Stray Cats’ drummer Slim Jim Phantom talks with Tom Hersey about his legacy and who’s going to carry the torch for further generations.
“I think we invented it to be honest with you, ”Slim Jim Phantom says, looking back on Stray Cats’ impact on the rockabilly scene.
From any other artist this might sound like typical rockstar hubris, but with their 1981 self-titled debut, the trio set the template for the genre – everything you need to know about rockabilly can be found on that record, from Jim’s stand-up drumming to the scuzzy pompadours sported by the band members on the front cover.
According to a good-humoured Jim, his catalogue of work with Stray Cats, and groups like Phantom, Rocker & Slick, The Head Cat and Swing Cats, makes these solo tours a lot of fun.
“At this point I’ve been around for long enough, everybody’s nice to me. It’s a little bit like being Ringo but on a smaller scale. [Audiences] like it when I sing the songs, there’s not really pressure… They come because I’m a character that they’ve known along time now, and it’s a brand they can trust.”
When he gets here, Jim’s hoping to catch up with old friends, especially The Living End’s Chris Cheney.
“Fans can expect more or less what they’ve known about me and what I’ve kinda earned my stripes doing. It’ll be rockabilly music. There’ll be a couple of Strike Out songs in there, a lot of family favourites… I’m bringing Tim Polecat from the Polecats. We made a record together about ten years ago with the band 13 Cats so we’ll do some of those and some original songs… Just the same Slim Jim they’ve known and grown to love.”
So, if Stray Cats started rockabilly, who’s out there in the next generation of artists to keep it going?
“There’s a lot of good stuff. I really like Imelda May and JD McPherson.There’s a lot of people who are breaking through. And those guys are both on their way, and so all it’s going to take is for somebody to have that hit record. We did that with Stray Cats when we first formed, we got those couple of songs that are now pretty well entrenched in the public consciousness. I still play Rock This Town in the jungles of the Amazon or China or Australia and everybody knows it. It’s up to someone to do something like that. We’ve gotta get that hit record that crosses over into the mainstream but brings the rockabillies along for the ride.
“I encourage everybody to get out and make it broad appeal. It’s there to be loved by everyone; it’s not just some exclusive club. We never set out to play for an exclusive slice of the population; we just wanted to play for everybody all the time. And rockabilly, that’s my scene. I love the music and the style and the people, but I think we should expose ourselves to all sorts of stuff.”
At a gig a couple of years ago, local rockers Kashmere Club were getting ready to play in front of your regular Saturday night crowd at the Espy front bar when they suddenly spotted someone in the audience who they hadn’t exactly counted on being there. “We were sound checking and the bass player Jono came over to me and is like ‘hey man have a look in the front row’ and I looked down and it was Chris (Cheney) just standing there with a beer,” remembers vocalist and guitarist Billy O’Connell. “When I was in my teens I was a massive (The) Living End fan; I had the whole guitar hero thing going. So yeah he stayed there and watched the whole set and afterwards he came and had a chat to us.”
What started out as a chance meeting at one of Melbourne’s most iconic music venues ended up with The Living End front man Chris Cheney signing up to produce Kashmere Club’s latest off ering, the Lost & Sound EP. “We got in touch with him and sent him a few emails and you know what the industry’s like – you never hear back – but we kept at it,” recalls O’Connell. Eventually they managed to pin the guitar virtuoso down, and once they had a date, they then holed up at Red Door Sounds studio in Collingwood. “He (Cheney) lives in LA now so it was kind of a matter of waiting for him to be back in Australia and try to book out a week of his time.”
Working with such an esteemed Australian musician proved to be a profound experience for the band, and O’Connell is full of nothing but praise for the legendary guitarist-turned-producer. “He’s a hilarious dude and grounded as hell, such an Aussie,” he says. “He’s got a massive reputation of being a perfectionist. I’ve heard of him locking himself in a room tracking the same mix for eight hours. He takes massive pride with anything that his name is on, so it kind of got to the point where he was the fourth band member.”
Despite his profile, Cheney worked tirelessly on the songs and his work rate was something that rubbed off on the band members, helping them to get the best results possible from the time they had together in the studio. “He worked really hard,” admits O’Connell. “Like we were meant to just do the standard 10 or 11 hour studio day, and I think every night for the whole week, he was going well past midnight. He’s got an incredible work ethic which opened my eyes; to see someone who’s achieved that level in Australian music and to see how hard they do work.”
O’Connell admits that although the band member’s musical influences are vast, they were definitely channelling some sort of 70s vibe into the soulful rock’n’roll numbers which make up the EP. “Nathan the drummer, he’s basically ‘70s influenced,” says O’Connell. “He’s a huge Jon Bonham fan, so I guess there’s plenty of Led Zeppelin influence in the rhythm section. The songs usually start as basic folk songs, and when they come to the band they kind of get that 70s thing stamped on it.”
