{"id":37321,"date":"2019-03-12T07:00:12","date_gmt":"2019-03-11T20:00:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/maytherockbewithyou.com\/mtrbwy\/?p=37321"},"modified":"2019-03-12T11:44:54","modified_gmt":"2019-03-12T00:44:54","slug":"patrick-robertson-of-motor-ace-interview","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/maytherockbewithyou.com\/mtrbwy\/2019\/03\/patrick-robertson-of-motor-ace-interview\/","title":{"rendered":"Patrick Robertson of Motor Ace"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>\u201cThirteen years since we\u2019ve been on stage I think if it\u2019s not gonna happen now it\u2019s never gonna happen you know?\u201d<\/p>\n

From Release:\u00a0 It’s 2001, you’re driving home from work, flicking through the radio stations, and Five Star Laundry by Motor Ace is being played on triple j, Triple M and a bunch of other stations in between.\u00a0 Then, as you walk in the door, the television is blaring and it’s Motor Ace again, with their iconic track \u2018Death Defy\u2019 reaching an even wider audience as the theme song for the beloved Australian television series The Secret Life Of Us.\u00a0 And you probably caught them performing at the ARIAS and across all the various shows on TV at that time too, that was what it was like during the peak of Motor Ace \u2013 absolute saturation, and even then people couldn’t get enough.\u00a0 Fast forward almost two decades and Motor Ace’s hoards of fans no longer have to wait for that highly anticipated reunion, because in March and April of 2019, the band we all love will embark on a national tour to celebrate the 20 year anniversary of the band’s inception, kicking off in Adelaide at The Gov on March 29, then moving through Perth, Sydney, Brisbane and finishing up in Melbourne at the renowned venue 170 Russell on April 12.<\/p>\n

In Melbourne, we gave Pat a call to talk about the return of Motor Ace to the stage in celebration of their twentieth anniversary, what we can expect, hesitations, looking back at \u2018Five Star Laundry\u2019, new music? Plus more\u2026<\/p>\n

It\u2019s about time! Did you miss it?<\/strong>
\nUm\u2026 Yeah look I don\u2019t know\u2026 we were pretty flat chat for seven years touring pretty relentlessly so I felt we kind of got a lot of that out of our system to be honest, I guess I do miss it, I don\u2019t miss six gig a week tours but I think the tour we\u2019re doing this time around, five shows in three weeks *laughs* is pretty doable so I\u2019m kind of looking forward to that. I do miss playing guitar, loud guitars on stage and I guess by the end of Motor Ace I\u2019d kind of lost a little bit of the love affair with the guitar but I\u2019m a little bit back into it so it\u2019s good timing in that respect.<\/p>\n

Why was now the right time for Motor Ace to emerge and grace us with their presence once again?<\/strong>
\nI don\u2019t know, I guess we sort of very briefly touched on it over the years when we had our Christmas catch up or whatever with the guys we\u2019d talk about it but it just didn\u2019t seem the right time five or six years ago. I don\u2019t know, I think a combination of things, I started playing music again in the last three years like doing some live shows again with a new band with Damo the drummer and just sort of realising that was possible and I was actually enjoying it again was part of that, and also the record label released our first album on vinyl and a few of those things kind of came together, and it happened to be twenty years since we formed so it was just like maybe this, not the last time but certainly time where we can still play a reasonable show without being too old and decrepit.<\/p>\n

Was there any hesitation from anyone in putting this together?<\/strong>
\nNah not really, I think the hard part was just aligning everyone\u2019s availability. Everyone\u2019s working and Dave the guitarist flies around oil rigs and stuff so it\u2019s quite hard to get him on schedule, but no I think everyone was keen. Thirteen years since we\u2019ve been on stage I think if it\u2019s not gonna happen now it\u2019s never gonna happen you know? *laughs*<\/p>\n

Not getting ahead of anything here but could this reunion be the start of something new?<\/strong>
\nI don\u2019t think in terms of new material I mean never say never, three or four years ago I dint think we would be doing a Motor Ace tour, so yeah, I\u2019d never rule it out completely but we certainly didn\u2019t get into this with that intention, it wasn\u2019t to write a new record, I\u2019m a slow worker and I obsess over things so I could imagine it would be two years before I\u2019d be happy with anything from new material if we were to do it. It\u2019s just hard we\u2019ve all got lives and a lot of things going on so it\u2019s very hard to find the time.<\/p>\n

Are you surprised with the reaction you go when you said you were coming back?<\/strong>
\nYeah, yeah I was pleasantly surprised, definitely surprised with ticket sales particularly in Melbourne, I\u2019m happy but a little bit nervous about it all and the time but it seems to be going well so I\u2019m looking forward to these shows.<\/p>\n

