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The Sands Of Time With RICHIE LEWIS From TUMBLEWEED · HEAVY Music Interviews

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  Hey, I'm Richie from Tumbleweed. This weekend I'm playing Sonny Rendezvous down in
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  Welcome to Thornbury the Record Store Day. Yes, I'll throw it over to
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  you now, beautiful may see and you're a born natural. That was perfect.
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  So as you said, my friend Tumbleweed has set the headline the inaugural
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  Sonic Rendezvous Records Store Day. That's a mouthful, isn't it. So Abu
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  Records all Day at Welcome to Thornbury on April twentieth, alongside Grinding Eyes,
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  Hot Machines, plus a lot of other bands and DJs mate, so it
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  sounds like a pretty good day of music and festivities. That'll be great.
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  My daughter's band's playing as well, Private Wives there on the bill, I
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  know, so that'll be really cool. They played with this down in Melbourne
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  a couple of years ago, so it'll be good to see. They've gotten
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  heaps better. So that'll be amazing to see them doing their thing. Grinding
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  Eyes I've always a big fan of. We actually did a split seven inch
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  single with them a couple of years back, and we did a cover of
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  an old sixties song called Pathway through the Forest, which is a wonderful song
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  by a band called The Factory. Really rare song, but we did that
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  like a Jamie's plays our Bass Playshouse, just like a home recording on ed
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  up on a split seven inch, and they did the song as well,
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  and it was for the thing called Welcome to the assid Test. So we
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  did a bunch of shows with Grinding Eyes a couple of years ago as well,
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  and they are amazing. They're amazing lives. So you know, I'm
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  looking forward to seeing the other bands as well. I know of them,
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  I've checked them out. But yeah, it'll be the first time to see
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  a hot machine. Yes, it's going to be pretty awesome for twenty bucks.
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  I mean twenty bucks is like that these days. Yeah, that's a
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  that's a nineteen ninety three price, So that's pretty cool. And you know,
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  the whole vibe of records door day is a good one. I'm a
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  big fan of records. I like Vinyl. I'm not a big fan of
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  Spotify and digital stuff, although like everybody, I've been sort of like sucked
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  into the convenience of it, and it's pretty cool for sort of like finding
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  out stuff and you know, check hearing things that you wouldn't ordinarily hear.
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  But yeah, as far as like listening pleasure, I like a record you're
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  dirty listen to Spotify for some reason, Yeah, yeah I did, And
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  so then I started paying for it, and then I thought, and then
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  I paid for it for a while, and now I'm doing without paying for
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  it because I just saw the bills coming out and thought, I can't.
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  I can't justify giving these people money, although I'm giving really like, yeah,
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  actually get Diddley Squad. So yeah, I'm you're sort of uk between
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  the rock and a hard place, but you know, you want the exposure,
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  but you're giving it away, Like in no other world. Is that
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  a thing? Counterproductive, isn't it. It's just bizarre that it is a
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  thing, but it is a thing. And you know, anyway, that's
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  why I champion things like Records Store Day, and I think it's really cool
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  and it's nice to see that there's a lot of people doing it as well
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  that are really sort of getting back into buying records and it's a good community,
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  so it'll be good vibe, and you know, there there's records for
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  sale. I think I think up until eight o'clock or you can have you
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  can bring the family, you can bring kids. Eight or nine o'clock,
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  you can bring the kids. We have to check the Welcome to Thorn brief
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  side out for that, but yeah, it says on their site something about
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  that. So that's pretty cool. That's kind of open to everyone. Yeah,
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  looking forward to it, hopefully we have good weather. Topic a little
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  bit bro like, how cool is it sharing a stage with your daughter and
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  another bandman? Like I've got an eight and a nine year old and I
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  took them. I took the nine year old to see Taylor Swift for a
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  first ever concert, and the buzz I got out of that. It's still
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  ringing in me now. But to actually share a stage with your daughter and
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  the bandman that must it's giving me goosebumps just asking you. Yeah, it's
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  really it's amazing because I mean I met with Zoe. I never really pushed
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  music on her or hold her to play an instrument. You know, we
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  had instruments around, there was always music around. But it's something that she
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  sort of just went on her own and did. And even if I sort
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  of like give her advice or stuff like that, she's really reluctant to take
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  it. She'll it's like that likes to do her own thing, so which
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  is really cool. And I've learnt over the last few years just to sort
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  of like, okay, just let her do a thing because it's better than
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  what I was thinking anyway, Like I'm old, like right, So it's
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  really nice to sort of say to allow or well, not allowed. I
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  don't really have to allow it, but just to accept that that you know,
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  that they've got their own thing that they're doing, you know, And
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  I like that. So yeah, and playing on the stage with her and
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  amazing. I'd like to actually one day do something together, so which we
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  will down the track. But at the moment she's keen exploring her them punk
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  rock roots. Yeah, that's a fucking proud dad moment right there. Brother.
