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Still Figuring Out How It Works After 25 Years With CAM BAINES From BODYJAR · HEAVY Music Interviews

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Campaigns.
• 0:00
  Speaker 2: I'm the singer and guitarists and I guess founding member
• 0:03
  Speaker 2: of Body Jar. We've been around for probably a few
• 0:07
  Speaker 2: thirty years, twenty nine years or something, and probably even
• 0:11
  Speaker 2: a bit longer if you go back a little bit further.
• 0:13
  Speaker 2: We had a different name and everything. But we're doing
• 0:15
  Speaker 2: a tour in July for our album How It Works,
• 0:18
  Speaker 2: and it's the twenty five year scheduled service. We're coming
• 0:21
  Speaker 2: on it and just getting just getting this album back
• 0:25
  Speaker 2: on the road and playing all the songs we never
• 0:26
  Speaker 2: play live and trying to play some of the.
• 0:28
  Speaker 1: Other tracks that people never hear.
• 0:30
  Speaker 2: And because it was a pretty successful album for us,
• 0:32
  Speaker 2: we sort of thought, let's just do this and with
• 0:35
  Speaker 2: what we make from this, we're gonna you know, we're
• 0:37
  Speaker 2: working on a new album at the same time. We've
• 0:38
  Speaker 2: actually got a new song coming out pretty soon and
• 0:41
  Speaker 2: a video and everything. So yeah, So I'm just doing
• 0:45
  Speaker 2: this interview with Chris he asked, and.
• 0:49
  Speaker 1: You know, and I love his work, so over to.
• 0:51
  Speaker 3: Him, fans, thanks for joining to say, mate, good to
• 0:54
  Speaker 3: see your smile and face again.
• 0:56
  Speaker 1: Thanks mate. Likewise, as you say, Boddy.
• 0:58
  Speaker 3: Jar Hick the road once more for an extensive chour
• 1:01
  Speaker 3: next month, kicking off in Newcastle on July the ninth, Sydney,
• 1:05
  Speaker 3: wooll And God, Miami, Brisbane and King's Beach, Adelaide, Scarborough,
• 1:10
  Speaker 3: Michael Grade, North Melbourne and.
• 1:12
  Speaker 4: Devonport before Pish on the September. The mate Like, that's
• 1:16
  Speaker 4: a hell of a lot of frocking shows for a yeah.
• 1:19
  Speaker 2: And then we're planning another Melbourne show after that because
• 1:21
  Speaker 2: both Melbourne shows sold out super quick, so we're going to.
• 1:25
  Speaker 1: Do another Melbourne show after that apparently so. But yeah,
• 1:27
  Speaker 1: hitting everywhere.
• 1:29
  Speaker 4: Wow, that's fantastic.
• 1:30
  Speaker 3: And as you say, the Troll celebrates the quarter of
• 1:32
  Speaker 3: a century since your fan favorite album How It Works
• 1:35
  Speaker 3: was unleashed, So is that really going to.
• 1:36
  Speaker 4: Be planned in full? Uh?
• 1:39
  Speaker 1: This time?
• 1:39
  Speaker 2: We usually would, But when we've been jamming for this tour,
• 1:43
  Speaker 2: we've we've written a list and we've just mixed it in,
• 1:45
  Speaker 2: like maybe the first three or four songs will be
• 1:47
  Speaker 2: How it Works. Then we'll play like one in a
• 1:48
  Speaker 2: million and some of the songs people want to hear,
• 1:51
  Speaker 2: And we did have a bit of a poll on
• 1:52
  Speaker 2: Instagram for what other songs people want to hear, so
• 1:55
  Speaker 2: we've got like a little list but it's all worked
• 1:57
  Speaker 2: in there. It's also it's not it's not in row.
• 2:00
  Speaker 2: It's a random, randomized kind of thing, you know. So
• 2:03
  Speaker 2: and on the night we've got other songs. We can
• 2:05
  Speaker 2: swap with other songs and you know, and keep it
• 2:08
  Speaker 2: interesting for ourselves.
• 2:09
  Speaker 4: You know, it's quite refreshing brokers.
• 2:11
  Speaker 3: I hate to be the one who says it, but
• 2:13
  Speaker 3: all these tours are coming on now where they play
• 2:14
  Speaker 3: the album frontship back boring because they're predictable as fuck,
• 2:18
  Speaker 3: you know exactly what's well.
