Melbourne-based musician Jason Vorherr started out playing in cover bands as a bass guitarist and then as a solo act in the late 1980s. His break as a sought-after backing musician came when Graeham Goble asked him to join the original members of Little River Band … Birtles, Shorrock, Goble on their comeback tour. Jason played bass guitar and performed backing vocals on their gold-award winning album and DVD Full Circle. For the last decade or more, Jason has been the bass player for Australian music legend Darryl Braithwaite. Jason has just released his debut solo album ‘Living in the Suburbs’, as a singer songwriter, playing acoustic guitar and some bass on the recording.
Australian Musician editor Greg Phillips sat down for a chat with Jason Vorherr at Soggy Dog Recording in Upwey for a chat as our Musician of the Month for August to discuss his career, gear and new album ‘Living in the Suburbs’ Photos by Jason Rosewarne
Throughout his debut album, ‘Living in the Suburbs’, singer-songwriter, Jason Vorherr weaves the beauty of everyday life into folklore. An enticing but keenly relatable tome, listeners will find themselves in lyrics that evoke shared experiences.
Title track, ‘Living in the Suburbs’, speaks to giving in to wanderlust but ultimately finding the heart at home. ‘Upwey’ and ‘Nothing Ever Happens in Scoresby’ are love letters to Vorherr’s hometowns old and new. The former, a small slice of heaven at the foot of the Dandenongs and the latter a sleepy suburb where you ‘have to catch a bus to catch the train’… and Vorherr wouldn’t have it any other way.
Relationships are at the core of ‘Living in the Suburbs’. The joys and travails of parenthood are laid bare in ‘Streaming Down the Wing’, ‘Same Colours’ celebrates finding enduring friendship in unexpected places and ‘Thank God You Were There’ is about the arms that hold you in your time of need.
‘Radio Show’ and ‘The Way it Was Then’, which are both inspired by family history, showcase Vorherr’s knack for creating complete worlds with words and music. Vorherr lightens the mood with ‘The Kids Don’t Lie’ detailing the topsy turvy life of a children’s entertainer and ‘Roadtrip to Metung’ where the beers taste the sweetest.
‘Living in the Suburbs’ is out now
