Mushroom Music Publishing

It was at a Cairo coffee shop said to be thousands of years old in which Kav Temperley decided it was time for something new. Here, in the El Fyshawys Café, the Eskimo Joe frontman resolved to cast off his rock-star mask, shut down the smoke machines, turn down the lasers and close the chapter of the four-times-platinum juggernaut of Black Fingernails, Red Wine.

“I was sitting there having a coffee and smoking a sheesha and at that moment I decided I was going to give up the idea of this rock-star persona I’d tried to create and almost sacrificed myself for,” Temperley, chief songwriter and bassist, says. “I was going to come back and just be me and see where I landed.”

So from a bustling Egyptian eatery that never closes to the sleepy port town of Fremantle, Temperley, guitarist Stuart MacLeod and drummer Joel Quartermain found a new challenge when they regrouped in their home studio – to simply be themselves. The experience was liberating and the result is a beautiful, accomplished album that masterfully captures the finest hour in the band’s 12-year career. “The album really was about coming back to a much more honest place, as far as where the songs come from and who we are,” says Temperley. “On the last record we got to play those big shows and have laser lights and big screens behind us. That gave us the freedom to just relax and write some songs that came from a really honest place, that was just us.”

In Shalla is a wonderfully unguarded and inspiring set that harnesses the band’s fresh outlook and channels it through new methods of songwriting and arranging. Infectious drum grooves pulse beneath Temperley’s emotive vocals and form an infectious dynamic that sees melodies to soar. Light keyboard flourishes, a single violin, inventive guitar tones tempered with a pleasing amount of space all paint this vivid portrait of a year in the life of Eskimo Joe.

Demoing a dozen tracks and recording 11 at Byron Bay’s Studio 301, the trio were pushed beyond their comfort zone and to a new level by acclaimed British rock producer Gil Norton (Foo Fighters, the Pixies, Ben Kweller). For the first time the spotlight fell on Quartermain’s drums as a vital foundation, and the esteem rock producer challenged the band to craft songs that said the most with less.

“Gil’s sensibilities are pop and one of trimming all the fat and leaving what’s essential,” says Quartermain, adding that a decade ago Norton was the producer the Pixies-loving trio ambitiously dreamed of one day working alongside. “It was a nice dream-come-true moment thing after so long.”

For all of Norton’s guidance, the album’s most pervading presence is a sense of hope and lifefulness. From the stand-to-attention upbeat rock stomp of first single “Foreign Land” to the infectious carefree skewed pop of “Don’t Let Me Down”, the band’s lust for life is simply irresistible. With Temperley and MacLeod becoming fathers for the first time last year, In Shalla is the sound of an invigorating, exciting fresh start for a trio intent on embracing the world around them.

For a band whose sound has taken giant leaps forward, from 2001’s Girl to 2004’s A Song Is A City and on to the four-times-platinum mega hit Black Fingernails, Red Wine, Eskimo Joe have stepped up to again prove why they’re one of the most heralded and enduring rock bands around today. And this candid, unselfconscious set shows that the adventure is only just beginning.

“It just feels like a new chapter, a new challenge,” Temperley agrees, adding that their young families have only strengthened their commitment to the band. “New people in the posse make it feel like the journey we’ve been on for 10 years has opened up into a new realm.”

MacLeod agrees: “It definitely makes you take stock of what’s important in your life. I firmly believe family is the most important thing in the world, but you have to keep your soul happy as well. And music is always going to be there for all of us.”