Have you got any idea how the shows are going to shape up set wise or not sure yet?<\/strong>
\nDon\u2019t know yet, I want to do a lot of tracks from our first album and probably weight it more towards that, I want it to be more of a rocky set than a slower set, I don\u2019t think there will be a lot of material from our last album maybe a couple of tracks but mostly \u2018Five Star Laundry\u2019 and a few from \u2018Shoot This\u2019 as well, but that\u2019s at least how I\u2019d approach it but once we get in a room together and see what we\u2019re capable of doing.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>\u2018Five Star Laundry\u2019 is such a damn good album and truly still stands up to this day, when you were making it did you know you were onto something pretty damned awesome?<\/strong>
\nNah I mean we\u2019re probably a little bit cocky I think we thought we were better than we were, we didn\u2019t think it was going to necessarily have any huge traction, I mean we had support from JJJ and we were proud of what we\u2019d done, but I think the big thing for us we didn\u2019t necessarily think it was super original I mean maybe I was too close to it to make that kind of call but we didn\u2019t really know. After we released our first EP in \u201999 and it ended up being a little tougher than we thought it was going to be then we realised we had to get out there and do a lot of touring a lot of shows to build an audience. I don\u2019t know what we thought at the time, I\u2019m actually a little surprised that what you said seems to echo a little bit what I\u2019ve heard in talking to people in interviews and stuff and that album does seem to have had more of an impact than I probably imagined which is great, shit, almost eighteen years well certainly since we recorded it it\u2019s eighteen years old it\u2019s a frightening concept. *laughs*<\/p>\n

There was a time when \u2018Death Defy\u2019 couldn\u2019t be unheard, it was everywhere but with so much exposure to that song was it a help or a hindrance at the time?<\/strong>
\nIt was both, it was definitely both, it was a help that it helped us on commercial radio and helped them want to play the next album with \u2018Carry On\u2019 and that stuff on it, but I think we lost support from JJJ partly because of it, and so I think I don\u2019t know, double edge there. I think in hindsight it helps, it definitely helps explaining when you meet people now and you say you\u2019re in a band and explaining and it\u2019s definitely one of those things that everyone sort of is aware of so it helps with the conversation *laughs*.<\/p>\n

Two albums followed and then that was it, over the period Motor Ace were together and leading up to the break up, why was then the right time to call it quits?<\/strong>
\nI think we had all these ambitions to have success overseas and obviously we wanted success in our home town but if we were going to try and sustain a music career long term which we all wanted to it, it\u2019s what all musicians want to be in it for twenty or thirty years and we felt like we had to have some success overseas otherwise it wasn\u2019t gonna work and I guess to some extent we probably felt by the third record that we\u2019d probably done the best work we were gonna do and probably weren\u2019t happy with traction overseas and we were like twenty six \/ twenty seven at the time and started having families and thinking of that sort of stuff. Then thinking do we want to keep pushing this or have we done as much as we can do? I don\u2019t know, maybe it was premature, perhaps we could\u2019ve kept going, perhaps we could\u2019ve done better work but at the time it was kind of what we felt like maybe combined with the end of seven years of touring I think it just kind of happened that way.<\/p>\n

So let\u2019s look ahead to the future, finish this sentence for me, in 2019 Motor Ace will\u2026<\/strong>
\nWill be doing or twentieth anniversary tour obviously and hopefully get to the end of 2019 fully intact. We\u2019ll see what happens, it\u2019s a bit of an experiment for us as well we haven\u2019t spent any time together as a group for thirteen years and all those sorts of dynamics and things will pop up and we\u2019ll see what happens.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

MOTOR ACE 20th ANNIVERSARY \u2013 A FIVE STAR REUNION NATIONAL TOUR<\/strong><\/p>\n

FRI MARCH 29 | THE GOV, ADELAIDE SA | 18+
\nTickets available from http:\/\/tickets.oztix.com.au\/?Event=92178<\/a><\/p>\n

SAT MARCH 30 | CAPITOL, PERTH WA | 18+
\nTickets available from http:\/\/tickets.oztix.com.au\/?Event=92186<\/a><\/p>\n

FRI APRIL 5 | FACTORY THEATRE, SYDNEY NSW | 18+
\nTickets available from http:\/\/bit.ly\/FAC19_MOTOR_ACE<\/a><\/p>\n

SAT APRIL 6 | THE TRIFFID, BRISBANE QLD | 18+
\nTickets available from http:\/\/tickets.oztix.com.au\/?Event=92188<\/a><\/p>\n

FRI APRIL 12 | 170 RUSSELL, MELBOURNE VIC | 18+ – SOLD OUT<\/strong><\/p>\n

SUN APRIL 14 | 170 RUSSELL, MELBOURNE VIC | 18+\u00a0SECOND SHOW \u2013 **SELLING FAST**
\nTickets available from\u00a0https:\/\/www.moshtix.com.au<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

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

From: <\/strong>Melbourne, Australia<\/p>\n

Band members:<\/strong>\u00a0 Patrick Robertson – vocals, guitar, Dave Ong – guitar, Damo Costin – drums), Matt Balfe – bass<\/p>\n

Website:<\/strong> \u00a0https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/motoraceofficial\/<\/a><\/p>\n

Classic Release:<\/strong> Five Star Laundry<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n