PlanetMosh Keeping it Metal
Planetmosh talks to Jules from White Widdow as the band prepare for their uk tour with Ten and Serpentine.
PM:Classic Rock magazine placed your debut CD in the top ten AOR records of the year in 2010; that must have put enormous pressure on the group to follow up that success with your second album, yet you seemed to do that with ease; I felt that ‘Serenade’was better than the first. What was it like for you?
Jules:“Great, and thanks for the kind words; we were quite surprised at how well the debut was received. And, it certainly set up an expectation for the second album, but it was a challenge we were all really happy to take on. I think we all knew that we could better the first album, and I do think too that “Serenade” did that.”
PM:Can we expect more of the same for your next release? (What I mean by that statement is can we expect a continuation of the evolution of White Widdow music?) And is Pelle Saether going to be involved again? I felt he made a huge difference to your overall sound.
Jules:“Well we’ve already begun to start writing for the third album, and we are targeting it for a September 2013 release. I think it will be a natural progression from “Serenade” to the next album, in the same way it was from the debut to “Serenade”. We’ll continue in the same style and we are hoping that we can work with Pelle again, yes. He was really easy to work with and understood exactly what we were looking for when it came to the mix and the sound we wanted, so let’s hope it happens!”
PM:There seems to be an influx of Australian rock bands at the moment, Airbourne, Tracer, Wolfmother and Parkway Drive to name a few, and now White Widdow. Why do you think that is?
Jules:“Australia has always put out a lot of great music, but a lot of the time it remains on our little island, just because of how isolated we are really. Lately, I think a lot of people have started to look to Australia to see what music is actually coming out of there, and a lot of that exposure is owed to bands like Airborne and Wolfmother, who really got out there and built a fanbase in Europe…. It’s what tours like this are for. We love to tour Europe. We did a load of shows last year, and played Firefest; and this tour with Ten is the same. It’s a building block and it’s three great bands out together!”
PM:You have toured a fair bit these last couple of years, especially to Europe, so what has been your favourite country or city, and what is the best beer you have ‘sampled’?
Jules:“Ha! Ha! I do like a beer or two, it’s true! The best beer I’ve had actually was with Enzo (Guitar) when we were in Stuttgart, Germany. After we played at the Heat Festival, we went into town and sampled several local beers that were all brilliant!!”
“The UK has always been a favourite country of mine, mostly because I really like the people. However, I would have to say that my favourite country/city that we’ve toured in so far would be Athens, Greece. It’s just an amazing city with a lot of history, really great people and some of the best music fans in the world.”
PM: And finally could you tell me a funny story of life on the road?
Jules:“Well, there was that time I hit a Kangaroo in the van while driving at night….. On the way from Melbourne, to a show in Sydney. It’s not something that happens too often thankfully, but they are big enough to usually destroy your car if you hit one. Luckily, I only clipped one with the front Bull-bar otherwise it could have been a nasty accident. I don’t think we’re in any danger of hitting any Roo’s out on the road over there in the UK, with Serpentine and Ten though! See you on the road!”
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