{"id":12121,"date":"2012-09-28T07:30:17","date_gmt":"2012-09-27T21:30:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/maytherockbewithyou.com\/mtrbwy\/?p=12121"},"modified":"2012-12-12T21:42:34","modified_gmt":"2012-12-12T10:42:34","slug":"phil-jamieson-and-pat-davern-of-grinspoon","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/maytherockbewithyou.com\/mtrbwy\/2012\/09\/phil-jamieson-and-pat-davern-of-grinspoon\/","title":{"rendered":"Phil Jamieson and Pat Davern of Grinspoon"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>
\n“We\u2019re trying to make our weak points stronger, so we worked harder on becoming a melodic rock band and not only a melodic rock band but a good one, even a great one as well, we wanted to make the songs really, really great as I think we\u2019ve got the songs in us.”<\/p>\n

Seventeen years as a band and with six albums in that time not to mention the seventh out today, Grinspoon have been a stalwart of the Australian music industry for quite some time.\u00a0 They\u2019ve played countless live shows, always putting on an amazing performance which is one that should be witnessed more than once, but now it\u2019s an exciting time for \u2018The Grinners\u2019 as now with \u2018Black Rabbits\u2019 they have given us a killer slab of rock that may surprise many out there.<\/p>\n

Full of hugs, on search of an ashtray and here to talk about their new album, we sat down with Phil Jamieson and Pat Davern of Grinspoon to talk all about it, the writing, the recording and the sound of Grinspoon.<\/p>\n

So, it\u2019s been three years since \u2018Six to Midnight\u2019, that\u2019s a fair time between releases, why did it take so long for \u2018Black Rabbits\u2019 to emerge?<\/strong>
\nPhil:<\/strong>\u00a0 Well it\u2019s usually about 18 months touring schedule on a record in Australia for us, cause we hit every spot possible and we did and then the record got released in the UK\u2026
\nPat:<\/strong>\u00a0 We spent some time over there\u2026
\nPhil:<\/strong> So we had a UK touring schedule as well, so it kind of blew out our touring for about two years and then we spent a year writing.
\nPat:<\/strong>\u00a0 Writing and recording was about twelve months.\u00a0 It was a long time in the writing process, but because we live in different areas, logistically it takes a little longer now than what it did when we all lived in each other\u2019s back pockets, but I mean that\u2019s ok.\u00a0 I think people probably needed a bit more of a break, you know what I mean?\u00a0 Not that a lot of people heard our last record.
\n*laughs all round*<\/strong>
\nPhil:<\/strong> But actually when you look at our releases, we did 97 \u2013 \u2018Guide\u2019, 99 \u2013 \u2018Easy\u2019, 02 \u2013 \u2018New Detention\u2019 which was a three year break, 04 was \u2018Thrills\u2019, or 05, 07 was \u2018Alibis\u2019 and 09\u2026 so it\u2019s been two or three year breaks, this one was particularly long because of the UK touring and because we wanted to write some really good songs for this record, we wanted to concentrate on the songs.<\/p>\n

This new album takes on much more of a melodic side compared to your previous releases, was this something that you set out to do or did it just evolve that way?<\/strong>
\nPhil:<\/strong>\u00a0 Yeah we set out to do it.\u00a0 Obviously our wheelhouse is hard rock or D-Tuned half time rock, mosh, bleed you dry, and we could write that in our sleep, I\u2019m not being condescending to other bands but we can do that, and we\u2019ve done it many times and we\u2019re just trying to expand our skillset.\u00a0 Is that fair in saying?\u00a0 We\u2019re trying to make our weak points stronger, so we worked harder on becoming a melodic rock band and not only a melodic rock band but a good one, even a great one as well, we wanted to make the songs really, really great as I think we\u2019ve got the songs in us.\u00a0 It\u2019s just one of those things, I think \u2018Thrills\u2019 was really heavy on melody and then \u2018Alibis\u2019 was just all fucked up and then \u2018Six to Midnight\u2019 was just really, really angry and riff based again.
\nPat:\u00a0<\/strong> Through all those processes nothing was really satisfying us, we might have been thinking we were satisfying our fans or doing the right thing as Grinspoon should do, and we were using the same processes we did every time, but I think this time, as you asked, was it intentional to make it more melodic?\u00a0 We kind of changed the way we did things\u2026
\nPhil:\u00a0<\/strong> We changed the demo process, the recording process, totally changed the way we approached writing\u2026
\nPat:\u00a0<\/strong> Yeah, it\u2019s almost like we got an opportunity to start again in a way, and you have to do that if you want to keep going because I don\u2019t feel like it\u2019s all over, I still enjoy being in this band and I want to make it fun and more interesting for people who want to buy records.<\/p>\n