If there’s one thing Kashmere Club pride themselves on, it’s their live performance. So naturally while recording the songs for Lost & Sound, one of the biggest challenges for the band was how best to translate the raw energy of their live show into the studio. “I think it’s the age old challenge to try and capture your vibe and what you do best live in the studio,” admits O’Connell. “(But) I think we managed to achieve it. When I listen to the EP, I feel like it does capture us live; it’s a lot more polished. Being a three-piece, there’s no room to add guitar layers or second melody lines when you’re playing live; we still had the opportunity to add those things, but it’s still very much a representation of us a three piece.”
KASHMERE CLUB launch their EP Lost & Sound at Cherry Bar on Saturday August 24.
The evolution of Ash Grunwald’s blues sound throughout his career has been an interesting journey to follow. Having already played a stellar set at the Wool Exchange in February this year, Ash is set to get you grooving again this Saturday night at the Torquay Hotel. The gig at The Wool Exchange (February) prominently featured the rhythm section of The Living End, and this was seen as a one-off performance. Yet, given the explosive energy and chemistry between the trio, they are on the road for the Gargantua tour. Although he was in the airport, jet-setting around and getting ready to tour once again, it was great to talk to one of the legends of the Australian blues scene.
“We’re really excited about the Torquay show. I used to live there for five years, so it is always fantastic to get back down there and soak up the atmosphere. Hopefully, fingers crossed, there will also be some waves, which would be good,” Ash said about the homecoming show.
Having written a stack of songs over the last decade, the decision of what to play on the upcoming tour must be hard; yet given the party atmosphere of the majority of Ash’s songs, there is definitely something to get you moving on the dance floor. From just a quick YouTube, if you have nothing on this Saturday night, Torquay is the place to be. To coincide with this tour, Ash is releasing a new album entitled Gargantua, which was born out of this collaboration. The first taste of this album, ‘The Last Stand’, went live on social media last week to rave reviews and steers away from his 2012 release, Trouble’s Door.
“The sound of this record is as far away removed from the last few albums as possible. It’s still got a lot of bluesy elements to it, but it’s the classic rock band setup. We started off recording for a few hours and that turned into six solid days of work. There’s two new songs, two covers and some reworkings of my older tunes. Playing with The Living End guys is fantastic because it is a lot more high energy than what I would usually do. The recordings were a lot more raw and original with everything done live. They are definitely one of the best rock rhythm sections in Australian music.
“The way that the Living End work is that they practice and practice; and Chris Cheney is an amazing guitarist and taskmaster, so that was definitely an interesting concept within the recording process because I am the complete opposite,” Ash said about the new collaboration.
The first single off the release, a cover of Gnarls Barkley’s ‘Crazy’, started out as just a bit of fun as a promotional piece of material for the tour; yet after receiving airplay on commercial radio, the response from Ash’s fans has been extremely warm and positive. “It’s always good to change things up when you’re playing someone else’s song. Cee Lo is a great singer and I wanted Andy to go really rocky and arse-kicking in the chorus, rather than being smooth. Looking back now, it’s a lot more high energy than we first thought, but it’s going be epic to throw down live.”
I’ve got my tickets, have you?
When & Where: The Torquay Hotel – June 15; The Corner – June 27; The Prince – June 28.
Surf roots bluesician Ash Grunwald has taken his collaboration with The Living End bassist Scott Owen to the next level, inviting the band’s drummer, Andy Strachan, to join them in the studio.
Ash Grunwald and Scott Owen, notorious bass-straddler with The Living End, allegedly forged their friendship and founded a musical collaboration over furlongs of soy sausages. As it happens, their respective wives play together in a band with Kram called Mr Cassidy, so social mingling was inevitable. The first fruit of that friendship saw Owen join Grunwald on a track from his most recent album, Trouble’s Door. However, the speedy acquisition of The Living End drummer Andy Strachan to join Owen and Grunwald on their latest endeavour, has resulted in a full collaborative album, which the boys are about to launch an album via a national tour.
The project and tour preparation is now in full swing, and following the commercial success of their cover of Gnarls Barkley’s Crazy, the trio have announced that their debut album, titled Gargantua, will be released late June.
“It has been a truly fly-by-the-seat-of-your-pants expedition,” Grunwald admits of the whole process. Particularly the mere six days this band spent at St Kilda’s Hothouse Studios – which boasts a worldclass Neve console, featuring 24 Neve 1073 mic pres, on which albums by AC/DC, Midnight Oil and Rose Tattoo were recorded – to create the album.
