Latest / HEAVY Music Interviews / HEAVY Talks With KILLING HEIDI Backstage At GOOD THINGS 2024

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HEAVY Talks With KILLING HEIDI Backstage At GOOD THINGS 2024 · HEAVY Music Interviews

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: All right, this is Kira from Heavy mag Sitting. He
• 0:02
  Speaker 1: was Jesse from Killing Hardy. Hello, Jesse, how are we?
• 0:05
  Speaker 2: We're good.
• 0:05
  Speaker 3: We just played some songs that we haven't played in
• 0:08
  Speaker 3: twenty two or twenty three years.
• 0:10
  Speaker 2: That was pretty fun.
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: That's what we want to hear.
• 0:11
  Speaker 2: And the rain held out and then just came at
• 0:13
  Speaker 2: the end. So we love it.
• 0:14
  Speaker 4: Yeah, we walked out there before actually started spitting on us,
• 0:17
  Speaker 4: and we got a bit precious about it.
• 0:19
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
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  Speaker 3: My hackt a little bit wet, you know, and that's
• 0:22
  Speaker 3: going to keep it in primo conditions.
• 0:24
  Speaker 1: I mean, it's not you hard anymore.
• 0:26
  Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, it's not going to say it's kind of
• 0:27
  Speaker 2: got a bit brown if it. But yeah, anyway, it's
• 0:30
  Speaker 2: as well. It was great fun. We loved it.
• 0:31
  Speaker 1: It's cool, awesome. So you haven't played them in a
• 0:33
  Speaker 1: long time.
• 0:34
  Speaker 3: Yeah, So we've been playing mainly like singles when we
• 0:36
  Speaker 3: play sets, and so there's some we played Reflector all
• 0:39
  Speaker 3: Reflected materials. So that was our first album and some
• 0:42
  Speaker 3: of those songs we haven't played since he had two
• 0:44
  Speaker 3: one two, Oh my god.
• 0:45
  Speaker 2: So that was been so cool.
• 0:46
  Speaker 3: It's been really fun rehearsing those songs up and they
• 0:49
  Speaker 3: got a great.
• 0:49
  Speaker 2: Reaction and it was Yeah, it was really cool, people
• 0:51
  Speaker 2: singing along.
• 0:52
  Speaker 1: Yeah, it's great you see metal heads pop along for you.
• 0:55
  Speaker 3: We've always had a few heavy songs and a couple
• 0:58
  Speaker 3: are kind of quiet ones too, so people were.
• 1:01
  Speaker 2: Like both is cool.
• 1:01
  Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, well that's awesome.
• 1:03
  Speaker 4: So starting off obviously so young and killing Heidi, is
• 1:07
  Speaker 4: there a time you wish that you could go back
• 1:08
  Speaker 4: and just grab yourself and be like it's going to
• 1:10
  Speaker 4: be okay, or just go just do this and guide
• 1:13
  Speaker 4: yourself another way.
• 1:15
  Speaker 3: I think when we were really super busy in that
• 1:18
  Speaker 3: two thousand thousand and two, it was such a whirl
• 1:21
  Speaker 3: wind that Yeah, I think if I could give myself advice,
• 1:23
  Speaker 3: it would just be to be more present and kind
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  Speaker 3: of soak it up, because I think when you're in
• 1:26
  Speaker 3: there in that craziness, you think it's going to be forever,
• 1:30
  Speaker 3: and the obviously things change or whatever, and.
• 1:32
  Speaker 2: Yeah you have quiet times. But yeah, I look, I
• 1:35
  Speaker 2: think we always had a pretty.
• 1:36
  Speaker 3: Good, lighthearted approach, and we want it to be fun
• 1:38
  Speaker 3: and we want it to be good. So I think
• 1:40
  Speaker 3: we you know, there's probably not that much we want
• 1:42
  Speaker 3: to change from back then. Yeah, other than you know,
• 1:45
  Speaker 3: probably drink a little bit less.
• 1:47
  Speaker 1: Maybe, Yeah. No, you guys have always had.
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  Speaker 4: That lightheartedness and fun and like you watch what you're
• 1:53
  Speaker 4: doing and you can see that you're enjoying what you're doing.
• 1:55
  Speaker 1: So yeahs perfect.
• 1:57
  Speaker 4: What was it like being a part of like the
• 1:59
  Speaker 4: OG Big Day Out crew in that era?
• 2:02
  Speaker 1: Like, can you remember much?
• 2:05
  Speaker 2: What was? Well?