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  Now you sort of touch on this briefly before made but back to records
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  or day, like live music's going to be with us forever, but I
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  prepared in relative obscurity vinyls actually making a welcome comeback, Like can you pinpoint
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  the reasons why you think it is to come back around again? Yeah?
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  I can. I think Well, for me, I think that it's something
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  tangible. It's like it's something you can touch. I know that when I
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  when I started getting into music in Woollongong, a lot of the music that
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  we liked was sort of like either independent Australian stuff or you know, punk
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  rock and would buy imports and a lot of it would have to sort of
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  like get on the train to Sydney and we'd go scouring Waterfront, Phantom,
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  all the records shops up Pitt Street and then you'd come back on the train
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  and you've done this track, You've invested this time and energy, and then
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  you get home, you got your records and you read every single liner note
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  on it and the whole thing is an experience is taking it out of the
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  package and stuff like that. Not only that, but for social media and
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  stuff. You'd see people on the train and that'd have the Waterfront bag or
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  that'd have a Red Eyed bag or a Phantom Records bag, and you go,
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  hey, they're like me, that's who. That's they became your network,
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  right, that's who you sort of like realize these are the guys every
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  Saturday that are going up to get their import records. So there's that aspect
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  of that tangible thing where you know the artwork looks better for a start,
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  it's a collectible thing. It's yours. The thing is with digital music,
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  it's whilst you're sort of like dipping in and listening to it, orally there's
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  no and you can look at a picture it's not yours. You're just sort
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  of like you're looking at it. There's some sort of thing about having It's
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  like yeah, ownership. It's like if you buy a painting it's on your
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  wall, it has more resonance to you when you see see it on the
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  internet or you see it in a gallery or whatever. You go, I've
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  got that one on my wall. There's like something because it's yours. You've
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  got this connection to it, right, So there's the connection to it.
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  There's also just the physical experience of putting it on, getting the need or
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  putting it down, the crackle whole thing. There's a romance to it.
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  There's a dance. Then you sit back and it's a ritual. You know.
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  It's like how fishermen or whatever they like the hooks and they like the
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  flies and all the bits. The bits can be like half the joy in
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  it, you know, like putting the right fly on if you're a fly
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  fisherman or you're choosing the right things. Humans like that touch and I think
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  without it, it's you know, I suppose that's my disappointment with the cyber
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  world is it's just very It has less meaning. It washes over you.
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  You go, yeah, I look at that. Five seconds your attention span
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  switches to something else. There's no investment, there's no personal investment. So
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  yeah, when you've got that personal investment in time and energy, it means
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  something. Hold, I know it. I think you're missing one thing.
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  They say, one important thing like at our age, our eyes aren't that
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  good and see it easy too fucking hard to read. Well, that's true.
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  Yeah, there's all that gobbled the gig, but that's that's the true.
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  This is going to be Tumblewee's first Melbourne show in two years. Mate.
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  So is that by design or did it just happen that way? Yeah?
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  Well no, the last time I was at the Croxton band Room and
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  Rocket Science. That's great. I think what we decided to do was,
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  well, you know, to be honest, I started sort of like delving
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  into sort of writing some other songs that I've put together a solo record,
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  and so for the last year and a bit I've been I've been putting that
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  together and that's due to come out like him on May twenty fourth. So
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  the band was really cool. I mean they said, okay, Richie issuing
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  to go and do something, go and do it, blah blah blah.
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  We're fine everyone, Like, I mean, the thing now we can balance
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  what we do. Unlike a lot of bands, a lot of our contemporaries
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  from the nineties that sort of like have to play a lot to pay them
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  all to pay their bills, we don't really do that. Like I mean,
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  We've all got jobs. We still live in the gong, and so
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  when we do Tumbleweed, it's because we want to do it. It's like
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  it's something that we can choose what we want to do, and that sort
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  of gives us a certain amount of freedom. But with that, it's also
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  good to spend the last year just working on my first solo record. That's
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  why. That's really why self Indulgen is you like brother is your world?
