Warmer
Warmer is the singer-songwriter project of John Encarnacao. Under this, name John produced three albums during the 2000s before turning his attention to the more collaborative The Nature Strip, which also features singer-songwriter Peter Marley (see China Pig). A new line-up of Warmer is being unveiled at Django Lounge on Thursday 7 November: Susie Bishop on violin, Tim Byron on keys, Jess Ciampa on drums and Lloyd Swanton on double bass. Event here
John was invited to Hobart to work with producer David Carter to bring some tunes and make an album with his students at the Tasmania Conservatorium. The result is an album called Wooden Box With Strings, which will be released by Half a Cow in March 2020. It is full of acoustic guitars, a string quartet, and other delights . . .
. . . First release from the sessions is “Get So High I Can’t Get Down”, a song which threatens to turn digital platforms into the AM radio of old with its killer pop hooks and performances bursting with energy. While some have compared it to the classic good times of the Monkees, there’s also something of a 90s lo-fi feel, even if that effect was achieved through oldskool mixing on an analogue desk.
The chorus and most of the lyrics to “Get So High” came to John while walking between Circular Quay station and Sydney Opera House en route to a concert and quickly sung into his phone before they could be forgotten. It was only a couple of years later that he wrote the bridge and finished the structure.
And though the track “Get So High” is far from an exercise in 90s retro, its packaging might be. It’s being released as a limited-edition CD single (100 copies) with four b-sides, three of them 4-track demos from the John E. archives. One, “How Fire Works”, is a song never before released in any form, written in the late 1990s around the same time as Nature Strip fave “Shoes”. The other two, “Cold Diamond Armchair” and “Lost an Eyelid”, will be known by Warmer fans through their proper studio versions on Spider and Lamb and The Cat’s Miaow respectively. That leaves “Sore Knowledge”, a hitherto unknown (and kinda creepy) outtake from The Cat’s Miaow with John on resonator guitar.
Read more...Spider and Lamb
Sydney group Warmer’s third album, Spider and Lamb, was released in April 2011 by Half A Cow. Upon hearing it, HAC’s Nic Dalton declared: “It’s your Sgt Peppers!”, perhaps picking up on the Beatles-esque pop eclecticism and variety of moods. The album ranges from the delicate folk of ‘Broken Wing’ and ‘Then It Hit Me’, to the passionate rock of ‘Spider and Lamb’ and ‘Wah-Hoo’, and the wide-screen trips of ‘People Round Here’, ‘Home’ and ‘No Bad Messiah’.
The group is lead by singer-songwriter-guitarist John Encarnacao and shares players with other HAC artists Dog Trumpet (drummer Jess Ciampa) and Bernie Hayes (Jess and John). Jess and bassist Peter Marley have been part of the group since its inception in 2002. Pete now co-heads The Nature Strip with John, with both writing songs for that project which has released an album, Stars Turn Inside Out (2013) and EP, Plainclothes (2014 – find them on China Pig Records).
Warmer’s debut, A Prayer For Soft Honey (2002) was a reflective acoustic rock affair, while follow up The Cat’s Miaow (2005) jammed out with country, rock and lo-fi threads. Spider and Lamb draws on all of these influences for a concise selection of psychedelic pop.
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Get So High I Can’t Get Down EP
Spider and Lamb
The Cat’s Miaow
Time’s Come EP
A Prayer For Soft Honey
Discography
Get So High I Can’t Get Down EP
Get So High I Can’t Get Down (hac202)
released October 2019
- Get So High I Can’t Get Down (3:41) From the forthcoming album Wooden Box With Strings. Produced by David Carter. Drums by Sam Dowson, backing vocals by Mandy Pearson.
- How Fire Works (2:53) 4-track demo recorded 2000.
- Sore Knowledge (4:01) Outtake from The Cat’s Miaow, recorded 2002. Produced by John Encarnacao, recorded by Michael Carpenter.
- Cold Diamond Armchair (demo) (3:21) 4-track demo recorded 2005. Rerecorded for Spider and Lamb.
