Sydney's Andy Bull has spent much of 2011 and 2010 touring around in support of some the country's best musicians. His latest record, The Phantom Pains EP has done incredibly well since its release last year and through the next month or so, Andy will be finally heading out on his own run of headline shows to promote it even more. I spoke with Andy this morning about how things have been in the lead up to The Phantom Pains Tour.

Hey Andy, thanks so much for chatting with me this morning.

It’s a pleasure!

You must be keening up for The Phantom Pains tour – after being part of so many tours over the past year or so with other talented artists, it must be exciting to be able to get out and show off your own full headline shows.

Yeah, it’s something we’ve been talking about for awhile. The support touring’s been really good and the shows have been really good, as I know you’ve been to! It’s kind of just led to this point, where now, the next step is to do our own shows.

But when we released the EP a year ago, we didn’t really get any press or anything like that, we didn’t have much fanfare when it was released. We just put it out and started doing support shows and little pieces here and there; it was the only way we really promoted it. I guess the main way we promoted the EP was just through touring, just playing and that is why, a year later, where it’s now time for a headline tour. It’s just slowly built to this point.

The Phantom Pains EP has been out for awhile now and for an EP it’s garnered an incredible following. It hasn’t just been about the collaborations on it or the way the songs sound, it’s also been about how good the song-writing is on the record, I feel and have heard.

Thank you, that’s very comforting to know!

Anyone who’s seen you live would have heard some of the stories behind some of the tracks, but as a song-writer, do you ever envision how they’re going to affect the audience – because songs like “Dog” and “My Street” for instance, are incredibly relatable.

It’s a funny thing because to begin with, when you write the songs, you have to write based on whatever inspiration you get. So whatever comes to you, you’ve kind of got to give it a go. But somewhere along the line, you have to edit what you do and you have to choose what you’re going to record and you’ve got to choose what’s worth finishing, because it takes a lot of time and a lot of energy to finish the song. So you have to choose wisely, in a way, where you’re going to put your energy.

Generally, because, you make music for yourself of course, for your own heart and your own expression, but also if you’re putting music out then I think the expectation is, you’re making music for other people as well. That’s why you released it. You can write songs to yourself in your bedroom, and that can be a really valuable form of expression, or you can write poetry for yourself or something.

As soon as you package it and promote it and you put it out and play it for other people, at that point, you’re not just making it for yourself, but for other people. So along the line, with choosing what you’re going to record and what you’re going to finish comes in to consideration of what do other people relate to or how accessible is this thing. Is this thing that I’m writing about self indulgent? Is it something that other people can relate to?

Generally, if you’re writing about something that affects you, emotionally, you’re representing a group of the population who have had a similar experience. So if you’re writing honestly, theoretically, other people will be able to relate to that anyway.

In this case, for the EP, I thought about how people were going to relate to the material, especially in the case of ‘Dog’ and things like that. It was risky in a way, I didn’t know it was going to go down. I didn’t know if people were going to think I was trivialising issues or exploiting them or if I was baring too much… It is a consideration and the only reference point you have to contextualise all those questions is: how do I feel about this and do I feel like I’ve articulated myself well?

You’ve got to be as subjective as possible. You’ve got to go “I’m just bullshitting” or “I’m not saying this well enough” or “I’ve said this well and therefore I’m prepared to stand by it”. Because that’s what happens, when those things are public, there’s potentially an amount of scrutiny. So you have to believe in what you do well enough so you can stand by it.

The first time I saw you perform, it was just you and Alex [Bennison] and then when I saw you on the Hungry Kids of Hungary tour, you had Dave [Jenkins] with you too. Is it just you guys touring as a band for this run of dates or can we expect any more musicians to be joining you?

It’s just going to be the three of us at this stage and I’m happy for that because I love those guys and we have a very good friendship and we really enjoy playing together as well. I think we’ve got a really good balance in the band, so I think it’s good to tour this way. Also, on a practical level, I can’t get anybody else to come up! We’re more like a trio!

How has touring with so many other artists over the past year or so helped you form the way you wanted to do your own tour?