Grunwald describes Hothouse as “an Australian Sound City”, referring of course to the documentary directed by Dave Grohl that details the history of Los Angeles’ Sound City Studios. But Grunwald is making specific reference to the Neve 8028 analogue mixing console that the St Kilda studio utilises. Craig Harnath, the longterm owner of Hothouse, also has an overwhelmingly “massive collection of guitars here,” says Grunwald, like a kid in that sort of store. But amidst the multitude of guitars sits a Neumann U47, the microphone apparently manufactured “for the perfect broadcasting of Hitler’s voice”. And it‘s Harnath’s Neumann U47 that Frank Sinatra allegedly sang into when he was here when Bob Hawke was Prime Minister and he got in trouble for calling that news reporter a ‘two-dollar whore’, a member of the recording team discloses excitedly.
Several tracks on the album have already been previously released by Grunwald, including Walking and Breakout, both ‘fist in the air’ songs that have been reinterpreted with Owen and Strachan. And throughout the speedy process, Grunwald says he’s “learnt the value of professionalism. Because I’ll tell you, these guys are as tight as a fish’s arsehole.”
But for drummer Strachan, it’s Skywriter, taken from Grunwald’s 2006 album, Give Signs, which speaks most of their experience together. “That song sums everything up for me. The first time we played together was in Geelong and I didn’t know what we were doing… but Ash just said, ‘It goes kinda like this,’ and as he played it we started tracking it, and that’s the final product.”
“There’s no bullshit. That’s the whole thing [about] working with Ash – if it doesn’t sound good and if it doesn’t feel good then don’t do it! It’s kind of where this whole project is at; we’re only doing it because it sounds and feels right. We’re not trying to be anything or anyone else, and we don’t think too much about what’s been done in the past, but rather inject what we feel is required to make it different.”
Smack-bang in the middle of the ten-track album, Gargantua is a cover of Black And Blue, a song by seminal ‘70s Aussie act Chain, who Grunwald jokes were “pretty much Australia’s biggest-ever blues band. They were the panel van driving, VB drinking, wife-beater wearing, going to Sunbury in ’73 kind of riffy ‘70s band.”
But perhaps the most enticing track on Gargantua is Last Stand, a song first composed by Grunwald and his regular producer Fingers Malone as a pitch for the latest Arnold Schwarzenegger film of the same name. And while it didn’t gain Grunwalda film credit, his wife was persistent that the song be included on the trio’s album, saying, “Do that Arnie song! It’s catchy, and evil and heavy!” the dreadlocked singer recalls. “Then I realised we really should. And it’s probably one of the rockiest tracks on the album.” Running through the analogue Neve desk to get that essential warmth, the album tracks have gone through Hothouse’s ProTools HD3 Accel system on Mac Pro with 24 96k inputs and outputs, the digital part of the process allowing for the speed necessary to get the whole thing done in the six days the trio had to deliver the album.
Surf roots bluesician Ash Grunwald has taken his collaboration with The Living End bassist Scott Owen to the next level, inviting the band’s drummer, Andy Strachan, to join them in the studio.
Ash Grunwald and Scott Owen, notorious bass-straddler with The Living End, allegedly forged their friendship and founded a musical collaboration over furlongs of soy sausages. As it happens, their respective wives play together in a band with Kram called Mr Cassidy, so social mingling was inevitable. The first fruit of that friendship saw Owen join Grunwald on a track from his most recent album, Trouble’s Door. However, the speedy acquisition of The Living End drummer Andy Strachan to join Owen and Grunwald on their latest endeavour, has resulted in a full collaborative album, which the boys are about to launch an album via a national tour.
The project and tour preparation is now in full swing, and following the commercial success of their cover of Gnarls Barkley’s Crazy, the trio have announced that their debut album, titled Gargantua, will be released late June.
“It has been a truly fly-by-the-seat-of-your-pants expedition,” Grunwald admits of the whole process. Particularly the mere six days this band spent at St Kilda’s Hothouse Studios – which boasts a worldclass Neve console, featuring 24 Neve 1073 mic pres, on which albums by AC/DC, Midnight Oil and Rose Tattoo were recorded – to create the album.
Grunwald describes Hothouse as “an Australian Sound City”, referring of course to the documentary directed by Dave Grohl that details the history of Los Angeles’ Sound City Studios. But Grunwald is making specific reference to the Neve 8028 analogue mixing console that the St Kilda studio utilises. Craig Harnath, the longterm owner of Hothouse, also has an overwhelmingly “massive collection of guitars here,” says Grunwald, like a kid in that sort of store. But amidst the multitude of guitars sits a Neumann U47, the microphone apparently manufactured “for the perfect broadcasting of Hitler’s voice”. And it‘s Harnath’s Neumann U47 that Frank Sinatra allegedly sang into when he was here when Bob Hawke was Prime Minister and he got in trouble for calling that news reporter a ‘two-dollar whore’, a member of the recording team discloses excitedly.
Several tracks on the album have already been previously released by Grunwald, including Walking and Breakout, both ‘fist in the air’ songs that have been reinterpreted with Owen and Strachan. And throughout the speedy process, Grunwald says he’s “learnt the value of professionalism. Because I’ll tell you, these guys are as tight as a fish’s arsehole.”
