Latest / HEAVY Music Interviews / The Eternal Battle Of Man Verses Camel With JASON WHALLEY From FRENZAL RHOMB
Transcript
- 0:00Speaker 1: Jay here from the friends of Round Band, and we
- 0:03Speaker 1: are about to go on a pretty extensive tour to
- 0:06Speaker 1: all the places that we didn't go to on the
- 0:08Speaker 1: last tour celebrating the twenty fifth ish anniversary of The
- 0:14Speaker 1: Man's Not a Camel record. We did a two at
- 0:17Speaker 1: the end of last year for the same record and
- 0:21Speaker 1: it went well, but we only did like hhos, So
- 0:24Speaker 1: now we're doing like twenty five.
- 0:26Speaker 2: Very nice. Pray thanks the join us today. J always
- 0:29Speaker 2: the pleasure, no worries.
- 0:30Speaker 1: Man.
- 0:31Speaker 2: You say you hit the road in May for a
- 0:33Speaker 2: Man Still Not a Camel to all celebrate the twenty
- 0:36Speaker 2: fifth anniversary of an album that came out twenty six
- 0:38Speaker 2: years ago, makes perfect sense.
- 0:41Speaker 1: Twenty six Yeah, perfect sense. We just wanted to go
- 0:48Speaker 1: back to Ola Dalla and like all the old dollars
- 0:50Speaker 1: of Australia that.
- 0:52Speaker 2: If there is some places in there you playing that
- 0:53Speaker 2: I've never even known of before.
- 0:56Speaker 1: Yeah, well that's because you haven't traveled anywhere.
- 0:58Speaker 2: I haven't. I haven't been outside my life answering, bro,
- 1:00Speaker 2: I'm quite boring these days.
- 1:04Speaker 1: Yeah. No, we go to all the cool spots and
- 1:07Speaker 1: yeah it's gonna be mad so yeah, I love those
- 1:10Speaker 1: I'm going to go to all those towns and catching
- 1:13Speaker 1: up with people they haven't seen for asias, and you know,
- 1:17Speaker 1: seeing the people now.
- 1:19Speaker 2: I did a bit of research here, bro, and my
- 1:21Speaker 2: facts might not one hundred percent correct.
- 1:23Speaker 1: But it'd be unusual.
- 1:26Speaker 2: I would. The same year that A Man's Not a
- 1:29Speaker 2: Cable came out, the world had the witk scare, Tiger
- 1:33Speaker 2: Woods won his first PGA Championship, Apple release of Power
- 1:36Speaker 2: Back sixty four, The Matrix Georgy began SpongeBob SquarePants premiere.
- 1:40Speaker 2: Now aside from SpongeBob, the rest of being confined to history.
- 1:43Speaker 2: So therefore, by proxy A Man's Not a Cable and
- 1:46Speaker 2: SpongeBob SquarePants, I've got a lot in common.
- 1:48Speaker 1: Well, it's I'm glad you brought that up. No, to
- 1:52Speaker 1: be honest, I don't think I've ever seen SpongeBob. I'm
- 1:55Speaker 1: ashamed to say it. And those other things have probably
- 1:58Speaker 1: still got to still going to MAC sixty four somewhere,
- 2:02Speaker 1: But yeah, I know that that record seemed to seem
- 2:07Speaker 1: to resonate with people, had all those songs on it,
- 2:10Speaker 1: like never had so much fun and you're not my friend,
- 2:15Speaker 1: and I missed my lung and all that jazz. There's
- 2:18Speaker 1: a lot of songs on there that, let's be honest,
- 2:20Speaker 1: weren't very good. But they had a few songs on
- 2:24Speaker 1: there that seem to resonate with with people. And like,
- 2:28Speaker 1: I mean, we were sort of doing this tour where
- 2:30Speaker 1: we're celebrating this record, but to be honest, we play
- 2:32Speaker 1: all the good songs off that record every time we play,
- 2:37Speaker 1: but we are pulling out some deep cuts and I've
- 2:41Speaker 1: had to relearn a lot of lyrics. I actually looked
- 2:44Speaker 1: up the lyrics on the internet to try and figure
- 2:47Speaker 1: out what they were to try and relearn them, and
- 2:50Speaker 1: I'm pretty sure the internet was wrong. So even when
- 2:53Speaker 1: I was twenty six, I wouldn't have been singing that.