• 2:20
  Speaker 2: I never even thought about doing it until I saw
• 2:22
  Speaker 2: the darkness they did Permission to Land, and I went
• 2:24
  Speaker 2: to that gig at Festival Hall and they didn't play
• 2:27
  Speaker 2: it in order. They played it all broken up, And
• 2:29
  Speaker 2: I fucking never even thought about that, you know, I
• 2:31
  Speaker 2: just presumed, did I just I don't know, there's never
• 2:34
  Speaker 2: if we ever do that, we should. We should do
• 2:35
  Speaker 2: that because and also, like when you put it on
• 2:37
  Speaker 2: an album, not every single song on your album is
• 2:40
  Speaker 2: a good song. There's always a couple that are not.
• 2:42
  Speaker 2: You know, I reckon this one's probably got one or two.
• 2:45
  Speaker 2: But it's good that you can sort of just come
• 2:47
  Speaker 2: out strong with the good ones. You know first, and
• 2:49
  Speaker 2: then you know and then see what happens, so pay
• 2:51
  Speaker 2: for out after that exactly, not the sign not the
• 2:56
  Speaker 2: same fifteen times.
• 3:00
  Speaker 3: Ordered, how it still works straw mat, which is pretty clever,
• 3:03
  Speaker 3: but after twenty years twenty five.
• 3:05
  Speaker 4: Years, shouldn't it be called the does it still work Short?
• 3:08
  Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, we thought of that. We I hope this
• 3:10
  Speaker 1: still works to her.
• 3:13
  Speaker 2: There was a few thrown around that were pretty funny,
• 3:15
  Speaker 2: but we thought we just keep it, keep it simple,
• 3:17
  Speaker 2: you know. So hopefully it does still work and people
• 3:21
  Speaker 2: want to hear these songs obviously, like some of the
• 3:23
  Speaker 2: shows have sold out really quickly, so so the album
• 3:26
  Speaker 2: I think means something to some people and probably represents
• 3:30
  Speaker 2: some point in their life. Like you know, we all
• 3:32
  Speaker 2: have albums that you know, remind us of better times when.
• 3:35
  Speaker 1: We were younger.
• 3:37
  Speaker 2: So hopefully that is and it is that for us
• 3:39
  Speaker 2: to so hopefully people will dig it, you know either way.
• 3:43
  Speaker 3: Yes, you've got some special guest supporting around the country.
• 3:46
  Speaker 3: Joe with the decline and not dollars short? Oh yeah,
• 3:50
  Speaker 3: kind of story about them, Yeah, well not dollars short?
• 3:52
  Speaker 3: Is this Trent from one dollar Short? Joel for irrelevant?
• 3:57
  Speaker 3: Dal from Friends Will rum. It's like a bit of
• 4:01
  Speaker 3: a punk rock supergroup, I guess, you know, and you
• 4:05
  Speaker 3: know something with numbers.
• 4:06
  Speaker 1: You know, so steps they get like they're going to
• 4:09
  Speaker 1: do all the hits.
• 4:10
  Speaker 2: They're doing a couple of friends with songs, a couple
• 4:11
  Speaker 2: of something with numbers, some one dollar Short, a couple
• 4:14
  Speaker 2: of covers. You know, it's going to be good. It's
• 4:16
  Speaker 2: really good. And like, I'm really good mates with you know,
• 4:19
  Speaker 2: with Trent and Dale and everyone, and they sort of
• 4:22
  Speaker 2: made this band for this tour, you know, so I'm
• 4:25
  Speaker 2: interested to see how guys I've seen them. I've seen
• 4:27
  Speaker 2: them jam and that, and you know, Trent's rip rips
• 4:29
  Speaker 2: on guitar and sings really good.
• 4:31
  Speaker 1: It's going to be interesting. Man.
• 4:33
  Speaker 4: They've actually put it together to support you on his tour.
• 4:35
  Speaker 4: How cool is that?
• 4:36
  Speaker 1: Yeah?
• 4:37
  Speaker 2: They because you know, we were like, what have you
• 4:38
  Speaker 2: got he's got because Trent's got another sort of punk
• 4:41
  Speaker 2: rock hillbilly band which is just covers in the country stuff.
