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Clearing Skies With JODI PHILLIS From THE CLOUDS · HEAVY Music Interviews

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Hi, I'm Jody Phyllis from the Clouds and it's great
• 0:04
  Speaker 1: to be here.
• 0:05
  Speaker 2: Hi, Chris, Hi, Jodie, thanks for joining us tonight. Pleasure,
• 0:10
  Speaker 2: there's your pleasure.
• 0:10
  Speaker 3: So we're here to speak about the fact that The
• 0:13
  Speaker 3: Clouds are hitting the stage very soon for three exclusive
• 0:17
  Speaker 3: headline shows in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane in honor of
• 0:19
  Speaker 3: the band's thirty fifth anniversary. Like that's a good reason
• 0:22
  Speaker 3: as any as I can think, I'm to go out
• 0:24
  Speaker 3: and play some live music.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, I know, even if it's a bit surreal and
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  Speaker 1: a bit like crazy, but yes, yes, it's it's always
• 0:33
  Speaker 1: good to have an excuse, something to hang the tour on.
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  Speaker 3: As they say, it's like a bit of a double
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  Speaker 3: edged sword playing just the three shows, because on one
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  Speaker 3: hand it's only three shows, but on the other hand,
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  Speaker 3: it pressures on you to nail all three because there's
• 0:48
  Speaker 3: not going to be any chances.
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  Speaker 1: To make you don't have to worry about that.
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  Speaker 4: Chris, Yeah, you're all sat Yeah, yeah, I know the
• 0:57
  Speaker 4: pressure is on, and yeah, playing more it's obviously better, but.
• 1:03
  Speaker 1: It's also really hard. Like I don't know, we all work,
• 1:06
  Speaker 1: we all have different lives now and making that jump
• 1:10
  Speaker 1: to the different time zone to Perth and then Adelaide,
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  Speaker 1: it was just all like, oh my god, at that
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  Speaker 1: time of the year, it's just going to be all
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  Speaker 1: too hectic, so we had to kind of condense it.
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  Speaker 1: And they're bigger venues than we played last time, so
• 1:22
  Speaker 1: we're kind of, yeah, condensing it. And a lot of
• 1:25
  Speaker 1: our fans like to travel so luckily that you know,
• 1:29
  Speaker 1: they'll go to whatever shows, so yeah, we're really really
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  Speaker 1: lucky like that. We have just an awesome fan base
• 1:38
  Speaker 1: who just really great.
• 1:40
  Speaker 2: Great people, so cool.
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  Speaker 3: But after thirty five years in the meat grinder that
• 1:44
  Speaker 3: is music industry, like you pretty much know what you're
• 1:47
  Speaker 3: doing in terms of being magic bit, but there'n't get
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  Speaker 3: harder the more the years go by. Like I know,
• 1:52
  Speaker 3: I had trouble walking the letterbox these days, and thirty
• 1:54
  Speaker 3: five years ago, I could always run it.
• 1:58
  Speaker 1: It's weird because yeah, obviously it does, like our voices
• 2:01
  Speaker 1: have dropped a bit, we've both had kids, you know,
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  Speaker 1: there's yeah, of course it does get harder, but somehow
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  Speaker 1: we just click in, Like I don't know how long
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  Speaker 1: we can pull it off, but so far, it's just
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  Speaker 1: it really is like riding a bike. But on like,
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  Speaker 1: on this tour, we're actually going to play a big
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  Speaker 1: handful of songs that we rarely played even back in
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  Speaker 1: the day, So these are for the true fans. We'll
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  Speaker 1: still play the songs that you know that everyone knows,
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  Speaker 1: but yeah, we've decided to chuck in a couple of
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  Speaker 1: real obscure deep cuts, so that'll be interesting and they're
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  Speaker 1: really fricking fast.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, I've actually got to bring that up because I
• 2:44
  Speaker 3: was going to say, like, it must be hard because
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  Speaker 3: you have to play the songs for fans won't like
• 2:49
  Speaker 3: say it Solider and Anthem and Cloud Factory, but if
• 2:51
  Speaker 3: your birthday, and you've got every right to be self
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  Speaker 3: indulgent and play songs that we've got a bit more
• 2:55
  Speaker 3: meaning to yourself.
