Latest / HEAVY Music Interviews / Backstage At GOOD THINGS 2024 With THE LIVING END

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Backstage At GOOD THINGS 2024 With THE LIVING END · HEAVY Music Interviews

• 0:02
  Speaker 1: Of course, you guys have about a great time.
• 0:05
  Speaker 2: You wanted that we were, we were, you were festive
• 0:09
  Speaker 2: at that point.
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: I've not even been publishing any of you. We did
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: with our an a leader in text like they were.
• 0:14
  Speaker 2: They were loaded and.
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: At the end of it, you're right if you published,
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: go for it and checked again in the next week
• 0:21
  Speaker 1: and they're like, oh right, you didn't. Really they were
• 0:25
  Speaker 1: that I'll be loose party in my time, and nothing
• 0:28
  Speaker 1: came closer that they were. Text was on fun to
• 0:31
  Speaker 1: watch back then spectator funny Man, have we got in
• 0:41
  Speaker 1: my film him trying to steal the intercept.
• 0:42
  Speaker 3: The maxim out the back.
• 0:45
  Speaker 1: We didn't publish any of it. It's just just for fun.
• 0:47
  Speaker 1: But there you go.
• 0:53
  Speaker 2: Anyway, pretty good. Yeah, we just got here in town
• 0:58
  Speaker 2: for a few days. Seen, we've been recording a big
• 1:03
  Speaker 2: week already. You know, play to show you it's been
• 1:07
  Speaker 2: like Saturday, Sunday, Monday. No, we did Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday.
• 1:13
  Speaker 1: Is anything specifics coming up? And you want us to
• 1:15
  Speaker 1: talk about a new album.
• 1:17
  Speaker 2: We we're still working away on a new record.
• 1:22
  Speaker 1: Specific you want to want to push, there's nothing, there's
• 1:27
  Speaker 1: nothing promote at the moment.
• 1:29
  Speaker 2: You know, we're just working towards a new record.
• 1:32
  Speaker 4: And.
• 1:35
  Speaker 2: I don't know if we can. Charlie, Charlie, I suppose,
• 1:39
  Speaker 2: I suppose we can. We're doing it. We're doing a
• 1:40
  Speaker 2: tour in April. It was Easy Top and George.
• 1:44
  Speaker 1: I guess we can talk about that that last year.
• 1:53
  Speaker 1: He's still I still got it for an old man.
• 1:55
  Speaker 2: Yeah, cool, you're the king of rock. Hello, hello, hello, hello, Hello.
• 2:10
  Speaker 3: Good This Heavy Maga sitting down with Chris from The
• 2:26
  Speaker 3: Living End.
• 2:27
  Speaker 2: Hello, hello, hello, good morning, Hello, good morning.
• 2:31
  Speaker 4: The last time asked she.
• 2:33
  Speaker 2: Was a month or.
• 2:36
  Speaker 1: You were damn about this?
• 2:39
  Speaker 2: Was I? I was embargoed at that point, was it? Yeah? Yeah,
• 2:45
  Speaker 2: I'm not generally Yeah, I'm not generally very good with
• 2:48
  Speaker 2: secrets either, but yeah I was. I'm stoked to be here.
• 2:52
  Speaker 2: It's so great. I just we only just got here then,
• 2:54
  Speaker 2: and it was like going back in time, almost arriving
• 2:57
  Speaker 2: at the Big Dad or something, because there there isn't
• 2:59
  Speaker 2: many of these types of festivals with two thousand bands anymore.
• 3:03
  Speaker 2: So Yeah, I'm really excited. It's nice to be here.
• 3:11
  Speaker 2: Lots of writing, which I think we were doing when
• 3:14
  Speaker 2: we saw you last. We've been chipping away at a
• 3:17
  Speaker 2: record for the better part of a year really just
• 3:20
  Speaker 2: doing bits of recording here and there. And yeah, so
• 3:24
  Speaker 2: we've just got a lot of different sort of songs
• 3:26
  Speaker 2: and ideas have been thrown around. We've done a few shows,
• 3:31
  Speaker 2: not a great deal. It's all kind of been leading
• 3:33
  Speaker 2: up to this and then I think next year is
• 3:34
  Speaker 2: going to get you know, hopefully hopefully pretty crazy busy
• 3:38
  Speaker 2: for us with the new record coming out and everything.
