Album Notes

The Gin Club's last effort, the critically acclaimed double LP Junk, was released in April 2008,
resulting in relentless touring and heavy rotation of singles "Ten Paces Away" and "Days" on
national broadcaster Triple J.
However just four months after Junk's release, in August 2008, the entire collective - Ben Salter,
Bridget Lewis, Conor Macdonald, Adrian Stoyles, Scotty Regan, Ola Karlsson, Dan Mansfield
and Gus Agars - were already decamped to "Prior Park", the cattle property outside Rockhampton
where much of Junk was recorded, to begin work on the follow-up. Joined by Australian music icon
Mick Thomas (Weddings, Parties, Anything & The Sure Thing) and long time collaborator Jacob S.
Harris - as well as a motley assortment of friends, relatives, animals and props - they recorded over
thirty songs in just under two weeks.
Late last year, the entire group - sans the now departed Karlsson - came together at the suburban
Brisbane studio of multi-instrumentalist Dan Mansfield to finish the job they had started some 18
months prior. They over-dubbed parts on existing tracks, re-recorded others, and even at that late
stage recorded some entirely new songs. The final 13 tracks - whittled down from some thirty three
demos and recorded songs - were then sent to producer extraordinaire Magoo for mixing.
The resulting album is a definite step forward for the group. With all eight members contributing
songs, Deathwish is certainly possessed of the colourful mix of influences, voices and styles that
have become the hall mark of The Gin Club. Some of the collective's most blatantly 'rock' material -
Karlsson's Big Star inspired "Pennies", Mansfield's "Shake Hands" and Regan's "Slow Down" - sit
by some of their bleakest work ever - Salter's lacerating "Eternity", and Macdonald's "I Am My Own
Partner". Stoyles contributes two hook-laden pop gems in first single "Rain" and "Gone", whilst
Karlsson's pastoral "Do Right", Salter and Harris's fingerpicked ballad "Say You Will" and Bridget
Lewis's ominous "Milli Vanilli" will appeal to fans of the group's earlier work.
Dan Mansfield, who along with long-time Gin Club ally Murray Paas was largely responsible for
engineering and over-seeing production of Deathwish, had this to say:
“The Gin Club have always done things our way and stuck to our guns. We trust our instincts. This album epitomises our
self-sufficient approach to our art. It is something we can genuinely say is ours, and we’re very proud of that”.
In spite of its multifarious contributors and collaborators, Deathwish - like Junk before it - has a
cohesion that defies rational explanation, and a resonance that is greater than the sum of its parts. It
confirms The Gin Club as one of the finest collections of performers and songwriters ever assembled
under one banner in Australia, or anywhere else.