Latest / HEAVY Music Interviews / ELECTRIC SIX Refined And Ready To Ignite Australia
Transcript
- 0:06Speaker 1: How are you going today?
- 0:08Speaker 2: How am I going? I'm going? How am I going?
- 0:11Speaker 1: That?
- 0:11Speaker 2: Is that an Australian term? Yeah, okay, I'm going.
- 0:17Speaker 3: I'm going pretty good. Yeah, I mean, you know, I'm tired.
- 0:22Speaker 3: You know, I'm constantly tired. Yeah, tired of living. Yeah,
- 0:29Speaker 3: I'm okay, Yeah, I'm going.
- 0:31Speaker 2: I'm going. Well.
- 0:32Speaker 1: Oh fantastic. I tried to do the like how you've
- 0:35Speaker 1: been doing on Instagram like Perth Melbourne.
- 0:39Speaker 2: Oh that oh gotcha? Okay, yeah, yeah, I don't even
- 0:41Speaker 2: think about me so yeah, yeah, I wouldn't. I wouldn't have.
- 0:44Speaker 2: I wouldn't have recognized it once once I do those videos.
- 0:46Speaker 2: I don't. I don't. I don't really think about it.
- 0:49Speaker 1: No, No, that's fair enough. My impression wasn't very good,
- 0:51Speaker 1: to be fair. So anyway, an impression of me. You're
- 0:57Speaker 1: an icon Australia again. What keeps pulling Electric six back
- 1:02Speaker 1: down on the Well?
- 1:05Speaker 4: The shows are great, they're they're big, they're profitable. We
- 1:10Speaker 4: it's it's a pleasure to to fly between cities as
- 1:13Speaker 4: opposed to sitting in a van all day. You know,
- 1:16Speaker 4: it's it's just you know, I mean, it's it's, uh,
- 1:19Speaker 4: what do you have six major cities and then we
- 1:21Speaker 4: go to New Zealand for a couple more. It's just,
- 1:23Speaker 4: you know, it's a short, fun tour, you know, and
- 1:26Speaker 4: and it's we don't get a tour of the way
- 1:27Speaker 4: we do in Australia. And love the food, love the people,
- 1:31Speaker 4: love the scenery, some great scenery, and and the television.
- 1:35Speaker 4: Loved going to the hotel and watching television. And yeah,
- 1:38Speaker 4: it's just it's great. Yeah, there's no reason not to
- 1:40Speaker 4: do it.
- 1:40Speaker 1: Oh, that's fantastic to hear. Is the Australian crowd more
- 1:44Speaker 1: feral than the rest of the world feral? No?
- 1:47Speaker 4: No, you know, you guys are very cosmopolitan. Yeah, it's
- 1:52Speaker 4: I mean, look at your room. That's a very cosmopolitan room,
- 1:55Speaker 4: the lighting.
- 1:55Speaker 2: All of it.
- 1:56Speaker 1: Yes, my one life. And what's the most unthinking, unhinged
- 2:03Speaker 1: thing you've seen at an Aussie show?
- 2:06Speaker 2: Unhinged? I don't really look at the crowd. Uh, it
- 2:09Speaker 2: doesn't matter where I'm at.
- 2:10Speaker 4: I don't really pay attention to the crowd at all.
- 2:12Speaker 4: Can I pick out what's going on out there?
- 2:14Speaker 1: No?
- 2:14Speaker 4: I feel the energy, but it's just kind of a
- 2:16Speaker 4: amorphous blob of energy. I don't really like. I don't
- 2:19Speaker 4: really assign the energy to this person or that person. Yeah,
- 2:22Speaker 4: and uh yeah, you know, I mean I'm telling the truth.
- 2:24Speaker 4: Like we'll we'll come off stages for good. You see
- 2:26Speaker 4: that person down from Like no, I didn't see that
- 2:28Speaker 4: person down from the last thing you want to do
- 2:31Speaker 4: is make eye contact with somebody down front, because then
- 2:34Speaker 4: then they then they believe they need to be on
- 2:35Speaker 4: stage with you.
- 2:36Speaker 1: Yeah, that's very true, very true.
