interview and ep review: jen buxton
If you were ever a fan of Newcastle’s fantastic indie/folk outfit Like…Alaska, then you probably took their break-up pretty hard. However, there is some good news. Some members funnelled into other bands like Easy Tiger and Run Squirrel, while Jen Buxton went solo, performing her own brand of melancholy alt-country in pubs across the Australia.
Her 2011 solo debut, Don’t Change Your Plans was a heart-breaking, raw account of relationships gone wrong, delivered in her bare-bones acoustic style, her signature husky voice on best display. This May, Jen released an eagerly awaited follow-up EP on Bandcamp called Desperation Demos.
She explains that the idea was fairly off-the-cuff. ‘My friend Wil plays in a fantastic Newcastle band called Adeline Pines and had been getting into recording them at his house. I heard what he’d done and it was sounding great, so I asked if I could try a few demos. I hadn’t had merch for a while and I was about to play some shows, so I thought it might be nice to have something to take on the road with me. We did mostly first take stuff in his spare room, he mixed it for me while I bought him dinner, I went home and burned fifty copies and the next day I flew to Brisbane and Tassie to play.’ The response, she says, was overwhelming and humbling. When all the copies sold out, she uploaded the songs onto Bandcamp for those that missed out.
Jen is no stranger to the internet. She has an active Twitter presence, which she describes as show date announcements and weird overshares.’ She is also prone to uploading the odd YouTube video, including her original work and covers. In regards to online content, she says, ‘I’m impatient, and I’m busy, and I’m a music fan. I know what it’s like to have to wait for ages between releases. I feel like the music I make has the freedom to be accessible and imperfect. If people are happy to see a new song recorded in my kitchen when I have time, or download some demos while they’re waiting for a proper full length, that is awesome for me. Nobody I know is doing this to make money.’
Desperation Demos is made up of four originals and a cover of Girls With Accents by Seattle band, Fences. True to her reputation for loving, yet depressing songs, two songs on the EP are called Anhedonia and Dysthmia. ‘While working on the next full length, I had an idea to write a record about my relationship with mental illness’, Jen explains. ‘In workshopping songs it dawned on me that the idea was a little fucking grim, even for me, so I decided to use the tracks I already had for something else. Anhedonia and Dysthymia are both symptomatic depressive characteristics that have been applied to my experience and using them as song titles was kind of about expanding on these clinical-sounding concepts that are so much more complex individually. I think they are pretty common experiences. I used to joke that I didn’t even like doing the things I liked doing, and a doctor was like, “Yeah, there is actually a name for that.”
Despite a happier personal and family life than the one that led her to pen Don’t Change Your Plans, don’t expect Jen to start with the uplifting anthems any time soon. As she says, ‘I often start happy songs and my inner cynic immediately says “That is lame, back to the moaning”’. However, there is no denying that her sad acoustic confessionals resonate with people. Jen has made a fan out of a number of international acts in the acoustic scene, and has billed alongside the likes of Chuck Ragan, Frank Turner and Ben Nichols on their Australian tours. She chooses not to let these experiences go to her head however, remarking, ‘My old man taught me to always be hopeful, but humble. 98% of the time I’m not playing shows like that. I’m a single mum, I work behind a bar. It gives you perspective.’
She acknowledges that the acoustic scene can be a bit of a boy’s club, and is only too eager to point me in the direction of some of her favourite women in the genre, including Ani DiFranco, Jenny Owen Youngs, Audra Mae, Mamie Minch, The Anderson Family Bluegrass Band and Lucy Wilson. ‘We’re out there, but I honesty believe we have fewer opportunities, and are held to higher standards. As a result though, there are some incredible women doing some incredible things. Lots of role models for girls like me.’
Desperation Demos is available on Bandcamp now. Jen is playing the Poison City Weekender in September. For everything else, follow @jenbuxton on Twitter.
