Lloyd Spiegel would like to say he was “cool, calm and collected” the first morning the ARIA charts updated after the release of his eighth studio album, 'Backroads'.
“I actually went hunting for it at 7am,” the musician admits.
He wasn’t disappointed. 'Backroads' took #1 in the ARIA Jazz & Blues chart during its debut week, proving the industry veteran still has his chops.
“This album is really about my life outside of music, which is something I don’t talk about often, but my fans out there who’ve been watching me for 20 years, they deserve my honesty,” Lloyd says.
“Ultimately, a musician is a social worker. Our job is to make people feel good for a little while, to give people a smile or give people a reason to think.”
Lloyd first played songs from 'Backroads' in Australia at the Blues At Broadbeach festival on the Gold Coast in May, after returning from a stint touring across the Netherlands, Switzerland and Germany. “Most years, I head over and do a month of Europe to start my year,” Lloyd says.
“There’s a great thrill in playing for audiences that have never heard you before and it drives me for the whole year.”
The other driving force in Lloyd’s life and career are people: friends, family, fans. While he was recording his 2008 album 'Timber & Steel', his best friend hopped on tambourine for a song to earn a spot in the liner notes.
“He’s played tambourine on every album I’ve done since,” Lloyd says. “He always arrives at the CD launch with a t-shirt that says 'I’m On Track 10' or 'I’m On Track 9' or whatever.”
Lloyd even has his kids involved (track ten on 'Backroads' features them on bass and guitar), and has also invited a fan to play cowbell on a recording.
“An album has to be a memory, because that’s what it is,” he says. “It’s a record of the event, so I like to put those little memories in, those tidbits, those little pieces of trivia on the album, because it was a really personal experience for me.”
The singer-songwriter’s reputation for wisdom attracts all sorts of youngsters to his home, which can sometimes resemble a halfway house for transient musicians. “I wouldn’t come to me for advice, but they do,” Lloyd jokes, in the same breath that he lists four local acts who he’s watched progress over the years.
It’s possible he feels a sense of responsibility for guiding the next generation of musicians the same way his mentors did. “When I was seven or eight I’d would go out jamming with the blues musicians, and they may as well have been The Beatles to me,” he says. “I had heroes that I could call on the phone and ask for a lesson.”
Eight albums in, Lloyd shows no signs of slowing down and hardly knows what he’d do with himself if he wasn’t performing. “I don’t know how to do anything else, quite frankly,” he says.
“I still love the connection with people, to do that on a larger scale is the real true-blue thing in my life. That’s the social work thing, that’s what I really think it is.”
'Backroads' is out now.
Lloyd Spiegel Tour Dates
Fri 8 Jun - Camelot Lounge (Sydney)Sun 10 Jun - Harmonie German Club (Canberra)
Fri 15 Jun - The Skylark Room (Melbourne)
Fri 22 Jun - Hickinbotham of Dromana (Melbourne)
Sat 23 Jun - The Cabaret Club (Ballarat)
Wed 27 Jun - 5 Church Street (Bellingen)
Thu 28 Jun - Byron Theatre (Byron Bay)
Fri 29 Jun - The Soundlounge (Gold Coast)
Sat 30 Jun - The Old Museum (Brisbane)
Sun 1 Jul - Oddfellows Hall (Kempsey)
Sat 7 Jul - The Piping Hot Chicken Shop (Ocean Grove)
Fri 13 Jul - The Thornbury Theatre (Melbourne)
Sat 14 Jul - Live at The Bundy: Bundalaguah & Myrtlebank Hall (Bundalaguah)
Thu 19 Jul - The Ellington Jazz Club (Perth)
Fri 20 Jul - The Odd Fellow (Fremantle)
Sat 21 Jul - The Wheatsheaf Hotel (Adelaide)
23-26 Aug - Gympie Music Muster (Sunshine Coast)