• 3:40
  Speaker 2: So yeah, it's sort of been relatively quiet. Yeah, which
• 3:46
  Speaker 2: is great. That's great. Not great for an interview.
• 3:49
  Speaker 1: And I think one thing about you guys, and people
• 3:51
  Speaker 1: don't appreciate as much as I should diversity. You know,
• 3:54
  Speaker 1: like we saw your money money went and now you
• 3:57
  Speaker 1: hear a Good Things festival. They're all different demo, yeah,
• 4:03
  Speaker 1: all of them. That's got to feel good. The fact that, Yeah,
• 4:08
  Speaker 1: I mean, I think, yeah, it's a it's a good thing.
• 4:12
  Speaker 2: I mean, I get no pun intended. I think we
• 4:16
  Speaker 2: always wanted to have that appeal, you know, but it's
• 4:18
  Speaker 2: almost like we had to when we first started out,
• 4:20
  Speaker 2: when we're like just out of high school. There really
• 4:23
  Speaker 2: wasn't There was only a little scene that we played
• 4:26
  Speaker 2: in Melbourne like as far as the rockabilly blues kind
• 4:29
  Speaker 2: of roots scene, but we wanted to be on Triple J.
• 4:32
  Speaker 2: We wanted to break into like, you know, playing the
• 4:34
  Speaker 2: big day out and even playing like with just more
• 4:39
  Speaker 2: diverse kind of bands at different pubs and things, and
• 4:42
  Speaker 2: not just in that rockabilly scene. So from the word go,
• 4:45
  Speaker 2: we kind of diversified our sound and our influences. But
• 4:47
  Speaker 2: we always said, you know, we were as much into
• 4:49
  Speaker 2: Iron Made and as we were Buddy Holly and the Crickets,
• 4:52
  Speaker 2: you know, so we've thinking, well, why can't we do
• 4:54
  Speaker 2: it all? So we've always tried to be one of
• 4:56
  Speaker 2: those bands who, you know, it's very unpunk rock to
• 5:00
  Speaker 2: say that you want to appeal to a wide audience,
• 5:02
  Speaker 2: but we did, but we did, and that's the thing,
• 5:05
  Speaker 2: and I think we've just soaked up all those influences
• 5:07
  Speaker 2: and so yeah, we can play something like this. We
• 5:09
  Speaker 2: can play rock the boat, we can play a red
• 5:11
  Speaker 2: hot summer, we can play you know, we've played with
• 5:13
  Speaker 2: every style of band. There isn't every audience, and most
• 5:16
  Speaker 2: audiences bar a few, have found something that they like
• 5:20
  Speaker 2: in the band, you know, because it's it's based in
• 5:22
  Speaker 2: you know, the roots of rock and roll, and that's
• 5:25
  Speaker 2: what everything everything's built on that. Yeah, yeah, there's a
• 5:31
  Speaker 2: there's a classic sort of thing about it that you
• 5:33
  Speaker 2: just don't see every day, I suppose with the double
• 5:35
  Speaker 2: bass and and the three piece setup. So we've always
• 5:38
  Speaker 2: stood out from from the bunch. And as much as
• 5:40
  Speaker 2: that was a hindrance in high school because we just
• 5:43
  Speaker 2: no one would take any notice, when we became successful,
• 5:47
  Speaker 2: it kind of it was one thing that made us
• 5:49
  Speaker 2: stand out even more.
• 5:55
  Speaker 1: There.
• 5:56
  Speaker 2: And yeah, I mean for something like today, Yeah, it's
• 5:59
  Speaker 2: forty five minutes. It's kind of by the time we
• 6:02
  Speaker 2: sort of finished starting where we're starting to finish, it's
• 6:06
  Speaker 2: just on and then off. So there's not all and
• 6:09
  Speaker 2: there's no point with this audience going, oh, we're going
• 6:12
  Speaker 2: to play you know, the b side off the third
• 6:16
  Speaker 2: single off our fourth record that was only released in Japan,
• 6:20
  Speaker 2: even though we might like it's we're not here to
• 6:22
  Speaker 2: do that. We're here to kind of just hopefully bring
• 6:24
  Speaker 2: the party. And so yeah, it's going to be a
• 6:28
  Speaker 2: set of bangers, you know, isn't it. We don't have
• 6:31
  Speaker 2: any ballads, but there wouldn't be any time anyway. When
• 6:36
  Speaker 2: we're speaking.
