My Friend The Chocolate Cake was the voice of Australian folk rock during the 1990s. The ensemble continues to innovate and inspire fans – most recently with their “Back to Back, Track for Track” tour, which has already enjoyed sold out shows in the eastern states. The tour boasts songs from their first two albums, My Friend the Chocolate Cake and the ARIA award winning Brood. I spoke with veteran cellist Helen Mountfort this week.
Mountfort explains this unique tour format: “Well it’s interesting because we’re playing every track off both the CDs, it becomes a slightly different set to what we would normally play. Often, you know, when you’re putting together a set list you just tend to pick the same old songs all the time, the ones that you’re familiar with playing live. But this one, we’ve had to go back and learn a whole lot of songs we haven’t played for twenty years, which has been really fun. They’re very moody sets… there’s a lot of instrumentals on those records, which is really fun, and the mood changes a lot between the really jaunty up-tempo stuff and the slow melancholy songs as well. They have a really quite theatrical feel, these shows… a real listening experience.”
The tour is not only a retrospective, but a recreation: “Some of [these songs] we’ve been playing for years, but we’ve gone back to playing the arrangements as they were on the record. Listening to some of the subtleties that we’ve lost over the years.”
My Friend the Chocolate Cake was recorded in one day. “The first album,” Mountfort remembers, “we had no idea it would be a record. We didn’t really think of that. We just thought we should document these songs. We went to the studio and got them all down in a day, without really thinking twice about it. Because there were no expectations and no pressure, I think that’s when you make good music. And the second record, we were still going strong. It was just a fun thing we did to relax.”
Over the years My Friend the Chocolate Cake has gained a “fuller sound,” explored perhaps more refined techniques and released studio-produced albums. But they have never forgotten their roots. For Mountfort, the tour is also a chance to honour the fans: “The first album means a lot to a lot of people, so we thought it would be really nice to go and do the whole thing.”
My Friend the Chocolate Cake will bring their “Back to Back, Track for Track” tour to Adelaide at The Gov, on July 17th.
Interview by Nicola Woolford.
Friday 17 July Governor Hindmarsh, Adelaide Tickets Here
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