Song wise for the album, was there a specific inspiration though that set the ball rolling for what ended up on the album?<\/strong>
\nPat:<\/strong> \u2018Passerby\u2019 was one of the first songs that we wrote for the record, I guess that kind of got the ball rolling\u2026
\nPhil:<\/strong>\u00a0 Pat kind of wrote a riff of it, the Destiny\u2019s Child riff that we all know and love, and then I heard it and I was like can you write more of this as this is what I wanted to be, I wanted to be seen to be doing something different.
\nPat:<\/strong>\u00a0 It was just an out take on my demos of just some riffs that I\u2019d put together, and it was just that riff basically, I really loved it.
\nPhil:<\/strong>\u00a0 I was like let\u2019s do a chorus for this so he was down where I live and the next day we came back and pieced the song together.\u00a0 The lyrics weren\u2019t finished but the melody was pretty finished and the chorus was very close, and it just sounded really different and sounded cool as well.\u00a0 Different but not cool but not try hard and it sounded great and I liked that kind of brashness and also a kind of groove to it.\u00a0 That was one of the first songs written for the record.
\nPat:\u00a0<\/strong> That kind of got us motivated I guess.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>\u2018Branded\u2019 and \u2018Full Moon\u2019, are my two favourites on the album, they are amazing songs\u2026<\/strong>
\nPat:<\/strong>\u00a0 Cool.
\nPhil:<\/strong> Oh that\u2019s nice.
\nPat:<\/strong>\u00a0 You like \u2018Full Moon\u2019? I didn\u2019t like it in the beginning, but I love it now.
\n Yeah, and they\u2019re much different to the Grinspoon of old, where did these songs come from, was this natural progression as you were writing as they\u2019re a bit more Classic Rock?<\/strong>
\nPat:\u00a0<\/strong> \u2018Branded\u2019 came from a riff that I was just mucking around with backstage before we used to do gigs\u2026
\nPhil:\u00a0<\/strong> He kept playing it over and over again, I said can you stop playing that you sound like an idiot, no one knows what the song is…
\nPat:<\/strong> ha ha ha
\nPhil:<\/strong> But it worked osmosisly when you\u2019re backstage at the Horsnby RSL and Pat\u2019s over there doing his thing, so when he finally played it to me, I already had something in mind.\u00a0 I just love that whole \u2018Let them listen, let them gather around\u2019 it\u2019s basically, what I consider it to be is like \u2018Carrie\u2019 or a high school dance like someone that has been scorned and it\u2019s like fuck you\u2026 I really enjoy that song, I love listening to it and I love playing it live.\u00a0 \u2018Full Moon\u2019 was just a beast; it took so many rewrites\u2026
\nPat:<\/strong>\u00a0 If you\u2019d heard the first demo of that song you\u2019d just go \u2018What the fuck?\u2019 ha ha it took a long time\u2026
\nPhil:<\/strong>\u00a0 Oh my fucking god dude, what the fuck? It was out of this world\u2026 but we worked really hard on that song.
\nPat:\u00a0<\/strong> It had potential; I really liked it from the bunch of demos\u2026
\nPhil:\u00a0<\/strong> There were lots of re-writes on that song, but it\u2019s cute, it kind of reminds me of a John Hughes film, maybe \u2018Pretty In Pink\u2019 it has that Synth 80\u2019s thing, the last interview said it sounded like \u2018Grey\u2019s Anatomy\u2019 I\u2019m like cool, whatever, sync it, make us some money, whatever\u2026<\/p>\n

