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Interview with Jimmy and the Mirrors

Jimmy and the Mirrors strive to make ‘mature and thoughtful indie-pop with a positive and ultimately Australian attitude’. In the last 2 years, the local Adelaide indie outfit has worked in leaps and bounds to make that simple statement a reality. In short – Jimmy and the Mirrors are aiming big.

From their humble beginnings in Adelaide, they’ve slowly worked their way up the local music scene, scoring impressive supporting slots for Art vs. Science, The Galvatrons, Wolf & Cub and playing the Parklife Festival in 2010. They even found a fan in Peter Garrett; the Midnight Oil frontman turned activist turned MP chose Jimmy and the Mirrors for the Contemporary Touring Grant, funding their 12-date tour across regional Australia.

Leading man Jimmy relishes the importance the grant has had on the band, and how important regional touring is for Australian musicians.

‘I’m a big supporter of the grant system which the government does. Midnight Oil established a big following in rural areas which allowed them to achieve the commercial success which they eventually had. It is so important for musicians, especially considering that Australia is such a big country. You’ll find that bands do build up fanbases in rural areas because it allows them to still perform and make money whilst travelling through the country and on the way to the major capital cities. Rather than going from Adelaide to Melbourne and just playing those two, which is an 8 hour drive and will cost you a fair bit of money in terms of getting all your band equipment there, you can play a show in Mount Gambier along the way and get a decent crowd out too’

‘In some of these towns, the energy is amazing. We’ve played shows in rural New South Wales on a Tuesday night and the crowds there were just absolutely crazy. We got asked to do three encores! We had to play some of the songs we played in the first set already. They just love any kind of music that comes up’

Their EP, titled ‘Hard to Find’ was pushed back to a later release this year due to the band members travelling commitments, which ultimately led for some interesting ideas behind the promotion and distribution of their music.

‘Our travelling has definitely inspired the release of the music, especially with the tour that we’re doing. Many of the members were writing and releasing solo albums overseas and also doing a lot of busking which has rubbed off on this EP and the tour too. The idea is, during all of the towns we go to, we’ll be busking during the day to get some more people interested and get our music out there. We’ve got a gig on Christmas Eve at the Ed Castle which will be our comeback gig in a way. We’ll be doing a fair bit of busking in the mall leading up to it!’

A refreshing change from the standard indie world-done-me-wrong fare, Jimmy and the Mirrors play with interesting themes and subject matters on their EP. Jimmy reveals that some of the songs, which touch on everything from single parenting, growing old and even Egyptian royalty, stem from wanting to reshape transient pop themes into something original and unexpected.

‘There are two main songwriters in group – myself and Banjo [Jimmy and the Mirrors guitarist] and we often find, well, I will often find that I’ll be writing a song about a girl and I’ll want to look for a way to make it seem more interesting by thinking of a different theme to frame it. Rather than talking about how a girl is leaving you, you might talk about youth, or another aspect of your life that has started to slip away. There’s more to life than just love!’

Do we need more love songs, I asked?

[laughs] ‘The Beatles did plenty of that!’

And for those yet to see Jimmy and the Mirrors live, be prepared for an exciting cover or two. While they may draw the line at Kesha or Bieber, the band performed Lady Gaga’s ‘Bad Romance’ during their Adelaide gig last year to an overwhelmingly positive response.

‘It’s generally quite spontaneous. Sometimes before a gig we’ll think that it may be good to play a different song to the regular set. With ‘Bad Romance’, one of the band members listened to it, I think it was Carlo actually [Jimmy and the Mirrors’ pianist] and he suggested that we could do a really amazing version. I guess a lot of those poppy songs are brilliant songs and so well written, especially Bad Romance, that’s a fantastic song!’

Looking forward to returning to Adelaide once again, Jimmy notes the strength and camaraderie of the local music scene in South Australia.

 ‘I’ve always felt that the live music scene in Adelaide is pretty damn good. It’s a really good community of artists that are very supportive of each other, showing up to gigs and just being supportive. I go to a lot of gigs and will see maybe 10 or 15 people who all play in different bands. Everybody is very encouraging and really, everybody wants the same thing. What’s good for one artist will be good for another. If there’s more interest in one local band then there will be more interest in all local bands overall.’

Amen.

Jimmy and the Mirrors play the Ed Castle on Christmas Eve, December 24, 2011. Tickets available through Moshtix (www.moshtix.com.au). EP ‘Hard to Find’ is out now.

Special thanks to Elle Zylstra

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