In The Neighbourhood

Each of the five albums bearing Charles Jenkins' name on the marquee have been both identifiably his, and undeniably different from each other. Among them, there's been the very rock'n'roll one, the one built around a 16-piece string section, and now one he calls 'the folk-country chart-topper' – the poetically-titled Love Your Crooked Neighbour With Your Crooked Heart. 

“Oh, yeah – I try to make each album different,” the artist sometimes known as Chuck explains. “Although I'm not quite sure if I succeed sometimes. It might just come from working in a record shop for many years – and listening and picking the different shades and moods of what a singer was doing with each record.” Those of you unfamiliar with the historical term 'record shop' are advised to ask your parents or search Wikipedia.

“Of course, I can simplify that list of records – it's pretty much a fast one, then a slow one, fast, slow,” he laughs. And then happily self-deprecates: “I've actually been aiming on the slow ones to end up being just me and a guitar. But then I get confused, or don't have the songs to fit, and then ring the band.”

Said band, otherwise known as The Zhivagos, has players such as keyboardist Matty Vehl and Davey Lane (yes, the You Am I one). It's not a bad fallback position. Or, as Jenkins describes it, “I've got the two best strikers in the Premier League, and no Russian billionaire can take them from me. Guys of that quality to help with my songwriting, let alone playing live. Davey tends to play ukulele through the first bit where we concentrate on the new record, then straps on the 'Red Special' to go to other places. Although lately we've been getting out older things like [Icecream Hands'] Obvious Boy or Rain Hail Shine with the uke.”

“But the songs are pretty much folk tales, stories. But the instrumentation fits with that country mould. They tend to be songs of not many chords.” This is also of circumstance, as he explains it; “I was dealing with and listening to people – like Suzannah Espie – who were doing so much with so few chords. And [I] started thinking I was just putting too much stuff in my songs. So I just tried to cut it back.”

As much as Crooked Heart has been well-received by critics and Jenkins' audience, those doubts of his kept coming through. A few got dissipated at The Age 2012 EG Music Awards recently, however, where he was nominated. “Ben Salter got to sing [album lead song] Pray My Dear Daughter. That kind of thing worries me – particularly when on the night a couple of other people's songs sang by other people, umm, didn't quite fly. But it becomes a thrill when it does work.” And a bonus. “I got the editor to introduce me to him – and Ben opened with the line 'We know a lot of the same people – most of them say you're a cunt'. I warmed to him straight away.” 

As well as his work, Charles Jenkins remains a fan – which now comes with a generational twist. “I spend time going to see old bastards like You Am I or young up-and-comers like Tiny Giants or King Gizzard.” He's even passed the musical gene, with offspring Henry a bass player in instrumental funk band Cactus Channel. Does Dad Jenkins offer advice on how to avoid the pitfalls? “Ah, he and the band are well up and running in the land of mistakes,” he deadpans. “But they have had the good idea of not having a moaning lyricist in the band – they're the ones that tend to cause the trouble.”