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No Strings Attached With ADAM THOMPSON From CHOCOLATE STARFISH · HEAVY Music Interviews

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Adam Thompson Chocolate Starfish promoting the Bat at a Hell
• 0:04
  Speaker 1: return with strings attached to.
• 0:08
  Speaker 2: Nice Adam, thanks for joining us today. That sounds very
• 0:10
  Speaker 2: alluring with the strings attached.
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: Oh look it is. It's you know, we had a
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: lot of success a couple of years ago with the
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: Bat at a Hell show, and we just thought, look,
• 0:21
  Speaker 1: if we're going to do it again, let's take it
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: to another level. And it was about a year and
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: a half ago I did with the Mso I did
• 0:29
  Speaker 1: a George Michael's show at the My Music Bowl with
• 0:33
  Speaker 1: David Campbell and Nat Matthiswayte and a few others, and
• 0:37
  Speaker 1: it was with an orchestra, and I just loved it,
• 0:39
  Speaker 1: and I just sort of said to the boys, why
• 0:43
  Speaker 1: are we up the ante and see if we can
• 0:45
  Speaker 1: we can add a string section and really make it,
• 0:48
  Speaker 1: you know, because it's so so made for those sort
• 0:52
  Speaker 1: of shows. I know Meet Love back in the day
• 0:54
  Speaker 1: did several of them, and that album is just made
• 0:57
  Speaker 1: for strings, all right.
• 1:00
  Speaker 2: So we'll get into that a little bit more later on,
• 1:02
  Speaker 2: but first I want to let people know what we're
• 1:03
  Speaker 2: talking about, because they could be thinking we're talking about
• 1:06
  Speaker 2: strings and no band attached what we are actually talking
• 1:11
  Speaker 2: about is Chocolate Staff is should a Bat out of
• 1:13
  Speaker 2: Hell Meatload tribute show that makes his return with the
• 1:16
  Speaker 2: runner Show starting on July the fifth in Melbourne. Then
• 1:18
  Speaker 2: you head through tweet Heads, Cloundra, Hobart, Kidney Bandy Goo,
• 1:21
  Speaker 2: Brisbane Cans and Adelaide and finishing Perth on August and thirtieth.
• 1:25
  Speaker 2: It's a big run of shows.
• 1:26
  Speaker 3: Mate.
• 1:27
  Speaker 2: Only prepare mentally and physically for a tool like that,
• 1:30
  Speaker 2: especially when it's not your own music.
• 1:32
  Speaker 1: Yeah, it really is a big preparation and hence why
• 1:35
  Speaker 1: I'm sort of taking a few months off now to
• 1:40
  Speaker 1: write and record new materials. So you've almost got to
• 1:43
  Speaker 1: I know this sounds a bit weird, but you've almost
• 1:46
  Speaker 1: got to divorce yourself from that tour because if you
• 1:51
  Speaker 1: get too stressed out about it or too into it
• 1:56
  Speaker 1: too early, it's like peaking for a you know, a performance,
• 1:59
  Speaker 1: or peak for a game if you're a football or
• 2:02
  Speaker 1: something like that. You're going to peak at the right time.
• 2:05
  Speaker 1: And we do our own practice in our own I guess,
• 2:12
  Speaker 1: playing at home to prepare and then when we come
• 2:16
  Speaker 1: in a month before we'll do a few weeks with
• 2:20
  Speaker 1: the band. Just I guess getting it tight again, and
• 2:25
  Speaker 1: then we'll add the string section then, so that by
• 2:28
  Speaker 1: the time we get to the first show, we're not
• 2:31
  Speaker 1: jaded and we're not sort of over it. We're right
• 2:33
  Speaker 1: in that sweet spot of Wow, we're really enjoying this,
• 2:37
  Speaker 1: and you know, to have the string section along with
• 2:40
  Speaker 1: us just means that it's even bigger and better.
• 2:43
  Speaker 2: Yeah, and I've noticed most of the shows of theater
• 2:46
  Speaker 2: shows as role mate, so that sort of provides for
• 2:48
  Speaker 2: a much better setting done it.