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  Speaker 2: So I was gonna ask how you're going to get
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  Speaker 2: around the family of it.
• 3:01
  Speaker 1: Well, we're doing a combinations, So we're going to do
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  Speaker 1: those ones that we know that the audience enjoys and
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  Speaker 1: we still enjoy playing them, otherwise we wouldn't do them.
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  Speaker 1: But yeah, we're definitely going to put back in some
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  Speaker 1: of the ones that we've dropped for a while that
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  Speaker 1: we're also our favorite and we're putting in a couple
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  Speaker 1: that are really obscure. Yeah, well that's so cool, so
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  Speaker 1: it'll be fun.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, it keeps an interesting for you that way too.
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  Speaker 3: Eli doesn't become pedestrian because something a bit different.
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  Speaker 1: Well, luckily we have enough songs to be able to
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  Speaker 1: do that. I think in our little eight year period
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  Speaker 1: together in the beginning, I think we had around eighty
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  Speaker 1: songs that were that we really really liked. So that's
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  Speaker 1: a lot to choose from to play kind of these
• 3:48
  Speaker 1: legacy tours, so called legacy tours.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, you're gonna have to core of the band in
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  Speaker 3: yourself and Patricia there. But who else have you got
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  Speaker 3: playing this time around?
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  Speaker 1: Well, yeah, Trish me, David Eton so he on guitar,
• 4:05
  Speaker 1: and Ralph Whittingham so yeah, they were both with us
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  Speaker 1: for the longest time. Yeah, so it's pretty it's like
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  Speaker 1: it's it's the core group, that's for sure. Nice.
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  Speaker 3: And what can fans actually expect from your shows this
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  Speaker 3: time around? Like you've got you got anything anything special
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  Speaker 3: or elaborator. You can't just say the music you're talking
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  Speaker 3: and make more atmospheric.
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  Speaker 1: We're just going to rock.
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  Speaker 2: Great answer.
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  Speaker 1: Look, I can't promise anything I really don't know. It's
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  Speaker 1: a mystery. What's going to happen, Chris. I just hope
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  Speaker 1: that we remember all the chords and the words and
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  Speaker 1: the riffs. I'll aback you and we'll be fine.
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  Speaker 2: As simple as that.
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  Speaker 1: She will be telling jokes, so everyone has to prepare
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  Speaker 1: for that. I'm sorry. Yeah, no, it'll just be typical.
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  Speaker 1: It'll be just a Clouds show where we just play
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  Speaker 1: an ecliptic range of songs in all different time signatures
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  Speaker 1: and chord progressions and about all kinds of crazy topics.
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  Speaker 1: And yeah, that's that's how it rolls.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, very nice.
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  Speaker 3: Now, the Clouds started back in the late nineteen eighty nine,
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  Speaker 3: which is pretty much the same time that alternately brought
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  Speaker 3: with Gangbusters in his country. Were you guys riding that
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  Speaker 3: wave musically in a sense or was that just the
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  Speaker 3: sound that you initially created together.
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  Speaker 1: Oh well, it's a bit of birth, I mean it was.
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  Speaker 1: It definitely was a really vibrant scene going on at
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  Speaker 1: that time. It was a pretty exciting time for music.
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  Speaker 1: There's a lot of anger and emotion and angst being
• 5:48
  Speaker 1: unleashed in everyone's music, and also such you know, everyone
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  Speaker 1: kind of striving to be original that we all still
• 5:57
  Speaker 1: ended up sounding nineties now. So yeah, it was an
• 6:04
  Speaker 1: incredible time. I think we were a bit rare because
• 6:06
  Speaker 1: we had two women front people and songwriters, so that
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  Speaker 1: was pretty unique and even now, like it's hard to
• 6:15
  Speaker 1: find many bands who were like that. So yeah, I
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  Speaker 1: think we had that in our favor. Incredible, incredible musicians.
