Australian jazz musician Mark Sholtez is not a jazzman after all, nor is he a folk-fanatic or even a blues singer. In fact, not even he can pigeonhole himself into a genre.
“I’ve never kind of thought of myself as a jazz musician,” Sholtez confesses. “First and foremost I’m a songwriter, I guess I’ll always see myself as a songwriter.”
Fans of Sholtez’s ‘songwriting’ will have their palates satiated as his second album The Distance Between Two Truths focuses on the poetry born from the road less travelled.
The follow-up to 2006’s Real Street was recorded in the U.S with producer Larry Klein; well known for his work with singer/songwriters Joni Mitchell and Tracey Chapman.
“I loved Larry’s arrangements and his attention to detail,” he says pensively. “Also he has this preservation of the imperfection in the records which makes them feel real and organic.”
Portals such as Twitter and Facebook are becoming a staple for many musicians to connect with fans. Sholtez goes one step further with a daily blog on MySpace that he wrote during his recording process to give fans what he wished for as a kid.
“I would have gone crazy for that kind of information so I like to put as much stuff up as possible to let people hear it.”
Sholtez’s collaborations in the past have been ‘happy accidents’ he says, one of his favourites is the track Won’t Let The Sun which he wrote with Troy Cassar-Daley who lived near him in Brisbane. The Distance Between Two Truths however, features co-writes spawned from a more purposeful nature.
“There’s a song I wrote with Iain Archer from Snow Patrol (We Could Get Lost), he’s an amazing songwriter. I called his publisher and said ‘can I write a song with him?’ and he said ‘yeah sure lets do that’.”
The collaboration with Alex Lloyd began with a chance meeting in London and a suggestion of “hey lets write a song together.” The result is the track A Thousand Lies, creating the voice for the whole album.
“For me I hear that song and it has the DNA of the entire record in it.”
The album is a collection of eclectic moods. Sholtez writes as though no one will ever hear his music; his songs are sweet snippets of his life that are musingly crafted. Far Enough Away is a song he wrote about the downfall that comes with city life while living in Brisbane.
“You know sometimes you just wake up and you feel sort of strange in your own skin and you just want to be somewhere else,” Sholtez says with nostalgia. “I probably wanted to be doing some recording in my own little home studio and I live quite close to the city and it’s noisy and the neighbors are having a party and I just thought, I wanna be somewhere else.”
When you hit up his live show expect an intimate gig full of anecdotes and witty banter. His aim is to create for fans what he expects from his favourite artists.
“I love to go home from a gig feeling like I saw a one-off show that’s not something that has been incredibly well scripted; something that’s really natural and conversational and unique.”
Spend just half an hour with Sholtez and you’ll discover he’s your average Aussie bloke with absolutely no fear of failure or success; as long he can write and perform he doesn’t give a shit whether he makes a living from it.
“I’m not a big fan of marketing campaigns for a new album that come and just sort of smack people on the head with the new single and all this kind of hype.
“I just wanted the opportunity to just initially put something out to the world that said ‘oh I’ve just got a new record and you know it’s over there in the corner check it out if you get a chance’…It’s kind of just a nice little whisper.”
Mark Sholtez forthcoming album The Difference Between Two Truths is out on Warner Music June 2nd.
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