Latest / HEAVY Music Interviews / 25 Years Of Jetsetting With STUART RUDD From THE SUPERJESUS
Transcript
- 0:00Speaker 1: Goodday.
- 0:00Speaker 2: My Name's Ruddy played for the Souper Jesus where apparently
- 0:04Speaker 2: or just about to head out on our twenty fifth
- 0:08Speaker 2: anniversary of our JEDID album, which we are super excited about.
- 0:13Speaker 3: Super excited. Indeed, thanks for joining us.
- 0:15Speaker 1: Today, ready, thanks man? How you going buff?
- 0:19Speaker 3: Very good, very very good. You look like you better
- 0:20Speaker 3: ruff after day?
- 0:23Speaker 2: Well, you know, it's always it's always a challenge when
- 0:26Speaker 2: you have girls in school and you have to pick
- 0:29Speaker 2: them up and and all the rest of it.
- 0:31Speaker 1: So yeah, it makes for an interesting afternoon.
- 0:34Speaker 2: Like I said earlier, it's a bit like Mission Impossible
- 0:37Speaker 2: some days, trying to sort of line it all up
- 0:40Speaker 2: and you know, having some ceilings just to make sure
- 0:43Speaker 2: you're in the right position to get it all sorted.
- 0:47Speaker 3: Yeah, even then, nothing you do is right, everything's wrong.
- 0:51Speaker 1: Oh yeah, you.
- 0:52Speaker 2: Know you know that's me all over, bro. That should
- 0:57Speaker 2: be my T shirt. That's just me.
- 1:01Speaker 4: So you say, made the Super Jesus kick off your
- 1:04Speaker 4: jet Age twenty fifth University drawer at Brisbane Friday, the
- 1:07Speaker 4: fifth of June. Sorry, so yeah, from there and gadda
- 1:11Speaker 4: you go to Sequilda Castle, Maine, West Autralias, talt Australia,
- 1:14Speaker 4: finish at the Factory Theater in Sydney on during the
- 1:17Speaker 4: twenty seventh Mayloe, you're packed it ready to go.
- 1:20Speaker 3: Look pumped.
- 1:22Speaker 1: Yeah, absolutely pumped. We've been. We just come out of
- 1:25Speaker 1: rehearsals and it's sounding fantastic.
- 1:28Speaker 2: Where you know what's great, it's touching back on an
- 1:32Speaker 2: album twenty five years later, you know where you sort
- 1:35Speaker 2: of go through the songs and things like that. So
- 1:39Speaker 2: it's just been it's been a great exercise for us
- 1:44Speaker 2: as a band, and you know, and a great nostalgic
- 1:48Speaker 2: trip too. So it's been awesome.
- 1:50Speaker 4: And I see you've used your twenty five years have
- 1:52Speaker 4: experienced a good benefit.
- 1:54Speaker 3: Mayloe.
- 1:54Speaker 4: Most of the shows of Friday and Saturday, there's only
- 1:56Speaker 4: one Thursday in there say yeah, that's.
- 1:59Speaker 1: Right, that's right.
- 2:01Speaker 4: Five you.
- 2:04Speaker 1: Good man.
- 2:06Speaker 4: That's as you say, the run of show just to
- 2:08Speaker 4: celebrate twenty five years since the release of the album
- 2:11Speaker 4: get Age, Like we've go.
- 2:12Speaker 3: Do the researchers.
- 2:13Speaker 4: I'm looking back and it's like is that twenty five
- 2:16Speaker 4: years already? Like I'm just still so fresh downing and
- 2:21Speaker 4: you have an age to day. I have an agie, David.
- 2:22Speaker 4: It's been a while.
- 2:24Speaker 1: It's very while Yeah, and thanks man.
- 2:27Speaker 2: Like the songs, yeah, just coming through them, and it's
- 2:31Speaker 2: it's kind of reawakening, you know, these tunes that have
- 2:35Speaker 2: sat dormant, you know, for for probably since we some
- 2:39Speaker 2: of them actually haven't played live since we recorded them.
