It’s time to celebrate because Melbourne’s most loved virtuosic folk group, Tinpan Orange are today releasing their fifth studio album Love Is A Dog. Produced by the band in collaboration with Harry James Angus (The Cat Empire, Jackson Jackson) and mixed by the renowned Adam Selzer (M.Ward, She & Him, Jolie Holland), it’s the band’s most exciting effort yet.
Love Is A Dog is a complex, meticulously crafted offering from this seasoned trio. Opulent string arrangements, intricate guitar hooks and unforgettable vocal melodies from lead vocalist Emily Lubitz all dictate the dark, rambling nature of the record. In light of the fast-approaching release, Emily explains, ‘We’ve been working on this album for so long with so many great people and we are very excited to get it out into the world…we can’t wait to share these new babies with our fans on tour.’
To launch the release Tinpan Orange will also be embarking upon an extensive national album tour, kicking off with a performance at the Fairbridge Folk Festival in Western Australian on April 16, moving through Tasmania, Melbourne, Mullumbimby, Brisbane, Sydney, Darwin, Fremantle and finishing up in Adelaide on June 5.
In celebration of the release of this stunning record, the crew have peened a track by track rundown of the LP which you can check out alongside with a stream.
Rich Man
This song was co-written by Jesse, Harry and myself one hot afternoon in Ubud, Bali. We all sat around holding a guitar each, strumming and humming as ideas came to us. We had never written so collaboratively before and it was a bit nerve wracking because often your first ideas are a little cliche and so we had to have a lot of trust. The bulk of the song was written in an hour. Lyrically, this song is fiction, sort of based on a woman being with a Tom Buchanan kind of character from The Great Gatsby. It’s a cautionary tale I suppose. When we got to the studio, this song seemed to play itself. We performed it live and captured the moodiness and darkness of the song without any over thinking. I love the violin sound and performance in the song. This song also marks the beginning of me singing falsetto.
Cities of Gold
This was one of the last songs to written for the album. Sometimes I don’t know what songs are actually about until I finish them and have been playing them for a a year or so, and I still don’t quite know what this one is about. But It’s something to do with the lamentations of a mid-career folk singer, wondering where she fits in the big, wide landscape of the music biz.
Love is a Dog
This is the title track off the album and it’s one of my favourite songs to play live. It’s a simple song but the lyrics are quite visual and people seem to connect to it quite quickly. I am referencing Charles Bukowski’s poem ‘Love is a Dog From Hell’, though I have changed the sentiment a little by dropping the last two words.. I guess it’s a different vibe and depending how you view dogs, the message about love can be heard differently. I like that. I like ambiguity. And I like dogs.
Lucky One
I suppose this song is about poor rich kids. The people who feel ashamed of their privilege and want to run away from it. I like how it sounds a little bit like a Neko Case song.
Cabarita
Harry wrote this song and when he played it to me the first time, I was totally transported to another place. I love how the story is told with such strong but elusive impressions. There is a sadness about this song but you don’t know exactly why. I love the picture of a rural Australian town it paints. When he played it to me I could smell the eucalyptus and the truck exhaust.
Fools and Cowboys
This song was fun to write. I started writing this song to my two sons, when I became interested in parental advice in general. I put a post on facebook asking people what advice they were given by their parents. I was hoping for just a few responses that might inspire a lyric. 300 comments later I was laughing and crying and I had lyrical fodder to write an entire album on parental advice. I chose my favourites for this song. I loved how keen people were to share the advice their parents had given them. People shared with a lot and pride.
Diary
Harry wrote this song. He played it to me late at night while I was reading in bed. I instantly loved it (like I do with pretty much all of his songs!). We were about to do our last few days in the studio and we both new we had to squeeze in time for this one. Jesse and Harry had a lot of fun getting a really dirty distorted guitar sound and I had an exhausting but exhilarating time learning how to sing it. It really pushed my voice to challenging places but I loved it.
Hear From Me
Harry wrote most of this song while on tour in Europe. He recorded it on his phone in a hotel and sent it to me back home. Only the chorus had lyrics yet and they got stuck in my head for days. Then I wrote the lyrics to the verses. We recorded the song but somehow it didn’t scrub up too well in the studio. I was ready to throw the song out but we booked an extra day in the studio and changed it a bit, added some things, subtracted some things, gave it a face-lift and suddenly it was album worthy. I’m glad I didn’t throw it on the pile.
Light Across the Water
This was a song that needed to be written as I pulled over while driving to sing the melody into my phone to record it so I wouldn’t forget it. It was one of those songs that finds you and begs you to be written. This song is inspired by Daisy in the Great Gatsby; loved/claimed by two men, and two very different men. It’s about how the pure and certain of heart (Jay) don’t always win and the ones who can bend and sway and charm (Tom) will often come out on top.
Ordinary Lives
Jesse wrote this song and when he finally played it to us (he kept saying it wasn’t finished!), I new it was a beauty. This song is heartbreaking and hopeful. We had some fun in the studio chopping and swapping things around a little bit, but the strength of the song was there from the beginning.
Leopards
This song has been hanging around for years. We tried to put it on our last album in 2012 but it never made the cut for Over The Sun. I just couldn’t get it to shine in the studio. We have been playing it live for so long now that it came out really well in the studio this time. I wrote Leopards when I was on tour with Harry’s band in France with our 3 month old son. My dear friend, Mama Kin was supporting and we both had campervans. We had a very fun time, driving through the countryside together.
Upcoming Tour Dates
APR 17 APR I Fairbridge Folk Fest
Fairbridge WA Tickets
29 APR | THE Grand Poobah
Hobart TAS Tickets
1 MAY | Fresh On Charles
Launceston TAS Tickets
7 MAY | Toff In Town
Melbourne VIC Tickets
14 MAY | Civic Hall
Mullumbimby NSW Tickets
15 MAY | Old Museum
Brisbane QLD Tickets
20 MAY | The Vanguard
Sydney NSW Tickets
28 MAY | The Railway Club
Darwin NT Tickets
4 JUNE | Fly By Night
Fremantle WA Tickets
5 JUNE | The Wheatsheaf
Adelaide SA Time 4.30PM