But for drummer Strachan, it’s Skywriter, taken from Grunwald’s 2006 album, Give Signs, which speaks most of their experience together. “That song sums everything up for me. The first time we played together was in Geelong and I didn’t know what we were doing… but Ash just said, ‘It goes kinda like this,’ and as he played it we started tracking it, and that’s the final product.”
“There’s no bullshit. That’s the whole thing [about] working with Ash – if it doesn’t sound good and if it doesn’t feel good then don’t do it! It’s kind of where this whole project is at; we’re only doing it because it sounds and feels right. We’re not trying to be anything or anyone else, and we don’t think too much about what’s been done in the past, but rather inject what we feel is required to make it different.”
Smack-bang in the middle of the ten-track album, Gargantua is a cover of Black And Blue, a song by seminal ‘70s Aussie act Chain, who Grunwald jokes were “pretty much Australia’s biggest-ever blues band. They were the panel van driving, VB drinking, wife-beater wearing, going to Sunbury in ’73 kind of riffy ‘70s band.”
But perhaps the most enticing track on Gargantua is Last Stand, a song first composed by Grunwald and his regular producer Fingers Malone as a pitch for the latest Arnold Schwarzenegger film of the same name. And while it didn’t gain Grunwalda film credit, his wife was persistent that the song be included on the trio’s album, saying, “Do that Arnie song! It’s catchy, and evil and heavy!” the dreadlocked singer recalls. “Then I realised we really should. And it’s probably one of the rockiest tracks on the album.” Running through the analogue Neve desk to get that essential warmth, the album tracks have gone through Hothouse’s ProTools HD3 Accel system on Mac Pro with 24 96k inputs and outputs, the digital part of the process allowing for the speed necessary to get the whole thing done in the six days the trio had to deliver the album.
Ash Grunwald’s friendship with Scott Owen, bassstraddler for The Living End, developed quickly around the coal pit in Grunwald’s backyard over many a soy sausage and a surf report. Soon enough, the lads themselves would stand side by side on the stage as well. One thing led to another and The Living End’s drummer Andy Strachan would take to the road with Grunwald too. The three ended up in the studio where they recorded a cracking, heavy version of Gnarls Barkley’s Crazy. Now they’re bringing it to the stage. See them live, together, at The Metro on Friday 12 June and The Cambridge Hotel Newcastle on Saturday 22.
He’s one of those young virtuosos from Bali. Has got himself one of those more guitar, less talk attitudes, started his career as a metal head and once, rather reluctantly, this skinny jeaned guy tried taking over the mic. But that was just a fleeting moment for this string axe loving guitarist. For he went knocking on rockabilly’s door and now calls psychobilly home. His name is Leo. Leo Sinatra, to be precise.
You started as a speed-metal Helloween-oriented guitarist and now you’re known as a psychobilly axeman? Quite a contrast. Yep, you are correctamundo. Back in the day I was a heavy metal man complete with long hair, ripped jeans, and a tonne of heavy metal accessories! Was such a different look to the one I have today cause these days I’m all skinny jeans and slick back hair.
People may or may not remember but I was in band called Soul of Speed (SOS). We were pretty popular; made it to our fair share of band festivals in Bali and Java. You know, our very first gig at Gedung Mario in Tabanan and from there we went on to receive The Best of the Best High School Band in Bali award and I got myself the award for best guitarist. We also won first place at a band festival in Jember, we were chosen as the “favourite band.” That was some journey! I’m going to cherish those memories forever, those SOS days were pretty incredible.
Was all good but, times change and with that, it eventually came time for me to break loose from the heavy metal scene. Let me tell you, it was so damn hard to cut that long hair!
Interesting. Tell us more. How exactly did this drastic influence-shift come about? It was 2004 and a friend of mine came back from Australia for school holidays and gave me a Living End album on CD. I was so amazed by them, I went over to Opix’s house (Suicidal Sinatra’s vocalist). We went for a drive, I cranked up the music and he was so unimpressed that he turned off his CD player. I was laughing so much, but I didn’t give up and honestly it didn’t take long for him to come round. We started studying The Living End rigorously and that really influenced our next album, Valentine Ungu. Surprisingly the album, despite how different it was to our metal stuff, was really well received by both friends and fans as well, gigs kept rolling on in after that. We started playing gigs, gigs, and more gigs and by then we all felt that the rockabilly feeling burning our hearts. By the time we released our second album, Love Songs and Stinkin’ Cheese, we had changed our name to Suicidal Sinatra.
The album was produced by Electrohell Records, which is owned by Bobby Kool of Superman Is Dead. They’d shown a lot of interest in the band over the years and post that we went on to meet heaps of new and interesting music-industry people. It was amazing, I felt like I’d found my way, musically speaking.
