Australian rock royalty and 1990’s Indie icons, Eskimo Joe are back with new music after a 7 year hiatus. Their new single (out today), ‘Say Something’ is Eskimo Joe at their very best – a catchy lyrical tune the band is famous for, with a strong message for their devout fan base and new listeners in 2020. The band has also recently re-released it’s sophomore album from 2004 A Song Is A City, featuring 10 bonus tracks.
Australian Musician’s Greg Phillips caught up with Eskimo Joe’s Joel Quartermain to chat about life in lockdown, the band’s career, the new single and the A Song Is A City re-release.
Speaking about their new single today, the band says, “The song is about hope and what it means to be a humanitarian. Whether we are talking about domestic violence, racism or the environment, to stay silent is to be complicit. Right now, the environment is at a tipping point, we’ve just lived through the worst bushfires in Australia’s history, whilst in the rest of the world floods and famine are at an unprecedented level. Unless we say something, how will we build a better future?
Since forming in 1997, Eskimo Joe have racked up a long list of impressive accomplishments. With 6 studio albums under their belts and sales in excess of 750,000, in Australia alone, the band has seen 3 of those albums debut at number 1 on the ARIA charts, with juggernaut ‘Black Fingernails, Red Wine’ shining for a monster 62 weeks in the ARIA Chart Top 50 and “Foreign Land”, from their fourth album ‘Inshalla’, bringing home 2 APRA Awards, for Most Played Rock Song on Australian radio and Best Rock Song of 2010.
Eskimo Joe have enjoyed 35 ARIA nominations in their career thus far – a number only surpassed by Silverchair, Powderfinger, Kylie Minogue and John Farnham. They have brought home 3 International Song-writing Awards, 11 WAMi Awards and 8 ARIAs and 11 of their compositions have featured in Triple J’s Hottest 100 countdown, with ‘Black Fingernails, Red Wine’ landing 2nd place. The stage however, is where Eskimo Joe shine and the band have performed at many significant events including: Sound Relief, Live Earth, Make Poverty History, the ARIA Awards, the APRA Awards, Big Day Out, Homebake, Laneway Festival, Falls Festival, Southbound, Splendour In The Grass, Triple J’s One Night Stand, The Australian Open, AFL and Sundance Film Festival in Utah, USA, on the same stage as Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young. Along with a significant number of tours within Australia, the band have had their music released to great acclaim from fans and critics alike, in the United States, Canada, Europe and Korea.
The band began celebrations for their 21st birthday in 2018 by embarking on a national tour featuring The Sydney, Tasmanian, West Australian and Camerata – (Queensland’s Chamber) Orchestras and more recently provided a packed Optus Stadium in Perth with the pre-game entertainment before the NRL State Of Origin, plus a very special show at Freo.Social where they played Black Fingernails, Red Wine in its entirety. With a national tour in support of the legendary Jimmy Barnes and a reunion show with the West Australian Symphony Orchestra in Kings Park at the end of 2019, along with the back catalogue vinyl re-releases (Girl, Ghosts Of The Past, Inshalla and Black Fingernails Red Wine, A Song Is A City) being released the anniversary was a great success. As their storied career continues to evolve, Eskimo Joe have certainly come a long way from their humble beginnings as much-loved indie rock kids in Fremantle, WA.