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  Speaker 3: I mean, first of all, I grew up in Northeast Victoria,
• 2:10
  Speaker 3: and so Big Doubt for me was always like this magical,
• 2:13
  Speaker 3: mystical thing that I heard about from my older cousins
• 2:15
  Speaker 3: because when I was a bit younger, so that they
• 2:17
  Speaker 3: went to before I went to right and it was
• 2:18
  Speaker 3: always you know, like Nirvana era or those sound Guard
• 2:21
  Speaker 3: and playing and so it just felt like, wow, that
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  Speaker 3: would be amazing to go to. And so the first
• 2:26
  Speaker 3: one I ever went to was when we were played
• 2:27
  Speaker 3: it in ninety and eighty nine, So that was a
• 2:29
  Speaker 3: weird induction to it, but it was such an iconic
• 2:33
  Speaker 3: thing that to be a part of.
• 2:35
  Speaker 2: When I think back to.
• 2:35
  Speaker 3: Those shows that we did, we were so excited and
• 2:38
  Speaker 3: so nervous, but we loved it.
• 2:40
  Speaker 2: And I feel like this festival's got a.
• 2:42
  Speaker 3: Real vibe like that, which has been the first time
• 2:44
  Speaker 3: I've seen something similar for a long time.
• 2:48
  Speaker 2: I love it. Lots of different bands, lots of diversity too,
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  Speaker 2: not just the one thing.
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  Speaker 3: I think that's something Big Dat did really well. And
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  Speaker 3: Good Things has got a great.
• 2:56
  Speaker 2: Lineup, which has got some older bands like us and
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  Speaker 2: what's the cool new bands?
• 3:00
  Speaker 4: Yeah, Louzy Guys sprinkled in there was just exactly and awesome.
• 3:04
  Speaker 4: So I have to ask, being Corn as the headliner,
• 3:07
  Speaker 4: why didn't you bring the hair back?
• 3:09
  Speaker 2: Well, good question.
• 3:11
  Speaker 3: I've still got a bag of st a bag of
• 3:13
  Speaker 3: dreadlock somewhere sort of kept stash.
• 3:17
  Speaker 2: But do I have enough to do a whole week?
• 3:19
  Speaker 2: I don't know. Probably got enough to do like a
• 3:22
  Speaker 2: mustache maybe, yeah, red one Yeah, Yeah.
• 3:26
  Speaker 1: Your mum still has your dreads.
• 3:27
  Speaker 2: She gave him to me, so I've got.
• 3:29
  Speaker 1: Yeah, we're now family heirloom.
• 3:32
  Speaker 2: Yeah, disgusting.
• 3:34
  Speaker 3: I've been through a lot, a lot for sure.
• 3:39
  Speaker 4: Is it ever a healthy rivalry between you and a
• 3:42
  Speaker 4: lot Yeah kind of.
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  Speaker 3: I think like musically and on stage it's very collaborative
• 3:47
  Speaker 3: and we might ham it up a little bit, but.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, not so much a rivalry. I think we kind
• 3:53
  Speaker 2: of have a lot of fun together really.
• 3:54
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
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  Speaker 3: I think the rivalry is probably women not on stage
• 3:56
  Speaker 3: and we're bitching about like whose turn it is to
• 3:59
  Speaker 3: do something, But musically we kind of much more Yeah.
• 4:05
  Speaker 2: A bit of a team. Yeah yeah, talk about.
• 4:07
  Speaker 3: Like you know, who's bringing what to the Christmas family Christmas,
• 4:13
  Speaker 3: that's when the competitive.
• 4:14
  Speaker 4: Kind of I can now for dog you yes, yeah,
• 4:18
  Speaker 4: speaking of that, sitting around the Christmas table, what's the
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  Speaker 4: memory that comes up often, like from the past or
• 4:24
  Speaker 4: your family go oh my god, can you believe that
• 4:25
  Speaker 4: you've done that? Or do you remember this?
• 4:27
  Speaker 2: Yeah, it's funny.
• 4:29
  Speaker 3: I think some of our family now that come along
• 4:32
  Speaker 3: and didn't see that period, So that's always funny that
• 4:34
  Speaker 3: like that, you know that there's people that didn't experience
• 4:37
  Speaker 3: for killing Heidi craziness was particularly that a couple of
• 4:40
  Speaker 3: year where it was all berserk. So for me nowl
• 4:43
  Speaker 3: I guess it's probably more just reminiscing back when we
• 4:46
  Speaker 3: were just writing songs where there was no commercial success
• 4:51
  Speaker 3: and it was really just us writing songs up in
• 4:52
  Speaker 3: the country. Like I feel like that's a really nice
• 4:54
  Speaker 3: memory that we share. Yeah. Yeah, and it's something that
• 4:57
  Speaker 3: at the time, you know, you maybe you take for
• 5:00
  Speaker 3: a little bit and now having time together with her.
