According to the press release that accompanied the announcement of Jack Ladder and The Dreamlander’s upcoming album, Hijack! was “born out of bushfires, break downs and a long-term hospital stay.” It’s a striking introduction, but one that refuses to downplay the weight of Jack Ladder’s sixth full-length effort. Across the album’s ten tracks, there’s an equal measure of hopefulness and hopelessness, as Jack takes a look at the world we live in with a sobering existentialism and wonder. A personal exploration that delves deep into the depths of pathos, the album is loaded with grief, humour and a yearning for something greater than ourselves.

Better known by his stage name Jack Ladder, Tim Rogers creates cinematic worlds in his music, and with his backing band The Dreamlanders (made up of Australian alternative-pop A-listers Donny Benet, Kirin J Callinan and Laurence Pike), these sonic landscapes are elevated to imaginative heights. With their music constantly traversing genre, style and mood, it’s often easy to label as ‘art-rock’, a term that Rogers initially laughs at but one that he’s clearly somewhat comfortable with by now.

“I guess my music is kind of hard to describe because it’s not genre based, and you know what art-rock is… is it bands that are born out of art school? You know Roxy Music, is that art-rock or is Radiohead, is that art-rock... because I don’t think that what I’m doing has much to do with a band like Radiohead. Maybe it’s art-rock in that it’s self aware. I watched a documentary on Sparks the other night. Something about their perspective appeals to me - there is a knowingness that’s aligned with an interest in cinema, postmodern art. I think there’s a sense of humour, a sense that there is something going on beyond the music.”

“I think for the most part, channeling the spirit of rock ‘n’ roll is one thing, then being aware of what the spirit of rock ‘n’ roll is and maybe doing something else with it is another, rather than beating people over the head with it. There’s something contrarian about it… I think there is a tradition of popular music that appeals to the masses in its simplicity but my music isn’t formed by popular music, it’s just that when I do it I’m not stupid enough to think that I’m doing it for the first time. I’m thinking about new ways to present old ideas perhaps. In doing that and not diluting, it changes its shape again. Ultimately I am just telling stories about my life and trying to find the space within the music for the stories to be heard, maybe that’s what art-rock is.”

Listening to his latest singles ‘Xmas in Rehab’ and ‘Leaving Eden’, there’s a clear sense that Rogers isn’t afraid to flirt at the peripheries of expectations, as he explains the two tracks “represent the polarities of the album”. First up, ‘Xmas in Rehab’ gets into the headspace of a character and allows the listener to peer into the mind of another and have a look inside.

“‘Xmas in Rehab’ is just observational about checking into a mental health facility for the holidays because your life has become a mess, it’s very much just about what that experience is like, and you know, watching rom-com’s with a bunch of addicts and eating healthy food and learning to feel better about yourself. I mean there’s a lot of humour in that as well.”

On the other hand, ‘Leaving Eden’ has a large cathartic resonance in its sound, as it delves into religious iconography in a way that feeds into the triumphant feel of the song, something that Rogers describes as “pretty wild.” “That one has got a lot of spirit in the string arrangements. There is a defiance about it, that it’s taking control of your life. I guess both of those songs are about escape and control - trying to regain control of a life that’s gone off the rails. There’s a power in that, again it’s about self-awareness, becoming conscious of your place, and how that is critical for survival.”

Although it seems like Jack Ladder exists within a limitless world, there is a sense of honesty that runs deep in Rogers songwriting. He writes in a way that allows others to find solace in his music, and he reiterates the need to be “self-aware” when creating music. This is something that comes off in different ways as he talks about making sense of the world through the music he creates.

“Well I guess in a lot of ways it’s the only way I know how to make sense of the world. I’m not very good at participating in a larger debate about politics or what’s going on in terms of public health or anything, I don’t know how to, I just don’t really participate in the world in that way. I mean making music is the only way that I know how to be in conversation with myself and with friends a lot of the time. What I’m feeling or whatever thoughts I have about things generally, I will write about them in song. It doesn’t mean that I release all of the songs but I do write songs that deal with things I’m thinking about, it does help me to just get it out or just communicate an idea.”

When talking about his songwriting process and where he takes inspiration from, in terms of the characters and worlds he creates through his music, Rogers reflects, “I just pull bits from everywhere. Normally when I write a song I’m not thinking about myself necessarily… maybe that’s the self-preservation thing. Even though I'm going through something, I will imagine someone else going through that thing and I will write about it for them and then that is somehow healing for me. I guess some songs are about other people, but primarily I am writing from my personal experience... I think sometimes there’s this idea that I write fantasy or like some sort of Bruce Springsteen thing. like people were saying that I was writing the working man’s tunes, and I don’t think about it like that. I think that I am always writing from my own perspective - writing using different sort of literary devices to make it feel like it’s not me (laughs), but generally writing from my perspective.”

With this in mind, there’s a few reasons why it makes sense for Rogers to go by his stage name, and that’s not just limited to him sharing a name with another Australian music icon. Rogers explains the persona that he has adopted in becoming Jack Ladder; “I think any time you adopt a name that isn’t yours there is some kind of shift… you have a persona that you embody to project the music to other people. To do it purely as yourself, if you are not that confident with yourself, to have a character or mask that you put on is very helpful. Sometimes I can say that it [can] allow you to be more honest wearing a mask because there is no fear of judgement that you are the person that is saying these things. I think when I write, I am not necessarily writing from a character that is Jack Ladder that lives some sort of fantasy or anything. I don’t see the difference to who I am and who Jack Ladder is anymore.”