- 2:38Speaker 4: I mean, I mean generally, and it's generally dudes, but
- 2:42Speaker 4: like I always love the you know what.
- 2:43Speaker 2: The stage is missing me?
- 2:45Speaker 1: Me?
- 2:46Speaker 2: Yeah, I've never been that person. How do you get
- 2:49Speaker 2: to be How do you get to be that person?
- 2:50Speaker 2: You know that you know that stage me it needs me.
- 2:56Speaker 1: Could you imagine if you just started pulling people up
- 2:59Speaker 1: from the That's yeah, that's weird, isn't it. Yeah?
- 3:04Speaker 4: Yeah, I still don't get I mean, we're in our
- 3:05Speaker 4: fifties now, most of us in our fifties, and people
- 3:08Speaker 4: still run on stage and to want to be around us.
- 3:11Speaker 2: I don't get it.
- 3:11Speaker 1: And are we getting chaos or refined chaos this time
- 3:16Speaker 1: from us?
- 3:17Speaker 2: You're getting You're just getting refinery.
- 3:19Speaker 4: You know, we're definitely very refined of individuals. You know,
- 3:24Speaker 4: we're respectful, we're polite, and we have a we have
- 3:27Speaker 4: a good time. I mean, the guys in my band
- 3:28Speaker 4: are amazing musicians. It makes it very easier for me
- 3:30Speaker 4: to do this. And you know, like I know all
- 3:33Speaker 4: the lyrics. I've memorized all the lyrics, most of them.
- 3:36Speaker 4: And you know, for me, it's for me, it's just
- 3:37Speaker 4: it's just doing drunk karaoke every night and I have
- 3:39Speaker 4: a great time.
- 3:40Speaker 1: Oh that's weird and Electric six leans into absurdity and humor,
- 3:45Speaker 1: but the roofs are consistently tight and ridiculously catchy. How
- 3:49Speaker 1: intentional is that contrast? Do you consciously balance musical precision
- 3:53Speaker 1: with lyrical chaos?
- 3:56Speaker 2: Oh, I mean, I guess that's the goal. We want
- 3:58Speaker 2: the songs to be catchy.
- 3:59Speaker 4: I mean I always you know, I've never been much
- 4:02Speaker 4: into like instrumental music or like, you know, I.
- 4:06Speaker 2: Don't care if if if if you're listening to a
- 4:08Speaker 2: song in like sixteen five time. I just like four
- 4:11Speaker 2: on the floor, verse chorus, verse, chorus, bridge, verse chorus.
- 4:13Speaker 2: I like catchy songs.
- 4:14Speaker 4: And you know I always have an eye as well,
- 4:16Speaker 4: So that's just always kind of been the template, you know,
- 4:19Speaker 4: like the first time I heard the Pixies and what
- 4:21Speaker 4: they were doing, Like, I was just like, that's what I.
- 4:22Speaker 2: Want to do. I want to do that over and
- 4:23Speaker 2: over again. And that's that's what we've done.
- 4:26Speaker 1: Yeah, that's fantastic. I was actually gonna ask who were
- 4:29Speaker 1: you guys like influenced by?
- 4:31Speaker 2: Yeah, that's a big one for me.
- 4:33Speaker 4: You know, historically a lot of the guitar players have
- 4:35Speaker 4: been into like Kiss and Black Sabbath and things like that. Yeah,
- 4:38Speaker 4: you know, I'm into Pixies, depeche Mode, you know, so
- 4:42Speaker 4: you kind of just influenced like like eighties pop and
- 4:46Speaker 4: then you know eighties metal and you put it together
- 4:49Speaker 4: and that's us.
- 4:50Speaker 1: Yeah, all the good stuff. That's awesome. Do you ever
- 4:53Speaker 1: get tired of playing gay Bar or does it still
- 4:56Speaker 1: hit like a lightning bolt?
- 4:58Speaker 2: I don't what you're tired of it? It's still fun.
- 5:00Speaker 4: I mean, yeah, well, I think once every five years
- 5:02Speaker 4: I kind of step back and like realized, Wow, this
- 5:05Speaker 4: is a crazy, crazy.
- 5:06Speaker 2: Song that we did.
