Black Rabbit George is a new incarnation for Tijuana Cartel's guitarist/singer/songwriter Paul George.
Following on from the release of his critically praised single ‘Fingers Radio’, Gold Coast-based artist Black Rabbit George (AKA Paul George, frontman of Tijuana Cartel) has just returned with his enthralling sophomore album ‘Warren’ – produced and recorded by the artist himself at his home studio.
‘Warren’ features eight tracks of mesmerising psych-folk, showcasing exquisite soundscapes and masterful acoustic guitar work, creating an organic blend of textures and sounds that hypnotise and captivate.
“I’ve had so many re-inventions as a musician, I needed to find a common thread,” he reveals. “I spent a lot of time isolated at home toying with ideas I’ve had over the years. I pretty much lived in the studio for the last six months just re-learning where I can take things and how they all make sense together.”
To celebrate the release, Black Rabbit George shared his top five sketchy festival experiences.
1. Groove and Grape Festival, Brisbane
Early in my career we would play shows with windows computer. At the time we couldn’t afford laptops, so every gig we would start this thing up and pray it worked. It had one interesting quirk. Every now and then it would screw up and make this loud boom like white noise.
One of the first festivals we played at happened to be a family picnic style thing in the park. We were playing well when this sonic boom came from the computer with obviously no time for the sound guy, or the sound limiters to catch it. Still to this day it is the loudest thing I have ever heard. It lasted about five seconds, after that there was a deadening silence from the crowd, then slowly one by one, children started crying throughout the whole field. We left the stage to a cacophony of tears.
2. Boom Festival Portugal
I arrived at the festival a few days before the band. The organisers had kindly given me a tent between two of their 24-hour stages. The pulsating doof music from each stage vibrated the tent at separate BPM’s.
The first day or two was bearable. I could plan to stay awake long enough to pass out into a deathly stupor, sometimes face first, partly in tent. Day three was excruciating, the rest of the band appeared and saw a new kind of animal. Part Racoon, part apocalypse now raver. News arrived that my guitar had missed the flight. Interestingly the guitar turned up at stage just as I was about to walk on. The excitement and sleep deprivation sent me into a kind of Santana inspired solo that lasted most of the set. Much to the disappointment of the band members. At one stage the Drummer grabbed the mic and addressing the crowd said ‘In the beginning there was ‘Digeridoo and Drums’. In an effort to convince me to stop and listen. I’m afraid I missed that cue and kept soloing all the way through the break down. I still haven’t lived that one down.
3. Shine on Festival, Victoria
Sunshine Festival somewhere in Victoria, this place flooded like nothing I’d been to before. I remember dancing with water up to my chest to Opiuo. At one-point massive tractors were called in to help evacuate hippie ravers in their bogged Kombi vans. I’d partied a little too hard that night and managed to miss the band bus to the airport. I’d also left my wallet and most of my clothes on the bus. Somehow, I hitchhiked covered in mud to the airport and blagged my way on to a jet star flight, still with no shoes and a very vague look on my face. Still, somehow made it to Mullumbimby festival that night with about 20 minutes before the set started.
4. BHP festival, somewhere in mining land Western Australia
The most I ever got paid for a show was for a festival in the desert. From memory it may have been port Hedland. But I’m not sure, my brain is getting foggy. The idea of the festival was a decent one. To get the miners more integrated with the locals they put on a world inspired festival complete with celebrity chefs and music from all over. Only hiccup was that the miners couldn’t care less, it was Saturday, and Saturday is when all 3000 of them go to the pub. We ended up playing a $30k show to five local children, who helped end the set by jumping around on the stage with us. At the end of the show we decided to join the miners for a few schooners at the pub
5. Nannup Festival, Western Australia
We had a late show the night before and I decided it was a good idea to take a sleeping pill for the flight to Perth. I didn’t realise there was a stopover in Melbourne, when I got off the plane there, I found a chair and fell asleep for a full 8 hours and woke up a little confused. My phone had dozens of messages from the band now in Perth and freaking out. After buying a very expensive Business seat on the last available flight to Perth I hired a car and made it to Nannup just as we were getting on stage.
Warren is out now. You can stream it here.