And since then, having tapped into psychobilly music, things have kept getting increasingly better, bigger, and more interesting. During that Living End inspired era I discovered Tiger Army and were totally and unbelievably hooked. All my bandmates were just as hooked as me. So all of us jumped in together; like we were drowning in a Tiger Army frenzy! That band changed our vision. We became darker, angrier, and became increasingly conscious of sociopolitical issues. The shift we made in the psychobilly-infused Boogie Woogie Psychobilly album is a testament to that. It’s darker, heavier, faster, but it also makes you want to dance like a drunken devil. Man, my wildest dream would be to share a stage with Tiger Army – it’d be totally insane. I’m going to keep being optimistic about that, it’ll happen. You know, not so long ago I shared a stage with Travis Demsey, the former drummer of The Living End. Best feeling ever!
How did you come up with the name Suicidal Sinatra? Does it mean anything? We were all out one night, drinking and talking about new band name possibilities, fuelled further by a really good friend of ours was there who knows our style. It was one of those crazy drinking sessions, a little suicidal perhaps, and thanks to that, by the end of the night we’d come up with the infamous name. We all started putting Sinatra at the end of our names and it caught on. Guess our fans thought it suited us and them too ‘cause it wasn’t long before the more diehard among them were going by the name Sinatra like we were.
Let me put it this way, the meaning of Suicidal Sinatra, is what it is; a more suicidal version of Frank Sinatra. Still slick and melodic but much more badass, heavier in a punk rock sense. More hardcore.
Suicidal Sinatra is arguably Indonesia’s first psychobilly band. In the beginning, how did people react to your arrival on the music scene? Yeah, I’m fairly sure we were the first. It was a bit hard introducing Indonesia to the genre because of the heavy chords and dark lyrics. But it turns out that there were quite a few rockabilly kids out there looking for things to get dark. Darker, heavier, faster. They were the first to accept us and through them the general public got to know us. Then, boom, psychobilly fever hit. Now Bali also has a couple of psychobilly bands, like Uncle Bean and Mad Dog, and I think there are a few more in Jogja, Surabaya and Jakarta too, of course. But I’d imagine that there’s at least one in all the major cities.
What’s the latest Suicidal Sinatra news? You started as a quartet, went trio, and now I hear you’re back to four again. You going to bring out a new album anytime soon? You know, we are all family men in this band and thus, family is an important factor. It’s true, at one point Opix left to work on a cruise ship so we went from four to three. To have lost our singer, that was a big dilemma for us. I stepped up to the mic but, honestly, it was a nightmare for me. I had to force myself to sing, just to keep the Sinatra flag flying high. That’s when we released Los Sinatras in 2009; it was supposed to be proof that we were still kicking. Five years later, Opix is back! We are a quartet again, I finally get to ditch vocals, and the band is ready to boogie. A label in Jakarta approached us and we’re currently in the process of producing a fresh album. The plan is to have 12 songs, plus three bonus tracks. Hopefully it’ll be ready for your musical pleasure-seeking selves by mid April.
And what about your solo project? Is it still happening? And is it as psychobilly as your band? It’s funny but, I think, because of how much I hated having to become the lead singer of Suicidal Sinatra, having been forced into that experience built up my confidence to sing. And yeah, now I have several side projects. One of those is a band called Leo Sinatra and the the Mad Rockers. It’s a country, honky-tonk kind of band, influenced by Willie Nelson and Johnny Cash, with a touch of psychobilly thrown into the mix. This particular project has helped me to explore my skills using a lap steel guitar whilst singing.
I’ve also got a skabilly outfit called Jack Knife Blues which is more fun, dance your little heart out, easy listening. I guess the point of all these projects is to test my potential and also my skills. As a musician you want to be able to gather more skills and explore new music. I sleep, wake up, and breathe music.
You’ve just opened your own clothing store, with a music cafe where indie bands can come and play. Awesome move! Bali, especially for the alternative scene, doesn’t have a whole lot of venues for non-Top 40 artists does it? Yep, I did. My wife and I have just opened a place called Rumble Girl, stocking girl’s clothing, and we’ve got St Lucas’s coffee shop. Our aim is to support local bands and create a cool hangout place at the same time. We let the bands play for free and in return we give them free drinks. As you said, Bali has limited venues for alternative bands to perform so this is a good thing for us, the island, and for them. However, as our location is smack in the middle of a residential area, the performances are restricted to acoustic and can’t go on till too late at night. So far so good though cause we’re full to over capacity most shows and we’ve had big names play; Dialog Dini Hari, Nymphea, The Dissland, The Bullhead, Roots Radical, The Brews, and Natter Jack – just to name a few!
In your opinion, what are the three most highly recommendable rockabilly/psychobilly albums? The three that have shaped the person I am today; all the Tiger Army albums, Living End by Living End, Swing Sinner by James Intveld, and Dead Moon Calling by Mad Sin. Sorry, that’s more than three, it’s not possible to just list three. Any last nagging words? My life and love is music. People should always be respected for their passion. I came across this quote one day: “What if they’re right and I have no talent at all? ….F#%* them all, I’m an artist.”