• 6:37
  Speaker 3: Last year mentioned that you kind of felt like bottle
• 6:39
  Speaker 3: almost like playing in music.
• 6:43
  Speaker 1: And like a heavy music festival.
• 6:46
  Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, it is. It's it is quite strange because
• 6:50
  Speaker 2: before we became an original band, you know, we were
• 6:54
  Speaker 2: very much a cover band because we we not because
• 6:57
  Speaker 2: we wanted to be a cover band, because we didn't
• 6:59
  Speaker 2: know how to write our own songs. You know, we
• 7:01
  Speaker 2: just started, like every band does, you know, we started
• 7:04
  Speaker 2: piecing a few things together and they were they were
• 7:07
  Speaker 2: terrible tunes. But so we would do gigs every single
• 7:11
  Speaker 2: weekend at like almost like country club kind of gigs
• 7:15
  Speaker 2: where people would get on the dance floor and do
• 7:17
  Speaker 2: the old sort of swing dancing and you know, twirling
• 7:20
  Speaker 2: the partner and all that sort of thing. And so
• 7:22
  Speaker 2: we were very kind of goal one oh four, I
• 7:25
  Speaker 2: suppose at that point, but we had this other side
• 7:28
  Speaker 2: to us. We knew where we wanted to go. So yeah,
• 7:32
  Speaker 2: we never really got bottled off, but we definitely it
• 7:36
  Speaker 2: was when we when we when we played to younger crowds,
• 7:39
  Speaker 2: you know, because we played to a lot of older
• 7:41
  Speaker 2: people like that would go to those sorts of gigs
• 7:43
  Speaker 2: and dancers and things, and we'd be the entertainment for
• 7:45
  Speaker 2: the night. And then when we started playing to younger crowds,
• 7:48
  Speaker 2: they'd always sit there like this, like what that. They
• 7:52
  Speaker 2: just didn't get it because everyone else was like Nirvana
• 7:54
  Speaker 2: and Guns n' Roses and pan Terra, and then you've
• 7:57
  Speaker 2: got these three guys up there, so they didn't get
• 8:01
  Speaker 2: it and they just didn't particularly like it. It was
• 8:02
  Speaker 2: only when from here on in got played on Triple
• 8:05
  Speaker 2: J that we started to cross over and people went, actually,
• 8:09
  Speaker 2: I like them because they're different.
• 8:12
  Speaker 3: How would you compare those like Prime Golden bas to
• 8:16
  Speaker 3: something modern day festival?
• 8:20
  Speaker 2: Well, I haven't played yet, so we'll see, but I
• 8:24
  Speaker 2: tell you what, it used to get pretty rowdy at those.
• 8:27
  Speaker 2: You know, if we go back to the first one
• 8:28
  Speaker 2: we did was ninety nine, it's just after our first
• 8:31
  Speaker 2: record came out, and it was just enormous. You know.
• 8:34
  Speaker 2: I just kept thinking, I'm so glad that I'm not
• 8:36
  Speaker 2: in the audience because it was crazy. Whether it's like
• 8:42
  Speaker 2: that now, I don't know. I don't know what the
• 8:44
  Speaker 2: demographic is out there, but but I'm hoping that it's
• 8:48
  Speaker 2: you know, people are gonna get loose, that's what it's
• 8:52
  Speaker 2: all about. Well, yeah, you know, people used to come
• 8:55
  Speaker 2: to a big day outs and stuff and kind of
• 8:57
  Speaker 2: use that as their excuse to kind of, you know,
• 9:00
  Speaker 2: let let loose on all the frustrations in life. And
• 9:02
  Speaker 2: I don't think that ever leaves you, never leaves you,
• 9:04
  Speaker 2: even when you get older. So we'll see what happens.
• 9:08
  Speaker 1: And the other thing about this one too, there's a
• 9:10
  Speaker 1: lot of Australian bands playing. It's for someone like that
• 9:15
  Speaker 1: has been in the industry for a long time, like
• 9:17
  Speaker 1: to come here and see six seven Australian bands as well.
• 9:20
  Speaker 1: It shows the strength of Australian music recognized.
