Brave foray paying off for Eskimo Joe Eskimo Joe - Got What You Need Eskimo Joe drop into the Fairfax Media studio to perform a song off their forthcoming album. PT5M6S http://www.smh.com.au/action/externalEmbeddedPlayer?id=d-2uog8 620 349 September 30, 2013 Eskimo Joe is best known as the rock three-piece that gave us the chart-topping Black Fingernails, Red Wine in 2006. But the Perth three-piece's brave foray into crowd-funded electronic music couldn't have gone much better so far. Their album Wastelands, which eschews their signature rock sound for much more fashionable synth-pop, has topped independent record charts just a week after being released - and was the second highest-placed Australian album in the ARIA charts behind Keith Urban, at 12th. "When we go out on the road, it's going to be interesting to see how we present this new music because there's a lot less guitars going on and we've always leant on guitars for a lot for our sound," says band member Joel Quartermain. Eskimo Joe: (L-R): Stuart MacLeod, Joel Quartermain, Kavyen Temperley. Guitars became doorstops in the making of this record, now that we're trying to work out how to play it it's definitely a challenge. It's [especially] a challenge to our keyboard player. He's got smoke coming off his fingers. Quartermain played most of the keyboards in the studio. But why change, when rock has served them so well? "It was quite a spontaneous, serendipitous thing," Quartermain says. We didn't plan to go down the synth route or electronic route, it just evolved from one jam we had the first night in the studio. It was a happy accident. The limited live performances of Wastelands they've done so far - mainly to paying fans who helped raise $60,000 during their crowd-funding campaign on Pozible.com - has seen plenty of dancing from female fans, Quartermain says. Eskimo Joe album Wastelands was crowd-funded. I don't know what the guys do [at gigs]. I think they just stand up the back nursing a beer, just going 'yeeeeah'. It's going to be fun to see how these gigs roll out. But as their performance of the album's first single, Got What You Need, filmed in our studio on Wednesday shows, Eskimo Joe's guitar chops are still intact. And you can still expect plenty of guitars on their classic material too. Eskimo Joe start their tour at the Theatre Royal in Castlemaine on October 17 and also play at Ferntree Gully on October 18, the Forum in Melbourne on October 19, Newcastle on October 24 and the Metro Theatre in Sydney on October 25. For more information and tickets go to www.eskimojoe.net