• 5:02
  Speaker 3: Usually it's really busy and so we're doing shows or
• 5:04
  Speaker 3: we're like doing interviews or whatever it's and that's fun
• 5:06
  Speaker 3: that have time where you're just hanging out and there's
• 5:08
  Speaker 3: no outcome.
• 5:09
  Speaker 2: It's just about connecting and playing music. That's pretty special.
• 5:13
  Speaker 2: That it's a bit harder to find that time now.
• 5:15
  Speaker 1: Yeah, of course, of course.
• 5:17
  Speaker 4: And what would you say is your biggest pat on
• 5:19
  Speaker 4: the back moment if you could. I know, there's a
• 5:21
  Speaker 4: lot like you guys are just you've accomplished so.
• 5:24
  Speaker 1: Much, but it's something that you sit there and go, wow.
• 5:27
  Speaker 2: Look. I think when we won the Opera.
• 5:30
  Speaker 3: Songwriters of the Year award, I think that was two
• 5:32
  Speaker 3: thousand or two thousand and one, and I've got the award.
• 5:34
  Speaker 3: I should probably read which year it is. That was
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  Speaker 3: a really cool one for us. Because as much as
• 5:38
  Speaker 3: we love playing live, and particularly now, I think we're
• 5:42
  Speaker 3: better players twenty five years on, we've been.
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  Speaker 2: Fracturing a lot more.
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  Speaker 3: Back then, there was you know, we were still pretty
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  Speaker 3: green with live performing live and we loved it, but
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  Speaker 3: we still had a lot to learn. Whereas the songwriting thing,
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  Speaker 3: I think we've been working on for a bit longer
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  Speaker 3: before we were touring, so to get that acknowledgment and
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  Speaker 3: recognition as songwriters was really special.
• 6:00
  Speaker 1: Yeah, that would be.
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  Speaker 4: It's like, yeah, we are on the right floor, so
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  Speaker 4: that it was just something amazing together.
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  Speaker 2: Yeap.
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  Speaker 4: Do you find it easier to get out there and
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  Speaker 4: play now or the nerves hit you a little bit
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  Speaker 4: more now?
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  Speaker 3: It's funny this one, this doing good things has been
• 6:13
  Speaker 3: so exciting because a lot of it on your face. Yeah, well,
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  Speaker 3: I mean it really is authentic, and a lot of
• 6:18
  Speaker 3: the touring we've been doing recently has not been headlined shows.
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  Speaker 2: There have been festivals where we're on early. We were
• 6:23
  Speaker 2: on early today, but we're.
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  Speaker 3: Playing with like maybe big eighties bands for example, which
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  Speaker 3: are awesome. We love those things too, but this one
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  Speaker 3: was like, oh my god, this is like corn Jet
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  Speaker 3: living in bands that we grew up listening to as peers,
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  Speaker 3: and so for us it was like we got to
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  Speaker 3: step this up. We're playing with our peers from back then.
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  Speaker 3: So I feel like, yeah, this one's been really exciting.
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  Speaker 3: Been dreaming about it and getting excited about it like
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  Speaker 3: we used to.
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  Speaker 2: For a long time.
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  Speaker 4: Yeah that's cool because I remember seeing the lineup coming
• 6:50
  Speaker 4: out and like, oh.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, man, oh my god, Killing Heidi.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, amazing.
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  Speaker 3: It's been great to be included in a bit of
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  Speaker 3: a different festival from ones we've been doing, instance the Reformation,
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  Speaker 3: We've kind of been just been picking sort of fun
• 7:01
  Speaker 3: festivals and doing things. So to get this one was like, oh, yes,
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  Speaker 3: we're so excited.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 7:09
  Speaker 4: What is it like to walk into like a shopping
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  Speaker 4: center or a pub and you hear yourself all the time.
• 7:14
  Speaker 4: I don't think I've turned on the radio in the
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  Speaker 4: car without killing Herd example, or having the scone out
• 7:19
  Speaker 4: of the pub and it's killing Hardy, Like does it
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  Speaker 4: make you go or just still?
• 7:24
  Speaker 1: Yeah?
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  Speaker 2: I love it? I love it. I still love it.
