At first glance, Tinpan Orange’s decision to name their new albumLove Is A Dog– a reference to the dark Charles Bukowski bookLove Is A Dog From Hell– begs to be interpreted as cynical. But lead singer Emily Lubitz sees things differently.
“It creates an ambiguity,” she says. “It depends on how you see dogs! Some people see them as their best mate – dogs are loyal and courageous, and they save you when you’re drowning. And also dogs are wild, and untameable, some of them are greedy and mean – so it kind of encompasses the spectrum of love.”
Lubitz writes about love as most songwriters do; however, this album breaks down the facets of love one can have for different people – for a romantic lover, a lost love, a friend or children. What’s more, she wrote the record with help from her husband, Harry James Angus (The Cat Empire), and her brother Jesse, who’s also part of the band. One of the album’s most attention-grabbing songs is its opening track ‘Rich Man’, inspired by a Gatsby-esque marriage that is wealthy and lavish. The song is a word of warning about what lies beneath the exterior of a relationship, and this is shown quite literally in the music video, where Lubitz is stripped completely of her jewels and fine garments.
“I think that I owe it to Harry probably,” she explains. “He has a beautiful sense of melody and he wrote the part of the song where I sing in a falsetto kind of head voice, which I’d never done before. So thanks to this song I discovered another part of my voice that I’ve never used.”
Tinpan Orange have been playing gigs and writing music together for ten years, adapting and changing their sound as they’ve grown together. What started off as a passion project while working in cafés and studying at uni turned into a career; the “train that [they’re] on”, as Lubitz puts it. The development of their sound, with help from Angus, has been a major feature of the path to where they are now.
“Harry has been very instrumental in the journey of our sound,” says Lubitz. “Our third album, he produced it himself. And then our last album he was also very heavily involved in, and then this one he co-produced. He’s kind of like our musical director – he really helps us with vocal arrangements, string arrangements.”
And by the sounds of it, Angus’ and Lubitz’s musical talents will run in the family, with their two children being exposed to the craft from a young age.
“Look, they’re no Mozarts. They’re connected to music and we have a little drum kit in the house. We kind of regret buying that now! Surely we should have bought something not as loud,” Lubitz jokes. “But we try and have it just in their world, so that they can access music when they want to and when they need to.”
Tinpan Orange have also worked with another member of The Cat Empire – keyboardist Ollie McGill – but this came earlier in their career. So when McGill invited Lubitz to record an acoustic session for a train commercial in 2012, she didn’t expect quite the response it got. The song for Metro Trains in Melbourne called ‘Dumb Ways To Die’ began racking up a couple of million views a day, and now has over 120 million views on YouTube. The cute cartoon, combined with Lubitz’s folky vocals cautioning against silly behaviour around train tracks, was a viral hit.
Though Lubitz hasn’t offered her vocals to any advertisements since, she says the project did open up a lot of opportunity for Tinpan Orange. One of their songs got picked up by an ad agency in Chicago who had heard of them through the commercial, securing them a significant fee that allowed them to keep recording and touring. And they have no intention of stopping anytime soon.
“We just played Woodford [Folk Festival] this summer and we’ve played it quite a few times – ten years!” Lubitz says. “It’s such an amazing festival – the crowd are so with you. They’re the most supportive crowd.”
The Melburnian folksters are always looking to expand their horizons. They were in discussions to play a festival in Africa until it fell through, but that continent holds particular interest for them and could be their next overseas stop. In the meantime, they’ll continue playing the Australian venues they love best. Touring Love Is A Dog, they will hit Sydney next week for a show at The Vanguard. They’re now performing as a trio, where in the past they have often played as a five-piece band, and Lubitz confirms the live versions of songs from the new album will sound quite different to the recordings.
“We’ve had to reinvent a few of the songs because a lot of the songs that were recorded were for drums and bass and maybe even keys,” she says. “But I feel like we’ve really done them justice.”
Tinpan Orange‘sLove Is A Dog is out now through Vitamin; and they perform Friday May 20 atThe Vanguard, with Jim Lawrie.
