Jack Ladder

By Bruce Elder

JACK LADDER

WHAT do you do if you want to have a career in popular music and your real name is the same as the lead singer of You Am I? Yep - Jack Ladder is known to his mum, dad and friends as Tim Rogers.

"Everyone knows my birth name is Tim Rogers," Ladder says in a quiet, thoughtful and suitably baritone voice. "I kind of ruled that one out when I was thinking about names. Jack Ladder was just a name that had some ring to it.

"My real name was a problem when I was growing up. You Am I were in their prime when I was in high school."

I explain that "jack ladder" is a nautical term meaning "a hanging ladder of ropes or chains supporting wooden or metal rungs or steps". "Yeah. I quite like that image."

The name hovers above his band. Is it Ladder's personal nom de guerre or is it the name of the band? Well, it's a bit of both.

When he goes out on the road later this month, on his first national tour (with dates in every state apart from Tasmania), he will be accompanied by drummer Laurence Pike (Pivot), guitarist Kirin Callinan (Mercy Arms) and bassist Ben Waples (Triosk).

It is an experiment for Ladder. While he has occasionally played live, it has largely been as a support act. He has no idea who his audiences are or what they'll be like.

"The past few shows I have done, the crowd has been really mixed. It ranges from really young kids through to older guys - real music fanatics; Mojo readers." Then, with great modesty, he adds: "People probably come to see Laurence play drums."

Given that Ladder sees himself more as a songwriter than a performer, he is not even sure that live performance is what he really wants to do.

"I am really a songwriter. I have never really been a touring artist. I am just working on writing better songs so the songs can perform themselves. For me that would be the ideal thing. That's where all the strength is - in the song."

It is clear, however, that interest in Ladder is growing. He is regularly played on Triple J (his last album was "feature album of the week") and for those really observant and curious listeners, his song Two Clocks was featured over the closing credits on the final episode of the second Underbelly series.

Still, Ladder's slowly evolving and developing career is haunted by two stories that will not go away. He is endlessly described as someone who is so tall he will barely fit through the door of an average pub. In reality he is 198 centimetres ( 6'6").

And, because they know no better and look for easy descriptors, music writers regularly compare him to every well-known rock baritone, with Nick Cave and John Cale both looming large.

This is rubbish, as his music is much more upbeat than anything Cave has recorded. It ranges from the cute, glorious pop of Black Hole Blues through to the rather folky You Won't Be Forgotten (When You Leave) and the driving, old-style rockabilly of The Boy .

When asked about the Cale-Cave comparison, Ladder says he doesn't quite understand it. "I find it really confusing. It's quite unfair. Nick Cave has such a mystique about him that people can actually forget what he sounds like.

"To compare me to Nick Cave when I am not even in that world is …" - he pauses - "I really like Nick Cave but I don't think that what I do is anything like him.

"I really like Bonnie Prince Billy and Smog [Bill Callahan]. I like Television, Talking Heads, Johnny Thunders, Richard Hell - that New York punk scene.

"I was really into Sam Cooke, Roy Orbison, southern soul like Irma Thomas and Otis Redding. I love Little Richard and early Elvis stuff. I can't really sing like that but I love all that stuff."

Sunday , 5pm, Annandale Hotel , city,

9550 1078, $12.