- 2:58Speaker 1: I think we worked about eventually.
- 3:00Speaker 2: So does that mean that you're going to be playing
- 3:02Speaker 2: the whole of a Man's Not and Kambel in full?
- 3:05Speaker 1: We wouldn't do that to our audience. It's there's there's
- 3:10Speaker 1: a few songs on there that just have not stood
- 3:12Speaker 1: the test of time. I mean, even a week after
- 3:15Speaker 1: it was released, we weren't playing them, but it was Yeah,
- 3:20Speaker 1: I feel like it's it's sort of when you see
- 3:23Speaker 1: bands doing their whole album I'm always like, come on, mate,
- 3:26Speaker 1: they weren't all bangers.
- 3:28Speaker 2: They were Plus it's boring when you know what song's
- 3:30Speaker 2: coming next.
- 3:31Speaker 1: Yeah, that's right, and we sort of glitter them through
- 3:33Speaker 1: the sets. So we'll do sort of three or four
- 3:35Speaker 1: songs off camel and then a couple of newer ones
- 3:38Speaker 1: and a couple of things up stands susy because we've
- 3:40Speaker 1: been around for so long, we've got ten albums, so
- 3:43Speaker 1: we sort of, yeah, try and play play a bit
- 3:45Speaker 1: off bits and pieces.
- 3:46Speaker 2: Yeah. Well, now that album remains your highest selling the
- 3:49Speaker 2: one yet bro, Like you say, there's some songs on
- 3:51Speaker 2: there that aren't typical friends all. So why do you
- 3:54Speaker 2: think people connected with that one album so much out
- 3:57Speaker 2: of the ten.
- 3:58Speaker 1: I mean, in our defense, people did stop buying records
- 4:02Speaker 1: the world over after that, so it's hard it would
- 4:04Speaker 1: have been more popular. But yeah, I don't know. I
- 4:08Speaker 1: think maybe that just it's a pretty big sort of
- 4:11Speaker 1: pop record. I guess like it was it was less
- 4:14Speaker 1: less four on the floor kind of punk sort of stuff,
- 4:17Speaker 1: and I think we're trying to trying a little bit
- 4:20Speaker 1: to just do something a bit different, Like there's a
- 4:22Speaker 1: lot of bands around doing that, doing that same beat
- 4:26Speaker 1: that we've been doing and stuff, and yeah, I just
- 4:28Speaker 1: think we'd we're trying to expand our songwriting a bit,
- 4:31Speaker 1: for better or worse, And yeah, I don't know. I
- 4:35Speaker 1: think just the poppy nature of it, like pretty catchy
- 4:38Speaker 1: little bits in there and stuff.
- 4:40Speaker 2: I know, the first time I heard it made like
- 4:42Speaker 2: when I heard you were not my Friend and I
- 4:43Speaker 2: missing my lun I was shocked, Who is this? I
- 4:50Speaker 2: say that as well, but history sort of proves that
- 4:53Speaker 2: I was wrong.
- 4:54Speaker 1: But yeah, they the first.
- 4:56Speaker 2: Two slow songs you've written you've had on an album.
- 4:59Speaker 2: U I look at that.
- 5:02Speaker 1: I think we had a few medium sort of paced
- 5:05Speaker 1: on it, like on I guess on on not so tough.
- 5:09Speaker 1: Now we had like this is not your time and
- 5:14Speaker 1: wish you were wish you were there and stuff like
- 5:16Speaker 1: that like but yeah, definitely nothing like I missed my
- 5:20Speaker 1: lung or anything of that. I think we're at the
- 5:22Speaker 1: time in ninety eight because we went to the same
- 5:24Speaker 1: studio that recorded Sublime, and Sublime had just done that
- 5:29Speaker 1: record where that was pretty totally different to what they've
- 5:33Speaker 1: done before. And yeah, we were sort of, yeah, I
- 5:38Speaker 1: don't know, just trying to have a crack at something else.
- 5:40Speaker 1: I guess. I think our manager at one point was
- 5:43Speaker 1: saying like, oh, you should just like play instruments that
- 5:46Speaker 1: you've never played before. And I was like, well, that
- 5:48Speaker 1: all sounds shit, but I think what you mean.