You kind of see how everybody else does it. I mean, each tour has been different. The difference between the Lisa Mitchell tour and the Hungry Kids of Hungary tour is vast in terms of being actually onstage. You kind of see how everyone manages the crowd. You do get ideas of what works with stuff but more than that… I mean, I don’t see myself as doing quite the same sort of thing as Hungry Kids or quite the same as Lisa Mitchell. Instead of taking ideas, what you do, is get a sense that everyone does it their own way and therefore I should have the confidence to do it my own way.

In music, you can fall into the trap of wanting to conform to the fashion or to the style. Other bands will do something and everyone’s looking over their shoulders being like “Oh watch that, should I do what they’re doing?”. That’s not really cool. I think what the essence of coolness is, is to just be natural, just to do what you do as well as you can, without apologising. I think that’s what all those bands do, they do a pretty good job of being themselves and that’s the thing to take from it. Just to go “Well I am discovering what I am and what I can do as naturally as possible”.

I remember, the last time I saw you perform, you gave some new material a run with the audience. How’s the production process going with those new songs?

We’ve recorded a couple of new ones and we’ve written a couple of new ones as a band as well. Writing as a band has been exciting and some new things have come out of that. So we’ll be playing a couple of those ones as well. I actually feel really excited about the new stuff, the next step, because it’s something I’ve worked on with the band and we’ve started recording it and it’s coming across really well recorded as well.

Obviously, a consideration is that you don’t want to take too much of a side step from the previously thing. Like, you don’t want make new music that proverbially throws the finger up at The Phantom Pains EP because that would alienate people, so there’s that consideration as well. So the challenge is making the link between the old stuff and the new stuff. But the thing is, when we play the new stuff live, I see smiling faces and nodding heads in the audience, so if that’s anything to go by, I think we’re on the right track.

I see you’re also on some pretty impressive festival lineups including Big Sound. That’s the one popping out the most to me because the line up is filled with so much talent this year. You must be pretty excited to be getting amongst those festivals.

Yeah definitely, festivals are great. They’re work but they feel like a holiday as well because everybody’s cruising round and just hanging out, going to the next show. Everyone wants to get on festival things and we’ve had a few more things offered to us as a band, which we’re going to accept. To be a part of that, amongst all those great names as you said, is very exciting. I mean, you’re a music fan as well, so to go to festivals and see all those acts, that’s very cool for me too.

I guess when you get to share stages with some of these acts and still get to experience the festival as a fan; it’s just an extra bonus!

Totally. One of the cool things about being a musician as well, when there are other bands that you really like, you’ve kind of got an ‘in’ with them because you’ve performed on the same thing! You can say “Great show man!” and then they’ll be like “Oh yeah, I liked your set too!” You’re a fanboy but you’re also an artist, so you’re so excited to be talking to these guys but at the same time you’re kind of equal footing, which such a cool feeling.

The appeal of the Andy Bull live show hasn’t worn off, I know heaps of people who, like me, have seen you a few times before and are still coming back for more.

That is very encouraging. The day you don’t show up, Sose, I’ll be very concerned. [laughs]

You come across as, I guess, quietly confident without being too cocky onstage – do you still experience those nerves of performing to, now larger crowds these days?

It’s funny, the crowd size doesn’t seem to have an effect. I’ll tell you what; I get more nervous in small town crowds… In big cities I feel pretty at home, but in small towns, because I’ve got the high voice and whatever and I dress probably like I’m from the city, that can sometimes arouse a little bit of hostility. It’s much less than it used to be. Now there’s a little more of a profile, it’s easier.

But when I first started, I had longer hair as well, I used to get called ‘faggot’ and all that stuff all the time, it was really aggressive and it used to make me really nervous. Because you don’t know how serious it is, whether they’re just taunting you or whether they’re going to stop you in the parking lot or something like that. So it’s very hard, when that’s going on, to then step on stage and be quietly confident. Because, to be honest, you don’t know where you stand; smaller towns where there is that sort of vibe, it can be quite difficult.

But I suppose, on your own tour, people aren’t going to come unless they want to see the music. I don’t tend to get too nervous unless I haven’t played for awhile or in this case, it’s my own show and I’m worried about whether people are going to show up or not! So I’ll probably be a little bit more nervous on this tour because all the pressure’s on me. The Hungry Kids tour was just no nerves, because I couldn’t lose. We’d just get up, regardless of who was there, we knew where we stood. Aside from one or two moments in some of the small towns, it was all good. So hopefully there won’t be too many nerves, just more excitement for this one!