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  Speaker 1: I mean the bass parts that Trish comes up with,
• 6:32
  Speaker 1: the guitar lead, guitar riffs that Dave comes up with,
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  Speaker 1: they're just nuts. I mean they're really kooky notes that
• 6:39
  Speaker 1: those guy guys play. And Raf is thor as far
• 6:44
  Speaker 1: as I'm concerned on drums or hercules or something like that,
• 6:49
  Speaker 1: is there's no one like RAF. So I feel really
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  Speaker 1: just so lucky to be just kind of, you know,
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  Speaker 1: hanging out with those three and and doing what we do.
• 7:03
  Speaker 2: It's cool.
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  Speaker 3: I've spent a lot of those lines like do you
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  Speaker 3: think the Clouds were a product of the alternative music
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  Speaker 3: revolution or was it more that that was the product
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  Speaker 3: of your emergence.
• 7:13
  Speaker 1: Oh well, I know, I kind of I'm trying to
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  Speaker 1: I don't know. I think it's a chicken in the
• 7:17
  Speaker 1: egg thing. I can't say, yeah, we created a sound
• 7:23
  Speaker 1: because we were borrowing sounds left, right and center as
• 7:26
  Speaker 1: everyone was. You know, we used to get accused of
• 7:29
  Speaker 1: sounding like the Pixies or whatever, and yeah, we loved
• 7:32
  Speaker 1: them and we were influenced by them. But I think
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  Speaker 1: that's how it works. I mean, the Beatles were influenced
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  Speaker 1: by a little Richard and they went ahead and put
• 7:41
  Speaker 1: in their songs. It's like, whatever you love influences you.
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  Speaker 1: I don't know, I don't know. I don't know how
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  Speaker 1: to explain it.
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  Speaker 2: You guys did it better anyway.
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  Speaker 3: That's the answer virtually of the fact that you're celebrating
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  Speaker 3: the band's thirty fifth anniversary.
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  Speaker 2: Some of the songs are also going to be in
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  Speaker 2: the same age bracket.
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  Speaker 3: So when you go back over him, now, like, have
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  Speaker 3: they stood the test of time musically to go over again?
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, I think so. We think so. Otherwise I don't
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  Speaker 1: think we'd be doing it. But I don't know. I mean,
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  Speaker 1: maybe we're just biased. I don't know. We're really proud
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  Speaker 1: of our songs.
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  Speaker 3: Like.
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  Speaker 1: It's a pretty they're pretty heady songs and there's a
• 8:30
  Speaker 1: lot going on in them. We weren't lazy songwriting wise.
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  Speaker 2: No, it definitely still does sound good. And fresh today.
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  Speaker 3: What do you do Like A lot of the community
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  Speaker 3: does get dated, but what you created is something that
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  Speaker 3: still hasn't been exploided of I guess, so down.
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  Speaker 1: Thanks for seeing that. That's awesome. We had great producers
• 8:52
  Speaker 1: that we worked with as well, like Tim Whitton did
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  Speaker 1: a couple of incredible albums. He did Penny Century in
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  Speaker 1: Future and they're beautiful action. And you know, we had
• 9:02
  Speaker 1: Stuart Edie in the beginning as well, our original drummer,
• 9:04
  Speaker 1: who had really great production ideas and arrangement ideas. So
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  Speaker 1: I think we were we had a pretty high benchmark
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  Speaker 1: for arrangements and for songwriting. So yeah, I think looking back,
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  Speaker 1: we're all pretty proud of it. And we've done some
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  Speaker 1: stuff since too. We've released five songs since which we
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  Speaker 1: really love as well. But I guess just the time
• 9:32
  Speaker 1: and distance has made it difficult to get all of
• 9:34
  Speaker 1: that together. You know.