• 9:24
  Speaker 2: Yeah, well as it should be. I mean, yeah, it's
• 9:26
  Speaker 2: always We've always had a strong market here, haven't we
• 9:28
  Speaker 2: gone God going back to I mean you can go
• 9:31
  Speaker 2: back to Johnny o'kee for or the Beg's and the
• 9:34
  Speaker 2: easy Beats, and then the seventies was obviously incredible, a
• 9:39
  Speaker 2: c D C, roast, tattoo, drag and air supply, sherbet,
• 9:44
  Speaker 2: you know, and then in Excess and Chisel and mid
• 9:47
  Speaker 2: not oil. It's like we've always had the best music
• 9:49
  Speaker 2: here always, So there's no reason that there shouldn't be
• 9:53
  Speaker 2: a ton of Aussie bands on because we keep producing great,
• 9:55
  Speaker 2: great bands.
• 9:57
  Speaker 1: And then I say this about most respect. You guys
• 9:59
  Speaker 1: have the stands like alpha, Do you get a nurtured
• 10:08
  Speaker 1: sort of fatherly figure, try and feel like you should
• 10:12
  Speaker 1: shoulder them or help them through?
• 10:16
  Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, no, they're not gonna I don't want to
• 10:18
  Speaker 2: listen to What can I what can I What advice
• 10:22
  Speaker 2: can I part on them? I don't know. No, I mean,
• 10:25
  Speaker 2: they know what they're doing, right, It's really not that.
• 10:27
  Speaker 2: It's not that hard. You just got to get up
• 10:30
  Speaker 2: on stage blow the roof off the place. Well, yeah,
• 10:34
  Speaker 2: you know, and we're all doing We're all on our
• 10:37
  Speaker 2: own sort of paths and stuff. So whatever works for
• 10:39
  Speaker 2: us may not work for them. And I don't know
• 10:41
  Speaker 2: that they probably couldn't give a toss about the living end,
• 10:45
  Speaker 2: you know. Yeah, yeah, so I don't know, you know,
• 10:49
  Speaker 2: everyone should be fairly friendly, I would imagine backstage, but
• 10:52
  Speaker 2: we'll see. Yeah, yeah, thank you. Yeah, speaking of legends,
• 11:00
  Speaker 2: the animals and not so.
• 11:03
  Speaker 3: You guys are playing alongside them, what would young Chris
• 11:06
  Speaker 3: have to say about that?
• 11:08
  Speaker 2: Well, we're not going down there. It would have been
• 11:15
  Speaker 2: just one of those pinch yourself kind of moments.
• 11:17
  Speaker 1: You know.
• 11:17
  Speaker 2: We had a few of those where early on, like
• 11:20
  Speaker 2: little victories like getting when we got our first gig
• 11:24
  Speaker 2: at the SB and then we got a first gig
• 11:26
  Speaker 2: at the Tote, and then we got that first Green
• 11:28
  Speaker 2: Day too. That that was one of them, I suppose
• 11:30
  Speaker 2: where we just couldn't believe that it was actually happening.
• 11:34
  Speaker 2: And so playing with bands like zz Top, I mean,
• 11:37
  Speaker 2: we're a bit more used to that sort of thing.
• 11:39
  Speaker 2: Now we've managed to meet a lot of our heroes
• 11:41
  Speaker 2: and play gigs with them and stuff. It's still cooler,
• 11:43
  Speaker 2: you know, And I still think they'll they'll be really
• 11:45
  Speaker 2: good and just what they've done, I suppose fifty years
• 11:50
  Speaker 2: or something they've been playing and you know, like Billy
• 11:54
  Speaker 2: Gibbons was friends with Hendrix and you know, it's just
• 11:57
  Speaker 2: like it's kind of hard to fathom. But so I'm
• 12:00
  Speaker 2: looking forward to it. I think I think it'll be
• 12:02
  Speaker 2: great if you start growing to be down to Yeah,
• 12:06
  Speaker 2: well I might be closed, but I don't think so.
• 12:09
  Speaker 1: All right, do you want to go into the into
• 12:12
  Speaker 1: the fun questions or do you want to ask a
• 12:14
  Speaker 1: couple more seriously?
• 12:17
  Speaker 2: It just hit me. Hit me with whatever you've got,
• 12:19
  Speaker 2: I've got a gig to play.