I will admit, regrettably, that I attended The Living End’s show with a firmly instilled and rather smug sense of irony. It was, after all, many years since the band fi rst enamoured my 13-year-old self with their anti-authoritarian anthem Prisoner Of Society. It was also many years since I totally dismissed them as mainstream fodder, so revisiting their debut self-titled album seemed an apt way to revisit my fondness whilst not entirely surrendering my perceived good taste. Not entirely unlike attending a Vengaboys show.
Immediately upon launching into aforementioned song of a generation, I was forced to eat my words. The Living End may no longer be particularly relevant for a vast portion of their initial fan base (though there was a great deal of them throwing up the horns in a tame but thoroughly enthused mosh up front), but that doesn’t mean that they ever stopped being masterful musicians, or for that matter, writing good goddamn songs.
Steaming verbatim through their self-titled album, with the occasional embellishment, it occurred to me that for all my obsessive fandom, I never quite appreciated the quality of this band’s songwriting. Borrowing from every niche, nook and subgenre of the late ‘90s, this album was the embodiment of legitimate, Australian punk rock. It was cheeky and charismatic, the perfect representation of the band themselves.
Even as Chris Cheney lamented the band’s brutal touring schedule, suggesting that rehashing Second Solution was more fucked than it was fun, it did little to dampen his temperament. Smashing stuff. I was at once sentimental and then, deeply humbled. It was a bold move, regurgitating an entire career’s worth of albums for this Australian tour, but one that may have just reignited all the right flames.
LOVED: Revisiting Prisoner Of Society. HATED: The chronological setlist dictating that all the best songs were played first. DRANK: All of the beers.
Mr Cassidy
Author: Zoe Radas
I don’t think it’s any coincidence that the most apt adjective that comes to mind when attempting to describe Danni Carr happens to be the same word as her own daughter’s name. Danni is mother to Sunny, wife to Ash Grunwald and one half of gorgeous new country/folk outfit Mr Cassidy. The other half is Emilie Owen, who has two children of her own with another of Australia’s darlings, Scott Owen. The two met when their husbands were playing together, and the subject of music and family became a deep discussion which quickly bore sweet fruit.
“You’re focused on [your children], I guess; that’s your main priority,” Carr says contemplatively, over the phone from Byron where she’s about to head back inside to continue rehearsal. “You lose a lot of that creative drive, and Emilie was the same. So when we met, we talked about that and I felt ready. I really felt like it was time to start playing again, and she was in exactly the same boat. Also with having husbands that are well-established musicians… you seem to be more supportive toward their things that they’ve got going on, which is cool.”
As it happened, the bluegrass stars aligned and Carr and Owen decided to get jamming, and jamming good. The result is an EP of five exceptionally beautiful, sometimes bangin’, always searingly heartfelt tracks, with Carr’s guitar and lead vox and Owens’ backups and fiddle accompanied by extra instrumentation from percussionist Fingers Malone, and Mr Owens himself. “Yes, he’s playing bass on the whole EP,” Carr confirms and then adds with a grin, “actually we were rehearsing today and he was doing some extra special stuff, and I’m like, ‘What the hell?’ He’s just playing so fast and slapping the crap out of the bass. He’s such an amazing player. Sometimes I kick myself: I’ll be at a gig, and I look over and Scott’s going crazy and I’m like, ‘Shit! I’m actually playing with the bass player from The Living End’,” she laughs brightly.
Carr also has warm things to say about Fingers Malone, whom she calls “the Modern Day Renaissance Man” for all the feathers in his cap. “He’ll play drums, he’ll help you write a song, he’ll produce the album, record it, he did all the artwork for the EP, he did the artwork for our posters and postcards, he does everything,” she says, but adds that he’s still incredibly understated. “You’ll say, ‘Why don’t you do a drum solo?’ and he’s like, ‘No way, I don’t do that shit’,” she smiles.
The titular track from the EP, Mountain Side, is driven by Fingers’ infectious shuffle with brushes on the snare, and some great unusual harmonies backing Carr’s vocals that are spot on as a bell. “It’s not recorded in such a bluegrass traditional way, it’s a bit more of a modern take on it. That one Ash and I wrote together over a bowl of muesli one morning and then went down and recorded it that day,” she says. The other stand-out is the hauntingly pretty Where My Babies Lie, which Carr wrote about the story of Robert Farquharson and Cindy Gambino, whose three sons were killed when Farquharson drove his car off the road and into a dam on Father’s Day in 2005. Carr has been friends with Gambino for a few years and for a long time felt a propulsion to write something about the tale.