• 9:38
  Speaker 3: Now the band actually went You're separate ways in around
• 9:41
  Speaker 3: ninety seven, before you and Patricia found yourselves again and
• 9:44
  Speaker 3: reunited to draw with Jesus Jones has wonder stuff in
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  Speaker 3: twenty eleven. So what was it like birring the band
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  Speaker 3: up again the second time around? Was was it a
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  Speaker 3: different feeling, would you still get that same anticipation.
• 9:56
  Speaker 1: Well, it was exciting, yeah, because we were invited to
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  Speaker 1: do that wonder stuff Jones tour and we got to
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  Speaker 1: play on our favorite venues, which is like, so the Tivoli,
• 10:07
  Speaker 1: the n More in Sydney, it's all. Which one was
• 10:12
  Speaker 1: it in Melbourne? The other Big I Deco one not
• 10:16
  Speaker 1: the Forum anyway, So and when we got on stage
• 10:24
  Speaker 1: we had rehearsals together. It was like riding a bike
• 10:27
  Speaker 1: and we were really happy to see each other. And
• 10:29
  Speaker 1: we are really good friends. You know, if we're not
• 10:32
  Speaker 1: living together and touring together and playing every day and
• 10:36
  Speaker 1: living in hotel rooms together, we managed to just be
• 10:40
  Speaker 1: really great friends, Like we laugh a lot and we
• 10:44
  Speaker 1: still felt that we had it. So that was in
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  Speaker 1: twenty eleven and then we thought, well that went, well,
• 10:52
  Speaker 1: we can't just stop here. So we've sort of been
• 10:55
  Speaker 1: going out every two years or so since then.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, mentioned a couple of new songs that you've written, right,
• 11:02
  Speaker 3: The last one you wrote with or releases in two
• 11:04
  Speaker 3: thousand and nineteen, so I was about sixty years ago.
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  Speaker 2: So it is it's door still.
• 11:07
  Speaker 3: Open for writing new material or are you sort of
• 11:10
  Speaker 3: content with what you've done and your legacy with that,
• 11:12
  Speaker 3: and do you keep playing those.
• 11:15
  Speaker 1: Well, I mean, anything could happen. You know, I'm not
• 11:18
  Speaker 1: going to say no. But we've just had a lot
• 11:23
  Speaker 1: on in our lives, you know, moving I moved into State,
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  Speaker 1: We've had divorces, We've had all kinds of shit going down.
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  Speaker 1: It's like just getting focused and like going, Okay, this
• 11:36
  Speaker 1: is what we're going to do. We've talked about it,
• 11:38
  Speaker 1: we've certainly chucked ideas around and chucked demos around. So
• 11:43
  Speaker 1: I'm not going to say never, but yeah, I'm not
• 11:46
  Speaker 1: going to make any promises either.
• 11:48
  Speaker 3: Very diplomatic, hands today, very diplomatic. All right, Journiabul, thanks
• 11:53
  Speaker 3: for your time tonight. The Cloud thirty fifth anniversary shows
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  Speaker 3: starting Sydney on November the eighth. It's the Melbour at
• 11:59
  Speaker 3: the fourteenth and finished is in Brisbane the following night.
• 12:01
  Speaker 3: So where can people get themselves tickets or find out
• 12:04
  Speaker 3: more information.
• 12:05
  Speaker 1: Through os tics or just just google it. Metropolis are
• 12:09
  Speaker 1: the company promoting it. You can just jump online you'll
• 12:13
  Speaker 1: find it or follow us on Instagram and Facebook and
• 12:16
  Speaker 1: you'll find out about it.
• 12:18
  Speaker 2: Fantastic.
• 12:19
  Speaker 3: Well, I think I might pop down to the Brisbane
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  Speaker 3: Show because I was around like when you guys were kicking,
• 12:23
  Speaker 3: and I saw his lives a few times back then,
• 12:24
  Speaker 3: and be nicely on nostalgic trip to come back and
• 12:26
  Speaker 3: see on your thirty five awesome.
• 12:28
  Speaker 1: Come say hi, Chris,