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Grinspoon.
 "I just try to make everyone sound good," Grinspoon bassist, Joe Hansen says between sips of water. "That's the thankless part of a bass player. I love that role though, and I like doing what I do." It's a role Hansen has been doing for ten years and seems comfortable with, casually chatting about band life so far. As 'Grinspoon: Best In Show,' their new Best Of confirms, it's also a role he's very successful at.
A decade has passed since Sickfest won the very first Triple J Unearthed competition. Since then, Grinspoon have managed to outlast the grunge and nu metal phases which threatened to swallow them whole and have come out on top. "I think as a band you've just gotta sail through it and do your own thing. If you try to change with the latest trend you're always going to be a few steps behind and you're never really going to be satisfied. Phases come and go and you just pay no attention to them, really."
This confidence has seen the Grinners build an extensive back catalogue. After rummaging through their four albums and two EPs with his band mates, Hansen emerged with a positive overview of his career. This becomes clear when he describes his reaction to re-hearing the early albums which he "doesn't really listen to" anymore.
"It's good that you can look back and see there's something worthwhile from each album. You'd be a bit disappointed if all the songs came from two albums out of the four, or if you looked at an album and thought 'oh gee, there's nothing really great on there.' I think we've been relatively consistent over the years, so that's sort of satisfying."
The band have also consistently increased in popularity over the years and progressed with each album. Their ongoing success begs the question: why release a retrospective now?
"Often record companies will do a 'best of' after you've finished your contract with them and you don't really get a lot of say in what happens then. You're kind of out of the loop or signed with someone else or whatever. We just thought while the going was good we'd do one now and we'd be able to have a fair bit of control in what happened with it. And it just seemed like the right idea to do after ten years."
The band plan to let 'Best In Show' "speak for itself," and, despite a new song for the album and a performance at the ARIAs (where they took out Best Rock Album), they are taking it relatively easy. With plans to start writing sometime later this year, they show no signs of coming to a complete halt anytime soon. For the moment however, Grinspoon have decided that it might be the right time to kick back and reflect.
"When we first came out it was a really good time in Australian music," Hansen reminiscences about the mid-nineties. "A lot of Australian bands started to get quite successful around that time and it was really good for us. I think that Silverchair helped that. It's probably a little bit tougher now but I still think that good bands and good music will get out there. It's a little bit different now with the whole 'Australian Idol' thing, but really that's been around forever in different forms anyway. I think the more things change, the more they stay the same."
One thing that hasn't changed in the Age of Idol is Grinspoon's solid live reputation. They played their biggest ever gigs last year off the back of 'Kills, Thrills & Sunday Pills'. Hansen pauses when I ask how crucial ten years of touring, playing festivals, and performing live night after night has been.
"We see people that were 15 when they first came to our gigs and now they're 25. We still see the same faces coming back; but then again, we see new 15 year olds coming. It's kind of cool because the people that started with us seem to be still there, and then there's always been a constant new flow of people getting into it. We have a pretty loyal fan base, which is what you really want as a band. That allows you to keep going."
Sam Ryan
 | 'Grinspoon: Best In Show' is out now through UMG. |
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