Hitting the road with Australian country icon Kasey Chambers, regional Queensland duo, Busby Marou, will play at the NCCC Royal Theatre on Saturday 28 May. Jeremy Marou sat down with CW to talk Canberra winters, the evolution of Busby Marou, and their new hit song, Everything Is Beautiful.
Where did the inspiration for your latest single Everything Is Beautiful come from?
“Tom and I had lots of downtime writing with different people. We wrote with Tom Eggert, who’s a great young dude out of Brisbane, on a number of songs on the album. The song came together really easy, just like most of tracks on the album. We weren’t overthinking because it was in the middle of Covid, and we just wanted to make a positive song – the title speaks for itself.
“At the time we were thinking how lucky we were being in Queensland, and we were thinking about our mates in Victoria and other states in lockdown for a lot of that time, so we didn’t overthink it and this positive song came together really easy.”
Whats it been like hanging with Kasey chambers on tour?
“Just the fact that we’re on the road again and touring is so good! We played last night out of Melbourne and all night we just kept going ‘we can’t believe this is actually happening’. We had to cancel this tour two years ago, so it’s been a couple of years in the making now.
“It’s nice being out with no masks and dancing. We played in this beautiful theatre in Melbourne and Kasey and her crew are so cool. We’ve been friends for long time now and I know at the end of the day its work, but jeez we have some fun! I’m really looking forward to the rest of the tour.”
Whats your personal favourite song to sing live?
“I’m not saying this because it’s the obvious answer but our live version of Everything Is Beautiful would be my favourite. We’ve only performed it a couple of times, but honestly, it’s so much fun to sing.
“We have a great band with us on the road at the moment, and they’ve been with us a long time, but we’ve never really explored gang vocals all together. All our voices together make it just such a happy song! My favourite songs change depending on my different moods, but yeah, lately Everything Is Beautiful has been so much fun to sing.”
How would you describe the evolution of Busby Marou’s style over the past few years?
“We’re a weird kind of band… it’s hard for people to try and describe us, and if I asked you for example what style are, it’s hard to hit that on the head! We have country roots but it’s always changing which is what makes us unique. In the early days, we wanted to be country band and our debut album was a nice and beautiful acoustic album, with slight country flavour.
“Our next album was recorded in Nashville, so it had more of a country feel, and then our third album was nice and popular – it was recorded in Melbourne, so had a very pop feel. We are kind of all over the place; we can play at Woodford Folk Festival, then Blues Fest, and then support the headliners at CMC. Our music has always evolved, and we try to theme every album so the songs sound similar. Our next album will probably be a jazz album, who knows!”
What are you most excited about coming to Canberra?
“Canberra is always really cool – it’s like a big country town and we’re from a region town in Queensland called Rockhampton. Apart from dying from the cold, we can’t wait to get to Canberra. We’ve been there for some special events… we did Skyfire and played to like 100,000 people on the riverside and watched the fireworks. The radio in Canberra love us and always support us, and they play us all the time. Our shows in Canberra are always well attended too.”
For tickets to Behind the Barricades with Kasey Chambers and Busby Marou, visit premier.ticketek.com.au
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