Warmer - Warmest: A Selection, 2002-2020 CD

Reflections by John Encarnação, August 2025:

Warmer was the prime outlet for my songwriting throughout the 2000s. Around 2010 Pete Marley, long-term Warmer bassist (and even longer-term buddy) and I began what would become The Nature Strip, to which we both contribute songs. Since then, Warmer has become more of an occasional thing, with an album in 2020, and I am thinking, one quite likely to come in 2026.

Songwriting has been one of my main passions since my early teen years. By the time I joined The Flies at the age of 15, I had filled an exercise book with over 30 songs. Thank heavens they are lost to time. Although I wrote some songs I am proud of for my earlier bands The Flies, Smelly Tongues and Upsidasium – even a couple I still occasionally perform today – it wasn’t until my early 30s that I began writing songs of more consistent quality, and (I think) more direct appeal.

I had already begun writing a few songs in this direction (including “Shoes,” included here) when in 1999 I found myself in Japan with a home-dubbed cassette that pointed me in the direction I wanted to pursue. On one side was Jason Falkner’s Author Unknown, on the other, Elliott Smith’s XO: classic songwriting with echoes of the radio fare of the 1960s and 1970s, real emotional depth, and melodies and harmonies to die for. I can hear echoes of these two songwriters throughout my debut Warmer album A Prayer for Soft Honey, from 2002.

I enjoyed an unprecedentedly prolonged spell of prolific songwriting from 2000-2002, writing something like 35 songs. Although some fell by the wayside, Prayer and my second album The Cat’s Miaow (2005) are full of these songs, and some even appear on my third, Spider and Lamb (2011). During this time, my friend Bernard Zuel, with whom I’ve shared music since forever, gave me a copy of Lucinda Williams’ Essence, and I marvelled at the combination of musical simplicity and lyrical craft. Her work and that of Bill Callahan/Smog, and also PJ Harvey, set further songwriting benchmarks for me.

By the time I recorded Wooden Box with Strings in 2017-2018 (released in 2020), I had in mind the largely acoustic and sometimes string-laden albums of Laura Marling, Robyn Hitchcock and Nick Drake. And of course, the eternal bedrock of my pop consciousness includes The Beatles, The Monkees, XTC, Bob Dylan and Joni Mitchell. I hope this shopping list of songwriting influences doesn’t get in the way. I’d like to think I have my own way with a song, though it’s not for me to explain what that is.

Each album speaks to me of a time and place. With Prayer, I think of living and writing songs in Gilpin St, Camperdown, and recording with the resourceful, energetic and encouraging Michael Carpenter. The recordings from that album, and the handfuls I recorded with him for The Cat’s Miaow and Spider and Lamb, would not be what they are without his inspiration and collection of instruments. For The Cat’s Miaow there were also sessions with Matt Fell, and travelling from Sydney to Melbourne to work with Greg Walker of Machine Translations. All three are songwriter/musicians, and contributed indelible musical performances to the recordings: I think particularly of Mick’s country rock drumming on “Time’s Come,” “Kiss You on the Mouth,” and “Something Like Being Alive,” Matt’s bass guitar and magical omnichord on “Calling Out Your Name,” and Greg’s programming and bass on “Lost an Eyelid.”

Much of Spider and Lamb was recorded by my friend and colleague Brendan Smyly at Western Sydney University, though none of the pieces from that album included here, which were all recorded by Michael Carpenter. Brendan did record “Say Yes” for the early sessions for that album. For Wooden Box with Strings, I accepted an invitation to record in Hobart. Dave Carter was another inspirational person to work with. Given that he found most of the musicians, as well as overseeing the recording sessions themselves, he earned the credit of producer. He also played committed and athletic percussion on “Get So High I Can’t Get Down.”

Although I want to acknowledge all the musicians who performed on these recordings, this collection is dedicated to Zoë Carides (backing vocals), Jess Ciampa (drums) and Pete Marley (bass), who appear on more tracks than not, and Mandy Pearson, gone too soon, whose unique vocal timbres can be heard on selections from Prayer and Wooden Box; not to mention her hatbox drums on “#8 Dream.”

The musicians who perform on Warmest: A Selection are:
James Anderson, Zoë Carides, Michael Carpenter, David Carter, Jess Ciampa, Sam Dowson, Liz Ertler, Matt Fell, Isaac Gee, Bill Gibson, Graham Hilgendorf, Peter Kelly, Peter Marley, Madeline Nichols, Michael O’Regan, Mandy Pearson, Joseph Phillips, CC Thornley, J. Walker, and Sally Wolfe.