- 5:07Speaker 4: And you know, I wrote it when I was twenty
- 5:08Speaker 4: twenty four years old, and it was much shorter. When
- 5:11Speaker 4: we wrote it, it was like it was just kind of
- 5:13Speaker 4: meant to be like a ninety second song, and then
- 5:16Speaker 4: you know, we made it longer to get on the radio.
- 5:19Speaker 4: And yeah, yeah, every five years I reflect on what
- 5:22Speaker 4: a great song that is.
- 5:23Speaker 1: Yeah.
- 5:24Speaker 2: Yeah. Then the rest of the time, it was just
- 5:26Speaker 2: it's Kate bar.
- 5:28Speaker 1: How did it make you feel when you guys got censored,
- 5:31Speaker 1: when that song got censored.
- 5:34Speaker 4: That that was fine. It didn't get censored for the
- 5:36Speaker 4: reasons you think. Yeah, it was that was the record
- 5:40Speaker 4: company dropping the ball, like with with the release dates
- 5:45Speaker 4: or something like that. So they came up with an excuse,
- 5:47Speaker 4: Oh my god, we don't want to make this look
- 5:49Speaker 4: like as our Faultlet's make it look.
- 5:51Speaker 2: Like it's the government's fault. Oh yeah, really yeah, something
- 5:55Speaker 2: like that. Yeah, I mean it was. It was.
- 5:56Speaker 4: It was kind of like a combo of the two.
- 5:58Speaker 4: It was like yeah, yeah, yeah, like I don't, I don't.
- 6:00Speaker 4: I don't think that.
- 6:01Speaker 2: Yeah, I don't. I don't think it adds much. Yeah
- 6:03Speaker 2: that at least as far as I remember. You know,
- 6:05Speaker 2: now now it can be told.
- 6:07Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, And what bands are you digging at the moment?
- 6:15Speaker 2: None, really, because I've got these kids, so I feel you. Yeah,
- 6:19Speaker 2: I don't.
- 6:20Speaker 4: You know, it's been a while since I've actively got
- 6:23Speaker 4: into bands. Yeah, you know, just my life is immersed
- 6:27Speaker 4: in music. My you know, the last thirty years I've
- 6:29Speaker 4: been doing this, so you know, I think I try
- 6:31Speaker 4: to take every minute out of my life not listening
- 6:33Speaker 4: to music that I that I can and and it's
- 6:35Speaker 4: done me.
- 6:36Speaker 1: Well, yeah, yeah, that's fair enough. Do you think you've
- 6:39Speaker 1: broken the no serious songs rule yet?
- 6:43Speaker 2: No serious songs? Oh? We have serious songs, we totally do. Yeah,
- 6:47Speaker 2: and you're talking about us yeah, yeah.
- 6:49Speaker 4: And also my solo work too, I mean yeah, I
- 6:51Speaker 4: mean there's definitely serious songs, but all of them still
- 6:54Speaker 4: have a kind of you know, I try to be
- 6:56Speaker 4: creative with it, try to be you know, a dark,
- 6:59Speaker 4: a dark serious, a dark humorous kind of serious.
- 7:02Speaker 2: So I try not to be to direct in what
- 7:05Speaker 2: I'm saying.
- 7:06Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, no, good answer. And what's one deep cut
- 7:10Speaker 1: you'd love Australians to scream back at you?
- 7:15Speaker 2: It's only when people yell for slices of you.
- 7:18Speaker 4: We play that song every so every so often, but
- 7:20Speaker 4: like when that gets yelled that you hear like yeah, yeah,
- 7:26Speaker 4: I still really enjoy it.
- 7:28Speaker 1: Oh that's fantastic And has touring for three decades made
- 7:31Speaker 1: you wiser or weirder.
- 7:34Speaker 4: Probably wiser, you know, I think, yeah, I think, you know,
- 7:39Speaker 4: it's it's it's still so.
- 7:41Speaker 2: Much fun to do this.
- 7:42Speaker 4: And yeah, we're not we're not just we're not throwing
- 7:44Speaker 4: televisions out of hotel rooms and we're not you know,
- 7:48Speaker 4: injecting things into our veins. We're just we're just playing
- 7:51Speaker 4: shows and looking to have a good meal every night.