“Being friends with her and having spent a lot of time with her,” begins Carr, and then pauses to ponder. “Her story, she’s very open about it, she will talk about it. I think it’s part of her healing. You just walk away from her feeling, ‘oh God, it’s just so, so sad.’ I only met her about three or four years ago, but it’s always playing on my mind. I think about her all the time, I think about her suffering all the time. It’s going to sound a bit wanky but I was getting quite upset, writing the verses, and I wanted it to be right. I didn’t want it to be too graphic, but I really wanted to tell the story. And it’s really quite a fine balance.” Carr sweated over anticipating Gambino’s response, but said when her friend eventually heard the finished track she was “freaking out”, in a good way. “She was glad someone could express her point of view, especially in the form of a song,” Carr breathes. “I was really happy and relieved.” Expect more awesomeness when the full-length is out (heads up: Nash Chambers may be heavily involved) towards the end of the year.
MR CASSIDY launch their EP Mountain Side at The Workers Club on Saturday February 2, supported by Dave Larkin.
Earlier this year The Living End hatched a plan to play their six albums start to finish in a series of weeklong engagements around the country. Double bassist Scott Owen tells Tom Hersey about the ins and outs of such an audacious idea.
“I don’t know where this idea actually came from!” The double bassist laughs about The Living End’s seven-nights-in-each-city tour. “No one in the band seems to want to take responsibility for making the initial suggestion to do an album a night over a week.”
Immersed in the thick of rehearsals for the tour, Scott Owen, The Living End’s affable double bassist, is growing to realise the magnitude of their decision to hit up the capital cities around Australia to play the band’s entire discography live over the course of a week. Owen sounds entirely cognisant of the fact that the tour is going to be a massive undertaking. So why exactly did the band take on such a mammoth assignment?
“We were thinking about what fans might want and we came across this idea that we should play the songs that we don’t usually play,” he explains. “Then we also had the idea ages ago to do a show where we would just play our first album or just play our last album, something where we’d just do an album start to finish, so we sort of combined the two ideas and then it just seemed to grow and grow into what it is now, where we’re just playing everything.”
With six albums spread out over a decade-and-a-half, playing everything is no easy feat. The average headlining tour might require a band to learn 14 or 15 songs; for The Living End this aptly-titled ‘The Retrospective Tour’ has required them to get just about 80 numbers fighting fit.
“We started rehearsing the stuff about a month before the first show, but leading up to that month it was pretty frightening, thinking, ‘Shit, how in the world are we going to learn all those songs?’” Owen laughs again. “Because we had to learn about eighty songs, and alot of them we’ve never played live, and a lot more we haven’t played live for years… We were all thinking how this was going to be a mammoth task. But then we got into the rehearsal room and it was a really enormous surprise to find out how much the information about those songs was still alive and kicking around the back of our brains. It all came back quite easily, and when it came back it brought with it a whole bunch of memories as well. So it’s been a really, really great experience going back over all of those records.”
The nostalgic ride accompanying this process of going back over all of their material has been incredibly rewarding for Owen and his bandmates, namely of course guitarist/vocalist Chris Cheney and drummer Andy Strachan. It’s even allowed the guys to gain a new appreciation for some of the numbers that were never their favourites.
“In the first week that we were rehearsing we were trying to tackle one album a day,” Owen continues. “And in that week it was just a barrage of memories – every day there was something completely new. And as we kept rehearsing there would be tons of memories coming to us on a daily basis and I think that the whole experience has sort of changed how we feel about a lot of the stuff on our records. We’ve always been a band that has our own favourites on a record. But now, even the stuff that wasn’ tour favourite when any given record came out, now there’s this novel factor about going back and revisiting them. That stuff is really enjoyable to play now with all this hindsight, and the songs don’t feel like the chore to play like they used to, because it’s all new again.”
Pouring over all of The Living End’s records, from 1998’s self-titled debut to last year’s The Ending Is Just The Beginning Repeating, Owen has found himself discovering trends within the band. When asked about what specifically he’s noticed about the evolution of the trio’s music, he replies, “I guess what we’ve done with our music over the years is become a little bit more wise about writing, so the songs have gotten a bit simpler over the years.
“I know the songs on the first album are very simple, but then we kind of went on this mission after the first album to try and prove that we could play more complicated music and different styles and do different things with our songs. And that was our mentality for the next couple of albums, and then it feels on the last couple of albums we’ve started to rein ourselves back in again, and made the music more simple.”
In addition to all the work The Living End have had to do preparing for this upcoming run, ‘The RetrospectiveTour’ is made all the more interesting because it also represents a very unique situation for a touring band, giving fans a chance to vote with their wallets. Sure,there were tickets sold for the entire week of shows in each city, but fans also had the choice of only getting tickets to see the albums they wanted to. It seemed fairly courageous for The Living End to put themselves in a situation where they’d have their entire catalogue, directly, quantitatively, critiqued by fans.
