Google ‘Andy Bull’ and ‘Cleo Bachelor 2009’ and you’ll be pleasantly surprised.
A body like that would perfectly suit a shiny boy band produced pop star, but on an Aussie indie kid like Bull it actually adds a whole other dimension to his music.
His nostalgic falsetto could easily top the charts of the 1970s with its Valli-esque pitch while the Osmond inspired hair adds to the poster pin-up mystique.
‘I’m glad you find (my voice) nostalgic, because when I started writing music it was for that nostalgic feeling of some memory I never had from a some past life,’ Bull said while recently in Perth for One Movement.
He’s also promoting the release of his stunning new EP, The Phantom Pains.
‘This is the second major thing I’ve released: I did an album (We’re Too Young) last year, but quickly felt like I wanted to start again because that had been a long process and really quite difficult in some ways.
‘So I wanted to start afresh as quickly as possible.’
This EP is what happens when you write songs without any particular outcome in mind.
It is a tight six-part slugger featuring the likes of Hungry Kids Of Hungary and the distinct voice of Lisa Mitchell, who duets with Bull on lead single Dogs.
‘I don’t think that kind of pressure (which comes from writing an album) is conducive to honesty in song-writing. You’re always second guessing everything you do.
‘So Phantom Pains is like… psychological renewal, a revelation and very organic.’
It is a home-grown, do-it-yourself aesthetic affair recorded at Bull’s tiny one room studio, with friends playing back up instruments.
Dogs was done and dusted in an afternoon, recorded on a whim after Mitchell popped round for a spot of tea. Even the cover art Bull drew himself.
‘It all just set a tone of honesty, so that now if people love it or hate it, I’m less anxious about that… and that doesn’t change the fact we had a really good time making it.’
The EP essentially tackles the concept of lack.
‘It’s that painful space where something should be, but it isn’t,’ Bull explained.
‘Whether that’s an emotion or the space where someone was, or the space where money should be and it’s not there: that’s the pain you feel in the absence of something.’
Mind you, if you take into account Bull’s success, musical ability and willingness to take a chance… along with those Cleo photographs… well, you could be mistaken for thinking he lacks very little indeed.
The Phantom Pains is out now through Universal Music.
Scott-Patrick Mitchell
