In The Company Of Charlton
(The Drum Media, June '02)

"i wrote that in london just before i did the album and i look at some of the songs and they've all been stepping stones to that point," says singer/songwriter charlton hill on his single 2's company. "when i recorded the album that was the last track, which is why it works so well and i feel so great about it being the first song that's being heard, because it encapsulates everything to that point, encapsulates how i was feeling when i was writing it and reminiscing back about pre-travelling and out of comfort zone experiences that you get and where i ended up. i guess by the time i got back and was saying hey, i took a journey and here i am and now i've recorded it."

the journey started when hill was around 15 and grew up playing in bands on the northern beaches of sydney. he played bass for four or five years and chimed in every now and again on vocals, before switching over to guitar. "i started on (guitar) in the first place but because i was the youngest in the band of course i got my arse kicked and was told i was playing bass. that evolved until i was singing and playing in a band and i went off on some travels and by default, guitar in hand, i became a solo writer," hill recalls.

hill seemed to just fall into becoming a solo writer. "it wasn't a conscious decision then," he says on moving from the bass to guitar and then later on his own. "i think it just happened as it was, when a band happened to fold and we lost a guitarist and singer in the process it was like, who's doing it now? i was like 'i've got some songs. i've been writing a few.' it more stumbled its way into occurence." furthermore travelling to places like the uk, europe and america played a part in his songwriting. "it was a pretty huge discovery period and being forced to be on my own, like emotionally and everything else, i think it broke the back of what i wanted to say as well as a songwriter," hill says.

since returning hill has been playing gigs a plenty, something he's more than familiar with as it's what he grew up doing. in the most part they've been acoustic gigs too. "i did play some band gigs when i came back to sydney and i guess i've been enjoying taking songs back to where they began. all of the songs were written on acoustic guitar so they always existed in that format. as a beginning, back here, post album, to road testing everything that i've done, it's feeling good and i'm enjoying that intimacy that comes with the venues," hill says.

hill's songs might start on an acoustic guitar, but such as with 2's company the song is recorded with a full band. on the single there's also and acoustic version of the song showing that if it's the case, hill's melodic pop songs seem to work equally as well in both formats. right from the conception of a song hill has the idea of whether a band will be required or it will feature just himself and a guitar.

"it's more for the intensity, " he says. "it's always emotionally related if the song is feeling quite angry or whatever then you think you want to put a lot more behind this and take it to its dynamic height rather than just the manic hitting of an acoustic guitar, no i need drums, no i need a guitar going off its head, where something else it just begs one voice, one guitar. i think pretty early on that becomes dictated by the emotion of the piece.

- mark neilsen

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