The Album Hunter

Mike Noga likes albums. Not for him, the midnight trawls through LimeWire for low quality watermarked rips.

“Maybe I'm just a hopeless romantic,” Noga laughs. “Surely there's got to be a shift where people get sick of downloading a song here and a song there. You don't pick up a book and read a chapter from the middle.”
Noga's not afraid to put his money where his mouth is either, having just applied the finishing touches to his own solo longplayer, 'The Balladeer Hunter'.
“I think that was part of this record too - appealing to people who still have that part of their soul intact. I keep going back to the word 'soul', which sounds kind of yucky, but yeah, that was definitely part of the appeal of releasing 'The Balladeer Hunter'.”

Mike Noga is better known for his work behind the kit as part of The Drones, who have been carving up Australian independent music over the last couple of years. Little wonder then that it's been hard for Noga to find time to work on 'The Balladeer Hunter'.
“It was funny because I've been sitting on it and waiting and waiting for the right time, especially when The Drones could have a break, so I could kind of give it the attention that I wanted to, basically. Gaz from The Drones [lead singer Gareth Liddiard] has been working on a solo record, so it seemed like the perfect time for me to do mine as well, because I knew The Drones wouldn't be doing anything for a while.”

The result is a record that sounds raw and ready and very little like The Drones, Noga stepping to the front of the stage, pulling together a couple of players and stripping back his tunes. It runs throughout the entirety of 'The Balladeer Hunter': that sense that Noga was keen to eschew the current trend of slathering on the production.
“Yeah, totally. I was really consciously rallying against that on this record, and trying to make a record that sounds simple and harks back to classic albums that everyone loves,” he explains. “I mean, I love the Arcade Fire's new album - I think that's a great album - but I probably won't be listening to it in 20 years. But I probably will be listening to [Bob Dylan's] 'Nashville Skyline' and why is that? It's because it's got soul and it sounds real and it sounds earthy and rough and raw. So yeah, it was a really conscious decision to make a record that sounds like my favourites, I guess.”

Such an approach meant the band scythed through the recording sessions in less than half a week.
“I've been sitting on it and thinking about it for a couple of years now, and knew exactly what I wanted to do and knew exactly how I wanted it to sound, and then when it came time to do it the recording was done in, like, three days and I was like, 'Fucking hell! Why did I wait this long?!'” he laughs.
“But no, I'm really excited about it. Maybe this is good or maybe this is bad, but it doesn't sound to me like the kind of record you would hear much on the radio. It just sounds like a bunch of guys in a room. I don't know, I'm really proud of it.”

Noga is now preparing to capture the raw energy of 'The Balladeer Hunter' live, gearing up with his band to tour throughout Australia in May. Not that they should be too rusty, the trio having recently returned from supporting Seattle-based group Band Of Horses on their European tour. Those dates led to sold out shows and some very receptive crowds, but Noga's keeping expectations in check for the local shows.
“Well, it's pretty different to The Drones,” he laughs. “It's a hell of a lot quieter, there's no electric guitar - I couldn't do a guitar solo to save myself so there'll be none of those shenanigans. It's gonna be me and the guys off the record - the bass player and the drummer - and I'll just be playing the record as it sounds, basically. It will be pretty stripped back and pretty raw, and probably pretty loose. I want to get a violin player to take on tour as well so there'll be that lead instrument. But I dunno, it's a very different experience to The Drones. It's a little more quiet, just a bit less chaotic.”

‘THE BALLADEER HUNTER’ IS OUT APRIL 1. MIKE NOGA PLAYS THE STEP INN, MAY 20.