Radio Birdman

When it comes to good 'ol-fashioned Aussie rock, there are just two words you need to know: Radio Birdman. After reforming in 1996 for the Big Day Out, following years of bad blood between the group members, the legends of Australian pub-rock are now back with a brand new album and a national tour that will see them in Adelaide in mid-August.

Guitarist Deniz Tek recalls, "We've been doing some tours on and off for the last ten years since we got back together, but it's been a part-time thing up until now. This is the first time that we've done a really big tour since the old days and I think we're going to be able to last the distance."

Considering last night's show in Melbourne was "The biggest highlight, really up there," according to Tek, there is little doubt Radio Birdman are going to be able to pull this tour off flawlessly.

"The thing is that this band is like a hot rod - you abandon a hot rod in a field somewhere and plants begin to grow on it and it gets rusty and all that...But if you put oil in it, put some new tires on it, fill up the tank with petrol, put a new battery in it and start it up, the thing still has power and you can take it back out on the road. We've realised it's the same band, we can do it just like we always have been because that spirit is still alive."

And having Californians The Bellrays on board for the current tour has certainly helped in maintaining that spirit, as Deniz explains, "Oh they've been great, so inspiring for us. Each time we see them play it gives us a pretty good benchmark as to what energy level we have to put out because they just get people fired up. That's what you want, a really good support band to get your own band fired up and say, 'this is going to be a great rock'n'roll show and we're not gonna let our end of it down'."

Despite having been a part of the music industry for 26 years, Tek claims that his enthusiasm and passion for playing live shows is nowhere near extinguished, mainly due to the fact that Radio Birdman released a new album a couple of months ago titled 'Zeno Beach', which was produced by Tek himself.

"I've done productions for other bands too but I haven't produced as much as Rob [Younger, vocals] has. He just wanted to be an artist on this one and just sing, so I'm the one who go the job this time, but of course, there's a lot of collaboration and input from the rest of the guys too. So, because you've got new material to play now, you're still excited about doing gigs and it's a relief that we don't have to only play the back catalogue all the time anymore. If we'd done that and just kept playing the old stuff all the time we would probably hang it up because it would get boring. You wouldn't feel like a real band, you'd feel like a tribute band to yourself or something. So new material helps in rekindling that spirit and also the fact that we don't actually play exactly the same sets every night. We mix it up with the songs, or we might play something that we haven't played in ten years just to see what happens. It's about the passion."

Passion also being the hallmark of what makes a great band, according to Tek - good music is played from the heart and not from the head and it's all about the ability of a band to pour out its emotions as much as possible.

"It doesn't matter whether a band is technically brilliant or not, it's how they play rather than what they play...Obviously, the songs are important too - no matter how good you are or how hard you play, if the songs are only average there's only so far you can go with it. But the bottom line is always the passion, because if you're not into it, the audience can tell, you can't fool the punters, you know?"

Nina Bertok

Radio Birdman play at the Governor Hindmarsh on Sat 19 August. 'Zeno Beach' is out now through Shock.