Science, Surfing and Cardi B: Jack River and Eves Karydas interview each other

It's difficult to find two Australian artists as dominative in pop music than Jack River and Eves Karydas. With incredible debut albums by each of their sides, the pairing - despite occupying two very different sides of the genre - have seemingly been unstoppable over the last twelve months or so, the former soaring following the release of her career-defining Sugar Mountain; the latter settling with her own debut album, summerskin, late last year after changing her stage-name to Eves Karydas the year prior. In the time since, however, it's become clear that both these acts have strong longevity planned within our pop scene, whether it be evident through sold-out headline tours or tight-packed Falls Festival slots that have defined them on the live circuit, or Jack River making a return earlier this year with a single just as captivating as her debut album, Adolescent.

The pair are currently touring the country together for The Sugar Mountain Ball - a national run, or a victory lap of sorts, of tour dates to close Jack River's album era, accompanied by San Mei - and to celebrate, we got the two pop forces to interview each-other, talking about everything from Cardi B to science magazines in the process. Dive into it below, and find the remaining tour dates while you're at it:

Jack River interviews Eves Karydas: 

What are your pre-show rituals?

Listening to Cardi B has become a ritual for me. Something about her tone and delivery gets me in the right headspace to go onstage.

Where is your favourite place?

London is my favourite city in the world. Within the city, there are a handful of specific areas that all complete for a favourite place, like Soho, Lordship Lane in East Dulwich, Exmouth St Market…

What do you love about being on the road?

Getting to hang with my bandmates for starters, because we all live in different cities. But the absolute best thing about being on the road is hanging out with and meeting fans after each show. Everyone is so bloody lovely.

Tell me a story about a song.

I'll tell you about how I wrote my song Hush. It was one of the first songs I wrote for my album summerskin. I had just moved to London and had just freshly met Sam Dixon who I ended up making most of the album with. He introduced me to another Australian - Stella Mozgawa, from Warpaint - and we all just had such a great vibe going on from the moment we met. Working with those two was like one big laugh fest, just so much fun. We wrote this song mucking around with three tiny synths called OP1's. Then we ended up working on Couch together. Those sessions really established my love of working with friends. That's where all the good stuff comes from.

Eves Karydas interviews Jack River:

Can you tell me some things that are non-musical that inspire you?

I read a lot of science magazines, I love knowing the strange and incredible problems people are trying to resolve, it keeps my brain alive with reality. I also love reading the AFR on the weekends, again, people solving problems, failing, winning, exploring - all kinds of people with specific motives

On the flip side, I’m so inspired by the ocean and the folk who write about it, make films about it, ride it, live by it.

Favourite things to do in your down time?

I love having time to write, slowly and lazily, go surfing and free diving. My dream day would be diving in the morning and writing in the afternoon (words not songs).

What has been your biggest career highlight/achievement to date?

Probably just making the album I dreamed of and having so many authentic connections with listeners around their story and mine.

Who are you listening to right now?

Dope Lemon

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