INTERVIEW: E Bobby G

When and where was Bobby Business recorded?

The album was recorded in late 2022. When I got an eviction notice at my long lived share house (of 12 years!), I set up the lounge room – where the organ had lived since it came into my possession – for the last two months and did a whole bunch of recording. The first song recorded was Home Entertainment with my good friend and part-owner of the organ Nick Sullivan (Yolke, Raymondscottwalker).  I did a lot of other collabs, and worked on pre-written tracks from little audio sketches/ideas I had made. 

When I finally moved out I stored the organ for a while at my work, Bakehouse Studios in Richmond. My boss let me use the space overnight, so I would bring in my equipment and record literally all night – sometimes until about 6am, trying to get the takes right for the songs. 

One favourite session was recording the opening track “Ha-Ha”. I was on an international call to my partner Jessie Rose Ford (painter of the front cover image), and asked her to sing along while I played. The phone was on a microphone 10 meters away from the organ, and I love the disconnected, yet super close up space it makes at the start of the record.

After a while I moved the organ to our old studio space NGBE in Brunswick East, and the last remaining tracks were recorded there, Giga Touch and Suzy’s return.

One last note on this – Errol’s Quest was recorded a long time prior – recorded directly to an old tape machine. It also features Jessie’s voice at the start, so she effectively opens both sides of the record.

Tell us more about the organ itself and how you utilise it?

The organ is a Kawai DX900. It’s a fully analog instrument from 1982. It has a plaque on the front that says “M.O.R.E” Multiple Orchestra Ensemble, hence the name of the first album.

The sounds are all played at once, drum machine, bass on the feet, chords with my left hand and solos etc with my right. I record them for a long time to get all the parts right together, and then edit them down. Some have basically no edits, and others were extremely hard and have lots.

For this album I allowed myself to start using another synth, the Yamaha DX11. It’s a totally different digital FM synth, also from the 80s.

Other musicians on the record are Adam Halliwell (Mildlife) and Nick Sullivan, who contributed to Big Boy and Home Entertainment respectively. 

Lilian is the only song featuring overdubs. It was a present for my Grandma’s 93rd birthday, made in the style of the Beatles, because my nephew Arlo loves the Beatles so much. It’s about being the last remaining Beatle on earth.

How much time did you spend writing this before recording? It seems like you are delving into different genres compared to the first record? Was that intentional?

My previous album was never recorded before it’s filming/performance, as a concept that I had to write and remember all the songs in my head. 

For this one I did the exact opposite and recorded lots of little sketches to develop into tracks.

I planned to do 3 albums – one like the previous, an album of collabs and an ambient/experimental album.

There is lots of other material that I prepared for this, but ultimately all three of those album ideas were focused into Bobby’s Business.

In the end I settled on the concept that this album would start as an extension of the previous one, evolve into something totally different/more modern, and finally lead off with a hint that the next album will be a multi-tracked “studio album”

Any other future projects or collaborations you can share with us?

I have actually done extensive writing and some recording for the next album. It will be on a new ultra powerful organ that was donated to me, the Yamaha E-75. Synth heads take note that this shares architecture with the Yamaha CS-80, a synth used extensively by Vangelis which he described as “the most important synthesiser in my career”.