You recorded the album over in the States once again, what if anything did making the record over there allow you to do that you may not have done here?<\/strong>
\nPhil:<\/strong>\u00a0 Really cheap cocaine ha ha ha ha
\nPat:\u00a0<\/strong> From a guitar point of view I had access to all my heart\u2019s desire of guitar and amps and all that kind of stuff, that made it pretty good for me, I had everything I could possibly want and if I didn\u2019t have it there, then I could go to Hollywood studio rentals and get it.
\nPhil:<\/strong>\u00a0 We did records in the States, we did \u2018Thrills\u2019 there, we also did \u2018Pushing Buttons\u2019 and there\u2019s a certain sound not disparaging Australian rock records, \u2018New Detention\u2019 by Phil McKeller is really great in our back catalogue.\u00a0 We\u2019re talking about sonics, we\u2019re about to release in a very congested market, not that that was in our heads, there\u2019s Greenday, The Killers and Muse and we\u2019re about to go \u201cYeah!\u00a0 We\u2019re fuckin\u2019 awesome!\u201d So we needed something sonically that when you played them next to each other sounded pretty good, and in Australia we worked with Phil, we\u2019ve basically worked with heaps of people here.
\nPat:<\/strong>\u00a0 Nothing really excited us about doing it, apart from the sonic aspect which is very true, nothing really excited us about doing a record here, and we looked at guys to do it here but there was nothing to make us say \u201cFuck yeah, let\u2019s do it\u201d but when we thought about going to LA to do a record with Dave Schiffman we were like \u201cFuck yeah, let\u2019s do it.\u201d
\nPhil:<\/strong>\u00a0 Also we saved so much money on demoing, usually our demos cost so much money, but this time we didn\u2019t have Kris do anything, we just demoed everything by finger drums.\u00a0 So basically it saved us half our album budget because we all live so far away from each other that to demo costs as much as to do a record.\u00a0 So for this record we didn\u2019t include Kris at all in the writing process, we just drummed everything for him and left us with more budget to go to the States and it basically worked out to be the same price really and Dave wanted to do the record and we had a great time with him.
\nPat:<\/strong>\u00a0 He was keen from the get go.<\/p>\n

What was it about Dave Schiffman that attracted you to him to use as producer on the new album?<\/strong>
\nPhil:<\/strong>\u00a0 Well what happened I was at the Dirty Three concert at the Glasshouse in Port Macquarie on a Monday night, there were a number of people from 301 Byron that were attending the concert and they were doing the Redcoats record, they were assistant engineers on the Recoats and they mentioned a guy named Dave Schiffman who had flown in from America under Universal\u2019s label to do this record.\u00a0 At the time we were looking at Joe Baressi, Neil Avron\u2026
\nPat:\u00a0<\/strong> Lars Ulrich\u2026 *shakes head* Ulrich Wild ha ha
\nPhil:<\/strong> Lars Ulrich AND Ulrich Wild, but we were looking at a bunch of American producers and this guy came up and I thought \u2018Fuck\u2019 they were all talking him up, how good he was and Pat lives in Byron so maybe Pat can go and meet him\u2026
\nPat:<\/strong> So I went and had a meeting with him and he was a really cool guy.
\nPhil:\u00a0<\/strong> Played the demos and he loved the demos, and it just felt kind of a natural fit, we\u2019d just toured with the Redcoats, and they were good guys and we were like maybe this will work.\u00a0 He wasn\u2019t like ultra, ultra expensive like Neil Avron or Howard Benson, but he fit and he wanted to do it and in essence apart from his rules, he was great.
\n Rules?<\/strong>
\nPhil:<\/strong>\u00a0 We couldn\u2019t do any coke\u2026
\nPat:<\/strong> \u00a0ha ha ha ha ha.
\nPhil:\u00a0<\/strong> Which is ridiculous, we\u2019re in LA, we fly fucking 13 hours, $50 grams, we can\u2019t do coke.\u00a0 Are you kidding me? Ha ha ha ha.<\/p>\n