• 7:27
  Speaker 2: Especially it's funny on the digital stations in the car.
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  Speaker 3: Now you've got the Triple M nineties, Triple in two
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  Speaker 3: thousands and all these other channels and they're still take
• 7:34
  Speaker 3: Killing Heidi and gold.
• 7:35
  Speaker 2: One Way Forward. We're on classic classic rock down. We're
• 7:38
  Speaker 2: all that old. Yeah, So it's it's I love it.
• 7:40
  Speaker 2: I love it. I always turned it up so you
• 7:42
  Speaker 2: can hear it. I'm like, this is me, this is
• 7:43
  Speaker 2: your journment.
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  Speaker 1: I'm cool, sweat.
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  Speaker 4: What is something from that golden era that you wish
• 7:50
  Speaker 4: you could pull into today's music or today it's music scene,
• 7:53
  Speaker 4: and something that it's kind of been lost over the years.
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  Speaker 3: Well, it's funny because today there's so many awesome guitar
• 7:58
  Speaker 3: bands that I feel like it's not missing.
• 7:59
  Speaker 2: But I think if I look at some of the.
• 8:01
  Speaker 3: More mainstream festivals that don't always feature guitar driven bands,
• 8:06
  Speaker 3: or even the radio to be honest, like modern Triple
• 8:09
  Speaker 3: J kind of era radio current era, I feel like
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  Speaker 3: I'm missing that guitar centered kind of.
• 8:14
  Speaker 2: Music a little bit.
• 8:15
  Speaker 3: Yeah, So I think that, you know, being a rock band,
• 8:19
  Speaker 3: we've sort of seen these cycles come and go, so
• 8:21
  Speaker 3: I feel like it's always a bit of a sickly
• 8:22
  Speaker 3: cool thing. So I feel like if there's anything that's
• 8:24
  Speaker 3: probably just having a bit more of that raw sort
• 8:27
  Speaker 3: of band centered songwriting and sound, I feel like that's
• 8:29
  Speaker 3: something I'm looking forward.
• 8:30
  Speaker 1: To coming back in.
• 8:31
  Speaker 2: Yeah cool.
• 8:32
  Speaker 1: Yeah, you're right, just kind of doing a fulls over moment.
• 8:34
  Speaker 4: But I guess in the time that you guys were
• 8:36
  Speaker 4: really huge back in the day, it was really guitar
• 8:39
  Speaker 4: grip driven and it was I don't know all about
• 8:42
  Speaker 4: raw authentic music so much your laptop and that's right.
• 8:45
  Speaker 1: Everything has a place, but yeah, it was like your
• 8:47
  Speaker 1: raw music.
• 8:48
  Speaker 2: Yeah, it's for us. And there's some great examples here today.
• 8:51
  Speaker 2: There's Jet there's Living Ends.
• 8:53
  Speaker 3: There's so many great bands that that aren't using backing tracks.
• 8:56
  Speaker 3: There's just bands playing and I think that's that's really cool.
• 8:59
  Speaker 2: That's special.
• 8:59
  Speaker 1: Yeah, that's the fire.
• 9:01
  Speaker 4: Yeah, in a parallel universe, who is Jesse and what
• 9:04
  Speaker 4: is he doing?
• 9:05
  Speaker 1: There's no killing HARDI none of that happened.
• 9:08
  Speaker 4: What is he doing?
• 9:09
  Speaker 1: Cowboy? Is this a sign?
• 9:11
  Speaker 2: Probably? Yeah?
• 9:11
  Speaker 3: I think I still would have left Violet Town, but
• 9:15
  Speaker 3: who knows. I started studying sound production, so I was
• 9:18
  Speaker 3: always curious in music that way, So I'd probably be
• 9:22
  Speaker 3: a stage guy or house or something.
• 9:25
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I reckon probably, Yeah, good question.
• 9:27
  Speaker 4: I don't know.
• 9:28
  Speaker 1: Yeah, he walked in with a hat on. I went, perfect, Well, this.
• 9:31
  Speaker 3: Is because it was meant to be like thirty five
• 9:33
  Speaker 3: degrees and super hot to prevent my ginger head from
• 9:36
  Speaker 3: being boiled.
• 9:37
  Speaker 2: I probably didn't need it in the end, but yeah,
• 9:39
  Speaker 2: I've got.
• 9:39
  Speaker 1: A redhead sister who burns in the rain.
• 9:41
  Speaker 3: So yeah, yeah, ginger life, Yeah, that's it?