- 7:53Speaker 2: And that's what we're doing.
- 7:54Speaker 1: Oh, that's fabulous. Were you ever throwing TVs out of
- 7:57Speaker 1: windows and doing other stuff? No?
- 7:59Speaker 4: I was, And yeah, but back to Depeche Mode. I
- 8:03Speaker 4: worked I worked at when I was like when I
- 8:05Speaker 4: was a young pop. I worked the summer Amphitheater. Yeah,
- 8:07Speaker 4: and it was the Violator Tours nineteen ninety. I was
- 8:10Speaker 4: like working at you know, and I worked two Depeche
- 8:11Speaker 4: Mode shows and and on night two, one of the
- 8:14Speaker 4: crew was saying it was saying, Dave actually through a television,
- 8:18Speaker 4: Oh my god.
- 8:20Speaker 2: I loved it. Like it's not a cliche. He actually
- 8:24Speaker 2: did actually did it.
- 8:25Speaker 1: Yeah, that's I wish I could have sayen that.
- 8:28Speaker 2: Yeah I do too.
- 8:30Speaker 1: Yeah, And what's your do you guys have like a
- 8:33Speaker 1: pretty show ritual at all?
- 8:37Speaker 2: None.
- 8:37Speaker 4: I mean, there's there's a there's a meme that I've
- 8:40Speaker 4: seen several times where it's like it's like two pictures
- 8:42Speaker 4: and one one is like what people think backstage is like,
- 8:44Speaker 4: and it's like, you know, you know, kid rock and
- 8:47Speaker 4: a cowboy hat, and then what backstage is actually and
- 8:51Speaker 4: it's just like formululated dudes on their laptops.
- 8:53Speaker 2: That's that's exactly what.
- 8:56Speaker 1: Well, you know that sounds actually relaxing and like a
- 8:58Speaker 1: good way to prepare for show.
- 9:01Speaker 4: Yeah, no, it's we are We never have We've never
- 9:04Speaker 4: had vocal warm ups, we've never had rituals or anything
- 9:06Speaker 4: like that. And like, yeah, like we've had plenty of
- 9:09Speaker 4: support acts that do like we hear them like.
- 9:11Speaker 2: Do their warm ups and stuff, and we're just always
- 9:14Speaker 2: like shaking our head.
- 9:17Speaker 4: Well it's not it's not for that, Like, this is
- 9:19Speaker 4: not gonna this is not gonna help you have a
- 9:20Speaker 4: better show.
- 9:21Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, it's gonna curse you. It's going to be
- 9:24Speaker 2: a curse.
- 9:25Speaker 1: And another thing I really wanted to ask you, you're
- 9:28Speaker 1: suspiciously good at accents. Is that a hidden talent or
- 9:32Speaker 1: use of chaotic practice?
- 9:34Speaker 2: Probably use of chaotic practice. It's more for just more
- 9:37Speaker 2: for just fun.
- 9:38Speaker 4: I guess, you know, I try, you know, I've always
- 9:41Speaker 4: you know, like all all musicians want to be actors
- 9:44Speaker 4: and all actors want to be musicians. So you know,
- 9:46Speaker 4: I would love to love to do more acting and
- 9:48Speaker 4: so yeah, I work at it.
- 9:49Speaker 2: That have fun with it?
- 9:50Speaker 1: Oh that's we could. If you had to do the
- 9:52Speaker 1: Australian tour in a purely Aussie accent, do you think
- 9:55Speaker 1: you'd survive like the whole way through?
- 9:58Speaker 2: No, I butcher it. Am I gonna try? And the
- 10:01Speaker 2: do it now?
- 10:01Speaker 1: No?
- 10:02Speaker 2: Yeah?
- 10:03Speaker 4: No, I mean the thing about having kids is watching
- 10:07Speaker 4: Blue every day has helped, has helped.
- 10:09Speaker 1: With it, you know, Yeah, yeah, that's Truely your fruit
- 10:12Speaker 1: bat you did it, you did it. Oh that's wicked.
