THE SENOR FROM THE CANARY ISLANDS, formerly a resident of London, and long a man of, and not just about, Europe, Joel Sarakula, can be understood in many places.
“There was a time 20 years ago where I could maybe even have held my own in a very basic conversation in German, but I can make my way if I have to follow what people are talking about,” he says, in English, from his home in Las Palmas. “But I’m fluent enough to speak with most people in Spanish.”
Most of all, his brand of low-key funky soul and sophisticated pop, creamy yacht rock and the kind of music that could best be described as songs to play by the beach with a cocktail and tan, translates in all languages and across most borders. (The first line of his online biography says “imagine Ray Manzarek was the front man for the Bee Gees”, which is kinda true, and kinda barely touching the sides.)
All of which is not bad at all for someone from suburban, monolingual, pop-averse Australia.
Not that we’ve seen him perform here since 2010. Possibly 2009. Or 2010-ish. Hell, Sarakula is not even sure which city that gig was, so don’t hold him to the date; let’s just say a long time ago. Though as he points out “I feel like it’s only after moving to the UK and the releases in 2012 and 2013 that I have any kind of career”.
His return later this month for shows in Sydney and Melbourne finds him armed with the fruits of that career: a swag of albums, and often sublime singles, up to last year’s long player, Soft Focus. What it won’t see him armed with is any of those EU passport holders backing him. As he does in Europe, Sarakula will pick up a band locally: old school. Hey, it always worked for famous blues artists, soul legends or Chuck Berry.
That said, I do hope that the musicians understand that this kind of music also has dress standards.
“Oh, of course,” he says. “And they will be enforced quite strictly.”
So we should look out for Sarakula – who incidentally, according to a Danish interview that he doesn’t recall doing, was reading Jung last year – doing a James Brown, pointing to errant band members mid-show, letting them know a fine is coming if a collar is not wide enough or a harmony buttoned a little too high?
“I can be tyrannical, but that’s maybe going a bit too far,” he chuckles.
As a primer for the musicians as much as potential gig goers, Sarakula has settled in for the Reverse Marie Kondo today: rejecting the Japanese minimalist’s idea of throwing out excess materials and choosing instead five things he would like to bring into his life that would bring him joy.
A PLACE
When people ask me my favourite holiday destination I say Switzerland. The green, mountain wholesomeness.
Why are you laughing?
It’s a funny choice for a holiday destination but it’s so beautiful though. And it’s safe as well. Maybe that’s what I really love about it. Even in Lucerne and Zürich, these big cities, they all have these massive lakes in the middle of them and in summertime, you can just jump in and it can be a convenient way to go from one part of the city to another which might take a lot longer if you took a car or a bike. Bern has a river that goes through the whole city, from west to east, so you can use the river to circumnavigate the city.
I’ve never been there on holiday; I’ve been to Switzerland a few times and played gigs there, in and out in a day or two. But when I think of a magical place I always think Switzerland, which may be a bizarre answer, but I’ll let Freud work out the rest.
(It’s worth interjecting here that if we are going to go some psychoanalysis, Sarakula is a big fan of Steely Dan, and Steely Dan were always sticklers for precision and quality – and a bit of a chill – and probably the first place that comes to mind when you think of precision and quality and a bit of a chill is … Switzerland!)
I like that. There is a quote in The Third Man where Orson Welles’ character is talking about how boring Switzerland is and how they’d never come up with anything except for the cuckoo clock, which is a precision instrument, but I think that’s a bit unfair.
A SONG
I like the idea of writing and maybe even releasing stripped back kind of music. I don’t want to use the word Americana, because I don’t think I’m ever going to do any kind of Americana, but I love JJ Cale. And John Martyn as well, something that is really stripped back but complete in itself. Maybe that’s the kind of production I need to learn.
It’s the kind of music that doesn’t need any more and it can still say a lot without being overproduced or over-layered or having too many chords. Although John Martyn could throw in lots of jazzy shapes. But there is a nugget of something that links JJ Cale and John Martyn and this minimalist approach. Jon Hassell too I’ve been listening to, and he’s super minimal.
I think that song or those songs might end up being my next album. I don’t know that I’ve got that much more to say in this sort of smooth, polished world. I think I’ve said my bit [he laughs] I’ve polished as much as I can polish and this could be a different adventure and may be more difficult as well because you have to choose the best bits of the arrangement and the most powerful words, if you’re not going to sing that many words, and the best chords, if you are not going to play with too many chords and convoluted shapes.
A PERSON
Maybe I’m feeling sentimental but I would like to connect with my grandparents again and live that life a different way where I learnt more from my ancestors. I don’t think I appreciated that at the time I knew them. My last grandparent to pass away was my dad’s mum, and that was about 10 years ago. I don’t think I appreciated them enough when they were here.
Obviously you can learn from anyone but when you are their descendant there is just so much to learn and to ask, and to not repeat the same failures or learn about the mistakes. My mother’s mum was born in London, with sort of Scottish heritage, and moved out here as a small child; my dad’s parents were born in what at the time would have been the Polish empire but is now Ukraine, and they came as young adults to Australia.
BOOK/FILM/ART
I love films and I’ve always had this thing that I would love to make a film. I don’t know what I’d make; I think I’d make it guerrilla style and take a camera around and shoot a lot and work out what I’m trying to say later. Maybe that’s an adventure that could still be experienced. I’d want to do the soundtrack for it of course, Jon Hassell style, but with lots of synths and dark undertones.
I love ‘70s films, long scenes, mood scenes and mood pieces were not much sort of happens and the sound drives the dramatic action. I don’t know what I would say differently because I don’t know what I would say yet in the film, and maybe I will never do this. Or maybe I’ll make a six minute film and it will take me five years to do it.
SOMETHING OF HIS CHOICE TO BRING INTO HIS LIFE
This is a boring answer but I was going to say sports. Just movement. Like everyone these days I guess, I get stuck in a routine and end up spending half the day on administration and I don’t get to move enough, and also have that level of playfulness in my life. I really do love any and every kind of exercise and I miss them when I’m gone or don’t have time. There was a time during the first couple of years in the pandemic when we all had a lot of free time, a lot of musicians did at least, and I was jogging, doing yoga, swimming all the time and all sorts of things and I felt a lot happier then in a way.
In terms of actual games, tennis and squash I play and even recently tried rowing in the UK. That’s like a head twister because you’re sitting backwards and you are stroking the oars going forwards. It completely weirds out your brain, and that’s the kind of thing I miss: the ability to just weird out my brain a bit more. And that’s the playfulness in moving your body when I can get stuck in routine touring and writing in the administration of a musician/artist life
(Whoa man, cod-Jungian psychoanalysis hits again. Sarakula and rowing, is like his new spins on retro music: looking backwards but moving forwards!)
Oh, I like that.
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Joel Sarakula plays:
March 21 – Brunswick Ballroom
March 28 - Layzbones Lounge, Marrickville
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