Raised By Eagles is one of Melbourne’s most prolific alt-country, Americana bands. The band consists of Luke Sinclair (vocals/guitar/harmonica), Johnny Gibson (drums), Nick O’Mara (lead guitars) and Luke Richardson (all things bass). Their 2013 debut self-titled EP sprung them onto the country music scene. Since then they have been working on that sound, and have pulled together for an absolutely stunning follow-up album this year. Diamonds in the Bloodstream is one of the best country music albums in recent years, and it has such a cemented and developed style, it’s hard to believe that it’s only their second album.
They have a talent for storytelling and absolutely poetic lyrics which make you feel like your girlfriend has just broken up with you, then taken you back in the very next song. The album is an emotional drive down the gravel roads of Victoria which reflects the eventful year the boys have had, with a tour in Nashville and nominations for several major music awards as well as an upcoming spot at AWME (Australasian Worldwide Music Expo). We caught up with Luke Sinclair to chat about where the band is going next, and their love for country music.
Your new album Diamonds in the Bloodstream is just fantastic, I’m really loving it. Not that the first one was bad, but this is just a step up.
We think it is as well. Working with Roger Bergodaz helps as well. He’s a great engineer and we had the songs all ready to go. We had been playing them for quite a while before we went into record, so it was really quick and easy and was done in five days.
I think it was the first four songs that I had heard before.
You know we have been playing those songs for so long, I feel the album was probably written as we were recording the first one. So it had none of that element of the difficult second album syndrome at all, it was probably easier and quicker than the first one. The next one will probably have bit more space between recording. I mean we have been trying to write, but we have been so busy I haven’t really had a lot of time. Which is not something I’m used to, I usually have all the time in the world.
I guess all your focus is on touring – I know you guys have just gotten back from Nashville.
You know you hear a lot about that town, so you have a few preconceived ideas before you go there. But it’s all true, it’s like magic, you can really feel it when you get over there, too. It’s a really inspirational place to be musically. We got a little place in East Nashville and hired some gear and we rehearsed there. And we rehearsed better than we have rehearsed in our life.
Must be that Nashville air.
Yeah, the Nashville air, (laughs) it’s crept into all of us and we were just immersed in music; going out and seeing music, playing our own music and hanging out with musicians, it was really just an incredible time. We had great shows and we saw a lot of great shows, it was a really magic time. I want to do it once a year. (laughs) But it’s going to take us a year to recover from it financially.
It looked like there were a few other Aussies over there?
Yeah, there were a few – Sounds Australia do an amazing job of putting on shows on for Australia acts that go over. We had this like mini-Melbourne scene going on, which was really cool, and everybody stood up and held their own, it wasn’t like we were new kids on the block or anything. It was really great to see us mixed in with American acts … being just as impressive, it was really something.
That was going to be my next question, did the Americans just love it? Your music is pretty translatable.
If you’ve only ever played to an Australian audience you just don’t know how it’s going to be received on the other side of the world. And to have it received well, really kind of validates what you’re trying to do, which is reach people, and that’s what you try to do when you write anything really, whether it be poetry or music or whatever, you just want to reach somebody and to know that it’s capable of doing that and to have that sort of proof, is a really, really good feeling.
You must be feeling pretty good – your music has been well received all over. You’ve got a few nominations recently.
Yeah we got lucky this year, we are really excited about all that. We went to the AIR awards (Australian Independent Record Label Association Awards) which was just an amazing event. We were nominated for Best Independent Country Artist, which Frank Yamma ended up winning – we were very happy to be in that kind of company. We’ve also got The Age Music Victoria to go to soon and we scored a nomination for Best Country Album and Best Emerging Act, which was a real surprise, you know, I’ve been in the business for ten years bro, I’ve been a long time emerging (laughs), so it feels good to have finally broken the surface.
I was going to say that Diamonds in the Bloodstream is not really an emerging album.
Yeah, it’s interesting you should say that. We’ve all been in bands for so long, we’ve all been playing around Melbourne for so long and we feel kind of well established. But at the same time, [the nomination] is a really appreciated nod from the industry to us … it’s kind of rare for someone from our genre to be nominated in that category … it’s quite a niche genre, the Americana/alt country genre. It’s just not as predictable as being nominated in the category of best country album. Which is awesome as well.
I’ve always wondered how Melbourne bands (or city bands generally) have found their way into country music.
I am from a little town called Beechworth in northeast Victoria and I moved down to Melbourne as soon as I could – when you grow up in small towns, you can’t wait to get out of them. Especially if you’re artistically minded and chasing a more creative lifestyle. My drummer, Johnny Gibson, is from Tasmania, and Nick and Luke are both Melbourne boys. But we all grew up listening to country music as well – it’s the age old story of our parents’ record collection. I’ve been through every [music] phase there is – I was DJing for years, I was right into hip hop for years. But every time I picked up my guitar or wrote a song, it was always influenced by country music.
I sort of had the kind of opposite story. I basically grew up with only hip hop then I moved to small town America, and that was all you could listen to, country music, nobody played anything else.
It’s usually not that way round with country music, because kids don’t really listen to it – it always feels like music for grownups when you’re a kid. And you kind of come around to it later in life, but it’s cool that it’s starting to have that pull now. I never really got into country music until I heard, I guess what you would call alt-country, Steve Earle and John Prine and all those artists that I wasn’t aware of before, I had just been listening to traditional country music and commercial country music through my parents. Then I had a mate in high school and his older brother had this tape collection that just had these incredible, really gritty sounds – of Tom Petty and Steve Earle, John Prine – and it just blew my mind, it just had this whole new heart and grit to it, that I had never heard before. That’s what I fell in love with and that’s what I am still in love with now, and that where we write from.
The poetry of country music always inspires me.
Yeah exactly, and I feel like probably because you were into hip hop you were probably drawn to it as well. I know I was, because good hip hop is amazing poetry as well and it’s incredible story telling. It’s one of those other genres that is really made for story telling and good writing. I feel country music does that as well and they are really linked that way.
I couldn’t agree more – it’s just a weird thing, as they are such drastically different genres.
Yeah, I know. People are always surprised when I say I used to be into hip hop and it was all I used to listen to, and now I’m into country music it’s a massive leap, but it’s really not. If you’re talking about the poetry, the writing and the stories then it’s not, it’s the same thing, it’s just a different sound behind it.
Maybe it’s like you said, country music is the adult music.
(laughs) Well yeah maybe. I think in the past definitely, but it’s all in the melting pot now, everything’s crossing over, it’s a real state of flux, and look I won’t get started on that now. I’ll just say the music industry is a strange and beautiful place.
Strange it might be, but the Australian music scene is certainly more beautiful with Raised By Eagles. Be sure to check out the rest of Diamonds in the Bloodstream and their debut album Raised By Eagles. If you haven’t managed to catch them live yet, they still have a few shows to round out the year and you can catch them at:
AWME presents
Friday, November 13 Max Watts (ex HiFi Bar), 25 Swanston St, Melbourne, VIC
Raised By Eagles will showcase with Henry Wagons, Cash Savage & the Last Drinks, and Ruby Boots.
MULLUM MUSIC FESTIVAL
Thursday, November 19 Mullum Music Festival, Mullumbimby, NSW
Mullum Music Festival Nov 19-22
QUEENSCLIFF MUSIC FESTIVAL
Friday, November 27 Queenscliff Music Festival, Queenscliff, VIC
Queenscliff Music Festival Nov 27-28-29