• 4:44
  Speaker 2: But he wanted to do he wanted to do more
• 4:46
  Speaker 2: one dollar Short songs and stuff and this works out good.
• 4:49
  Speaker 1: You know, They've got they've got good people and good
• 4:52
  Speaker 1: dudes and good songs.
• 4:53
  Speaker 2: You know a couple of friends with songs because Dell's there,
• 4:55
  Speaker 2: and you know a couple of something with numbers songs.
• 4:58
  Speaker 1: So yeah, it's gonna be good good chimes.
• 5:01
  Speaker 3: And twenty five years is a long time in life
• 5:04
  Speaker 3: in music and everything, bro. So yeah, secret is still
• 5:07
  Speaker 3: keeping the songs sounding fresh and vibrum.
• 5:10
  Speaker 1: Ah, I reckon, just don't don't play.
• 5:13
  Speaker 2: I mean we we work on new stuff and then
• 5:16
  Speaker 2: we jam the old stuff every now and then. I
• 5:18
  Speaker 2: think you jam it every week, like like you know
• 5:21
  Speaker 2: how many times I've played like you know, windsock Off,
• 5:23
  Speaker 2: rim Shot or Glossy Books or something like that.
• 5:26
  Speaker 1: I just think if you keep playing them over and
• 5:27
  Speaker 1: over again that you get sick of them.
• 5:29
  Speaker 2: You just gotta we don't play them until we have
• 5:31
  Speaker 2: like a tour coming up or something like that, and
• 5:34
  Speaker 2: it just keeps them fresh, you know, and then at
• 5:35
  Speaker 2: the rest of the time, just work on new stuff,
• 5:37
  Speaker 2: you know what I mean.
• 5:38
  Speaker 1: So, but there are songs that even even me, you know,
• 5:42
  Speaker 1: even when I'm at the jam, like, can we please
• 5:44
  Speaker 1: not do this one? I've done it two times, you know.
• 5:48
  Speaker 4: I don't need to run through it.
• 5:49
  Speaker 2: Yeah, we don't need to run through We can run
• 5:51
  Speaker 2: through it at sound check or we can do it
• 5:52
  Speaker 2: at the next jam or something like that, you know,
• 5:54
  Speaker 2: but but you know, yeah, it does get that way
• 5:57
  Speaker 2: after twenty five years or whatever.
• 5:59
  Speaker 1: You know, so.
• 6:01
  Speaker 2: Keep things interesting if you just just do it once
• 6:03
  Speaker 2: or twice when when when you jam and you know.
• 6:05
  Speaker 4: Makes sense how it works.
• 6:08
  Speaker 3: Was your first album on a major label after you
• 6:10
  Speaker 3: signed with EMI and Tapital just before mate, So how
• 6:13
  Speaker 3: differently was the process to creative I guess in the
• 6:17
  Speaker 3: recording process on that album compared to the rest that
• 6:20
  Speaker 3: were a bit more independent.
• 6:21
  Speaker 2: Well, I obviously were a massive label at the time.
• 6:24
  Speaker 2: They had you know, they were like the biggest label
• 6:26
  Speaker 2: in Australia. They had cases of Chambers and Alex Lloyd
• 6:29
  Speaker 2: and a bunch of country stars doing really well Groove Terminator.
• 6:33
  Speaker 1: They were like killing it when you know, when.
• 6:37
  Speaker 2: There's those people that were running it at the time
• 6:39
  Speaker 2: were unbelievable and like their marketing, their marketing thing was great.
• 6:43
  Speaker 1: We had budgets. We had like, you know, two hundred
• 6:46
  Speaker 1: and fifty thousand dollars budget.
• 6:47
  Speaker 2: You know, we went from having twenty twenty thousand for
• 6:50
  Speaker 2: everything to having thirty thousand for one video.
• 6:52
  Speaker 1: You know what I mean we were.
