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photo courtesy of Laughing Outlaw Records
When did you decide that you wanted to be a musician and/or songwriter? How did you start going about it?
When I was 13 I had an older brother and some cousins. They’d get me to listen to stuff like Led Zeppelin, Lou Reed, Neil Young, Deep Purple... I also liked pop stuff like Elton John and a lot of the disco that was on the radio at the time. I guess at that age it’s pretty easy to fall in love with pop music and it’s great because you get to choose what records you wanna buy. So you get this sense of deciding your fate!! And those records that I was hearing as a kid always seemed very mysterious to me.
At some point, I guess, you give yourself over to that mystery. Getting a guitar was my first attempt at trying to get inside the thing and see how it worked!! I don’t know if that was me deciding on anything but I got that guitar when I was 13-14 and I was pretty much hooked from then on. About a year later, London Calling came out and that was pretty much it...
What’s the best advice you ever received about making music, and who was it from?
My Dad once said “You should put a lot of swear words into your songs because people will pay attention to that sort of thing”. I don’t know if that’s the BEST advice I ever got but I’ve NEVER forgotten it!!! And I’ve only heeded it occasionally....
Who’s an Australian musician you particularly admire? Can you tell us why?
I like Nick Cave. He just keeps bringing it along. He writes great heartfelt songs. Puts a lot of humour into what he does, too.
What would be your dream local line-up for a gig, and why:
I don’t know what the line up was that day but it would be whatever acts preceded The Angels that New Years Eve at the Opera House steps when somebody threw a can of beer and it hit Doc Neeson in the head thus ending the rest of the nights entertainment and causing Rolf Harris to spit the dummy. I don’t know who came on before The Angels but they obviously did a GREAT job..
Can you tell AMO a story behind your latest release?
We’d start recording at about 10 in the morning and through the day talk about extra stuff we’d do that night after dinner. Around 5.30, Bek-Jean (our drummer) would go down to the house and cook a huge meal for all of us. At 7pm we’d go down to the house and eat and drink.
We NEVER EVER made it back up the hill to the recording studio!! Yet, every day, we’d go through the charade of telling each other about the stuff we were gonna record later that night, when in fact, we always ended up stuffed with pasta and beer and playing some weird drunken version of twister....
What do you want people to get out of this record when listening to it? How would you choose to describe it someone who was unfamiliar with your work?
I hope folks get a piece of whatever it is that they go looking for when they put a record on - and I hope they like the stories..
I describe it as rock’n’roll music with lots of stories about how people are livin’ – right now!!
What was the biggest challenge you faced when writing & recording this release?
Writing the songs was pretty straight forward. Just wrote ‘em.
We recorded the album in a shack on the side of a huge hill. The biggest challenge was climbing that hill every day!!!
What do you think is unique about the Aussie music scene as opposed to the rest of the world?
There seems to be a lot of miles between each gig..
Lastly, what’s the best thing about being part of the Australian music industry? The worst?
I’ve never felt like I was a part of the music industry although I’ve bought a lot of guitar strings over the years and the guys in the guitar shops are generally friendly...
The worst thing seems to be that there’s a lot of reliance on the kindness of strangers, which is a double edged sword – at best!!
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