Phil Jamieson has spent the last quarter-century fronting one of Australia’s most popular and successful rock bands, and is now geared up to explore the well-worn route of front guy going solo. “Trouble” is the first single from his highly anticipated debut solo album, due for release on Golden Robot Records later in 2023.
“Trouble is tightly wound new wave pop, nervy staccato guitars and bubbling synths in a quintessentially antipodean style, along the lines of early INXS or Split Enz… one of Australian rock’s most iconic voices of the last 25 years” is the tune and singer’s apt descriptor applied by the song’s co-producer, none other than You Am I‘s lead guitarist, Davey Lane.
Stream/buy Trouble HERE
Jamieson himself delves into the track thusly; “Trouble started life in Potts Point in 2019. I demoed with long time collaborator Ben Rosen. He had just moved back from Singapore and had this chic Art Deco place right in the heart of the Cross. Over overpriced beer I kind of came up with the riff and song… and we sat down and pushed out a demo. It had a very different middle 8 section but apart from that the structure was pretty spot on. Lyrically it went through many moods… heartfelt, funny, sad. I think at one stage I was singing about John Laws’ boat? Anyhoo… I took it down to Field Studio in Collingwood to redo it from the ground up with the incredible Davey Lane. He wrote the middle 8 and wrote the drum pattern. It took on a whole new life and became what you hear today.”
(For non-Australian audiences, “the Cross” refers to Kings Cross, Sydney’s renowned red-light district, and “John Laws” is an infamous conservative right-wing radio DJ.)