- 2:44Speaker 2: So to reawaken some of these songs was fantastic and
- 2:47Speaker 2: it's sounding great, and you know, we're always keen on
- 2:52Speaker 2: sort of doing this sort of thing and touch them
- 2:55Speaker 2: back on the history and we just think it's a
- 2:57Speaker 2: great vible around just to reconnect with the audiences.
- 3:01Speaker 1: So yeah, pumped.
- 3:03Speaker 4: Thinking back to the album, made like people always talk
- 3:06Speaker 4: about the pressures of a sophomore album, like, unless you're
- 3:08Speaker 4: the band, you probably can't appreciate the pressures of that.
- 3:11Speaker 4: But your first Almo wasn't massive success, so I've imagined
- 3:14Speaker 4: and you would have had quite a lot of pressure
- 3:16Speaker 4: going into age.
- 3:19Speaker 2: Yeah, totally right. Well, you know, we just come off
- 3:22Speaker 2: the back of touring. Well it was worldwide, so we've
- 3:25Speaker 2: been on the road for eighteen maybe months maybe more,
- 3:30Speaker 2: and it was it was hard core sort of teuring,
- 3:34Speaker 2: you know, and I know that's what sounds like a
- 3:38Speaker 2: dream and it is a dream. However, if you're sleep
- 3:44Speaker 2: deprivated for eighteen months, it can be quite an insane
- 3:49Speaker 2: sort of experience. So we came off the road and
- 3:53Speaker 2: it was time to sort of write because.
- 3:57Speaker 1: We hadn't been writing on the road.
- 3:59Speaker 2: We've just been touring, touring, touring, So yeah, it was difficult,
- 4:03Speaker 2: and it was, you know, one of those things. We
- 4:06Speaker 2: lost a band member through through all the touring and
- 4:09Speaker 2: the pressures of the road, so it was a real
- 4:13Speaker 2: sort of roll up the sleeves effort. And we moved
- 4:16Speaker 2: to Melbourne on this one just to get out of Adelaide,
- 4:20Speaker 2: get out of the comfort zone, you know, find a
- 4:22Speaker 2: new guitarist and sort of start working.
- 4:26Speaker 1: The only way we knew how from you know.
- 4:30Speaker 2: The inception of the band was to roll up the
- 4:32Speaker 2: sleeves and get the work done. And that's what we did,
- 4:35Speaker 2: and it's fantastic. Like I listened to like I said,
- 4:38Speaker 2: we listened to the album now through rehearsals and you know,
- 4:42Speaker 2: touching back on it and it's like, we're super proud
- 4:45Speaker 2: of this album is great.
- 4:47Speaker 4: And looking back, do you think the pressure came more
- 4:49Speaker 4: from within or more from external expectations?
- 4:52Speaker 2: We've always raised a pretty high bar within. It's always
- 4:57Speaker 2: been there from the start. You know, even rehearsals. You
- 5:00Speaker 2: made a mistake. Let's go over it again. You made
- 5:02Speaker 2: a mistake, Let's go over it again.
- 5:04Speaker 1: You know. It's just that pressure cooker sort of thing.
- 5:07Speaker 2: So initially I think it just came from us until
- 5:11Speaker 2: it didn't, and when it didn't come from us, it
- 5:14Speaker 2: was heavy.
- 5:15Speaker 1: So yeah, I think, you know, we did some great things.
- 5:19Speaker 2: You know, we did some We're super you know, we're
- 5:23Speaker 2: really proud of everything that went on prior to this.
- 5:25Speaker 1: Album as well.
- 5:26Speaker 2: So it's just it was just a natural progression and
- 5:29Speaker 2: we're lucky that we came out with this album.
- 5:32Speaker 1: You know, it's a good one.
- 5:35Speaker 4: There's a quote in the press release that says that
- 5:37Speaker 4: jet Age debuted a new, refined, mature sound for the band.
- 5:42Speaker 3: Would you agree with that?
- 5:44Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, I would.
- 5:46Speaker 2: I think it was just we're stepping into two thousands now,
- 5:50Speaker 2: so you know, it was the end of the nineties
- 5:52Speaker 2: sort of era, and it was a step towards into
- 5:56Speaker 2: the two thousands that whole new.
- 5:59Speaker 1: There was a whole new sort.