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  He look, I'm not getting any younger. It's like my first is my
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  debut solo record. I'm fifty three years old at like, I've been talking
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  about it for a long long time and I just sort of figured, you
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  know, time waits for no one and I better do it now is now
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  or never? So like I did, and it was more about like the
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  process of just like a it was. It was I was compelled to do
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  it for creative reasons, to do something different. I was writing lots of
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  songs that really didn't fit the Tumbleweed mold, and you know, it wasn't
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  really fair on me to sort of like force on them, Hey here's these
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  batcher We're going in a new direction, and that's not what it's about.
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  Tumblewee has been around for way too long and we've got you know, too
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  many old school fans to really do that too. And also it is what
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  it is like. So I thought, Okay, I've got all these songs
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  they're hanging around, I've got to give them a home. So I just
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  want sort of made my own little thing up the side there. So I
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  understand, this is the only show Tumbleweed had got booked this year. So
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  if they want to see you this year, you're going to have to get
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  your flights in Melbourne pretty quick. Yeah, at this stage it is.
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  But at the moment we said, like okay, you know that the books
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  are open and if somebody wants to yell out at us, that could change,
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  right. So like I'll tell people they were the only one. They
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  have to come with the record show. It's the only one, Thank you
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  very much. I love the way you're working with me, not against me.
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  Brother. I'll just speak honestly. You know, if somebody says,
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  hey, you can't be the only one. Here's some money, do a
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  show, We'll do it. I just want to touch the back in history
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  makers tumblewee you do like you guys want to the most respected bands by other
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  bands in the Ustralian music industry mats. So I know we haven't got that
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  long, but I just want to want to pick your brain for a few
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  things. Man, Like you were one of the original members when Tumbleweed first
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  started back in ninety ninety. It was a year I finished high school,
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  like musical climate like that gave birth to the band. And where did you
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  fit in back then? Well, we sort of. What happened was I
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  was the drummer in our proton energy pills and Lenny wanted to leave the band.
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  There was problems, so that Lenny said, hey, Rich come with
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  me, and Jay you come with me too, So we we formed a
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  three piece called Tumbleweed. I was still drumming and we didn't know who was
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  going to sing yet. The kind of climate that was around there wasn't as
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  many bands around if you were playing sort of cool, if you were playing
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  punk rock every like. And we were signed to Waterfront Records. Everybody sort
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  of knew who we were and we sort of had pretty good supports. But
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  at that time, this was prior to the Nirvana re releasing never Mind or
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  anything, so prior to rat Cats or like having you know, their big
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  hit, so that whole world was still sort of a healthy, vibrant scene
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  as I remember it, like in pubs, and it was cool, and
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  we sort of came into that scene. You am. I we're in that
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  scene too, because when we first started, we were playing with them when
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  they were starting as well. So but what it was it like it was
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  it was before the industry got their grips on it, but it wasn't It
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  didn't last long, you know, as soon as as soon as there was
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  some big hit and some records being sold, namely in Navana, everybody was
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  getting signed up and it changed really quickly, and this sort of like communal
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  punk rock scene sort of. I saw it all around the world like it
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  when we tour did Mudhoney and we did did England, and I'd see the
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  same pockets that would see at the Landsdown or the same pockets that we'd see
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  it like the Toe or you know wherever Treasury in Brisbane. Same same punk
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  rock crowds everywhere, same sort of drawing from the same pool taste and influence.
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  But yet then after kabum at Order sort of like it sort of dispelled
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  and lost its potency in a way, but got a lot bigger. It
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  was like it was like obi One sort of going, you know, you
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  strike me down, I'll get bigger than you'll ever imagined. Thought it was
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  like yeah, so I so like that. But being like an eighteen nineteen
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  year old kid, well, even when I started going and seeing bands,
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  the bands i'd go and see when I was like fifteen sixteen, I'd sneak
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  in. We'd be like Celebrate Rifles, Psychotic turn Buckles, all these bands
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  that would come through the New christ Exploding White Mice. There was just a
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  really healthy Australian independent scene. Olympic Sideburns. There Another one that comes to
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  mind the Johnnies, the Stems, you know, all that sort of stuff,
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  to church and all that stuff was going on, and we were sort
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  of really influenced by the Rifles really initially, and then sort of started to
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  find our own feet after that. But yeah, with Tumbleweed, we sort
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  of had a more direct idea about what we wanted to do. We felt
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  that there was a a gap or it wasn't like looking at it like that.
