Busby Marou
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Busby Marou

Busby Marou are quite possibly one of the hardest working bands in Australia at the moment. To finish off the year, after supporting James Blunt and multiple laps of the country, Tom Busby and Jeremy Marou are playing a stack of shows through November. Each show will be both an intimate and surreal experience, which sees the band heading back to their roots.
Talking about the tour, it’s easy to hear the smile beaming on Marou’s face. “Oh man! It’s pretty hot up here in Queensland at the moment, so to get the opportunity to come down and play Victorian shows again is blissful. We always get a nice reception down there too which is great. Obviously it’s not the same show that we played in Torquay, but it’ll be great to strip it back to a duo again, it’s something that we haven’t done in a while.”
Farewell Fitzroy – the acclaimed second album for the duo – saw the band relocate to Nashville for a period of two weeks to record it. “It was different to how we did the first one in that we have since become a band. We have a bass player and a drummer that play with us all the time. We now consider them family. We had been getting considerable feedback from our live show that the new album had to be just that. Over the period of two weeks, we smashed it out and had some brilliant musicians come along for the ride.”
To have the opportunity to get Al Perkins play on your record is quite possibly one of the biggest pinch yourself moments. The man’s played and recorded with The Rolling Stones, The Beatles, James Taylor and Bob Dylan amongst others, so what was he like to have in the studio? “He’s one of the best pedal steel players and they are quite serious musicians. He is very Christian and we weren’t allowed to swear in front of him. To have someone of that calibre come in and throw down their part onto one of our songs was just great,” Marou says.
After a hectic 2012, there has considerable talk about the follow up to such a cracking album. Talking about the future plans of the band, it seems 2015 will see in the new release. “I think that when we have the songs, we will be pushing to get the new record out there. Tom is constantly writing and I think that after some down time over Christmas, we will get back out on the horse and have something for you in the new year.”
To many, he is the bane of music existence to the mid noughties but given the opportunity to play alongside James Blunt was actually quite a cool experience as Marou relates. “It was great to share the stage with ‘Blunty’, we played in Australia and New Zealand with him and he does tend to cop a lot of flack sometimes, but he is a great musician. It was good to hang out and learn from someone that has sold 23 million albums. He knows how to write a tune that’s for sure. Regardless of whether you like the song or not.”
Talking about playing some regional shows, Marou can’t wait: “It’s going to be great to get back to playing how we used to. We might try and do an acoustic duo tour once a year. It’ll be great to get back down to regional Australia, come out and have a sing and dance with us!”
When&Where: The Bridge Hotel, Castlemaine – November 20, The Caravan Club Oakleigh RSL, Melbourne – November 21, The Loft, Warrnambool – November 22 & Beav’s Bar, Geelong – November 23.
By Tex Miller