{"id":17220,"date":"2013-07-18T20:11:43","date_gmt":"2013-07-18T10:11:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/maytherockbewithyou.com\/mtrbwy\/?p=17220"},"modified":"2013-07-18T20:11:58","modified_gmt":"2013-07-18T10:11:58","slug":"steve-balbi-debut-album-sampler-confirmed-for-national-baby-animals-tour","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/maytherockbewithyou.com\/mtrbwy\/2013\/07\/steve-balbi-debut-album-sampler-confirmed-for-national-baby-animals-tour\/","title":{"rendered":"Steve Balbi Debut Album Sampler + Confirmed for National Baby Animals Tour"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>STEVE BALBI \u2013 BLACK RAINBOW<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Steve Balbi has lived a remarkable life. His is the sort of story that sells books, and shifts movie tickets. It\u2019s a tale of incredible highs and rare lows, a rock \u2018n\u2019 roll reality with all the trappings that come with being a familiar face from one of Australia\u2019s biggest bands of the late \u201880s and early \u201890s. It\u2019s a tale of excess. Of reinvention. Of surviving, and thriving.<\/p>\n

Steve Balbi has walked the line. And his story is now being told in Balbi\u2019s own way \u2013 through music. The former Noiseworks, Electric Hippies and Rose Tattoo bass player and guitarist has released his first solo album, \u201cBlack Rainbow.\u201d It\u2019s a work that reflects on where he\u2019s come from, and where he\u2019s going.<\/p>\n

Why did it take Balbi so long to go it alone musically? \u201cThe easy answer to that and probably the untruthful one is that I always saw myself as a band guy. The real truth to that is fear. Fear of standing alone. Fear of failure. If a band didn\u2019t work, or didn\u2019t make a good recording, there were always other elements (to blame). This record and what I do now, if it\u2019s no good, it\u2019s (down to) me. I\u2019ve learned that the real joys I get these days is from taking risks.\u201d<\/p>\n

There was a time when Balbi took risks of a different kind. Like many other high-profile artists, Balbi has battled with alcohol and substance abuse. But unlike many of his peers, he overcame what he describes as a \u201cpersonal disease.\u201d Balbi has now been abstinent for 14 years \u2013 and counting.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat I learned was that I\u2019m not as great as I thought I was, and I\u2019m not as bad as I thought I was. I\u2019ve learned that my ego is really destructive and I try to keep that out of my life as much as possible. It\u2019s made music a real blessing. I was one that couldn\u2019t take compliments but I find I can take compliments now. Because I really believe music is a gift and it was given to me to share with people. I don\u2019t know what I believe in. I\u2019m an ego maniac with an inferiority complex and there\u2019s a way of living with that, and that\u2019s just humility.\u201d<\/p>\n

Balbi has created something beautiful, with a hint of darkness. \u201cBlack Rainbow\u201d has an overarching sense of optimism. It\u2019s a sincere set of works, with a touch of \u201cepic.\u201d What could lie at the end of Balbi\u2019s dark rainbow? Black gold, perhaps? \u201cNo. It\u2019s gold, absolute gold,\u201d he laughs. \u201cAdversity can be the greatest teacher, as long as you don\u2019t give up. In a way what this record is doing, it\u2019s summarizing my past and bringing me right up until now, so I can move on in a forward direction.\u201d<\/p>\n

The album also carries a handful of songs written in recent years with Balbi\u2019s former band, Move Trees. And there\u2019s a reworked version of \u201cTouch,\u201d a top 5 hit for Noiseworks back in 1988.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople always turn up to my gigs and tell me to play a Noiseworks song. For so long I wanted nothing to do with it,\u201d he explains. Balbi finally relented and began introducing a different version of \u201cTouch\u201d into his playlist — and it resonated with his fans. \u201cThe song has never really felt like it said it properly,\u201d he admits.<\/p>\n

There was a time when Balbi had shunned the mainstream pop-rock brand that Noiseworks had become. \u00a0Noiseworks, with its clean-cut looks and big radio-friendly sounds, became the antithesis of where Balbi was headed. The bass player left the group with fellow Noiseworks bandmate Justin Stanley, he formed the Electric Hippies project in the early 1990s. It was a creative revolt. \u201cThe freedom of jumping off that,\u201d says Balbi, \u201cit was really liberating.\u201d With the Electric Hippies, he recalls, \u201cwe glammed-up and put on some mirrorball suits and recorded the smallest guitar sounds. It was just so liberating to feel like we were making art again. We were doing what we really always set out to do. To connect with people via music, rather than just be successful.\u201d<\/p>\n

A life-long musician, Balbi has found a new sort of liberation. His solo album is self-produced. And he\u2019s taken it through the independent route, with Social Family Records. He\u2019s at ease with his place as a popular, elder statesman of Australia\u2019s music scene.<\/p>\n

These days Balbi runs a studio in Sydney, and he\u2019s made a full-time career as a producer. He\u2019s still happy to talk about his Noiseworks days. But he\u2019s always looking forward. \u201cI fought this thing. But I\u2019m still that guy from Noiseworks. It really doesn\u2019t matter,\u201d he says with a laugh.<\/p>\n

Balbi is keen to hit the road in support of \u201cBlack Rainbow.\u201d There\u2019s a national tour with Baby Animals later this year, and a raft of as-yet-unannounced shows to come.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t want to be a rock star. That\u2019s not what I\u2019m about,\u201d he says. \u201cI just want to make great music. I just want to keep touching people,\u201d he says. \u201cI do believe I can do that. It\u2019s something more special to me when I\u2019m playing to a room of 20 people and you can see people cry. I love that. That\u2019s what I want to do.\u201d<\/p>\n

Remarkably, Balbi has ideas for a follow-up album. After so many years as a band-man, Balbi has really found his feet as a solo artist. The fear of going it alone has evaporated. \u201cI\u2019ve had a lot of adversity in the past decade and a half. And I fear nothing now. I\u2019ve climbed my mountain, I\u2019ve fought my war. And I really just landed thinking, there\u2019s no point in making music without taking risks and without the possibility of failure.\u201d<\/p>\n

Stream a sampler of Black Rainbow here<\/a>:<\/p>\n