What’s in a name, eh? Busby Marou might seem like a curious title for a band, but the inspiration behind it is rather straightforward. See, it’s derived from the surnames of the Queensland duo’s two constituents, vocalist Tom Busby and guitarist Jeremy Marou. However, aside from the name’s linear origins, it brings attention to the way the band functions.
“I’m the country-slash-blues, John-Mayer-wannabe type person,” says Marou, “and Tom wants to be more of a Neil Finn, Paul Kelly singer-songwriter type person. [One day] we both just went, ‘Stop arguing. It should be like this.’ He does it his way, I do it my way.”
The pair’s separate personalities combine to produce music that not only encompasses folk, country, pop and blues, it tends to grow with listeners over an extended period. Busby Marou’s two full-length releases – 2011’s self-titled effort and last year’s Farewell Fitzroy – revolve around acoustic instrumentation and delightful vocal harmonies that convey a calming immediacy. The sound gains definition courtesy of Busby’s imagistic storytelling and Marou’s virtuosic guitar fiddling.
“Tom’s lyrics, people can determine them in a thousand different ways. I think that really gets people. What the songs are about, the harmonies, and I think my style of guitar playing is a little odd as well – put them together and it will play on people’s minds.”
Despite the music’s relaxed disposition, the band can’t escape the business side of the music industry. Busby Marou are signed to a major label, Warner, and while on the one hand, it’s thanks to this that they travelled to Nashville to record Farewell Fitzroy with producer Brad Jones and have toured with the likes of k.d. lang and James Blunt, there’s also a commercial criterion to satisfy, which applies heat during the album-making procedure.
“We’re signed to Warner Music, so we’re obviously thinking if these songs are going to impact people straight away – are they going to like it, are they going to buy tickets, will this get airplay? You’ve got all of this in the back of your head.”
While these are distracting considerations, Marou can’t deny the luxuries afforded by the major label budget. But he also knows how fickle the industry can be.
“Working on new music now, we go into the studio to write a hit song,” he says. “At the end of the day, if you’re not getting radio airplay or you’re not on TV, people aren’t going to buy tickets to your shows.
“With the first album we had a lifetime to write those songs. When it came to Farewell Fitzroy we went, ‘OK, we’ve got to put 12 or 13 songs together. The label’s got to be happy with it; if it doesn’t sell we lose our contract, in a fortnight’s time we’re sitting back in an office.’”
Anyone’s who’s heard Farewell Fitzroy can confirm that the bureaucratic burdens haven’t marred the tunes with tacky radio gimmicks. The record came out last October and the band’s endearing warmth – responsible for securing the major label deal in the first place – stands strong. The commercial imperative mightn’t completely dissipate, but when they’re in the creative zone, external pressure takes a back seat.
“When the song first comes into your mind it’s important not to be thinking about whether it’s going to sell or not,” says Marou. “When you’re recording the song, producing the song, that’s when you start to think about, ‘OK, for radio this needs to be between three and three-minutes-30-seconds, so let’s cut this part out.’ But when you’re actually sitting down with a tune you don’t have a care in the world about what it sounds like.”
Right now Busby Marou are on a national headline tour in support of Farewell Fitzroy’s third single,‘My Second Mistake’. In contrast to the strains of the studio, the stage is a completely concern-free environment. The two leading men are joined by a bass player and drummer onstage, and Marou says that’s where they truly thrive.
“Live for us is easy. If people start to say, ‘Your album’s better than your live performance,’ then we’d start to work on it, but we’ve never had that feedback and hopefully we never get [it]. Our live performance should always be a lot better than what our album is. I think last year we did twice as many shows as most touring bands would do. That’s pretty much how you get it right.”
What allows Busby Marou to have such an expansive touring itinerary? First of all, hailing from Rockhampton in central Queensland, they’ve always been eager to play shows off the beaten track. Also, the band’s inherent stylistic conflation makes them a good fit for a variety of major festivals. “We’re lucky in the sense that we can play at CMC Rocks The Hunter and Blues and Roots Byron Bay, Splendour and Woodford Folk Festival. We’re one of the very few bands that actually can play at all of those.”
Even after doing so many gigs, the band is far from blasé about performing. Marou explains that embracing the singularity of each gig makes playing live a thrilling event, night after night.
“Nine times out of ten we’ll never stick to a setlist. People are yelling out songs, we’ll do them, we’ll try out songs that we’ve never done before, we’ll throw in new stuff. It’s always fun.”
Farewell Fitzroy out now through Warner. Catch Busby Marou withDarren Middleton and Karl S. Williams at theMona Vale Hotel on Saturday August 16 (tickets here),Collector Hotel, Parramatta on Thursday August 21 (tickets here) and atThe Basement onSaturday August 23 (tickets here).Also appearing at the Cambridge Hotel, Newcastle on Friday August 22 (tickets here).
