Let’s Do Breakfast with Jenando: Pt One

I’ve Lived in Houses

This is the first part of a new interview series where I am going to work my way through the current players and people around the band. I think it is interesting how people started playing music, their particular backgrounds and how their lives are constructed around being musicians in a band such as ours. Hopefully this is all stuff that might make for some interesting listening. They will be recorded on Zoom so I won’t need to be worried too much about editing and I think to do them first thing in the morning will hopefully give them a nice casual conversational aspect. Hence the name Let’s Do Breakfast.

As part of this series I will try and get relevant versions of songs that correspond with the person I am talking to. Although Jen and I didn’t actually get as far as talking about the actual songs we recorded I thought we’d kick off with a duo version of the song Houses. Like nearly all the tracks on Riveresque it’s a fave of Jen’s.

I have quite a strong recollection of the song being written as the Weddings were staying down south in Western Australia at the time. We had a couple of days off mid tour and I think Peter Hayes hadn’t long taken over as manager and, being from the west had some good contacts for accomodation. It was mid winter and we found ourselves tucked up in some nice chalets on a winery somewhere down there. It was restful and productive - all open fires, blue cheese and sparkling shiraz. There was plenty of time for lounging around with instruments between cooking the odd scrappy meal and sampling the local produce. So, very appropriately, the song Houses was written in a house, and then ultimately recorded in another one (on the other side of the country). It’s a song that has been in and out of the live repertoire over the years but somehow always seems to find its way back into contention.

So strap yourself in - here’s Jenando discussing granola, fruit loaf, nursing, violin practise and career opportunities on the north NSW coast. You get the interview video for free but the recording is for the payers only. That’s the only way we can keep this thing running folks.

Houses with Jen Anderson on violin, mandolin, vocals