Jules Sheldon & The Boundary Riders Announce New Album Electric Transport

A regular on the Australian independent music scene since age 15, Jules Sheldon was mentored by rock icon Spencer P. Jones (Paul Kelly Band, Beasts Of Bourbon, The Johnnys) who produced his self-titled debut album in 2010. Since then, he’s added another two albums to his discography, each as different from the other, but still tied together by his careful and detailed songwriting.

The last few years haven’t been easy. Losing mentors in both Jones and his Beasts of Bourbon bandmate Brian Henry Hooper made Sheldon question if he could go on as a musician. Rediscovering his love for music after a lot of soul-searching, it was revisiting some of his favourite songwriters, and the formation of his new backing band The Boundary Riders, which gave him his mojo back.

Crafting a jangly but punky alt-country sound, the result is the album Electric Transport. With nods to Paul Westerberg, Tim Rogers, and Robyn Hitchcock, Sheldon creates a love note to these cherished artists, while also making an album that is truly unique.

The trio went into the studio with the plan to both capture and refine their live set, as Sheldon explains. "When The Boundary Riders play live, it’s loud, rockin’, a little daggy, very funny, and raw, and we feel that lightning in a bottle, so to speak, was fully captured on the recordings."

To coincide with Electric Transport, on October 2, Sheldon will release the album's lead single 'Tramways In My Mind', a song which has travelled with him for ten years.

"I wrote it when I was touring overseas and my relationship broke up on tour, so I found comfort in the number one thing which was familiar to me as a born and bred northern suburbs boy from Melbourne: Trams."

"Trams have always been a source of comfort for me, as they hark back to being a little kid and feeling true safety in the world," explains Sheldon. "It's a feeling I needed out alone in an unfamiliar place and dealing with heartbreak. The song almost didn’t make the album, but when I started playing music with my band The Boundary Riders, it suddenly fit comfortably in with our countryish and jangly rock 'n' roll, and has become a beloved song in our sets."

Across the rest of the album there are songs about the love for a family pet (Got Myself A Shadow), how dreams can drag you back to places you don't want to revisit (Travellin In), a beautiful tribute, with lap steel, to Jones and Hooper on 'The Uncles', and writers block on 'The Fountain'.

Sheldon rounds out the album on a positive note with 'When I'm Old', a song about how we are the sum of our memories and the importance of retaining them. "If I were to lose those memories, then that would be the last straw, and I would no longer want to exist upon this earthly plane as losing them would be losing what makes me who I am. ‘When I’m Old’ is me: It’s my game plan, my rhetoric, and how I want to be."

“Think Ray Davies's melodic stylings with a healthy dose of the spirit and vibes from his beloved mentor Spencer P. Jones.”
Kim Salmon (The Scientists, Surrealists)

"There’s a sense that Tramways, The Uncles, Burning Schools are important subjects to sing about. It’s not as if the delivery is overly earnest or that anything is laboured, just that Sheldon and his inspired band deliver the songs in a way that is as believable as it is enjoyable. There’s enough There’s enough rock ‘ n’ roll swagger to lend the varied subject matter a sense of credibility that feels natural and unforced. It feels logical, sincere. It feels like fun for godsake. And isn’t rock n’ roll supposed to be fun?”
Mick Thomas (Weddings Parties & Anything)

CREDITS

All songs by Jules Sheldon

Jules Sheldon: Vocals, guitars, keys
Joseph Foley: Bass guitar, lap steel, backing vocals, keys
James Turner: Drums, percussion, keys, backing vocals

Recorded by James Turner at Boundary Riders HQ.
Produced & mixed by the band
Mastered by Snowy

Photos by Max Falovic
Graphic design by Jules Sheldon

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