The Gin Club - Pirates of the red desert

In 2003 a conglomerate of musicians from several prominent Brisbane bands took to the stage with an accordion, cello, piano, harmonica, saxophone, acoustic and electric guitars and drums. Known then as the Digital Void, ancient lore has it that one night, on hearing the band’s unique blend of country, traditional folk and the odd sea shanty, the barkeeper at a favoured Brisbane haunt, the Troubadour, declared the Digital Void a misnomer; he had a better name in mind. It was deemed thus, and so began their journey … the Gin Club.

Two years have since passed and recently, having completed a swag of national tours (“Yes, it seems that all of Australia has fallen in love with the Club and their zany antics”) and with three releases under their belt, the Gin Club set sail for Canadian shores. Ben Salter explains, “We were invited to Canadian Music Week in Toronto, so we decided to accept, which basically meant sinking ourselves further into debt but hey - we got the life.” Ah! the romanticism. Toronto aside, the Canadian jaunt also saw the band tour through Ottawa, Montreal and Quebec, and Salter concedes “the shows went pretty well.”

It seems a fitting start to the somewhat newish year after a prosperous 2005, which saw the Gin Club share the stage with an extensive list of national and international acts alike. Fear of the Sea, their second long player, was released to much acclaim with the song ‘Drug Flowers’ receiving high rotation on Triple J, and to cap it all off nicely, a national tour with fellow convicts Tim Rogers and the Temperance Union.

“It was fantastic,” Salter says of the tour. “[Tim] is a gentleman and a scholar, as are all of the Temperance Union and You Am I. Except for Shane O'Mara, he's an animal.”

With so many classic images of the ‘difficult rock star’ and talk of ‘creative differences’, you have to wonder how a band with a cast of thousands, enjoying a modest level of success, keeps egos in check, personalities from clashing and camaraderie prevalent. Salter, however, isn’t giving away any secrets.

“We manage. We try not to piss on one another as much as possible. One day at a time, sweet Jesus. That's all we're asking from him.”

Even if the band can seemingly balance the personal traits of the members, surely the individual musical opinions would come to a head from time to time?

“I basically yell at everyone until we reach some kind of consensus – mine,” Salter jokes, “seriously though, we don't give it as much thought as people would like to think. When you make music as naff and down-home as we do it's better not to think about it. Playing music is fun. There's not much more to it than that.”

Regarding the instrumentation and deciding who’s going to play what, Salter admits the decision comes down to “pretty much whoever decides to learn [the songs] first on whatever instrument. Obviously some of us can't play certain instruments and so that dictates who plays what to a large degree.”

When it comes to recording – in keeping with the fraternisation that is affiliated with any club – the Gin Club have, so far, handled the duties themselves.

“Scott (Regan) produced the first album almost single-handedly but the second one was more of a group effort. Scott has studied production at QUT and done a bit of work for a number of bands so he knows his way around a studio pretty well. He doesn't charge anything either, so he's kind of within our budget,” Salter says.

The esprit de corps associated with the Gin Club is especially evident at their live shows: the hugs, the sharing of cigarettes and drinks, the singalongs, the fun. Yet amongst the backdrop of drunkenness and conviviality, the swift and seamless instrument changes between songs (which sometimes see band members leave then return to the stage) are quite disciplined.

“You must have seen a show that I can't remember!” Salter confesses. “Our transitions are more regularly described as ‘shambolic’. And you're the first person to ever describe us as 'disciplined'. We are certainly very conscious of it as it tends to cut into our playing time quite a bit,” he says.

And just when you think the Gin Club line-up couldn’t be denser they bring in a new recruit.

“Yes, Dan (Mansfield) on keys is the newest Gin Club member – he's also in a local band called Lunar Kin. He basically just wrote and said he knew all our songs and could he come and play – which demonstrated excellent balls, we all thought – so without as much as a practise or rehearsal he turned up at the fundraiser and wowed ‘em all. So he's coming down to Melbourne with us.”

2006 already looks like it will measure up to the success of the previous year for the Gin Club. “Well, we've already been to Canada which was great, and we're off to Melbourne to play a whole bunch of shows down there. I think we're gonna record a new album pretty soon as well.”

'The Gin Club', 'Drugflowers + Gabriel' and 'Fear of the Sea' are available now through Plus 1 Records and distributed through Reverberation.

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