• 9:46
  Speaker 1: Is it?
• 9:47
  Speaker 4: Hard to kind of gather yourself and make your next
• 9:50
  Speaker 4: plan after having such huge success so early on, like where.
• 9:54
  Speaker 1: Do you do? You kind of sit there and go, fuck,
• 9:56
  Speaker 1: we've got to not top that. But where we go
• 9:58
  Speaker 1: from here.
• 9:58
  Speaker 2: It was tough.
• 9:59
  Speaker 3: I mean, I think because Reflective was so successful. The
• 10:03
  Speaker 3: second and third albums had heaps of airplay, and they
• 10:05
  Speaker 3: were kind of perceived as being successful and they were
• 10:07
  Speaker 3: in a lot of ways. Because they've got lots of airplay,
• 10:09
  Speaker 3: they opened up lots of touring opportunities, but in comparison,
• 10:12
  Speaker 3: the commercial success wasn't as big for the second two albums,
• 10:14
  Speaker 3: so there was a little bit that thing of like,
• 10:15
  Speaker 3: oh my god, I think that's why we just love playing.
• 10:19
  Speaker 2: The old songs now. And while we're probably not.
• 10:21
  Speaker 3: Releasing music as much as we're curious to do new
• 10:24
  Speaker 3: music again, what appeals to us now is playing songs
• 10:27
  Speaker 3: that everyone already knows and sing along too, and it's
• 10:29
  Speaker 3: just like it becomes a party instead of that pressure
• 10:31
  Speaker 3: to be like, oh.
• 10:31
  Speaker 2: We go a lot to write new songs seeing people
• 10:33
  Speaker 2: like it.
• 10:33
  Speaker 3: I mean, we spent a lot of our lives doing
• 10:35
  Speaker 3: that and it was cool, but now it's just like
• 10:38
  Speaker 3: there's flavor picked songs that everyone loves already, so it's
• 10:41
  Speaker 3: a bit of a treat for us.
• 10:42
  Speaker 1: So walking out past the festival, you hear the start
• 10:44
  Speaker 1: of we.
• 10:44
  Speaker 2: Are Yeah, We're very lucky, you know.
• 10:48
  Speaker 3: Part of it is actually the fact that people have
• 10:50
  Speaker 3: got those connections to that material means that we keep
• 10:53
  Speaker 3: doing this. So when we reformed in twenty sixteen, we
• 10:56
  Speaker 3: didn't think we'd do it for more than.
• 10:57
  Speaker 2: A year or two.
• 10:58
  Speaker 3: Really we are in twenty twenty four and we're still
• 11:00
  Speaker 3: going because people love the songs.
• 11:02
  Speaker 4: So yeah, a big deep emotional connection to them as well.
• 11:07
  Speaker 4: Like I remember growing up to the songs and I
• 11:09
  Speaker 4: still loved them and to this day, like it's you know,
• 11:13
  Speaker 4: it's my happy place. You know, someone's got an acoustic guitar.
• 11:15
  Speaker 4: I' what is the song that people demand from you?
• 11:22
  Speaker 4: Not demand, but you know.
• 11:23
  Speaker 1: They want it.
• 11:25
  Speaker 3: It's gotta be weird in Rascar, But I think we
• 11:27
  Speaker 3: holds a really particular place being the song that cross
• 11:31
  Speaker 3: over from Triple J into the big commercial world, and.
• 11:35
  Speaker 2: It's a song about growing up and remaking the end.
• 11:37
  Speaker 3: Like, I think it's got those themes that people connect
• 11:39
  Speaker 3: to their own life, and I think a lot of
• 11:40
  Speaker 3: great classic songs have that where people can connect their
• 11:44
  Speaker 3: own experiences to it. It's personal, but it's also sort
• 11:47
  Speaker 3: of accessible. So I think that's the one that we're
• 11:49
  Speaker 3: It's so simple too, but it's often some great songs.
• 11:52
  Speaker 2: Are really simple.
• 11:53
  Speaker 1: That's exactly right.
• 11:54
  Speaker 4: It doesn't have to be anything else, all right, Well,
• 11:57
  Speaker 4: that's everything I hapen to you.
• 11:58
  Speaker 1: That was absolutely amazing. Pleasure, pleasure, enjoy the rest of
• 12:03
  Speaker 1: your time. Yeah, we will have some dinner and after
• 12:06
  Speaker 1: this one hopefully pull up.
• 12:07
  Speaker 2: Thank you, thanks for Chap.
• 12:09
  Speaker 1: That was amazing.