- 10:17Speaker 1: And if Electric six were an Australian animal, what would
- 10:21Speaker 1: it be? Sorry, that's a stupid question.
- 10:23Speaker 2: Probably a fruit bad.
- 10:24Speaker 1: Oh nice, they're so cute. You guys aren't.
- 10:28Speaker 2: Cute though, No, we're not. We never have been, We
- 10:32Speaker 2: never have been, we never will be.
- 10:34Speaker 1: Oh dear? And are we dressing up for this tour
- 10:38Speaker 1: or is this classified information? No?
- 10:41Speaker 4: Same same budget leisure suits we've had for the last
- 10:45Speaker 4: twenty five years.
- 10:46Speaker 1: I love it. I love it fantastic. And when the
- 10:49Speaker 1: lights go down in Melbourne on the final night, what
- 10:52Speaker 1: do you want the crowd walking away thinking, Oh.
- 10:56Speaker 4: Well, I want everyone thinking that that they need to
- 10:59Speaker 4: have us back again, and that you know, I tell
- 11:04Speaker 4: tell all their friends and relatives about Electric six, and
- 11:06Speaker 4: you know that that I am shocked that.
- 11:09Speaker 2: We're still doing this.
- 11:10Speaker 4: To be yeah, to be fair, Yeah, it's twenty twenty
- 11:12Speaker 4: five years in this dirty business and you know, we
- 11:15Speaker 4: must be doing something right.
- 11:16Speaker 2: But I don't know what it is.
- 11:17Speaker 1: Yeah, I feel like it's because your songs, like they
- 11:21Speaker 1: still hit with every you know, every couple of years,
- 11:24Speaker 1: you can still put on your songs and it's like
- 11:25Speaker 1: this is still relevant.
- 11:26Speaker 2: Like it's hot, timeless, timeless. Yeah, it's yeah.
- 11:32Speaker 4: You just you just put your best foot forward every
- 11:34Speaker 4: every night whenever you make an album, you know, And yeah,
- 11:38Speaker 4: it's it's it's it is. It's nice to be in
- 11:40Speaker 4: a good live band. We enjoy playing, we enjoy each
- 11:42Speaker 4: other's company, and and uh.
- 11:44Speaker 2: Yeah, it's just it's it's we have a lot of
- 11:46Speaker 2: fun in the band, that's for sure.
- 11:47Speaker 4: And that yeah, that I think that's the key to
- 11:49Speaker 4: longevity is just being a band that is fun to
- 11:51Speaker 4: be in and you know when where you're not just
- 11:53Speaker 4: yelling at each other over tempo and.
- 11:54Speaker 2: Ship like that.
- 11:55Speaker 4: Like you know, I didn't get into music for that,
- 11:57Speaker 4: And it is like crazy, like it seems like seventy
- 12:00Speaker 4: five percent of musicians like they get into bands just
- 12:02Speaker 4: so they can fights with each.
- 12:03Speaker 1: Other's Yeah, no, definitely, no dude.
- 12:06Speaker 2: No dude, fuck you, no dude, fucke. Yeah, that's what
- 12:10Speaker 2: being in a band is.
- 12:11Speaker 1: Yeah, but like you're so right, like you you're on
- 12:14Speaker 1: tour with each other, like in close proximity the last time.
- 12:17Speaker 2: It doesn't have to be that way. It's have a
- 12:19Speaker 2: good time, you know.
- 12:20Speaker 4: You know, if you're you know, embrace the parts of
- 12:23Speaker 4: your band that suck, don't try to change them, lean
- 12:25Speaker 4: into the suck, and then you have a better time.
- 12:28Speaker 2: I love that.
- 12:30Speaker 1: And is what is your favorite part about touring in Australia?
- 12:37Speaker 2: You know, probably the.
- 12:39Speaker 4: Every morning we get to go to the Virgin Lounge
- 12:42Speaker 4: just because our crew has they got you know, so
- 12:45Speaker 4: we don't get to do the we don't we don't
- 12:46Speaker 4: get to do the lounges in the States like that.