• 2:51
  Speaker 1: Look, I think it does for a show like Batata
• 2:53
  Speaker 1: Hell with strings. Obviously with that string section, there are
• 2:58
  Speaker 1: moments in not only debut album by bat atter Hell's
• 3:02
  Speaker 1: with meat Loaf and Jim Steinman, but subsequent material that
• 3:07
  Speaker 1: Jim wrote for other artists which we're also featuring on
• 3:10
  Speaker 1: the show. So like you know, Celemdion's all coming Back
• 3:15
  Speaker 1: to Me Now and Total Eclipse of the Heart, and
• 3:17
  Speaker 1: those are the classics. They are very orchestrated in the
• 3:24
  Speaker 1: way they're written. So to be able to do those
• 3:27
  Speaker 1: in a theater means that you can have those pin
• 3:30
  Speaker 1: drop moments in songs like Heaven Can Wait there, that's
• 3:34
  Speaker 1: a great example, Heaven can Wait, you know, So emotional
• 3:38
  Speaker 1: for people that have either lost a loved one or
• 3:42
  Speaker 1: or you know, really want to convey how they feel.
• 3:45
  Speaker 1: But then I minute later, I'll literally get the whole
• 3:49
  Speaker 1: audience up in the theater dancing to Paradise by the
• 3:53
  Speaker 1: dashboard light, which you can't not dance to. It's just
• 3:56
  Speaker 1: such a great song. So that is the beauty of
• 4:01
  Speaker 1: doing a theater show is that you can almost navigate
• 4:06
  Speaker 1: the audience into the journey with you in a way
• 4:12
  Speaker 1: that you know, there's moments when they want to reflect
• 4:15
  Speaker 1: and there's moments when they want to go off their heads.
• 4:16
  Speaker 1: So it's a win win.
• 4:19
  Speaker 2: Is you raise an interesting point there too, bro Like,
• 4:22
  Speaker 2: there's probably a lot of people out there that love Meglough,
• 4:24
  Speaker 2: particularly the album Bat out of Hell. But I've got
• 4:26
  Speaker 2: no idea that Jim Steinman wrote for so many other people.
• 4:29
  Speaker 2: So the fact that you're doing those songs in the
• 4:30
  Speaker 2: set as well probably open a lot of people's eyes up.
• 4:34
  Speaker 1: It really will. And you're right there. The two that
• 4:36
  Speaker 1: I mentioned, you know, with Bonnie Tyler, they're big ones,
• 4:39
  Speaker 1: but even Jim had his own hit with rock and
• 4:43
  Speaker 1: Roll Dreams Comes Through, which is which is a huge
• 4:45
  Speaker 1: It was top ten song in Australia. As soon as
• 4:49
  Speaker 1: I start singing it, people are going to know that one,
• 4:53
  Speaker 1: you know. But you know, he also wrote making Love
• 4:59
  Speaker 1: out of nothing at All for Me, not for me,
• 5:00
  Speaker 1: Left for the air supplay of all of all mega love.
• 5:09
  Speaker 1: It's also yeah, yeah, yeah, so yeah, there's so many
• 5:14
  Speaker 1: songs that you wrote a little bit like Prince. You
• 5:16
  Speaker 1: know how Prince has wrote so many other songs for
• 5:19
  Speaker 1: other people, but you don't equate it with the original artist.
• 5:23
  Speaker 1: You just you know, you equate it only with the
• 5:26
  Speaker 1: hit that you know. So that's so good. And to
• 5:31
  Speaker 1: be able to do those extra songs. We're actually going
• 5:34
  Speaker 1: to do a bit of a bit of a Stars
• 5:36
  Speaker 1: on forty five if you're old enough to remember that
• 5:38
  Speaker 1: mega mix of some of those extra songs right into
• 5:42
  Speaker 1: a bit of a almost a club anthem mega mix.
• 5:47
  Speaker 1: So it's, oh man, it's going to be fantastic. So yeah,
• 5:54
  Speaker 1: just like every chocolate stuff is show, there are surprises
• 5:59
  Speaker 1: that you just didn't see coming.
• 6:02
  Speaker 2: Some of them you don't want to see.
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  Speaker 1: Only you can say that to me. I've lived to
• 6:09
  Speaker 1: tell the tale.
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  Speaker 2: And I noticed a lot of the shows that PG
• 6:14
  Speaker 2: rated as well, which means the kiddies can come along
• 6:17
  Speaker 2: and gets you experience about you can meet life.
