The Second Time Round St Paul & The Broken Bones Haven't Done Anything By Half

St Paul & The Broken Bones, fronted by the enigmatic Paul Janeway, took 2016's Byron Bay Bluesfest by storm. Their deconstruction and subsequent warped reconstruction of soul and R&B music struck chords all over, something which has had them invited back for another bite of the Bluesfest cherry for the second consecutive year - this does not happen often.

"That was a lot of the band's first time to the continent," remembers bassist Jesse Phillips of their shows here early in 2016. "And the response seemed almost overwhelmingly good. I think even during our first show at the festival, we were a little taken aback by the love that was shown us."

"I think even during our first show at the festival, we were a little taken aback by the love that was shown us."

And with good reason - the band's live show, honed over four years of hard playing, has become the stuff of festival legend. Indeed, people are still talking about these Bluesfest sets, and by all accounts, it won't be any less firebrand come 2017.

One reason for this is because by the time they grace our shores once more, St Paul & The Broken Bones will have long since released their second record, Sea Of Noise, the recent follow-up to their almost accidental debut, 2014's Half The City. It's an album which has been gestating for some time. "Yeah, we have been allowing the gestation of ideas since, basically, the very beginning of 2015," Phillips confirms.

"So it has been about a year and a half, and we were probably conceptually thinking about it before then," he goes on. "With the first record, we'd barely been a band, we hadn't had much time to consider what we were doing, so we just literally pulled together all the ideas we had and threw them all at the wall... we made that record in five days.

"This one was a substantially more considered affair, we took a lot of time to think about arrangements, to experiment in the studio," he explains. "And that's not to say the ideas are overcooked or anything... I think [Sea Of Noise] is a better reflection of the band's strengths, post playing four or five hundred shows," he adds with a laugh.

"I think we're a much better band now, just in terms of playing together, and we sort of know where our relative strengths and weaknesses are too, so now we can really play up those strengths and work around the smaller deficiencies we might have."

The results are all strength - Sea Of Noise sees the band in top form. It's a layered, more nuanced affair than its predecessor, even more depth added via the Tennessee Mass Choir (who were recorded for the album in the STAX Museum of American Soul Music, after hours), as well as a few extra horn players. The results showcase one of the finest modern soul bands you'll find on the circuit today; it's little wonder they've been invited back to Bluesfest. "I think I can speak for everyone else in the band, we're all pretty proud of how the album turned out," Phillips says with a smile.