped and came up to me afterwards and told me that they loved it, and from that point forward I knew that music was something that I wanted to do for the rest of my life.

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That’s really cool. Are there any particular artists have looked up to or drawn inspiration from when creating your own music?

S: Yeah, it’s never ending. I’m always looking for new artists and old artists as well as things outside of music to inspire me. The key artists that come to mind at the moment are Dan Auerbach from the Black Keys as well as Alabama Shakes, R L Burnside and Junior Kimbrough. Going back to when I was younger I was really influenced by Bob Dylan, Bruce Springsteen.

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Do you think the inspirations of these artists reflective of your music?

S: Yeah absolutely. I was actually talking about this yesterday in another interview about inspirations from way back when I was 7 years old and hadn’t even comprehended the possibility of playing music for a living. I used to dress up in a baseball jacket and impersonate Michael Jackson. Then shortly after that I really got into Silver Chair, Dr. Dre and Eminem. So I think all of these artists in combination probably explains where I am currently at musically.

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You’ve recently released ‘Howlin in the Moon’ – which is your first release in 3 years. I understand it’s about a struggle you had career wise. Tell me a little bit more about how this song came about.

S: This song has been in the works for about two years. I remember I was sitting on the couch at my mum’s house on Christmas Day and I just started playing this little riff. My mum and sister turned to me and said “what’s that?” and as soon as someone says that I know that I am onto something good. Going back to the struggle, my last record ‘Steer the Wheel’ was about to get signed to a label over in LA, the deal was as good as done and we got an email from the CEO that he had to postpone signing my contract due to his own health issues and that was really the last time we ever had any contact from him. It became apparent that it wasn’t going to happen and it really messed with my head. Nothing like this had ever happened to me before career wise and it took me a couple of years to get my head around it but I’m good now and excited to be releasing new music again. It was a blessing in disguise.

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This song was co-written by Joel Quartermain off Eskimo Joe. How did you find that writing process?

S: Really cool. I’ve been experimenting a bit and co-writing with different artists and producers over the last couple of years and working with Joel is really full on. He works so fast and it’s actually freakish how quickly he comes up with idea’s and get’s you to put them down. It was a really good eye opener to see how efficient he can be. I’m more of a take my time and make sure it feels right kind of guy, so working with Joel was an amazing experience.

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Do you think you will you continue to work together in the future?

S: I certainly hope so, he’s a really lovely guy and so passionate about music. I really enjoyed the session that I did with Joel. So I’m hoping to do some more work with him in the future.

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Well ‘Howlin in the Moon’ turned out really well and I would love to hear another collaboration from you guys. Will there be any new music coming in the near future? Maybe another album?

S: Thank you. Yeah that’s the plan. At the moment it looks like I’ll release another single later on in the year and hopefully drop the album next year.

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You’re about to embark on a 27 date tour across Australia and New Zealand, including Blue’s on Broadbeach Festival. Is their any show you’re particularly excited for?

S: I’m excited for all of them and to get back on the road but I am excited about Blue’s on Broadbeach and a big one for me is Blue’s Festival in Byron Bay. I’ve played it 3 times before and it’s always really memorable. There’s a bunch of little venues that I’ve been doing for a while now and they’ve been selling out. So I’m excited for them as well as some new venues that I’ve never played before. I’m just stoked to be back on tour and doing what I really love which is performing to people.

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Are you still a one-man show with your guitar, harmonica and drum triggers or are you taking a band with you this time?

S: Yeah! Well we have stepped it up a little bit. I’m still doing the one-man band thing but we figured out a way to put a whole acoustic drum kit. So I won’t have the triggers anymore I’ll have an actual drum kit at my feet and we’ve figured out a way to have cables running up and triggering everything which visually looks really cool. It also emulates how I have been doing on this record. I’ve been playing all the instruments on these songs so we are trying to bring that to the stage.

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Do you take into consideration how you’re going to play your live show when recording?

S: Yeah! I probably haven’t so much in the past. We just got every great Melbourne musician under the sun to come and play on my last record but with this one I have definitely taken into consideration what I do live and what makes sense. I still treat them as two separate mediums but try to keep them in sync at the same time.

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Is taking a band on the road with you something that you eventually want to do or do you like performing solo?

S: Yeah for sure – that’s the goal, its just a matter of when. I need to build my fan base up a bit more and make it affordable. The reason I started the whole one-man band thing was a financial decision. I wanted to be a full time musician and didn’t want to have to work a part time job to pay the bills. So once it’s an affordable option, I would love to have a killer rhythm section behind me and sit up the front as a front man.

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Cool. So you now have quite an extensive list of material behind you now. Does this make it difficult to decide what makes the setlist and what doesn’t?

S: Haha yeah! It does a little bit actually. I really feel like over the last couple of years I have grown as a songwriter and as a person – so I’m really keen to play a lot of the new stuff. A lot of the older stuff feels a little bit immature to me but that’s what the people who are coming to the shows want to here, so you still have to play it. I guess that’s the life of a musician with a life long career; you create something you love and then when you put something else out two or three years later you just feel like it’s so much stronger than the last one and its kind of a never ending cycle.

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What one song would you recommend someone listen to if it was their first time listening to Shaun Kirk?

S: Definitely ‘Howlin at the Moon’.

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I would have to agree.

S: Haha yeah. It was the first time I’d really done my research about a producer that could understand me and what I wanted. I’ve had these idea’s in my head and Nick was really good at helping me translate the idea’s from my head into an MP3 format.

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I’ve just got a couple of fun questions to finish the interview off. Have you ever asked a musician or band for a photo or autograph?

S: Ahhhh. I’m sure I have. Nothing is coming to my head straight away but I have a lot of mates that are in bands and I’ve definitely asked them for photo’s haha.

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Oh cool! What was your very first or most embarrassing email address?

S: Oh! I used to be a little skater boy when I was young, so my first email address was [email protected] hahahha.

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That’s so funny, what an incredible first email address. Thank you so much for talking to me, it was lovely to speak to you and I can’t wait to catch you at one of the dates on your tour.

S: Thanks Jemma, I look forward to it.

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