Songwriter's Corner...
Charlton Hill
(Australian Guitar Magazine, May '03)
a surfer from sydney's northern beaches, charlton hill had played in several local bands before packing his bags and heading to europe to find himself. he returned home with his eyes wide open and a swag full of experiences from which to draw inspiration for his impressive debut album waterline. released at the beginning of this year, waterline announces the coming of one of australia's greatest young singer/songwriters.
waterline seems to have taken a long time to come out, what was the hold up?
i guess if i think back to when i initially mixed the album it has taken a long time, but things have been strangely progressive. i put out the '2's company' single and then i discovered how big australia really is on tour. then by the time i got back from touring it was time to put out another single ('deep'). but in a way i enjoyed sitting with the album for a while. i also got to do a different mix on 'deep' with michael brauer in new york, which was a great treat. so perhaps if i'd rushed into it i wouldn't have had that.
how much were you involved in the recording process?
the demos were really advanced, it was all there; even to the point of having little keyboard parts where the string bits would go. so the recording process was more like going through a sonic checklist like, 'i want this from the demo, i want that from the demo, this bit i'm not sure about so let's fuck around."
what sort of guitars?
i didn't have my 12-string at the time so i was using a 6-string maton that i like a lot. i also used a simon patrick 6-string and a very old, shitty 6-string which i high strung so it got a 12-string effect on a lot of stuff.
how do you deal with tuning up the 12-string? is it frustrating sometimes?
the worst thing was when i was doing the channel (v) bus. we went down to do a show at the snow, which was a great laugh 'cos i snowboarded for the first time. but anyway i chose to take the 12-string up onstage but it was really cold so when i brought it out of the case all the strings were sharp. so i turned up and it was just on minus 2 degrees as i stepped onstage, but as i stepped up to the front where all the lights were they heated all the strings and obviously they went out of tune. the mc was doing the big intro bit, 'and now, live...', as i was furiously trying to retune. i still refuse to look at the recorded version i did of the song.
did you play much on your travels around europe?
i did stuff like play downstairs at a pub and get a room upstairs. i did plenty of busking and just showing up with a guitar and sitting in with bands. once you've done it once or twice it's easy. i was staying down in tenerife, which is off the coast of spain. it's traditionally a really touristy place but i discovered that it was only a small part, the rest of the island was fantastic. so i pulled out the guitar on the street and i met this venuzualin political activist who was in exile, and he just joined me and started playing and i ended up staying with him for a week or two.
if you were reviewing your cd how would you describe it?
production wise i think it sounds very lush and layered. it has strong acoustic roots and it contains a lot of universal concepts, riddled with my own personal experience.