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The Blackeyed Susans.
This year's Fringe is seeing no shortage of quality Melbourne musicians performing at The Regal venue in Rundle Park. Vika & Linda Bull, Matt Walker & Ashley Davies, The Dave Graney Show, Spencer P Jones and Stephen Cummings have all played great shows, and there's no shortage of quality acts still to perform, including stalwart Australian band The Blackeyed Susans.
"At the Fringe we're going to present more of our softer side, drawing from quieter atmospheric moments," says The Blackeyed Susans' bassist and songwriter Phil Kakulas. "From what I'm told about the venue, I think that approach will be more suited, and maybe Adelaide will enjoy that.
"I guess one of the benefits of having such a large back catalogue is that you can write quite different set lists. Sometimes we interpret and build sets around different themes and get carried away and realise that every song or every second song has a water theme. That's quite easy for us to do. This time we're looking more to construct a mood and an atmosphere, I guess."
The Blackeyed Susans are also gearing up for a retrospective release on their independent Teardrop album later in the year, and Kakulas admits their Adelaide performance will be a good chance to dig out some older songs to balance the current 'Shangri-La' favourites.
"We're enjoying ducking back into the back catalogue, to stuff we haven't done in six, seven, or eight years, and rediscovering it and reinterpreting it. But there will be a bit of 'Shangri-la' as well." Beyond the Fringe, Kakulas says the band will be focusing on compiling their next release. "The aim is to try and summarise the last fifteen years in less than an hour," Kakulas explains of that collection. "We're currently taking submissions and arguing amongst ourselves, but hopefully it should be out later this year. That's kind of our forward focus at the moment."
I am always curious as to the reason's behind a band's decision to release a hits compilation, singles collection, anthology or career retrospective, and was interested to hear Kakulas reasoning on the forthcoming release.
"In a way it is drawing a line in the sand," concedes Kakulas, "saying it's been 15 years since Rob [Snarski] and I started the band, and where do we go from here? In some way it is that, but in many ways the retrospective is more based on practical considerations such as recently getting back the copyright to all our back catalogue. This puts us in a position to release some of our own stuff on our own label, so there are very pragmatic reasons also.
"We'll looking to gather together a lot of things from different albums, and different songs from EPs that haven't previously been available over the years. We're really trying to get some of that re-released. Hopefully we can include some of the more eclectic b-sides as a bonus disc as well." I express enthusiasm at this idea, being an avid admirer of the rare hard-to-find Susans' b-sides I hear occasionally aired on local radio stations such as three-d.
"I think b-sides occupy a pretty special place," Kakulas concurs. "Maybe we're in a different mind set when we're doing them, or maybe it's the band. I must admit I feel a bit of a failure sometimes when people prefer our b-sides to the records." He laughs. "But then I guess there is that chance to be a bit more edgy on something that's an off-hand gesture like a b-side, so in that way maybe they're more effective."
Mixed feelings on the popularity of B-sides aside, The Blackeyed
Susans are hardly disappointed in the reception 'Shangri-La'
has been receiving since its release nine months ago. "I've
been really pleased in that it's probably got the best reviews
of any of our records," Kakulas explains. "That's kind of heartening,
I guess, because when you put one of your things out, you hope
that people enjoy it. It's nice to wake up in the morning when
I've been feeling hung-over and crappy and I log on to find
there's someone from Spain saying they really like End Of
Time. That happens often enough to make it all worthwhile."
Steven Hocking
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The Blackeyed Susans play The Regal Sat 13 March. |
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