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  The kind of music we liked was heavy stuff, but melodic, and
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  a lot of people weren't doing heavy stuff, slow Sabbath inspired stuff, like
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  when we realized to slow down from being a punk rock band, we realized
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  we had a lot more power, so we started slowing down and making heavier
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  stuff and the Big Muff started becoming a little bit more crunchy. But we
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  wanted to sort of put melody on it, and there wasn't many people doing
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  that then. And the music scene obviously has changed drastically since you started,
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  but Tumbleway to one of the few bands that refused to change and catered the
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  trends in fashion, mate Loan, Was that a conscious decision made by the
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  band just to follow your own path and direction, or was it just too
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  hard to follow the trends. Yeah, I don't care about the trends.
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  We've always I think part of growing up in Woollongong and being a weird I
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  was always good because it's sort of like always set us aside. We've never
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  really fit in and we've created our own world. But when we began,
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  we really sort of had an idea of doing something our own. We wanted
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  to make our own thing and do our own stuff and make our own sound
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  and if people wanted to come along for the ride. Cool. It just
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  so happened that, like at that time in the early nineties, it kind
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  of like aligned a little bit with the grunge movement and everything else that was
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  going on. So we managed to get some good shows for a little while.
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  We were fashionable, but we didn't do it for fashion. We had
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  that sort of thing before fashion, and the fashion sort of happened because it
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  was kind of like, well, it was just a part of the world
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  that was like a lot of people coming of age at that time, and
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  they were inspired by say, you know, Hendrix and sixty, stuff of
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  Blue Cheer, Black Sabbath, but also punk rocken Hut, hardcore and stuff
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  like that so for the first time that was coming through, you know,
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  as a that was the first time that Melting Pot happened. And so we
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  did a line with other bands like Mutt Honey or whatever sometimes you know,
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  Monster Magnet. They're both quite different, but we sort of we're in there
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  somewhere. I think, Yeah, fashion is you know, I like fashion,
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  like I like clothes. I like fashionable clothes, but my fashion is
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  sort of based. I only like really sort of late sixties fashion, you
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  know, like psychedelic fashion. That's my era, like say, from sixty
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  five to about seventy two. And if anything like that era cool and good
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  otherwise Yeah, but I wouldn't yeah, I would never. I mean sometimes
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  with other sort of trends. Trends in production are kind of interesting because like
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  there's always people pushing grounds with production and I'm inspired by that, like you
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  know, someone like Beck for instance, that sort of brings in different sounds
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  or whatever. I like that whether and I've been and I think on some
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  time of Weed albums, we've sort of experimented with some stuff like having Paul
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  mc kircher there or Fiel film m Color both have been interested in so like
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  Twiddler knobs, So that kind of thing is and that can date a little
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  bit. Like if you hear Ramones records and they've got key but like synthesizers
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  on them, you know, something to believe in that song and stuff like
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  that, and you go, oh, that's not a Romones sound, And
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  it's very it's very hard not to be sort of caught up with the latest
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  production trends. But I suppose because we haven't recorded so much, most of
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  our stuff is in that time, and we tried to replicate sounds of stuff
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  that we liked that tend to be sixties oriented music. Now I'm gonna have
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  to call this an be like I could sit chalk you for hours, I
• 19:55
  could talk underwater with the mouthful of marbles. I tell you, I'm just
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  the kids alone in the lounge room, and I'm dreading what I'm going to
• 20:02
  go back in there too, So I'm going to have to go back there
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  and do that, all right, mate. But in the meantime, Tumbleweed
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  are playing at Sonic Rendezvut Record Store Day this Saturday, April the twentieth in
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  Melbourne, only show for the whole year at this stage down there, twenty
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  bucks gets your music, It gets you. What else have we got here?
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  There's food, there's Vinyl vendors, there's toll beer twenty bucks. I
• 20:26
  think actually Coopers have got to sponsored it as of today. So if you
• 20:30
  buy a record from the Record for you get a free beer. And I'm
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  booking my flights as soon as i get