• 6:19
  Speaker 1: Yeah, look what we've found in the last five or
• 6:22
  Speaker 1: six years for us since we started doing these classic
• 6:25
  Speaker 1: albums like that at how I did the Beheman Rhapsody
• 6:29
  Speaker 1: soundtrack that a lot of I guess they're probably grandparents
• 6:35
  Speaker 1: or older parents want to bring their kids to some
• 6:39
  Speaker 1: of the music they grew up with, and that's just
• 6:43
  Speaker 1: been great because not only have they enjoyed the shows
• 6:46
  Speaker 1: through us, but then they've experienced Chocolate Starfish and then
• 6:51
  Speaker 1: of course we you know, we do Mountain and fall
• 6:54
  Speaker 1: Out a Word and other songs of our own within
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  Speaker 1: the encore with some of these shows, and then there's
• 7:01
  Speaker 1: a whole new younger audience that are experiencing us through
• 7:05
  Speaker 1: these classic albums. So, yeah, you're right, Bad at Hell
• 7:08
  Speaker 1: is a great way, you know, to introduce people between
• 7:14
  Speaker 1: fifteen obviously even younger. Maybe you know, we have twelve
• 7:18
  Speaker 1: ten year olds coming to our show and loving it.
• 7:21
  Speaker 1: And because their mentality listening to the radio is only
• 7:25
  Speaker 1: you know, two and a half three minute pop songs
• 7:29
  Speaker 1: that are quite generic and homogeneous often within their soundscape,
• 7:33
  Speaker 1: they don't get to experience the dynamics of an album
• 7:37
  Speaker 1: like that at hell. So it's such a great learning
• 7:42
  Speaker 1: experience for these for these kids, which is why then
• 7:45
  Speaker 1: they want to keep coming back.
• 7:47
  Speaker 2: Yes, now we'll get onto the string section now that
• 7:50
  Speaker 2: you've got with it, Like how many peace string section?
• 7:53
  Speaker 2: Is it for a starter? And how is it going
• 7:54
  Speaker 2: to change the dynamics of the performance.
• 7:57
  Speaker 1: Yeah, so it's an eight piece string section, and the
• 8:02
  Speaker 1: dynamics of the performance will change because the you know
• 8:07
  Speaker 1: where we've only previously had norm playing the synth, you know,
• 8:12
  Speaker 1: for something like for Crying Out Loud or Heaven Can Wait.
• 8:15
  Speaker 1: Some of those sort of more slower songs, you know,
• 8:20
  Speaker 1: you'll have that sort of lush tones that string section bring,
• 8:27
  Speaker 1: you know, so just to feel that growan of the cello.
• 8:32
  Speaker 3: On the now the Chili Californian, it's blowing down a
• 8:39
  Speaker 3: bodies again, you know, Oh man, it's just gonna be.
• 8:45
  Speaker 1: Yeah, thanks, just just to feel that, you know, and
• 8:51
  Speaker 1: what it does, it'll heighten the emotion. But then again,
• 8:54
  Speaker 1: like you know, adding it to to some of the
• 8:57
  Speaker 1: more rock songs as well, you know who did that
• 9:01
  Speaker 1: really well, you know, even when you look at someone
• 9:06
  Speaker 1: like I know you love Metallica. You know when they've
• 9:09
  Speaker 1: added string sections to some of their music, all even
• 9:12
  Speaker 1: the up songs, all it does is strengthen the the
• 9:18
  Speaker 1: depth of what that song is all about. And you
• 9:21
  Speaker 1: know we're going to let them sit in on a
• 9:23
  Speaker 1: couple of stuffish songs too, like Mountain, which I just
• 9:26
  Speaker 1: know going to be just really good. So no one
• 9:31
  Speaker 1: has been flat out writing all these charts not only
• 9:33
  Speaker 1: for Better to Hell but and Steinmann songs, but also
• 9:36
  Speaker 1: for Hours to to make it even more special.
• 9:40
  Speaker 2: That's great. The only concern I've got there, mate, I
• 9:42
  Speaker 2: say this through the utmost respect, but it's gonna have
• 9:46
  Speaker 2: to be a lot more structured with a string section there.
• 9:48
  Speaker 2: And you're not known for doing things a conventional way.