Since the group’s 2012 debut Hurtsville, there has been a sense of raw honesty in the way that they represent the full spectrum of human experience and emotion; from the deep lows to the soaring highs, as embodied on ‘Xmas in Rehab’ and ‘Leaving Eden’. Opening up about exploring ideas of mental health through song, Rogers shares, “it’s just human decency. You know people are isolated and people turn to music for lots of different reasons, whether it’s because they want to get wild or whether they need some sense of solace or something to feel like that whatever it is that they are going through is okay. That they're not alone… I think it’s just a natural form of empathy in being a songwriter, you want people to relate to your music. It doesn’t mean that you have to have a diagnosed mental health problem to understand my music but you know most musicians that I know would suffer from some sort of depression, just associated with the hours and lifestyle… I’m only writing about my thing and if they can relate to that then that’s great.”

As our conversation continues, it becomes apparent how integral The Dreamlanders are to Rogers as a songwriter, as they enable him to explore the musical worlds that he does through his persona. Rogers explains his relationship with each member in this way; “having friends that have a similar set of musical values or principles that understand where your music is coming from. I think if I didn’t have those people in my life, I would have made very different decisions about the music that I’ve made. I think when I met Kirin it was a really important time and I was just assuming a more backwards looking direction in music and Kirin sort of showed me a way forward a little bit. Similarly with Laurence, these are very progressive and thoughtful musicians and Donny as well. They always bring a huge amount of clarity and depth to things that could be quite dull.”

Created in “a great time of flux, a time of personal transition,” Rogers explains the process of making Hijack!. “Well I had been touring for the last few years and was planning on not touring this year or last year (laughs). So when the lockdown happened it didn’t really affect me in any great way because I was basically just sitting down to write for the next six or so months anyhow so that’s all I do. It did go on a little longer than I thought it would and has continued to.” However, he had originally planned to go to America to record the new album, but with Covid-related border restrictions thwarting this plan, he called upon long-time collaborator Laurence Pike.

“He’s [always] been a huge presence and a guiding force in terms of making the records, he just never really had a producer credit. He’s been making his own records and records for other people, so I think we figured between us we could make the right decisions to bring it together. So I just showed him the songs and we had a nice delicious Vietnamese meal and we decided that we would do it together. He did some rough sketches over the songs and we sent them back and forth. Then we just booked in some recording time at a studio in Sydney which is a great studio - Simon Berckleman built it himself with his father and it’s the first studio I’ve been where if something breaks, he knows how to fix it, so everything ran really smoothly.”

Rogers is in no way an insular musician and so with great ambitions, it only made sense for him to call upon Sam Lipman, a childhood friend of Laurence who’s currently based in Austin, Texas. “He’s an incredible musician. He teaches orchestration and works in film scoring and he agreed to write the string orchestrations for the album so he did that and he recorded them in Austin as well, so there was a bit of back and forth but he generally just nailed it straight up. The strings got flung into the mix and then the record was pretty much done. Kirin came at the final moment just to hang some ornamentation up around the house and then it went to mix. Probably the smoothest construction and creation of an album that I’ve ever made in my life.”

Another unexpected influence that shaped the record was Rogers’ love for cartoons, an inspiration that can be heard in his larger-than-life songwriting. “I watched a lot of Bojack Horseman and I watched a lot of Big Mouth. I think there is kind of an edge to the record that is almost like a musical. Some of the songs start to feel like they could be songs from like The Simpsons or something. There is a song called ‘Negative Blender’ on the record that I think is quite funny in that way.”

Having weathered the storm of “the flux” that went into the songwriting process of Hijack!, there is a sense of circular completion about 2021. Ten years on from his first album with The Dreamlanders, and putting out his sixth record, Rogers points out the similarities between the records; “I think I’m dealing with a cinematic world in the same way. Hurtsville had a very cinematic atmosphere… there is an illusion to a bigger world, it’s not straight rock music. And I guess where Hurtsville had a lot of synthetic strings and that was a kind of means to an end to make that album. The new album has a lot of string arrangements performed by an ensemble, and I think that flavour really heightens the sense of atmosphere and drama.”

Rogers also opened up about the joy of revisiting Hurtsville, both in the reissue of the record and in a live setting. “It felt good. I never really stopped playing the songs. I never played the whole thing through, a lot of it wasn’t playable solo and a lot of the songs we never performed with the band ten years ago. I don’t know, it felt triumphant and I was proud that people still cared about that album and if anything, I think people still cared more about it now than they did at the time. At the time it was a quite difficult record and we got a lot of mixed reviews. A lot of confusion around it, and a lot of plans fell through. To come back and play at The Forum in Melbourne was really fulfilling, and sort of felt like we were setting the record straight.”

Tim Rogers, Jack Ladder, whatever you call him, is a true creative, and it’s easy to find yourself immersed in the thoughtful and thrilling soundscapes he and The Dreamlanders conjure. Whether you’re a new listener who might be about to sink your teeth into Hurtsville for the first time, or a longtime fan who’s eagerly anticipating the new record, we can promise there will be plenty to get lost in when Hijack! finally drops next month.