- 5:54Speaker 2: But I know you guys wouldn't have given a fuck
- 5:56Speaker 2: at the time. But did you think was it a
- 5:59Speaker 2: bit of a risk putting those two songs on there?
- 6:01Speaker 2: Like I say, history, it's can completely rule that out,
- 6:03Speaker 2: but putting a couple of slow songs, people didn't expect
- 6:05Speaker 2: that from you.
- 6:06Speaker 1: Like, yeah, I think I've always just thought that, like
- 6:09Speaker 1: it doesn't really matter sort of the tempo, the cyber's
- 6:12Speaker 1: a good song, it'll sort of stand up, you know,
- 6:15Speaker 1: give it's decent and sing along with that then, so
- 6:17Speaker 1: it doesn't matter like we play those shows that we
- 6:19Speaker 1: play those songs at shows, you know, like and there's
- 6:23Speaker 1: people are sort of just as excited, like as as
- 6:26Speaker 1: the when they're sort of doing some assaults in the moshpito.
- 6:28Speaker 2: Or whatever planned for the relief and.
- 6:31Speaker 1: Big probably and yeah, just big sing alongs, you know,
- 6:35Speaker 1: like everyone's singing along to all the verses and the choruses,
- 6:38Speaker 1: and you know, even the guitar solo we never had
- 6:41Speaker 1: so much fun. People sing along with a guitar solo. Hilarious.
- 6:44Speaker 2: How lindsay, how we've had enough?
- 6:47Speaker 1: Yeah?
- 6:49Speaker 2: So what are you something? Some of your memories from
- 6:51Speaker 2: making that album, bro, Are there any any standout moments? Yeah?
- 6:56Speaker 1: So we were in La in the studio that yeah,
- 6:59Speaker 1: sort of the at that time. The bands that were
- 7:02Speaker 1: recording there were you know, like Penny Wise and Yeah,
- 7:05Speaker 1: Sublime and sort of bands like that, but their studio
- 7:08Speaker 1: had a history in like cock rock, so there was
- 7:10Speaker 1: a lot of like, we met Don Docan and we
- 7:14Speaker 1: met the guys from Great White, turned up in this
- 7:17Speaker 1: limousine that they I guess they'd had that limousine since
- 7:21Speaker 1: like nineteen eighty five, so it was like blowing smoke
- 7:23Speaker 1: had dent in the doors. They were still driving it around. Yeah.
- 7:29Speaker 1: Remember me and Gordy's sitting in the back of Don
- 7:31Speaker 1: Dowcin's BMW or whatever and listening to the new Docin
- 7:35Speaker 1: record in nineteen ninety eight. I don't know about this, mate,
- 7:40Speaker 1: but yeah, it was a pretty weird world at La
- 7:44Speaker 1: La World. And then I think we finished it in Melbourne.
- 7:47Speaker 1: We got the guy that had recorded us, We flew
- 7:50Speaker 1: him out to Australia and yeah, finished it in a
- 7:53Speaker 1: studio in Melbourne, and I think there's one song, maybe
- 7:56Speaker 1: the secret track on it I've got a memory of
- 7:58Speaker 1: because I sort of had this song and it was
- 8:00Speaker 1: real sort of we tried it every way, like we
- 8:02Speaker 1: tried it fast, and is that I don't want to
- 8:04Speaker 1: go to work today. I think we're putting in a
- 8:06Speaker 1: secret track. But I tried to sing it a hundred
- 8:09Speaker 1: times and nothing was working. And I mean, if I'm
- 8:12Speaker 1: honest with myself, I was probably quite drunk. And I
- 8:17Speaker 1: remember our manager coming in and basically standing on my
- 8:20Speaker 1: chest in the studio like I was lying down trying
- 8:23Speaker 1: to sing it and he came and stood on It
- 8:26Speaker 1: was very unpleasant.
- 8:29Speaker 2: I think my personal favorite on the album Bros. I
- 8:31Speaker 2: know why dinosaurs became extinct? We come from where? And
- 8:35Speaker 2: how the fuck did that come from?
- 8:38Speaker 1: I mean, I don't know the answer to that question.