• 6:55
  Speaker 2: Doing demos in bloody unreal studios, just doing demos, you know,
• 6:59
  Speaker 2: like and like buying instruments and buying like all the
• 7:02
  Speaker 2: good shit. And we got to work with you know,
• 7:03
  Speaker 2: Kevin kve Van Shirley, who mixed you know who mixed
• 7:06
  Speaker 2: Silverchair S, Frog Stump and Iron Maiden and but tons
• 7:10
  Speaker 2: of other cool shit. We got him to mix not
• 7:12
  Speaker 2: the same. And then we got Tom Lord Alge who's
• 7:15
  Speaker 2: mixed you know, he's the best American radio mix of
• 7:18
  Speaker 2: there is, you know, eat mixed, feed It and five
• 7:20
  Speaker 2: minutes away.
• 7:21
  Speaker 1: So all the.
• 7:22
  Speaker 2: Singles we got to work with it we wanted to
• 7:23
  Speaker 2: work with, and Cal Eutanyama obviously he was a great,
• 7:27
  Speaker 2: great Australian producer and we probably couldn't have couldn't have
• 7:29
  Speaker 2: afforded him on Shock when we were on the independent label.
• 7:31
  Speaker 2: But when we signed an AM, I all of a
• 7:33
  Speaker 2: sudden we had a budget and we had good people.
• 7:36
  Speaker 1: To work with.
• 7:37
  Speaker 2: And it was a little bit scary because there was
• 7:39
  Speaker 2: a lot of I don't know, they expected it to
• 7:41
  Speaker 2: be big, and they were like, it was kind of
• 7:43
  Speaker 2: scary of what if it doesn't what happens if it doesn't.
• 7:45
  Speaker 1: You know, if it comes out, it just dies in
• 7:47
  Speaker 1: the ass.
• 7:47
  Speaker 2: I remember, but I remember we just did so many
• 7:51
  Speaker 2: demos because we had the money and we had a
• 7:52
  Speaker 2: good A and R guy, Colin Daniels, and he went
• 7:55
  Speaker 2: on to start Inerture Records, and he just would make
• 7:58
  Speaker 2: us right. He'd be like, okay, demod eight, there's one
• 8:01
  Speaker 2: there that could be good, and then he got Yeah.
• 8:04
  Speaker 2: He was fucking strict, and he'd always always have ideas
• 8:07
  Speaker 2: like repeat that bit twice before the chorus, like like
• 8:10
  Speaker 2: the old school A and R guys who're trying to
• 8:12
  Speaker 2: help you arrange the song.
• 8:14
  Speaker 1: A little bit, you know.
• 8:15
  Speaker 2: In that respect, it was really interesting, man, because independent
• 8:18
  Speaker 2: labels they just put out whatever you give them, you know,
• 8:21
  Speaker 2: am I was really picky about what they wanted on
• 8:23
  Speaker 2: the album and what the album was called, and what the.
• 8:24
  Speaker 1: Artwork was going to look like.
• 8:25
  Speaker 2: They were they were really involved, but I trusted them
• 8:28
  Speaker 2: because they had they'd had so.
• 8:29
  Speaker 1: Much success and they were good people, you know.
• 8:31
  Speaker 3: So yeah, so when you actually finish the album, I like,
• 8:35
  Speaker 3: did you have a feel and there was something special
• 8:37
  Speaker 3: about it?
• 8:37
  Speaker 4: Like did you was there something there?
• 8:40
  Speaker 1: Yeah? It was so exciting. It was the most exciting
• 8:42
  Speaker 1: time and our you know, we signed to a major.
• 8:44
  Speaker 2: We were all getting paid, we were all living, you know,
• 8:47
  Speaker 2: I was living with Tom.
• 8:48
  Speaker 1: We were just writing songs every day.
• 8:50
  Speaker 2: We were going to the studio and then coming home
• 8:52
  Speaker 2: and then watching like the Beatles Anthology while we were
• 8:55
  Speaker 2: come home in much like an hour of that and
• 8:58
  Speaker 2: you know, smoke some weird and go to you know,
• 9:00
  Speaker 2: and then go back to the.
• 9:01
  Speaker 1: Studio the next day. It was great. We were like
• 9:04
  Speaker 1: we were living the dream. You know.
• 9:05
  Speaker 2: We wanted this album to be like a big rock album.
• 9:09
  Speaker 2: That's just what our mission statement was at the start.
• 9:12
  Speaker 2: We didn't even want to.
• 9:13
  Speaker 1: Do like the fast sort of punk rock particular.
