Carl Riseley


Music

Twenty-five year-old Carl Riseley has always had music in his veins. The passion struck earlier than Carl can remember when he was growing up on the Gold Coast in Queensland. 

 “I held my first trumpet when I was perhaps about four,” he recalls. “Dad taught me to play. I remember having lessons with him in our garage with the music spread across the windscreen of the car. We’d play songs like Scarborough Fair.” 
 
Carl played the trumpet throughout school, but it was only towards the end of high school that he really felt he could make a career from his talent.   
“I’ve always wanted music to be a major part of my life, but I didn’t really go for it until I was in Year 11. I noticed that I had more of a passion for the trumpet and for music in general than most other people. It came quite easy to me and for the first time I thought I should pursue it as a career, rather than simply a hobby.” 
 
And that Carl did. When a good friend joined the Royal Australian Navy as a trombone player, Carl was inspired to do the same and signed up the following year as a full-time musician in the Navy. 
 
Two trips to Iraq followed; experiences that greatly humbled the young then- sailor. 
 
“We were providing morale support and as much of a distraction as is possible for the troops over Christmas and New Year. Watching our troops edge a smile on their face while forgetting about what they were involved in, even if it was just for an hour as we played for them – it was one of the best moments of my life.” 
 
Indeed, but for Carl, some fairly amazing moments are still to come, with the release of his debut single, This Guy’s In Love With You, taken from his first  album, The Rise. 
 
The album came about swiftly after Carl’s tenure in 2007’s Australian Idol, where he made it through to the Final Three. 

“I think I had a lot of luck,” Carl laughs. “The only reason I auditioned for Idol was because I lost a bet with a mate and had to walk in and play out my part!  It was all a joke, but funnily enough I got through and I kept getting through.” 
 
During this time, Carl forged a strong friendship with Idol Music Director John Foreman and Vocal Coach Erana Clark. He laughs, ‘Erana gave me my first formal singing lessons! I improved out of sight when she taught me techniques. Before that it was all developed in the shower!” 
 
When Carl was eliminated, “things just sort of took off!”  
 
Toying with songs in his mind already, Carl did not miss a beat when Foreman mentioned making an album with him and it all fell smoothly into place. 
 
“John called Universal Music Australia and they were interested. A week later we met and decided to go ahead. We’ve been working on the album ever since.” 
 
Two weeks in the studio has produced a 12-track album of classic hits, sung by Carl and featuring some of some of Australia’s greatest musicians, including legendary trumpeter, James Morrison. 
 
“It was awesome. Unbelievable.” recalls Carl of the recording process. “At one stage we had 36 musicians in the room at one time, to get that big band, swing feel.” 
 
“They were long hours, but it didn’t feel like hard work because it was so enjoyable. I will never forget it. It’s my first experience in a recording environment and with a record label.”
 
The line-up of songs features new arrangements of much-loved hits including This Guy’s In Love With You, Girl From Ipanema, Pure Imagination, Lido Shuffle and We’ve Only Just Begun. 
 
“Most of the songs were my choice,” reveals Carl. “They are a compilation of songs that represent a lot of good things and good times that have happened in my life. You know how you listen to a tune and they springboard memories and emotions? Well, these have been significant memories in my life.”


Carl on… 
 
1. Let’s Fall in Love
“John Foreman picked this song. We made it the first track on the album because we feel it really captures the vibe of the album. It has a great monologue and strong section at the start, which captures the ballads, then it comes in with the big band swing section, with the brass, and that is the overall feel of the album. It is an awesome tune. I didn’t really know it until John played it to me in January but I loved it straight away. My memory of this will always be sitting in John’s home studio and coming up with new arrangements with him.” 
 
2. Pure Imagination
“This song always reminds me of Friday afternoons, when I was aged about seven. Mum used to work late on Fridays and Dad would pick us up from after school care. The only thing he could cook at the time was those little red boiled sausages. We called them Cheerios and we ate them with tomato sauce. Dad would cook them for us and we eat as many Cheerios as we wanted while we sat and watched Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.” 
 
3. Lido Shuffle
“Aaah Lido… my Dad is a massive Boz Scaggs fan. He used to play this kind of song all the time. I really wanted a shuffle on the album and this was the perfect choice. This was definitely my parent’s influence.” 
 
4. Does Anybody Really Know What Time it Is
“Oh well… this has come from Dad too. One of Dad’s fave bands is Chicago. When he was young, he used to play in a cover band. He was the trumpet player and back-up singer. They were always doing Chicago tunes.”
 
5. We’ve Only Just Begun
“I called Mum in late December and told her I was thinking about tunes for the album. I told her I wanted a really nice ballad that slightly more mature ladies would like. I asked what her favourite tune was and she said We’ve Only Just Begun by the Carpenters. I listened and came up with a couple ways to do it. This is for Mum. It’s really special.” 
 
6. Reminiscing
“This is a really famous song in the trumpet world. There is an awesome flugelhorn solo at the end. I wanted to put a few tunes on the album that I had done on Idol. We came up with a good arrangement and it ended up being really good. I thought it would be nice to have on the album.”
 
7. Girl from Ipanema 
“Before I went on stage for the announcement of the Idol Top Two, I said to John, ‘mate if I get through to next week, I’m going to do Girl from Ipanema and pull a girl up on stage, sit her on the stool and sing this to her.’ We talked about how we could change it. Well, I never got the chance, but we thought we’d stick it on the album and do what we wanted to do anyway.”

 8. This Guy’s In Love With You
“This was the choice of Peter Karpin from Universal Music. What I love is that whenever I play this to people, they all know the song, but they never know when they last heard it, who sang it, what it’s called… they just know they have heard it before. No-one really knows anything about it. It was written by Burt Bacharach and sung by Herb Alpert.” 
 
9. The Letter
“It is a really good choice by Ralph Carr, but I also have a great memory of this song. I put a band together in year 12 called Affirmation, which was the same name as my Dad’s band in his early twenties. One of the songs we did – one of our better tunes, was The Letter. We didn’t do it in the big band vibe back then. I was just mucking around. My friend and I had no clue… we both would try to sing it like Joe Cocker with the big raspy voice.”  
 
10. Time after Time
“I was at John’s house just after Christmas last year and the New Year’s Eve gig came up for Channel Ten. The theme was Time and they said they wanted me to sing a song that referenced time. I had no clue, but then we found this. One of my biggest Jazz influences is Vince Jones and he sings this on one of his albums. It is a bit of a tribute to him and how he helped me learn how to sing Jazz.” 
 
11. Smooth operator 
“This was actually Peter Karpin’s choice. It’s one of his favourite songs. We thought we would muck around with it and I love it.”  
 
12. Waltzing Matilda
“This was the first song I did in the Top Twelve of Idol. The theme of the show was ‘show us who you are’. The first thing I thought was that I am Australian and proud. This was the first song I thought of. I did it in a swing vibe and just had to put it on the album. We used a James Morrison arrangement. He is on the album, and he plays a cracking solo. I played with him once when I was 12, so it was amazing to have him there. He is a hero and I look up to him and now he is on my album. It’s great.”  


Carl Riseley Awards

2000 - Received Honours in 8th Grade Trumpet

2004 - AASM Medal, Australian Active Service Medal for deployment to Iraq
 
2005 - Iraq Campaign Medal, for service over 30 days in Iraq
 
2008 - Defence Medal, for service in the Defence force over 4 years           


Television

2007 - Australian Idol: Top Three
 
2007 - New Year’s Eve Concert: Sydney Opera House