- 8:43Speaker 2: I've got a mental picture of it the big but
- 8:47Speaker 2: I just wonder where it came into your thought process.
- 8:50Speaker 1: I mean, it feels like one of those songs that
- 8:53Speaker 1: I mean, you can barely call it a song really,
- 8:55Speaker 1: but it's one of those things where at the time
- 8:58Speaker 1: you think this is hilarious, and then after about eleven listens,
- 9:02Speaker 1: you're like, why did we put that on the record.
- 9:04Speaker 2: I'm glad you did, mate up. That's probably when I
- 9:06Speaker 2: first heard it. That was one of the same engraces
- 9:08Speaker 2: for me, Like it's growing on me now, but at
- 9:10Speaker 2: first it was like, you're hard to get better.
- 9:15Speaker 1: That's good.
- 9:16Speaker 2: No, it was.
- 9:16Speaker 1: It was pretty polarizing I think at the time, like
- 9:19Speaker 1: and because that because because we sort of grew up
- 9:21Speaker 1: in that more sort of punk world, people were pretty
- 9:24Speaker 1: pretty quick to call your sellout as soon as people
- 9:28Speaker 1: start coming to your shows, or or people from the
- 9:31Speaker 1: suburbs start coming to your shows, or money regionally, it's like, mate,
- 9:36Speaker 1: this doesn't sound right, you guys fucking sell out or whatever.
- 9:39Speaker 1: But you know, we sort of caught that anyway, so
- 9:42Speaker 1: it didn't really didn't really bother us. But but yeah,
- 9:46Speaker 1: it was. It was, you know, all the people that
- 9:48Speaker 1: were expecting something, I guess. You know, there was still
- 9:51Speaker 1: songs on there that sort of met their needs, I guess.
- 9:56Speaker 2: And then it's a lot of Camel also scored friends
- 9:59Speaker 2: that Rob three are in nominations with You're Not My
- 10:01Speaker 2: Friend was nominated for Breakthrough Artist single. The album was
- 10:04Speaker 2: nominated for Best Rock Album. Never Had So Much Fun
- 10:07Speaker 2: was nominated for Best Pop Rearly, so I never would.
- 10:09Speaker 1: Have Kylie Minogue won that.
- 10:13Speaker 2: He got picked.
- 10:15Speaker 1: I know we were robbed. I'm I'm still bitter about that.
- 10:21Speaker 1: It could have been us, that was mine.
- 10:23Speaker 2: Why were you nominated in the pop category?
- 10:26Speaker 1: I mean it's a pop song, you know, Like, well
- 10:30Speaker 1: I liked it. It's like, it's a poppy song, people
- 10:33Speaker 1: singing along. It's some Yeah, the heaps of songs on
- 10:37Speaker 1: that record, I reckon fit into that sort of category.
- 10:39Speaker 1: I mean it was still a sort of alternative music,
- 10:41Speaker 1: I guess, but yeah, that was probably the closest that
- 10:44Speaker 1: we came to that that sort of world. And yeah,
- 10:51Speaker 1: I know, at least these days, at least these days
- 10:55Speaker 1: we get beaten by like I don't know, the amity
- 10:58Speaker 1: affliction or whatever.
- 11:00Speaker 2: So you are improving. And you also performed at the
- 11:05Speaker 2: Arians that year, bro, Like, how was that? Did they
- 11:08Speaker 2: give you a lecture before he went on stage before
- 11:10Speaker 2: you came and tell you how to behave and how
- 11:11Speaker 2: much to behave or did they just let you go?
- 11:13Speaker 1: I think they we sort of prepared them to a
- 11:15Speaker 1: point because because we had this idea, so I'd broken
- 11:19Speaker 1: my arm in We just got back from this tour
- 11:21Speaker 1: of Canada and we went we played this snowboarding festival
- 11:24Speaker 1: and I broken my arm real badly crowdsurfing while I
- 11:28Speaker 1: was trying to sing at the same time. It was
- 11:29Speaker 1: fucking dumb, but yeah, so I got back and like
- 11:33Speaker 1: we had to do the Arias, and I was like, oh,
- 11:35Speaker 1: I really don't want to just be up there with
- 11:38Speaker 1: a broken arm. And so I can't remember whose idea
- 11:40Speaker 1: it was, but I was like, why don't we all
- 11:42Speaker 1: get dressed up like we're all being in accidents or
- 11:44Speaker 1: we're all in hospital or whatever. Will you out in
- 11:47Speaker 1: a fucking hospital bed and you know, do that. We
- 11:50Speaker 1: had a mate in a wheelchair and then yeah, Chris,
- 11:54Speaker 1: I think our manager again, he was like, he's like,
- 11:56Speaker 1: I could probably get some fake blood and like get
- 12:01Speaker 1: a pump off stage and pump it through your costume
- 12:04Speaker 1: and like out your arms and out your head and stuff.