• 9:50
  Speaker 2: You'd love to add a lib and go off in
• 9:52
  Speaker 2: your own little tangent. So because you're gonna have to
• 9:55
  Speaker 2: go to the school.
• 9:56
  Speaker 1: So listeners, slush viewers. And I'm being honest to one
• 10:00
  Speaker 1: of these questions were put before me before the interview today,
• 10:04
  Speaker 1: and so that just shows me how much you you
• 10:08
  Speaker 1: know me. Now, if you think you're scared about that,
• 10:11
  Speaker 1: can you imagine the band right if they're half a
• 10:14
  Speaker 1: bar in front of a half a bar behind the
• 10:16
  Speaker 1: string section. All it's going to mean, my friend, is
• 10:22
  Speaker 1: when I go like that, when I loop a certain section,
• 10:24
  Speaker 1: you all better be watching, because you know, come with me,
• 10:28
  Speaker 1: is all I'm going to say. Because we might we
• 10:31
  Speaker 1: might go have a breakdown in the middle of paradise
• 10:35
  Speaker 1: by the dashboard light and I might be going to
• 10:38
  Speaker 1: Chapel Roane's Pink Pony Club, is all I'm saying.
• 10:40
  Speaker 2: Mate.
• 10:40
  Speaker 1: You never know.
• 10:43
  Speaker 2: Speaking of your your natural flamboyancy, mate, like you still
• 10:47
  Speaker 2: bring that to your role while you're singing the Meatload songs,
• 10:50
  Speaker 2: which I think is fantastic, you know, like it. It
• 10:52
  Speaker 2: shows that you're still got your own DNA springs will
• 10:55
  Speaker 2: throw it. But how does that go over with a
• 10:57
  Speaker 2: lot of people? Just does it offend anyone that a purists?
• 11:01
  Speaker 1: Well that is a terrific question, and I wish I
• 11:06
  Speaker 1: you know, I mean, I can't speak on behalf of
• 11:09
  Speaker 1: all the people who come watch the show, and there's
• 11:13
  Speaker 1: lots of them in the early days. I mean, it's
• 11:15
  Speaker 1: like anything, mate, you the purists probably didn't like what
• 11:19
  Speaker 1: we did to you're so vain if you think about that,
• 11:23
  Speaker 1: you know, it's completely different to the way Kylie Simon
• 11:25
  Speaker 1: did it, and even more recently on a beautiful addiction
• 11:29
  Speaker 1: album with four non blondes, What's Up? You know, we
• 11:33
  Speaker 1: definitely put a different spin on that, So I'm sure
• 11:39
  Speaker 1: there are purists who would want to hear and almost
• 11:46
  Speaker 1: maybe see, you know, someone dressed up in a fat
• 11:48
  Speaker 1: suit and looking exactly like Medloaf and being that character
• 11:54
  Speaker 1: and tonally perhaps copying it. But I think the brandchop
• 12:00
  Speaker 1: of Staffish now is almost synonymous with putting our own
• 12:03
  Speaker 1: DNA on things, and by nature we choose things like
• 12:12
  Speaker 1: The Human Rhapsody and like that at the Help that
• 12:15
  Speaker 1: are inherently already flamboyant and already theatricals. So I guess
• 12:21
  Speaker 1: I'm just pushing the boundaries in a starfish way to
• 12:24
  Speaker 1: see how much more we can milk out of that
• 12:28
  Speaker 1: song or add to that song. And look, the tickets
• 12:34
  Speaker 1: are selling so incredibly well that there's obviously not that
• 12:38
  Speaker 1: many people offended by it, because it's thousands, my friend,
• 12:44
  Speaker 1: who are already booked in to see this tour, and
• 12:47
  Speaker 1: we've only been on sale for about five weeks, so
• 12:49
  Speaker 1: it's pretty amazing.
• 12:51
  Speaker 2: Good man, very good now. From a focalist point of
• 12:53
  Speaker 2: view like you're singing songs written by one of the
• 12:55
  Speaker 2: best songwriters of all time, sung by a bloke that
• 12:59
  Speaker 2: is loved by many is a motherfucker, but you still
• 13:03
  Speaker 2: make it your own, reproducing it in your own image.
• 13:06
  Speaker 2: Like how hard does that you do? Man? Like, it
• 13:08
  Speaker 2: doesn't sound like it'd be pretty easy.