- 12:48Speaker 4: So when you get to the yeah, go to the
- 12:50Speaker 4: Virgin of Australian lounge, a buffet of pleasing. Yeah, yeah,
- 12:55Speaker 4: it's it's fantastic. And we don't get to do that
- 12:58Speaker 4: in Europe or the United States. So when I look forward,
- 13:00Speaker 4: I look forward to just getting through security and getting
- 13:02Speaker 4: right to that Virgin Australia lounge.
- 13:05Speaker 1: Oh gee, I'm jealous. I've never done that.
- 13:08Speaker 2: Oh it's fun.
- 13:09Speaker 4: Yeah, that's I mean, you must, I mean you must,
- 13:12Speaker 4: I mean you must.
- 13:13Speaker 2: Fly a lot, right All Australians fly.
- 13:15Speaker 4: Yeah, yeah, you would. You would think you just like
- 13:18Speaker 4: a crew points and get into those lounges.
- 13:20Speaker 2: Right.
- 13:20Speaker 1: Well, it's hard. I don't know, it's hard for us
- 13:23Speaker 1: for some reason, maybe because we're not rock stars.
- 13:26Speaker 2: But yeah, yeah, we we have.
- 13:31Speaker 4: The last couple of tours we've done, we've had like
- 13:33Speaker 4: a wicked tour manager and wicked guitar attack and they
- 13:36Speaker 4: hook us up.
- 13:37Speaker 2: So it's been nice.
- 13:38Speaker 1: That's fantastic. And but that fly is a killer, isn't
- 13:41Speaker 1: it from the US to overheat?
- 13:43Speaker 2: Oh you know, it's fun. I mean like it's it's
- 13:46Speaker 2: you have to like you will.
- 13:47Speaker 4: Sleep at some point, like, yeah, you know, if I
- 13:49Speaker 4: fly to if I fly to Europe, I might not
- 13:51Speaker 4: be able to sleep at six seven hours, you might,
- 13:53Speaker 4: you might, Yeah, but if you're going to Australia fifteen hours,
- 13:56Speaker 4: you're gonna sleep at some point.
- 13:57Speaker 2: So that's gonna that's gonna shave some of it off.
- 13:59Speaker 4: Yeah, And then you know, you're just you're just eating
- 14:01Speaker 4: and then watching watching films, and maybe you know. I
- 14:05Speaker 4: do a lot of writing, so it's it's not it's
- 14:07Speaker 4: not bad.
- 14:07Speaker 2: I make use of it.
- 14:09Speaker 1: Yeah, that's awesome. With your writing, are you writing future
- 14:12Speaker 1: songs or is it just personal songs?
- 14:15Speaker 2: And I also write books.
- 14:16Speaker 4: I've I've written, I've written written, and I narrate them
- 14:19Speaker 4: in the audiobook format. So I've got eight eight books
- 14:22Speaker 4: completed now and I'm working on a new one, which
- 14:24Speaker 4: is I have six detective books, two westerns, and this
- 14:28Speaker 4: one is a completely different animal that should be done
- 14:32Speaker 4: this year.
- 14:33Speaker 1: Well far out. I never knew that. That's awesome. Where
- 14:36Speaker 1: can I find said books?
- 14:38Speaker 2: Sure you can.
- 14:39Speaker 4: You can email me at destroy the Children at at
- 14:42Speaker 4: gmail dot com.
- 14:43Speaker 2: Just children that that's me, and I'll sell them to you.
- 14:47Speaker 2: And then also at the.
- 14:49Speaker 4: Shows, like you know this piece of paper that gives
- 14:51Speaker 4: you that email address, and if you want my audiobooks
- 14:53Speaker 4: and they're filthy, They're gratuitously filthy, but there are a
- 14:56Speaker 4: lot of fun too.
- 14:57Speaker 1: Yeah, oh that's that's so cool. I will do. And lastly,
- 15:02Speaker 1: is there anything you'd like to say to your Australian
- 15:04Speaker 1: fans ahead.
- 15:04Speaker 2: Of the tour.
- 15:07Speaker 4: Yeah, keep on doing what you're doing, like Australia's you know,
- 15:10Speaker 4: the way the world's going right now.
- 15:11Speaker 2: Australia is our only hope.
- 15:13Speaker 1: Yeah, I agree with Daniel