Sauce

There’s no denying the power of the Australian Idol machine – or the fickle tastes of the Australian public. In the battle between the flavour savour and the afro, the Australian public voted some Guy as their Australian Idol back in 2003 - but it’s the Noll’s career that has taken off since that 2003 defeat. With a new album due for release and getting ready to tread Australian stages as Parson Nathaniel in a live-action version of Jeff Wayne’s War of the Worlds, we found that it takes someone as down-to-earth as Shannon to deal with a stratospheric rise to fame…

Hey, how are you going Shannon?
G’day mate, how are you going?

Yeah, really good. How are you feeling about life at the moment?
Yeah, mate! I’m anxious and excited, and all of that sort of thing at the same time.

Yeah? Why’s that?
Oh, I think, you know, you can never really tell what the Australian public’s gonna think of your work. So, you know, even though you can have faith in it and believe in it, it doesn’t really translate until you find out, you know?

Hmm… And you just got back from the States, didn’t you?
Yeah, yeah I’ve been spendin’ a bit of time over there this year.

What have you been doing over there?
Oh, I went over there for a six week writing trip at the start of the year, and then came back, and then, cause I wrote forty-odd songs between here and the States, and then we chose the songs, and then went into the pre-production and then we went back over to record the album.

And what about making contacts with labels and all those sorts of industry types over there and turning you into this huge star in the States. How are things going with that?
[Laughs] Mate, at the moment you know, we’re just [making] Australia the priority, and it always will be, to try and make sure it works here, you know; If the opportunity come ‘round, I worked with some really good people. I worked with Richie Sambora and Richard Marks and some big names over there, so…

Wow!
Yeah, so Richie and I wrote a song, and we put it on the album, and he came in to play guitar and that on it, so that was awesome - really nice of him.

Don’t suppose you got to hang out with Heather Locklear at all did you?
Yeah, no, I didn’t get to meet her. It’s funny the divorce [was] just going through when we [were] doing the writing. He wasn’t feeling very good about women at the time.

Yeah, yeah, unfair.
But yeah, I mean, it’s just a matter of trying to make it work here, and having you know, trying to make it… successful here, and then we’ll worry about other stuff later on.

What’s this next release say about you in terms of evolution, growth, as an artist? You know, have you got any better?
Yeah! I hope so mate! The people I’ve written with on this writing trip that I went on eighteen months ago or something said that I’m a much better writer than I was. And the style, it’s a bit more rocky… a bit more guitar orientated, organic and sort of edgy. It’s a bit more of a live sort of sound, you know? We use more live players in the studio, and so it’s a bit more something that we can create on tour, because we’re such a live based touring network.

Now that’s two names, or two terms I wouldn’t have thought to have in the same sentence, would be “Shannon Noll “and “organic”.
I know! I know, me either! [Laughs] Well we’re trying to not make it like a polished, you know, shiny sort of album… or performance. We just try to get it in there and make it a bit rawer, so there’s not as much effects on it, and… not much production on it, and that sort of thing. So the music can sort of speak for itself.

Cool. And you’re going around the country with War of the Worlds at the moment, aren’t you?
Yeah, mate! We do that at the start of September, I’m really looking forward to it actually! It’ll be a bit of a challenge. But I’m looking forward to it just the same.

Did you get into the record when you were a kid?
Mate, where I sorta grew up, we were lucky to have AM radios or things. So we didn’t get the opportunity to get a great deal of new releases or that sort of thing. But I remember the War of the Worlds original radio broadcast. I mean, I remember hearing about it. [Laughs]

[Laughs] Time warped.
No, you’re right, it was out in 1895 or something. So it was a while ago.

Yeah. Yeah, It was a big thing for me as a kid, yeah. But I was spun out when I saw the re-release on CD, and yeah, it’s great! Good on ya!
Yeah, it should be really fun. Jeff Wayne, just a great guy to work with, and Justin Heyward and all that are involved again. Pink Floyd’s lighting guys are doing it so it should be a lotta fun!

Shannon can be seen all over Australia Jeff Wayne’s War of the Worlds from September onwards, and his new album, Turn it Up, is released on September 15.

Hear the full interview Below