Jack Carty

Already 2011 has seen Sydney musician Jack Carty tour in North America and perform at Canadian Music Fest and SXSW. Despite having landed back in Australia just a day earlier, Jack was gracious enough to sit down with me to talk about his debut album One Thousand Origami Birds.

Above all it is Carty's lyrics that are most compelling. As he carefully sketches character and setting, each song lends itself to being a captured moment in time.

“I put quite a bit of thought into my lyrics... that’s what grows on me about songs mostly. I can like a melody the moment I hear it but quite often if the lyrics are dense I take a lot of joy in unpacking the meaning.”

It is this approach to songwriting that lends a timeless nature to One Thousand Origami Birds. Needless to say Carty is always looking back to the artists he admires, some of these which were played by his parents back in his family home of Bellingen,

“I was listening to the Beatles, Pink Floyd and Men at Work really great bands that I still listen to.”

In twenty years time people will be able to listen and appreciate Carty's music in much the same way. When I voiced this to Carty he was quietly pleased,

“That was something I was consciously aiming at doing. I put thought into the whole thing... I’d like there to be enough in these songs that you can listen to them over and over again and get something out of them every time.”

Whilst each song works as a separate entity, each seamlessly compliments the next allowing One Thousand Origami Birds to be a cohesive record.

“It was more about the shape of the album. We had an idea in mind that we wanted to follow for the album and I feel that it has a narrative that runs through the whole thing, and an arc in terms of the light and shade that’s happening.”

In saying this, Carty likes to keep things interesting - something reflected in the way that the album was recorded,

"I like to keep things a little messy, not necessarily too produced. I think it’s got a real energy to it. I think if sometimes a recordings too produced it just sounds flat.”

It's obvious that Carty  feels priveleged to have worked with a host of artists during production from the likes of Leroy Lee, Elana Stone, William Hewer and Kramer Shimmy (Ween etc.)

“Just making the record was an amazing experience just working with all these people…I was so lucky to have these people play on the record, everyone of these people who played is mind-blowingly good at what they do.”

With the release of One Thousand Origami Birds and plans for an Australian tour, we can expect to hear a lot more from Carty in the near future.

"I’m really proud of every single moment on there and I worked really hard to make it that way. The amount of work that goes into an album is so much bigger than the time it takes to record the songs. But now that it’s out I feel like it’s only just the beginning.”

Get your hands on One Thousand Origami Birds from Itunes or any reliable music store. Follow Jack on facebook, twitter and myspace.