• 9:15
  Speaker 2: We wanted to do like more of a sort of
• 9:17
  Speaker 2: big drill card Green Day kind of thing, you know,
• 9:20
  Speaker 2: and descendants that kind of style, you know what I mean.
• 9:23
  Speaker 1: Like, so we just wanted to.
• 9:24
  Speaker 2: Be big and melodic, and I think I think we
• 9:26
  Speaker 2: ended up pulling it off. Yeah, I mean, we were
• 9:28
  Speaker 2: super happy with it. It was a really good time
• 9:30
  Speaker 2: in our lives, I think.
• 9:32
  Speaker 3: And of course the song that really kicks it off
• 9:34
  Speaker 3: for you guys, but it was not the same bait.
• 9:35
  Speaker 3: So tell us about that song, Like how did it
• 9:37
  Speaker 3: come about? Was it an accident or plan?
• 9:40
  Speaker 1: It kind of was a happy accident.
• 9:42
  Speaker 2: I guess it's about my ex girlfriend who bailed on
• 9:44
  Speaker 2: me for this Irish guy and Whenever seas basically basically
• 9:49
  Speaker 2: a sour grapes, you know, I don't need you anyway,
• 9:52
  Speaker 2: you know, instead of a song. But it's kind of
• 9:55
  Speaker 2: immature when I listen to it now, the lyrics, but musically.
• 9:57
  Speaker 2: I remember writing with a friend of mine, Phil. We
• 10:00
  Speaker 2: all had a little go but I was writing with Phil,
• 10:02
  Speaker 2: who plays in a band called Nursery Crimes, and we
• 10:05
  Speaker 2: would we would bounce things off each other and he
• 10:06
  Speaker 2: and I remember having a bit of your tar thing
• 10:08
  Speaker 2: and he was like, oh my god, how about this,
• 10:09
  Speaker 2: and he just changed one chord at the start. It
• 10:11
  Speaker 2: was like, because the chords shouldn't really work, but they
• 10:14
  Speaker 2: for some reason, they work, and so it was a
• 10:16
  Speaker 2: bit of a happy accident, and I remember thinking fuck.
• 10:19
  Speaker 2: We recorded it on a little cassette and I remember think,
• 10:21
  Speaker 2: can't wait to go home and record it on my
• 10:23
  Speaker 2: eight track, you know, And then we did den on
• 10:25
  Speaker 2: the A track. Then we showed Colin Daniels at Airmine.
• 10:27
  Speaker 2: He was like, holy shit, you just got to repeat
• 10:29
  Speaker 2: that bit before the chorus, you know, don't say I
• 10:32
  Speaker 2: told you so.
• 10:33
  Speaker 1: We used to do that just once and he's like,
• 10:34
  Speaker 1: do that twice, and then then the chorus worked, and
• 10:37
  Speaker 1: then he was.
• 10:38
  Speaker 2: Okay, that's our first single, you know, And then we
• 10:39
  Speaker 2: knew we had one one. We probably had that and
• 10:42
  Speaker 2: three other songs, and then the rest of the album
• 10:44
  Speaker 2: had to be written.
• 10:45
  Speaker 1: You know what I mean? That's cool.
• 10:47
  Speaker 4: How did the other part of that made it? Being forth?
• 10:49
  Speaker 4: Was a song guard on Tony Hawk's Oh Yeah, How
• 10:52
  Speaker 4: did how did that come about?
• 10:53
  Speaker 1: Well?
• 10:54
  Speaker 2: Steve Caballero, the pro skater in America, he came and
• 10:58
  Speaker 2: saw us at the big day out and also so
• 11:00
  Speaker 2: he skated.
• 11:01
  Speaker 1: And all of them walk tour and we did the
• 11:03
  Speaker 1: walk tour in Australia and he just became a fan
• 11:05
  Speaker 1: of our band, and I was a fan of his band, The.
• 11:08
  Speaker 2: Faction was one of the first skate rock bands, you know,
• 11:10
  Speaker 2: from California in the eighties. And I saw him watching
• 11:13
  Speaker 2: this from side of stage a few times, and then
• 11:16
  Speaker 2: all of a sudden, he's like, he used one of
• 11:18
  Speaker 2: our songs, you say in remote Control on one of
• 11:20
  Speaker 2: the power videos.