• 12:21
  Speaker 1: You guys have just come off the twenty fifth anniversary
• 12:24
  Speaker 1: or last year for Pristman Society. Like that music was
• 12:27
  Speaker 1: a lot of edge, more edgy in your face, and
• 12:29
  Speaker 1: the stuff you're doing now like come on a tool
• 12:31
  Speaker 1: that when you're playing all those songs, get like does
• 12:33
  Speaker 1: that influence your writing for the next album cycle, Like
• 12:36
  Speaker 1: you sort of start writing like that again because you've
• 12:38
  Speaker 1: just been playing it. Yeah.
• 12:40
  Speaker 2: As a matter of fact, it sort of I feel
• 12:42
  Speaker 2: we've just done some recording in this week and it's
• 12:45
  Speaker 2: been totally a revelation really because it's just like we've
• 12:49
  Speaker 2: just taken the shackles off, and the people that have
• 12:54
  Speaker 2: heard the stuff that we've played are just like, holy shit,
• 12:56
  Speaker 2: Like there it is. That's what you guys do. It's
• 12:59
  Speaker 2: it's really fast and the most ferocious kind of sounding
• 13:03
  Speaker 2: stuff we've done in years actually, And I think a
• 13:06
  Speaker 2: lot of it came from revisiting that record and and
• 13:09
  Speaker 2: you know, I know how we play on stage, and
• 13:11
  Speaker 2: I know the records we've made, and we've wanted to
• 13:12
  Speaker 2: make more contemporary records with strings and pianos, and you know,
• 13:16
  Speaker 2: you always want to further yourself as a musician. But
• 13:19
  Speaker 2: now it's like we want to go back to the
• 13:20
  Speaker 2: back to the caveman version of the living end of
• 13:23
  Speaker 2: Just Neanderthal Rock.
• 13:28
  Speaker 4: Question.
• 13:30
  Speaker 1: So we've got a couple of different ones. We're going
• 13:32
  Speaker 1: to separate him from international to Australians, but let's know
• 13:34
  Speaker 1: which one you want to do. We've got like a
• 13:37
  Speaker 1: slang question round for the international ones. We've got some
• 13:40
  Speaker 1: generic questions, so we won't do the slang one on.
• 13:43
  Speaker 1: You give the trial one and see how it goes. Okay,
• 13:46
  Speaker 1: what would it mean if I said I was going
• 13:48
  Speaker 1: for a hit and.
• 13:49
  Speaker 2: A miss, going for a hit and a miss. I
• 13:53
  Speaker 2: have never heard that before. Okay, Okay, I said, you're
• 13:58
  Speaker 2: in froth and bubble, you're in trouble exactly.
• 14:01
  Speaker 1: About if I wanted to borrow a.
• 14:02
  Speaker 2: Pineapples fifty and I'm out of here having a dad
• 14:09
  Speaker 2: and Dave. I don't know what that one? Okay? And
• 14:17
  Speaker 2: this one a dad and Dave on the boat race.
• 14:22
  Speaker 1: I'm going to finish off by guard for a cotton wall.
• 14:28
  Speaker 2: Okay, I've probably got enough time. It never takes me long, so.
• 14:34
  Speaker 4: That's all right.
• 14:35
  Speaker 2: Thanks very much, thank you, thank you, thank you.
• 14:39
  Speaker 1: We'll be down there watching you play very surely, but cool.
• 14:42
  Speaker 1: Take care, Thanks for taking time.
• 14:47
  Speaker 4: Okay, large, will the fun Presidente's thank you very much.
• 15:05
  Speaker 1: Stick Yeah, appreciate sure, awesome, thank god, thank god, jee awesome.
• 15:16
  Speaker 3: What's the prop?
• 15:17
  Speaker 2: Good luck together, have a great man, Thank.
• 15:20
  Speaker 5: You good yeah, try to come out good w.
• 16:17
  Speaker 2: Mm hm Okay.
• 16:22
  Speaker 1: Don't you number square.
• 16:26
  Speaker 4: Folk?
• 16:40
  Speaker 2: Yeah you have?
• 16:48
  Speaker 4: You don't number that.
• 16:52
  Speaker 5: You have fool fore night.
• 16:58
  Speaker 1: Right see that three morning?
• 17:03
  Speaker 5: Tell me call meself or gooles will
• 17:10
  Speaker 4: So your text can