Over the years your sound has changed somewhat, has there ever been a fear of \u2018alienating\u2019 fans by the change?<\/strong>
\nPat:<\/strong>\u00a0 We don\u2019t have any do we?\u00a0 I think we\u2019ve got to start finding some new ones really\u2026
\nPhil:\u00a0<\/strong> It\u2019s really funny, I got asked this question by quite an aggressive journalist yesterday who said \u2018Has anyone ever asked you to make \u2018Guide to the Living\u2019 again?\u2019 well, no\u2026 but it you look at what\u2019s happened with us, with \u2018Guide\u2019 being a quite a successful album and \u2018New Detention\u2019 and then \u2018Thrills\u2019 being successful albums, there\u2019s all different fans, and even \u2018Six To Midnight\u2019 had Gen Z fans that have only ever heard \u2018Comeback\u2019 they don\u2019t even know about \u2018Champion\u2019. So I think it\u2019s fair to say and I feel very blessed and we\u2019re lucky to have this but we\u2019ve got kind of lots of generations of fans, some love \u2018Thrills\u2019, some love \u2018Guide\u2019 some even love \u2018Easy\u2019 some of them \u2018New Detention\u2019, there was four albums in the Triple J hottest 100 thing of albums, we didn\u2019t do too badly.\u00a0 So for people to say \u2018Guide\u2019s\u2019 the best or \u2018New Detention\u2019s\u2019 the best, yeah they\u2019ve all got their merits in my opinion, some are pretty fucked up, but fuck, listen to some Stones records ha ha, I\u2019m not saying all The Stones, but Jesus the 80\u2019s weren\u2019t kind\u2026\u00a0 So we went through some good stuff, but in all honesty, we can\u2019t think about the fans, we\u2019ve got to think about ourselves first, I think\u2026<\/p>\n

You\u2019ve got Fat As Butter tomorrow, but then you\u2019re back playing the Big Day Out next year as you have many times before, but can we expect to see you out on the road in Australia anytime soon for headlining shows?<\/strong>
\nPat:\u00a0<\/strong> We\u2019ll go out on our own tour on the album after Big Day Out.\u00a0 At this kind of stage we\u2019re kind of leaving our eggs in the Big Day Out basket and I think that\u2019s kind of fair enough that they ask that you do hold off on a lot of touring before the Big Day Out.
\nPhil:<\/strong> *whispers* and everyone\u2019s seen us live, man\u2026 ha ha.\u00a0 The thing was we didn\u2019t even bother paying an album launch, cause fuck man, we just had a party\u2026
\n Oh I know, I was there!<\/strong>
\nBoth:<\/strong> Oh you were there ha ha ha, holy shit, what a night.
\nPhil:\u00a0<\/strong> Touring is such a gamble as no one is buying tickets, except for Hilltop Hoods, so we\u2019ve got to work out what venues we can fill, I really want to take on great supports as well, make it an event and we\u2019re trying to work out ways we can make the night bigger because after seven albums people expect you to play for half an hour, sorry, an hour and a half but our drummer refuses to play longer than an hour.
\nPat:<\/strong>\u00a0 So we\u2019re going to get the gnomes out.
\nPhil:<\/strong>\u00a0 So we\u2019re just going to work that out, but there will be a national tour in March \/ April it\u2019ll be a forty dater, I think, it\u2019ll be a big tour.
\nPat:<\/strong> We\u2019ll go everywhere and then hopefully we\u2019ll get to go overseas and do a bit of touring over there.
\nPhil:<\/strong>\u00a0 Then headlining Soundwave the next year.<\/p>\n

Lucky last, is there anything that you haven\u2019t achieved as a band that you want to do?<\/strong>
\nPat:<\/strong>\u00a0 I haven\u2019t heard any of our music on K-Rock yet and that\u2019s definitely a lifelong goal, and I\u2019ll keep trying until I do, with or without these guys.
\nPhil:\u00a0<\/strong> You idiot.\u00a0 I just can\u2019t wait to go solo ha ha ha ha ha.<\/p>\n

Essential Information<\/span><\/strong><\/strong><\/h2>\n

From:<\/strong> Lismore, NSW, Australia<\/p>\n

Band members: \u00a0<\/strong>Phil Jamieson \u2013 Vocals, Pat Davern – Guitar, Joe Hansen – Bass, Kristian Hopes – Drums<\/p>\n

Website:<\/strong> www.grinspoon.com<\/a><\/p>\n

Latest release:<\/strong> Black Rabbits (September 28 \u2013 Universal Music Australia) Read our review HERE
\n<\/a><\/p>\n\n

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