- Lost An Eyelid (demo) (3:34) 4-track demo recorded 2002. Rerecorded for The Cat’s Miaow.
All songs written by John Encarnacao and published by Mushroom Music. All tracks mastered by Tim Kevin except “Get So High” mastered by David Trumpmanis. Art and layout by Ryszard Dabek.
Spider and Lamb
Spider and Lamb (hac149)
released April 2011
Warmer:
John Encarnacao: singing, guitars, keyboards. Bass on Hit Me, Home, People, Something. Drums on Messiah, Home, People. Glockenspiel on Hit Me.
Jess Ciampa: drums, percussion, backing vocals. Bass on Messiah.
Peter Marley: bass guitar and backing vocals
with
Brendan Smyly: soprano saxophone on Hit Me, Armchair
Michael O’Regan: organ on Armchair
Robbie Balatincz: banjo on Armchair
Holly Harrison: trumpet on Armchair
Michael Carpenter: drums on Something, slide guitar on Wah-Hoo
Zoe Carides: backing vocals on Messiah and Wah-Hoo
Bill Gibson: backing vocals on Wah-Hoo and Broken Wing
Armchair, Then It Hit Me and Messiah recorded and mixed by Brendan Smyly
People and Home recorded and mixed by Brendan Smyly and Adrian Barr
Quadrille recorded and mixed by Adrian Barr
Spider, Wah-Hoo and Broken Wing recorded and mixed by Michael Carpenter
Something recorded by Smyly, Barr and Carpenter, and mixed by Carpenter
Black Cat recorded and mixed by Rich Sanford
Mastered by Dan Hersch at Digiprep, and re-sequenced by Michael Macken, who also tweaked the final mixes of Messiah and Hit Me.
Special thanks to Mitchell Hart for harpsichord and pump-organ wrangling and all-round technical advice.
Produced by John Encarnacao. All songs written by John Encarnacao and published by Mushroom Music.
Cover illustration by Zoe Carides. Photographs and design by J.E. Layout and design help by Nic Dalton.
The Cat’s Miaow
The Cat’s Miaow
released 2005
A Prayer For Soft Honey
A Prayer For Soft Honey
Originally released 2005 (W. Minc Productions)
All songs written by John Encarnacao
Played and sung by John with:
Jesse Ciampa
Zoe Carides
Mandy Pearson
Mick Carpenter
Liz Ertler
Robyn St Clare
All tracks recorded by Michael Carpenter at Stagefright Studio, Sydney Australia, Winter/Spring 2001, except “Prayer” recorded at Goose, by Angus Kingston and reworked at Stagefright. Produced by Michael Carpenter and John Encarnacao. Mastered by Rick O’Neil at Turtlerock.
Artwork and images by Peter Hickson. Etch-A-Sketch and photos of John by Zoe Carides.
Thanks to: everyone above who gave their time and energy to this record, and also Stephen Creswell, Team Gilpin, Nic Dalton, Bernard Zuel, Peter Marley, Natalie Gouda, Marti and Leticia, Jen Cloher, James Dixon, Bernie Hayes, Peter Kelly, Bill Gibson, Graham Hilgendorf, Dave Aston, and the lovely gentlemen at W. Minc Productions.
The word “Cancerette” comes from Peter Carey’s novel “The Unusual Life of Tristan Smith” (1994).
“Magic Child” was inspired by a passage from Ianthe Brautigan’s memoir of her father Richard, “You Can’t Catch Death” (2000).
This record is for Zoe Carides
Time’s Come EP
Time’s Come EP
Reviews
A Prayer For Soft Honey
Debut release. Leader John Encarnacao has been a music journalist, made experimental sounds with Upsidasium and St Crustacean, done stellar arrangements for the Whitlams, Godstar and Sneeze. Warmer is a different kettle of fish in that it’s John’s very own kettle. A Prayer For Scott Honey has drawn comparisons with Elliot Smith, Tim Rogers and the Icecream Hands but John is no slavish imitator. He wears his influences proudly but uses them to create music that’s stunningly beautiful and true to his heart. – Waterfront
