Christmas Album Is On The Cards For Isaak

Illawarra Mercury

Thursday October 7, 2004

GLEN HUMPHRIES

CHRIS ISAAK, October 16: WIN Entertainment Centre

Chris Isaak is sitting in his San Francisco home, dripping wet.

He hasn't just gotten out of the shower, nor does he have some weird sweating thing going on. He's just rushed back from a surf.

"I had to do a couple of interviews and when I got back to my house and looked, the water was good and there was a couple of waves, so I said, 'I'm gonna do it'," Isaak says.

So he was out there for an hour before racing back for this interview.

That spur-of-the-moment attitude seems to be the way he lives his life. His lack of advance planning must drive his friends crazy.

"I don't keep to a schedule," he admits.

"Like I play guitar until I get hungry and then I get up and go and eat. I'll come back, and have a look at the ocean. If it looks good and I feel like a surf, then I'll go for a surf.

"Other people, they do things like, 'Tuesday, we're gonna go surfing'. I never plan it like that."

So it's no surprise that the people he hangs out with have a similar disregard of schedules.

"Of the people I hang around with the most, I have a buddy who's a surfer and he's the same way I am," he says.

"He called me one time, I swear to God, at three in the morning. 'Chris?' 'Yeah?' 'Lets go surfing'.

"Most normal people would go, 'You son of a bitch, it's three in the morning'. I just said, 'Pick me up in front of my house. If you can be here in 10 minutes, I'll do it'.

"He pulled up and I was already standing there with my board, wetsuit and everything.

"We went out under a full moon and surfed under the Golden Gate Bridge."

Perhaps he doesn't make plans because he doesn't really have a lot of spare time.

As well as doing the writing, singing and performing, Isaak has his own TV show (called, surprisingly, The Chris Isaak Show) and picks up the occasional role in movies as well - his latest is the John Waters film A Dirty Shame.

The reason for taking so much on is simple.

"I keep looking for my talent," he jokes. "Any day now, I'm gonna find it. Figure-skating, that could be it.

"I like doing those things, they're fun. I like to keep working. A change is as good as a rest. When you're doing a TV show it's a little different than doing a record.

"Everything's a little different and it makes it all more pleasant."

His next musical project is a Christmas album, due to be released in November.

It's something he's always wanted to do but figured he'd better establish his career first. After all, releasing a Christmas record as your first album would seem a little odd.

It includes a selection of Christmas standards that the band play at festive-season gigs as well as some new songs penned by Isaak.

And they're not all "ho, ho, ho" either.

"The holidays can be pretty rough," he says.

"One song I wrote was called Watching Christmas on TV. Everybody watches Jimmy Stewart movies - It's a Wonderful Life is really popular at Christmas-time in the States.

"There's been a couple of Christmases where I've been on the road in a hotel room watching that, and you feel like: 'Everyone's having Christmas but me'.

"The reality is there are a lot of people out there (like that). More people are sitting on their own with a TV dinner than there are, like, eight people around a table eating turkey."

If that sounds like a bit of a downer to be listening to on Christmas Day, Isaak thinks you're missing the point.

Christmas music is meant to be camouflage.

"A Christmas album is something you can put on when your relatives come over and are eating dinner and you turn (the sound) down to about three or four," he says."

"After dinner, they've had a few drinks and they start arguing in the kitchen, then you can turn the record up to about six or seven.

"It'll cover the sounds of people arguing."

Isaak is a rarity in the entertainment business - he's a genuinely nice guy. He doesn't seem to have an ounce of star ego in him.

For instance, how many other stars would hang around the merchandise stall after every show and chat and sign autographs?

"If they have cheap seats and want to see how bad our complexions are and just hang out, they can check us out," he says.

"After the show, I run backstage, push my hair back and I'm out front in about five minutes. There's a table there and we just say 'hi' to people."

Such a nice touch - more musicians should do it.

"Well, I have to. It's a court order," he says.

- GLEN HUMPHRIES

© 2004 Illawarra Mercury

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