- 6:00Speaker 2: Of sound onto itself, I think personally, so yeah, I
- 6:06Speaker 2: do think it was a step in a different direction.
- 6:08Speaker 2: I mean, Sumo was very you know, sort of guitar
- 6:14Speaker 2: driven heavy sort of thing, you know, and then you know,
- 6:18Speaker 2: some of the song structures for jet Age were were
- 6:22Speaker 2: more melody based, i would say, and and rather than
- 6:29Speaker 2: driven with high volume guitars. So it was it was
- 6:33Speaker 2: it was a step where you needed to take and
- 6:35Speaker 2: when he took it.
- 6:36Speaker 3: Yeah, look at back mate.
- 6:38Speaker 4: I don't know a few your memories as bad as mine,
- 6:40Speaker 4: but look at bout twenty five years made.
- 6:42Speaker 3: What's some of your fondest memories are making it?
- 6:46Speaker 2: Well, we were all in Darling Harbor at the time,
- 6:49Speaker 2: so we're working with a producer called whose name is
- 6:52Speaker 2: Zad Buller.
- 6:53Speaker 1: He worked with Ben Lee and and Eskimo Joe.
- 6:59Speaker 2: And so we were recording down there and we're all
- 7:01Speaker 2: staying in an apartment down the apartment blocks sort of thing
- 7:04Speaker 2: down in the down in Sydney there, and it was
- 7:07Speaker 2: fantastic and it was just really creative, like the it
- 7:13Speaker 2: was just I know it sounds weird, but it was
- 7:15Speaker 2: nice to not have the pressure off the road, but
- 7:18Speaker 2: to actually be creative again because we we were missing
- 7:22Speaker 2: that and so it was a fantastic opportunity and and
- 7:26Speaker 2: everything else that we felt to go back in and
- 7:29Speaker 2: start recording and just just with no pressure. So that
- 7:36Speaker 2: was lovely. That was really good. Yeah.
- 7:39Speaker 1: Yeah, to take.
- 7:40Speaker 4: Us back to I guess the stage read and you'd
- 7:42Speaker 4: finished recording, the album was all done and you're doing
- 7:44Speaker 4: the pram are you waiting for to come out?
- 7:46Speaker 3: But how are you? How are you feeling about? Like
- 7:48Speaker 3: you you Schuma was a great album, but how are
- 7:50Speaker 3: you feeling about your age? He's confident that it was
- 7:52Speaker 3: going to cut the mustard or he's a more hope.
- 7:55Speaker 2: For Yeah, it was it was we felt good about it, okay,
- 8:00Speaker 2: so that's process number one. As long as we felt
- 8:03Speaker 2: good about it, then we were happy to put it out.
- 8:06Speaker 1: What we were getting.
- 8:08Speaker 2: You know, obviously there's a lot of support around the
- 8:11Speaker 2: band at this point, you know, through our record company
- 8:13Speaker 2: and everything else.
- 8:14Speaker 1: But everyone felt great about it too.
- 8:16Speaker 2: So that was comforting to know because when you record
- 8:20Speaker 2: or do something, you know, it's only the band that
- 8:23Speaker 2: sort of feels the song, and you're sort of giving
- 8:27Speaker 2: people access and an opinion to your what you do.
- 8:32Speaker 1: So it was.
- 8:34Speaker 2: We felt good about it and opening it up to
- 8:37Speaker 2: everyone else, it was it was very positive, so we felt,
- 8:42Speaker 2: you know, it was good to carry on and now
- 8:45Speaker 2: we weren't going to change how we viewed the album
- 8:48Speaker 2: or wrote it.
- 8:49Speaker 1: So yeah, yeah, we felt strongly about it.
- 8:52Speaker 3: Yes, right.
- 8:53Speaker 4: You always talk about people saying it's through like a
- 8:56Speaker 4: timeless song. The timeless people are going to love it
- 8:58Speaker 4: no matter what, no matter where it is. But there's
- 9:00Speaker 4: certain songs off that album like Secret Agent Man and
- 9:03Speaker 4: Gravity that twenty five years old, are they still sound
- 9:06Speaker 4: fresh and they're still exciting songs like.