• 13:11
  Speaker 1: No, it's not, And it's not instant, mates, this is
• 13:13
  Speaker 1: an evolution over time, Like if you think about it,
• 13:16
  Speaker 1: even back in the nineties, it's pretty well documented that
• 13:21
  Speaker 1: in the old days, pubs used to have sound meters
• 13:23
  Speaker 1: and if the band was too loud, the sound meter
• 13:25
  Speaker 1: would remember that. Do you remember those? And anyway, so
• 13:29
  Speaker 1: my go to because it would often take four to
• 13:31
  Speaker 1: five minutes before it resets before the band could start again.
• 13:37
  Speaker 1: And rather than walk off stage like an Australian Idol singer,
• 13:43
  Speaker 1: I'd jump out in the five six, seven hundred people
• 13:48
  Speaker 1: out in the middle of and I'd gather them all
• 13:49
  Speaker 1: around and I'd start singing an a cappella version about
• 13:52
  Speaker 1: it a hell until the PA pick back in. Oh
• 13:54
  Speaker 1: for real, Yeah, so that's what you know. I did
• 13:58
  Speaker 1: that thirty years ago. And and then when we contemplate
• 14:02
  Speaker 1: to doing this, you know it's you know again, do
• 14:06
  Speaker 1: we do we sound identical? Do we dress the same?
• 14:10
  Speaker 1: You know, all those things sort of evolved and my character,
• 14:15
  Speaker 1: as you know by seeing and holding my hand out
• 14:18
  Speaker 1: of the prayer circle at Monday. Monday whole story, folks.
• 14:23
  Speaker 2: I've got the I've got the photos. It's one of
• 14:25
  Speaker 2: the best makers of my life.
• 14:30
  Speaker 1: You see. My character is constantly developing and evolving, and
• 14:36
  Speaker 1: it's almost like limitless. And that's kind of how I
• 14:40
  Speaker 1: feel about taking on a role like this. It's almost
• 14:44
  Speaker 1: like your you're owning it, but you're owning it in
• 14:49
  Speaker 1: your own way. So but I'm more more than that.
• 14:52
  Speaker 1: I'm still proud to deliver songs that had the biggest
• 14:55
  Speaker 1: influence on me as a kid, like this album in particular,
• 14:59
  Speaker 1: I had the greatest influence on me growing up. We
• 15:03
  Speaker 1: may have talked about this in the past, but when
• 15:04
  Speaker 1: Mum died, this was the album that got me through
• 15:07
  Speaker 1: it when I was fourteen, and it was the sorrowful
• 15:11
  Speaker 1: songs like Heaven Can Wait that hit me in the heart.
• 15:14
  Speaker 1: But I'm fourd out, I'm going through puberty as well,
• 15:16
  Speaker 1: so mate, let me tell you all read it up
• 15:19
  Speaker 1: and no place to go. It didn't have a did
• 15:21
  Speaker 1: not have a shine of light on me, mate, when
• 15:25
  Speaker 1: I was out there with the baby carves in the farm.
• 15:28
  Speaker 1: Let me tell you I.
• 15:29
  Speaker 2: Got to that too. You very good, all right, audable?
• 15:37
  Speaker 2: Thanks to the chat. I'd always a pleasure speaking with you.
• 15:39
  Speaker 2: Where can people find out more information and get tickets
• 15:41
  Speaker 2: to about out of hell?
• 15:42
  Speaker 1: No stings if you don't have them, And I can
• 15:44
  Speaker 1: tell you I know you're you're intervening me from beautiful
• 15:48
  Speaker 1: Brisbane and sorry to hear all the weather you've gone through.
• 15:52
  Speaker 1: Of late, the Tivoli is only about one hundred tickets left,
• 15:56
  Speaker 1: and the Twin Towns and the clown shows are already
• 16:02
  Speaker 1: more than half sold as well. So what you need
• 16:05
  Speaker 1: to do is jump on to Chocolate Starfish dot com
• 16:09
  Speaker 1: dot au and the ticket links to not only Queensland
• 16:13
  Speaker 1: but the rest of Australia is all there and it's
• 16:18
  Speaker 1: going to be a show to remember everybody. And thanks
• 16:21
  Speaker 1: to Heavy as always, mate, we love, we love chatting
• 16:24
  Speaker 1: with you.