The Living End |Interview|Warp October 2017

The announcement of the Day On The Green’s monster all star 90’s line up for next March has everyone, including The Living End drummer Andy Strachan, feeling equal parts pumped and sentimental for the rock heavyweight circus about to descend upon the fields of Joseph Chromy Wines in 2018. The Living End, Spiderbait, Veruca Salt, The Lemonheads, Tumbleweed and The Fauves are touring 2018’s A Day On The Green- Australia’s last fully mobile music festival and Andy has a few things to say about his own taste in music, touring, and the wonders of Tasmanian seafood. 

A: You’ve just finished a massive US tour, how are your energy levels going? Do you get more energised and inspired creatively by long tours or less so? 

A: Oh man it was pretty gruelling by the end I think we’ve been hope for maybe nine or ten days now so body clocks are pretty much back to normal now which is nice but that was a pretty heavy run.  

A: Do you tend to get personally inspired by longer tours?

A: That’s a tough one, its pretty inspiring when you’re finished. As soon as you’re off the road you just wish you could go back on the road so it’s that catch 22 I s’pose. But it’s exciting to do all that stuff again and but its also great to be back home and I’m toking forward to playing shows in front of Aussie crowds again. 

A: There’s a massive buzz down here around the announcement that you guys are touring Launceston for A Day On The Green next March. Do you think you’ll get any time to hang out in Tassie while you’re here?

A: Oh it generally doesn’t happen, we generally don’t have time anywhere we go but you can always hope! But anytime we get the opportunity we just go and eat as much fresh seafood as we can. Lots of oysters! That’s pretty special y’know. What’s that little area? Salamanca? It’s awesome, so we get pretty excited about oysters. We’ll probably go and try and find some of them… 

A: Is the 90’s kid in you losing it a little bit at the prospect of touring A Day On The Green? You’ve got a pretty nostalgic Australian 90’s lineup with Spiderbait, The Fauves & Tumbleweed but also international heavyweights like Veruca Salt and The Lemonheads. I think the last time I saw Veruca Salt was at a Livid Festival in Brisbane in 97. 

A: Yeah it’s gonna be unreal and were pretty good friends with the Spiderbait gang and we haven’t played a show with them in a long time so that’s just like wearing an old pair of shoes y’know, we always get together and have a good time. I think all the bands are gonna compliment each other and Spiderbait are such a great festival act, they’re always so much fun to watch. I haven’t seen the Fauves in it’d have to be ten years, even more. 

A: I don’t think Tumbleweed have done anything in the last ten years either. 

A:Yeah look no not a lot but I remember seeing Tumbleweed at one of the first Big Day Outs they ever held and that was epic so yeah it’s a trip down memory lane for sure. But I think the other side of it is that these bands I guess I’m talking about us as well, we still bring it. No ones sort of too tired its still proper rock’n’roll. 

A: Have you guys met Veruca Salt and The Lemonheads before?

A: No not that I remember anyway, we might’ve done a couple of festivals over the years but its been a hell of a long time. But I can’t wait to see all these bands it’s gonna be great. 

A: What is it you’re looking forward to most about the Day on the Green tour? 

A: I guess at this point it’s kind of the only travelling festival we have in Australia anymore. Essentially the production and the way they put it together is so pro it’s just a pleasure to play and be a part of because the organisation is excellent. It’s kind of like doing the Big Day Out and y’know I miss the Big Day Out, it was such a great travelling circus and we just don’t have anything like that anymore. But these guys have sort of stepped up to the plate and I guess it’s what the Big Day Out was to us 20 years ago, it sort of has that feeling to it. It’s a real communal vibe backstage and everyone’s there for the right reasons. And the ones that we’ve done have just been stunning. You’re in this amazing winery generally the outlook is just incredible and the food’s amazing and the wine’s amazing. It’s just pro and it’s just a nice easy thing and I think for the punters too, the toilets are easy and access to the bar is a whole lot better than going to a B-grade festival y’know. They look after the punters as well as the bands. 

A: The Living End released Shift in 2016. Can punters at A Day On The Green expect a focus on songs from this album for your 2018 live shows or are you gonna mix it up with the nostalgic stuff a bit?

A: I think we’re gonna play everything, we’re gonna pick and choose from every record. There’s seven records now so we kind of want to represent every record. Theres so many songs that we love to play but we really want to represent each album so everyone’s a winner at the end of the day. But yeah, we’re not going to be playing obscure B Sides or anything like thats we’re gonna play the songs that people wanna hear. 

A: Do you listen to much music in your spare time or do you just look forward to silence when you can get it?

A: Oh a bit of both. I like surfing so thats a past time where you can’t really listen to music because electricity and water don’t really mix. So that’s my quiet time but there’s generally music on wherever I am. If I’m driving I like to listen to music. If I’m at home I like to listen to music. It’s my job, it’s our job but it’s still a massive part of our lives outside of work. We all still listen to music just as excitedly as we did when we were a lot younger y’know. You know what I’ve been loving lately? Dan Sultan’s new record. It’s called ‘Killer’ and it’s just fucking phenomenal. I hadn’t heard it and I put it on Spotify and I just can’t get enough of it now, it’s just incredible and I just hope people get to hear it because it’s really hard to get music out there these days and get it to that wider audience and it needs to be heard on a wider scale I think. He’s an incredible artist but it really blew my mind. It’s a masterpiece, incredible. 

A: Can you tell me about something that has made you super proud recently. Be it musically or otherwise?

A: Pretty much every day when I see my little girl. She’s eight and when she comes home from school and she says she had a good day or she got an award from something. Y’know every time she says thank you…I don’t know she’s just a very cool human… she wrote a song recently. She’s pretty into playing ukulele and all sorts of things but she just writes songs now off her own bat. I’m proud of her, I’m incredibly proud of her. She’s just got a bunch of chords and she threw them all together and wrote some lyrics. It blows my mind. So I’m overwhelmed with proudness every day. 

A: And finally, do you have a favourite drummer joke?

A: One of my favourites is: How do you know when the stage is level? 

Because there’s drool coming out of both sides of the drummer’s mouth. 

-Amanda Laver