|
|
 |
| Tim Rogers & Tex Perkins
 If ever there was a pairing that made sense, it's this one. Tex Perkins and Tim Rogers, both classic rock'n'roll figures and enthusiastic consumers of the rock'n'roll lifestyle, have got together to make a record. Together, they're T'n'T and the album is titled, appropriately, 'My Better Half'.
"We first encountered each other at You Am I's first gig back in 1990," explains Perkins. "They were on a triple bill with The Nerve, which was a band I was playing in. We were always kind of rock industry mates. We'd see each other at festivals or at awards nights and anytime there was a guest spot situation, You Am I would ring me up and say, 'Perko what are you doing?' so I've sung on their 'Dirty Deeds' album soundtrack, sung on ARIA inductions with them and that Triple J spot where they got guest singers to do all their songs. But over the past couple of years we've been hanging out like actual friends do.
"We talk about all sorts of stuff," Perkins continues, "he does see me as the older brother type in the friendship, but quite incorrectly. He's greater than me in many, many things and the only thing where I've got seniority is that I'm five years older than him. Apart from that, he's a better rock and roller, he's a better songwriter and he's got a bigger nose than me."
In 2005, Tim Rogers went through a particularly tough time, both personally and professionally, with many of his trials played out in the public eye. Coincidentally, it was around then that Perkins began to spend a bit more quality time with Rogers.
"It was just after the shit hit the fan with him," Perkins says. "You Am I seemed to be breaking up, there was a bit of distance between them, but even though the public image of him at the time was that he was out of control, I actually found him to be a very reasonable, intelligent and quite centred person. But he was going through stuff that I totally related to. I didn't go out of my way to comfort him, it just happened that way and I was just happy to be his friend.
"We were drinking a lot together and we thought, well, why don't we play a couple of songs together and we can get our drinks for free! Tim was telling me how he'd just get in his car, drive to a pub in country Victoria where there seemed to be a lot of patrons and offer to put on a show, no crew, no nothing, they'd take good care of him, do some songs and he'd walk away with a couple of grand. I thought, 'man, imagine if we both did that we could triple the fee!' So what we were doing live was really just an extension of hanging out with your mate."
And so T'n'T was born. "We just booked a studio one day and said 'right, here's the date, that's when we're going to start recording'," says Perkins, "that's about all the planning that went into it. We had a healthy competitiveness about the songwriting. Some of the songs were us just sitting in a room together going, 'ok, whadaya got?' We'd just throw ideas at each other. Then I would come in with a song and say, 'whadaya think?' and he'd say, 'that's a fucken beaudy' and then he'd go away and come back with, 'ha! I got one too!' "
Perhaps the defining song on the record - although this won't be obvious to most - is Perkins' own song, Half Of Nothing.
"I'm very proud of that one," he says. "I had kind of worked that up gradually over two weeks on a Beasts Of Bourbon tour, just sitting in the van, didn't even have a guitar, just writing it in my head."
At one level, the song is sincere and tender; on another level, it's funny and that's everything you need to know about the new record.
"That's exactly how I see it!" Perkins says enthusiastically, "We have a lot of laughs, but the depth of our relationship is that we speak about things that are very tender and dear to us. We have a great ear for each other."
Peter Strelan
 |
Tim Rogers and Tex Perkins play the Governor Hindmarsh on Thurs 21 September. 'My Better Half' is out now through Universal. |
|
|
The latest issue
available now!
|