- 9:09Speaker 3: What is it? What did it if I do with
- 9:11Speaker 3: that to sort of to find that magic? I guess, yeah,
- 9:15Speaker 3: I don't know.
- 9:16Speaker 1: It's I don't know. I don't know. What I do
- 9:20Speaker 1: know is and I can tell you.
- 9:24Speaker 2: In the morning there am in the morning, I think
- 9:28Speaker 2: you've been up all up. You're going to come and
- 9:32Speaker 2: listen and straight I went, Wow, that's different. And then
- 9:35Speaker 2: and on the second list, I went, that's that's cool.
- 9:39Speaker 1: Do you know?
- 9:39Speaker 2: I had the same feeling with Shut My Eyes were
- 9:42Speaker 2: almost on our first EP and first album we almost
- 9:45Speaker 2: threw it out and I was like, oh, what do
- 9:49Speaker 2: you think of this?
- 9:49Speaker 1: And I was like, this is good. Don't throw it out,
- 9:52Speaker 1: you know.
- 9:54Speaker 2: So, yeah, it's moments like those that you sort of
- 9:58Speaker 2: know straight.
- 9:58Speaker 1: Away, and Secret Age Man was no different.
- 10:00Speaker 2: And playing those songs is literally like putting on your
- 10:05Speaker 2: favorite T shirt or your favorite pair of jeans or whatever.
- 10:09Speaker 2: You know, It's just it feels comfortable. It sits in
- 10:12Speaker 2: a pocket every time. It's really Yeah, one of those
- 10:16Speaker 2: for us, a classic kind of feel.
- 10:19Speaker 3: Yeah, I'm going to put you on this spot a
- 10:21Speaker 3: little bit here, Mete.
- 10:22Speaker 4: Which rich song is still your favorite of the album.
- 10:28Speaker 1: Well, I tend to go towards some.
- 10:30Speaker 2: Of the holy Water sort of sound, and that's just
- 10:40Speaker 2: on a playing point of view.
- 10:42Speaker 1: I like holy Water.
- 10:43Speaker 4: I like.
- 10:45Speaker 1: Enough to know. I think that's a that's a good song. Actually, yeah,
- 10:49Speaker 1: it is a good song, and I like.
- 10:55Speaker 2: Everything turns. So we were playing that stuff. That was
- 10:58Speaker 2: the breach between and Jet Age. Those songs had been
- 11:03Speaker 2: written or were being written, and we started playing those
- 11:06Speaker 2: songs big day out.
- 11:08Speaker 1: We were we were letting them out and playing so there.
- 11:16Speaker 2: Really for reasons because of the the way it's written
- 11:21Speaker 2: and the vocal melodies.
- 11:25Speaker 1: But yeah, like those Yeah, you sort.
- 11:28Speaker 4: Of touched on this a bit before made, but you
- 11:30Speaker 4: have playing Jet Agents full on these running shows.
- 11:32Speaker 3: So how Down Difficult has a bandaged that you like
- 11:35Speaker 3: that live. When you write the album, I can't imagine
- 11:37Speaker 3: you ever thought you're gonna have to play everything on it,
- 11:39Speaker 3: like is it difficult?
- 11:41Speaker 1: Yeah?
- 11:41Speaker 2: Yeah, well yeah, that's the other thing, you know, that's
- 11:45Speaker 2: we were told going into.
- 11:46Speaker 1: The album and writing the album, worry.
- 11:48Speaker 2: About the songs and stuff like that, worry about playing
- 11:51Speaker 2: them secondly, you know, you can work that out afterwards.
- 11:54Speaker 1: Just just get in there.
- 11:55Speaker 2: It's your playground, play around with stuff, you know, keyboard lines,
- 11:59Speaker 2: whatever you want to do, and then just experiment and.
- 12:04Speaker 1: Live as a secondary. That's another animal, you know.
- 12:07Speaker 2: So in saying that, there's also been a great deal
- 12:12Speaker 2: of fun sort of recreating sounds three guitars and things,
- 12:17Speaker 2: you know, bass.
- 12:18Speaker 1: And drums that are on the album.
- 12:22Speaker 2: So it's challenged us as musicians to sort of, you know,
- 12:26Speaker 2: to do it live, which has been fantastic.
