Fast Tempo + Single Feature | Bo Maker
On the necessity of writing music and moving towards poetic structures
Joining Tempo for a quick-fire interview is Charlie Bomaker who after many years in bands has recently announced the solo project, Bo Maker. Blending personal songwriting and raw emotion with expansive indie folk Limbo Bliss is the first taste of what’s to come from a forthcoming album due later this year.
Hello Charlie, firstly congratulations on your debut single Limbo Bliss being out in the world. Can you tell us what it’s all about?
Hiya Noah! Thanks, I’m chuffed to have it out. Limbo Bliss began as a pretty stock standard love song, I suppose trying to capture the feeling of surrender – when you decide to lean into a new romantic relationship. It stayed like that for a while, and then during production it needed an outro. I wrote one as a retrospective, after the relationship had ended, so the song became a sort of bookend at either side.
Structurally you have chosen to resist convention with three verses and an outro with no traditional chorus. Can you tell us more about this way of working?
Yeah, for sure – I don’t think this was necessarily a conscious decision at the time. I’m pretty sure
I’d recently done a deep dive into the discography of Adrianne Lenker / Big Thief, so perhaps that informed the lyricism moving to a more poetic structure and away from a traditional pop song.
What are five words to describe your sound?
I’ll go with five R’s: Radiant, Reflective, Remedial, Raw and Rockin’.
The single is part of a forthcoming album due in October this year. Can you tell us where you recorded it, and if Limbo Bliss is a clear indication of the feel of the album or will it be traversing other styles?
Yes! I’ll be releasing the record independently later this year. Hoping to do a physical release on vinyl and CDs, maybe some tapes too. It was recorded across a few different spaces: partly at my house, partly at a friend’s studio, and partly at Edvard’s studio at the Meat Market. Mastered by Snowy.
Limbo Bliss is probably the most mellow song on the record, to be honest. The album is pretty heavily inspired by singer-songwriters of the 60s and 70s and their contemporaries – it’s a classic band sound across the record. Keyboards, synths, guitars, bass, drums, strings, soaring vocal harmonies. Warm and full.
What’s your top three influences?
Aldous Harding, Claude Debussy, James Blake
You have been busy in bands such as Go Dog Go and Sunfruits touring widely and have been working on solo stuff since around 2020. Can you tell us how your solo project began and if it’s been a slow burn to release things because of other commitments?
Yeah, for sure – Bo Maker began as a lockdown project. I had a lot of time to myself, writing songs that didn’t really have a home in any of the projects I was involved with at the time. I’d been thinking about a solo outlet for a while, but lockdown was what pushed me over the line –
writing music became a necessity more than a choice.
Honestly, the last few years have been pretty full on – personally and creatively – and I think that’s reflected in the music. There were times when putting these songs out felt further away than I wanted it to. So, there’s something that feels really good about it finally happening. I’ve got a growing backlog of music that I’m genuinely excited for people to hear.
If your music was a meal, what would it be?
Great question! I think my music would be a hearty broth with homemade stock, plenty of ginger and a lemony kick.
What’s the best advice you have got?
The best advice I ever received was my grandma encouraging me to keep learning piano when I was 15 and thinking of quitting to focus on footy (lol). She said,
“Charlie, if you give it up now then you might lose it. But keep it up just a few more years, and you’ll have this for the rest of your life”.
She was always a huge driver for me with music.
Lastly, what’s your favourite Melb/Naarm band right now that I should interview for Tempo?
Ooh I gotta say Dragonfru?t. They are electric.