- 12:08Speaker 1: We did that, but we had to put plastic down
- 12:10Speaker 1: across the whole the whole thing. I think I want
- 12:13Speaker 1: to squirted a few people with their fancy design addresses.
- 12:15Speaker 1: It wasn't it wasn't ideal for them. But yeah, I
- 12:18Speaker 1: think were always like used to remember our manager saying, well,
- 12:21Speaker 1: it's early like bands like you guys never get on TV,
- 12:25Speaker 1: like or radio or anything like that, so if you do,
- 12:29Speaker 1: you've got to make it memorable somehow. So we ended
- 12:32Speaker 1: up just doing the fucking most stupid ship.
- 12:37Speaker 2: You know, you have you been invited back?
- 12:40Speaker 1: Strangely not No, I.
- 12:41Speaker 2: Got actually got an invite in the mail this year.
- 12:43Speaker 2: I was hoping you were going.
- 12:44Speaker 1: To be there, and the tickets like four hundred bucks
- 12:47Speaker 1: or something.
- 12:49Speaker 2: Jesus. The album was also released in the US under Records,
- 12:55Speaker 2: but the song's co friends will Go and Talk to
- 12:57Speaker 2: Me was substituted for The problem was in the writings
- 13:00Speaker 2: on the wall, but.
- 13:01Speaker 1: Why, I think we'd sort of written those songs. They
- 13:06Speaker 1: were sort of extras. And then I think Fat Mike
- 13:09Speaker 1: was a bit worried because it was such a poppy
- 13:12Speaker 1: record and he wanted some faster sort of stuff on there.
- 13:16Speaker 1: I guess. I mean he also wanted us to change
- 13:20Speaker 1: our name for America because he was like, He's like,
- 13:22Speaker 1: no one, no one in the States is going to
- 13:24Speaker 1: know what Friends all Rahm is. I'm like, no one
- 13:26Speaker 1: in Australia knows what it is made.
- 13:30Speaker 2: Did you have any suggestions for you to change it?
- 13:32Speaker 1: He didn't. He fucking didn't. It's fucking quite rude, you know,
- 13:39Speaker 1: he was saying. But you know, by that stage, it
- 13:43Speaker 1: had been our band name for so long, and it's
- 13:45Speaker 1: like felt a bit weird to change it for America. Really. Eventually,
- 13:48Speaker 1: when when she had changed their name to Pacifier, we
- 13:51Speaker 1: became she had for two weeks because it was a
- 13:53Speaker 1: spare name.
- 13:57Speaker 2: What I was doing by research with this too, Bro,
- 13:59Speaker 2: I saw I figured out that out of your ten albums,
- 14:02Speaker 2: only two of them like Not So Tough Now and
- 14:04Speaker 2: Forever Malcolm Young, I've actually got songs on the album
- 14:07Speaker 2: the same name as the title, didn't Did you know that?
- 14:10Speaker 1: Oh? Interesting?
- 14:11Speaker 2: I don't know how I speed across that, but it's
- 14:13Speaker 2: just like, well that's pretty cool.
- 14:15Speaker 1: Yeah, A couple of Pestilence. There is a song called
- 14:18Speaker 1: the Couple Couple of Pestilence, but it was a bit shit,
- 14:20Speaker 1: so I didn't go on there.
- 14:23Speaker 2: But they would have put the odds in the favorite.
- 14:26Speaker 1: Because I think the album name is usually the last
- 14:28Speaker 1: thing we think of, like we've already got all the
- 14:31Speaker 1: songs it's all done, and then we're like, fuck, we're
- 14:33Speaker 1: going to call it something, So we sort of we're
- 14:37Speaker 1: always scrambling to come up with something, which is probably
- 14:41Speaker 1: why they're all universally stupid.