“Yeah,” Owen chuckles, “it was really frightening putting tickets on sale for this tour. Because if not many tickets sold it would have been a pretty huge downer for us. Like, we were going to go to all the trouble of doing this tour and we could have found out that people didn’t actually give a shit. So we were really, really relieved and excited about the response that it’s had. Like in Melbourne what started off as seven shows is now twelve or something. Yeah, there are a couple of records where the tickets haven’t sold as well, and you can’t help but think, ‘Hey, what’s wrong with people? Didn’t they like that record?’ But overall we’re awfully chuffed about how people have been responding to the idea, it’s really been pretty flattering actually.”
As its namesake implies, this tour – from the inception of its idea, the long rehearsal process and then actually trekking around the country for each week-long engagement – has been a rare chance for introspection for The Living End, Owen even believing that it’s led to the band finding a deeper insight into themselves. But after all this looking back, has it led The Living End to look forward?
“None of us are sort of ready to hang up the boots and retire, I can still see us making music for years and years, and playing music for years and years, but we don’t really know what the future holds in terms of when the next album will be or anything like that. And I guess that’s another reason for this tour; there’s no better way to know how you want to move forward than all this friggen’ looking back!”
Mr Cassidy
Author: Tony McMahon
Danni Carr, singer/songwriter with edgy country outfit Mr Cassidy, explains to Tony McMahon that timing was an important factor in releasing her band’s terrific new record, Mountain Side. “We’re pretty thrilled and excited about its release,” says Carr. “Initially we were going to record a full album but started running out of time. Scott Owen, our bass player (from The Living End) was preparing to leave for rehearsals before embarking on a mega-tour around Australia and we wanted something to be able to promote before we played at the Tamworth Country Music Festival in January next year. My second baby is also due to arrive in March, so we thought let’s just get something out there and get some momentum happening.”
As far as what Queenslanders can expect from the band’s upcoming show, it seems there’ll be awesome supports, an onstage get together and a return trip.
“We’re playing with The Starboard Cannons at The Joynt, which we’re really looking forward to. We’ve done a number of shows with these guys and they’re amazing! We usually end up doing a few songs all together on stage, which is heaps of fun .We’re also aiming to get up to Brissy and Goldy for some shows around January after Tamworth.”
Mountain Side’s title track was, apparently, written over a bowl of muesli and recorded later that day. Carr takes us through the process.
“My hubby (Ash Grunwald) and I were sitting having breakfast one morning and he picked up my banjo and re-tuned it to an open G and started strumming this really cool riff. I started singing the chorus and we were really getting into it. We pretty much had the song finished before we got to the end of our muesli! We have a studio under our house so we thought, ‘Let’s just get down there and get it recorded; (a) before we forget it and; (b) before Ash takes off on tour again’.”
Peewee Wilson & the boys from the Delltones continue to harmonise their way into audiences’ hearts, with their iconic sound that has stood the test of time.
At the 2011 Australian Club Entertainment Awards, you were presented with a Lifetime Achievement Award by former Channel 9 news anchor and stalwart, Brian Henderson… Your connection with Brian goes back to the Bandstand days… Brian was very gracious. He hasn’t been seen in public in ages, and it was just so great to see him come out and present the award… and of course, I was very thrilled about it. I still keep touch with some of the so-called Bandstand family, including Sally Scott and Col Joye plus a few others from the early days but in particular, Brian and his lovely wife.
In your acceptance speech at these awards, you talked about how ironic it was to receive a Lifetime Achievement Award as when The Delltones started out, people told you not to give up your day job! That’s exactly right. We are talking about the late ’50s or early ’60s when we didn’t really have a music industry out here, and it seemed that Rock ‘n’ Roll was seen as a passing fad – which would soon be over. Of course, we ignored that completely! We thought if we are going to give up our day job, we’ll do it right away and just see what happens! This attitude still prevails with us even today. The Delltones have never really thought about our future, and I guess that sort of perception from back then has stayed with us right up until today. The Delltones have always loved performing and of course, there have been many changes in the group, but we love what we do and are unashamedly out there to please the crowd.
How do audience members react to your shows these days? The reaction has been very much the same right the way through. There is a certain consistency in our relationship with our audience. We have been very fortunate. Part of the reason for the Delltones being around today is that we took on a whole new audience back in the ’80s, when we had a full-blown revival and brought out a couple of albums – including the revival album. This also spurred interest from our original fan-base, who remembered us from back in the Bandstand days.
You’re performing in Taree and Forster in July. The first half of the show consists of well-loved classics and the second half consists of songs from your revival in the mid ’80s… In the early part of the show, there will be an acoustic unplugged set – we will be doing songs from the Delltones’ original repertoire, from before we even went into the studio. In the second part of the show, we’re doing songs we recorded. We had 15 songs on the charts back in the years from 1959 to 1964.
Chris Cheney from The Living End said in an interview in Insider magazine that his first memory of a concert he went to was of The Delltones, which he said was just brilliant. That’s a nice accolade from a younger and successful musician! It was indeed. I’ve been a fan of those guys since their early days, because of the genuine connection they really have with the Rock ‘n’ Roll period.