• 11:21
  Speaker 1: And then a year later he asked.
• 11:22
  Speaker 2: Us if you could use not the same for his
• 11:24
  Speaker 2: section on the Tony Hawk video game, and we're like,
• 11:26
  Speaker 2: hell yeah, you know, I think we got paid fifteen
• 11:29
  Speaker 2: hundred bucks or something like that.
• 11:31
  Speaker 1: It's got legs. It's you know, my relationship with Cad
• 11:35
  Speaker 1: is so good as well.
• 11:36
  Speaker 2: Like he's got another band called Eurothane who we just
• 11:37
  Speaker 2: toured with in Europe about you know, six months ago,
• 11:40
  Speaker 2: and he's just a legend and he's been such a
• 11:44
  Speaker 2: massive help to this band. You know, he just likes
• 11:46
  Speaker 2: the band and he just wants to help out. You know,
• 11:48
  Speaker 2: that's what his attitude is. He doesn't make any money
• 11:51
  Speaker 2: from it or anything, but he's just a legendary dude.
• 11:54
  Speaker 2: So you can thanks to the Caballero for all that and
• 11:56
  Speaker 2: everything it's done for us. You know, that video game's
• 11:58
  Speaker 2: done a lot for us. And then it got re
• 12:00
  Speaker 2: re least a year ago, and they used they used
• 12:03
  Speaker 2: the song again, so that only two bands that got
• 12:06
  Speaker 2: used twice.
• 12:07
  Speaker 1: It was us and Motorhead. I think.
• 12:08
  Speaker 4: Wow.
• 12:09
  Speaker 1: The rest of the songs were all.
• 12:10
  Speaker 2: New songs, you know, so we were lucky, you know, wow,
• 12:14
  Speaker 2: got to thank Tony Hawk for that as well.
• 12:17
  Speaker 4: Small things that, yeah, yeah.
• 12:19
  Speaker 2: Just relationships, you know, and yeah, I just I had
• 12:21
  Speaker 2: so much respect for him is a bit of a
• 12:22
  Speaker 2: childhood hero.
• 12:23
  Speaker 1: And then him coming up to us saying can we
• 12:25
  Speaker 1: use this song?
• 12:26
  Speaker 2: I was like, hell, you know, this is like I
• 12:28
  Speaker 2: remember writing them a massive thank you laughter, just saying
• 12:30
  Speaker 2: thank you so much, you know, like, and it was
• 12:32
  Speaker 2: just the overwhelming that's great man.
• 12:35
  Speaker 3: And do you remember the first time you heard one
• 12:37
  Speaker 3: of your songs on the radio and what song was
• 12:39
  Speaker 3: it and where were you?
• 12:41
  Speaker 2: I heard the first single we put out on Shock
• 12:44
  Speaker 2: was called G and L and the B side was
• 12:47
  Speaker 2: Hazy Shaded Winner, and I remember Triple Jason, Yeah, and
• 12:52
  Speaker 2: then Triple J was playing for G and L, which
• 12:55
  Speaker 2: was just the song of the first album, and then
• 12:57
  Speaker 2: they started playing Hazy and that got a really good
• 13:00
  Speaker 2: response and got voted like the best cover or whatever
• 13:02
  Speaker 2: for the year or whatever.
• 13:03
  Speaker 1: And that's the first time I heard us on the radio.
• 13:05
  Speaker 1: I think it was gn L. I was just driving along.
• 13:07
  Speaker 1: I was like, yes, you know, and then and then
• 13:09
  Speaker 1: you know, since.
• 13:10
  Speaker 2: Then, Triple J obviously when we were coming up, they
• 13:13
  Speaker 2: were a massive part of our you know, success in Australia.
• 13:17
  Speaker 2: I guess they played our music, and it was kind
• 13:19
  Speaker 2: of very hard to get into that situation at the time,
• 13:22
  Speaker 2: so we were lucky, you know.
• 13:24
  Speaker 3: I've got to say full disclosure here, Like I like
• 13:26
  Speaker 3: your version of Hayt Hazy Shade better, but I like
• 13:29
  Speaker 3: their film Pit better.
• 13:31
  Speaker 1: Oh yeah, yeah, definitely they're better looking than we are.