- 14:44Speaker 2: But they're all memorable. Since I spoke to you last
- 14:50Speaker 2: I've started a new segment called photo Bomb. So basically,
- 14:53Speaker 2: I've gone through your social media before we speak, and
- 14:55Speaker 2: I picked out a few photos and I want you
- 14:56Speaker 2: to tell me a bit more about Okay, the first
- 14:59Speaker 2: one one is this one that must have been a
- 15:02Speaker 2: big night the night before.
- 15:05Speaker 1: Oh is that Gordy?
- 15:08Speaker 2: It looks like Gordy.
- 15:09Speaker 1: Oh, I want to say. That's in Montreal, and I reckon.
- 15:18Speaker 1: We did this show a couple of years ago where
- 15:21Speaker 1: we got asked to come to this festival in Montreal
- 15:25Speaker 1: and they basically paid for all our flights and gave
- 15:27Speaker 1: us some money on top and gave us someone to
- 15:29Speaker 1: stay and stuff. But we were literally played. We traveled
- 15:33Speaker 1: for forty eight hours. I ended up staying there and
- 15:35Speaker 1: going camping for a couple of weeks. But the rest
- 15:38Speaker 1: of the guys, Gordy included, as you can see in
- 15:40Speaker 1: that photo, just got off a plane of for like
- 15:43Speaker 1: thirty hours or whatever, and then went to sleep, got up,
- 15:47Speaker 1: played for half an hour and then got back on
- 15:48Speaker 1: the plane and came back to city or to Melbourne.
- 15:52Speaker 2: You could have found something better. So what does he
- 15:54Speaker 2: need a midget circus tent on his head?
- 15:55Speaker 1: Flor Well, I feel like it's on brand.
- 16:01Speaker 2: All right with this one. Like the smart money on
- 16:03Speaker 2: this one to be that it's for a film clip,
- 16:04Speaker 2: but knowing you guys, it might not be.
- 16:08Speaker 1: Yes, it's a film clip. There's recent record that that
- 16:13Speaker 1: was for the song. I thought it was yoga. It
- 16:18Speaker 1: turned out it was ketamine. I think I was playing
- 16:23Speaker 1: the part of a cult leader and these guys were
- 16:25Speaker 1: my followers in the yoga studio.
- 16:30Speaker 2: Was there any real ketamine consume?
- 16:32Speaker 1: No? No, it was very lackluster affair.
- 16:39Speaker 2: Yeah. Well, I'm not going to talk about that one anymore.
- 16:40Speaker 2: I've got this one made. I want to know what
- 16:42Speaker 2: was going through your mind at that particular moment of time.
- 16:46Speaker 1: Oh yeah, trying to get the note? Yeah yeah, because
- 16:50Speaker 1: when we record with Bill Stevenson, he's because I don't
- 16:54Speaker 1: really I don't like using auto tuning or anything, and
- 16:58Speaker 1: so like one thing I can do or right, like
- 17:00Speaker 1: I'm not like a singer. Singer, but I can sing
- 17:02Speaker 1: in tune if you give me a few goes at it,
- 17:05Speaker 1: and and yeah, but he's got a real keen ear
- 17:08Speaker 1: for melodies and harmonies and stuff, and so he'll be
- 17:11Speaker 1: sitting any other room just going it's flat. It's flat, Jay,
- 17:14Speaker 1: it's flat. You're living flat. Do it again, Do it again,
- 17:17Speaker 1: It's flat, Do it again. So that's that's me, like
- 17:20Speaker 1: really really trying to get the note.
- 17:23Speaker 2: Your veins to pop it out of your forehead. Bro,
- 17:25Speaker 2: you look like it.
- 17:26Speaker 1: I reckon, I got it on that.
- 17:27Speaker 2: Take yourself one.
- 17:30Speaker 1: It were doing both at the same time.
- 17:35Speaker 2: Fantastic, Jail, Thanks for your time. Y're always a pleasure
- 17:37Speaker 2: speaking with you. But I'll be coming to the Miami
- 17:41Speaker 2: Marketta and where we belong to festival shows, so I'll
- 17:44Speaker 2: see that