Clue To Kalo interview

 
MARK MITCHELL, THE MAN BEHIND CLUE TO KALO, TELLS ROB TOWNSEND HE WON’T BE MOVING OUT OF ADELAIDE ANY TIME SOON

When discussing their aspirations in terms of commercial success, many musicians will explain how they make music for their own pleasure and it’s simply a bonus if anyone else likes it. While this is a nice sentiment, one suspects that, in honesty, many of them would probably sell their own grandmother for a shot at the big-time. However, when Clue To Kalo’s mild-mannered singer/songwriter Mark Mitchell says he is all about the music, the earnestness with which he speaks suggests that he absolutely means it. “If success happens that would be fantastic, and there are times when I wish there were more people at the show or that more people knew about the record, but it would never change the way that I’d approach a record or what step I would want to take next with my music,” he shrugs while tucking into a vegetarian lasagne in a Surry Hills café. “If you’re totally confident that the music is the reason you’re doing it, then you can always fall back on that; you can still retain some happiness in what you are doing,” he continues. “If you put all your stock into achieving success and you don’t get it, it doesn’t really leave you with anything. You don’t have any foundations from which you can continue. This way, I hope I can continue making records until I’m an old man – even if everyone stops listening by the time I’m 35.”

Clue To Kalo’s third and latest long-player, Lily Perdida, is a charming folk offering and, with all songs based around an eponymous main character, could be described as a concept album. Mitchell explains: “I wanted to make a folk record which was about one particular person based on what everyone else was saying about them. I read a lot of old traditional song lyrics and absorbed the language that was used. A lot of key words came up in these songs, so I wanted to have echoes of that language, but take it out of its context and use it in a modern story.”

I ask Mitchell how the idea for the album came about. “I mean, I love records that are just ten great songs recorded separately and put on a CD, but I also like the idea of one piece of art which has separate components to it.” He goes on to explain where the influence came from to tell the story of one person through the eyes of others. “Randy Newman always said he thought you could tell so much about him from his stories about other people.” As well as dealing with the subject-matter slightly differently to how he has in the past, Mitchell also approached the writing process in another way. “I wanted to write for one particular instrument – in this case the piano - and orchestrate around that rather than what I have done in the past which is grab a whole bunch of sounds and throw them in to see how it works. I have a tendency to overload things and then pull back and chip away at it until it makes sense. But this was good because it took some of the decisions out of my hands.”

Clue To Kalo’s initial breakthrough came through overseas interest, but, with the release of this record, Mitchell says that he is more than happy to concentrate on touring Australia, and reckons Adelaide is the perfect place for a musician to live. “There are no limitations for us at the moment in Australia. First and foremost, I want to create records that I’m really happy with. I could move to New York and struggle to make ends meet and not have enough time to do certain things or I could live in Adelaide where I’m far away from where people would think everything’s happening, but be comfortable and happy with a lot of room to make the best records I can make.”

As Mitchell goes on to chat excitedly about future albums, about what new vocalist Ellen Carey brings to the band and about what he is currently listening to, it is once again obvious that he is not the kind of person that will be stressing too much about where Lily Perdida charts upon its release. He clearly just wants to get back in the studio and create some more music. “That act of making the records is the most important thing to me. As far as people being interested in my music - that’s out of my control. I can’t really imagine doing anything else. My ambition is to constantly get new ideas and to integrate them into new projects.” After another mouthful of lasagne, he says with a smile: “I just want to keep making records, and hope that they don’t turn shit.”