- 12:29Speaker 1: We love it. That roll up the sleeves mentality mentioned earlier.
- 12:35Speaker 4: It's actually funny to say that they made like its
- 12:37Speaker 4: song first and then thinking about playing them live.
- 12:39Speaker 3: But is unknown as.
- 12:41Speaker 4: An awesome live band, so it actually sounds funny to
- 12:44Speaker 4: hear that. You know, the live part of it was
- 12:46Speaker 4: developed after the song process itself.
- 12:49Speaker 2: Yeah, well some of those songs absolutely, you know, because
- 12:53Speaker 2: you're recording them, they don't have the benefit of being
- 12:57Speaker 2: road tested. Some of those songs were just written as
- 13:00Speaker 2: songs in a relaxed environment, you know, with your you know,
- 13:05Speaker 2: you're sitting around next or an open fire or whatever.
- 13:09Speaker 2: So so yeah, it's but it's always been something we
- 13:13Speaker 2: pride ourselves on as our live shows and delivering you know,
- 13:18Speaker 2: deliver the goods. I mean, it's the Australian way, right whatever,
- 13:23Speaker 2: you know what I mean I've been saying through this interview,
- 13:30Speaker 2: But this whole album was literally like that. It was
- 13:35Speaker 2: like we regroup, we refocused, we had to move to Melbourne.
- 13:40Speaker 1: We're all in.
- 13:40Speaker 2: Different bedroom, it's in the same house, just to get
- 13:44Speaker 2: this album together, you know. So that was a real Yeah,
- 13:48Speaker 2: it was great fun.
- 13:50Speaker 4: Do you remember the first time you heard one of
- 13:52Speaker 4: your songs on the radio and where were you and
- 13:54Speaker 4: how did you feel?
- 13:57Speaker 1: I do? In fact, we were so what our management
- 14:01Speaker 1: is to do was we've got from didn't and a
- 14:06Speaker 1: show in Melbourne the next day.
- 14:09Speaker 2: So rather than book accommodation, if you just drove overnight,
- 14:14Speaker 2: well that's just you know, you sleep in the van.
- 14:17Speaker 2: So once you time sat by a couple of couple
- 14:20Speaker 2: of nights, right and people are driving and you know,
- 14:23Speaker 2: people aren't sleeping, et cetera, et cetera. I played shut
- 14:28Speaker 2: my Eyes and I reckon. It was about seven thirty
- 14:30Speaker 2: in the morning. I was we were driving past my
- 14:33Speaker 2: old high school, and I was just like, oh, man,
- 14:37Speaker 2: and we we had all been fighting in the van,
- 14:39Speaker 2: you know, just ship, you know, just ship just tied
- 14:43Speaker 2: and just you know, over it, man, and we all
- 14:47Speaker 2: I was driving past my high school, like looking at
- 14:50Speaker 2: my high school. And next minute I hear the intro
- 14:53Speaker 2: to shut my eyes.
- 14:54Speaker 1: I'm just around them.
- 14:55Speaker 2: Everyone's looking at each other like, oh my god, I'll
- 14:58Speaker 2: never forget that man till the day I die.
- 15:01Speaker 1: Like it was so cool.
- 15:03Speaker 2: And and the fact that we went past my school
- 15:05Speaker 2: where a lot of my dreams of being playing music.
- 15:10Speaker 2: I've always wanted to be part of a band and
- 15:14Speaker 2: be playing music. So it was just, you know, one
- 15:17Speaker 2: of those things. So yeah, it was coming into Adelaid
- 15:19Speaker 2: about seven thirty in the morning. Man, shut my eyes,
- 15:23Speaker 2: Shut my eyes.
- 15:25Speaker 3: I don't think just yet.
- 15:27Speaker 4: But off in Brisbane and Friday, June the fifth, at
- 15:33Speaker 4: the trippand and goes around the country, so that's the
- 15:36Speaker 4: luck of the man.
- 15:36Speaker 3: I look forward to catching up.
- 15:37Speaker 1: On the banks. Man I really appreciate. I'll buy that beer.
- 15:40Speaker 3: Bro