TIM ROGERS | INTERVIEW | WARP

Tongue placed firmly in cheek, Tim Rogers has announced that while You Am I “have been bogged down in negotiations about a new group haircut,” he has recorded his seventh “secessionist” album An Actor Repairs. He spoke to us about the importance of collaboration, touring and the truth about being “at a very odd stage in life”.

A: You’re touring An Actor Repairs to Hobart during May which is pretty exciting, not every nationally touring act adds a Hobart leg to their tour.  Will you get any time to play tourist during your stay? 

T: It’d be lovely to think I could actually just get away and exist, but just the nature of work at the moment is that I’ve kind of gotta grift and stay on the move and look for other shows. Which is definitely not a complaint, I think I’m kind of hard wired for that kind of life. The only disappointing thing is when you don’t get to spend time with people that you love and you’re consistently just saying “Gotta go, gotta go, gotta go.” And I've got very, very close friends down there. I mean I can maybe grab an hour in between soundcheck and show to find a good bookstore or a record store but usually not. I think I also prefer to just work on on some writing or otherwise when I’m not required at a venue. But having said that I mean if someone says “Hey, there’s great Guinness up the road” then that’s where I’ll be.

A: You've had these songs floating around for two years. Having invested that amount of time with them, was there a particular feeling or mindset you hoped your audience would walk away with, upon hearing the album in full?

T: I don’t really think about any possible audience to tell you the truth. I think it’s a dangerous method of thinking to get into. I have to make records and write songs that I enjoy myself and then if Shane (my producer) likes them or Davey, or the You Am I guys like them, that’s got to be the reason to continue. I tend to jump into something else pretty quickly so I guess I’m not so concerned about audience reaction…it alters your performance and doesn’t make you a very pleasant person to be around if you’re considering how other people are receiving you. I’ve released things in the past and I’ve thought “ Wow man this is it. This is great!” and you kind of have your ears open…thenthere’s nothing but the roll of tumbleweeds and silence. But if you don’t go looking for it, it tends to happen. It’s been odd lately ‘cause people I’ve run into have said, “Hey Tim, that Youth song, wow, it’s really in my head”. I got a message from Kim Salmon who’s been a huge hero of mine for 35 years, saying just that. That gives you energy, the fact that someone you really adore, a hero, likes what you do.

A: There are some beautifully swelling vocal harmonies as well as string and woodwind parts on this album. How collaborative was the writing process with Clio, Xani, & Davey? 

T: They’re very close friends. I’m touring with Clio and Xani and I think that I re-wrote things having them in mind. I’d write things to about 70 or 80% and leave a little bit open so that we could discuss it. With the song Age, I asked Clio to play piano on it and at a certain point I just wanted her to throw the script away and harmonise…all the way out. I like the couple (the characters in the song) to drift off into their uncertain alcoholic future. It was really thrilling you know, Shane and I were in the control room just moving this harmonic part. It was like watching Bill Evans or something (the jazz pianist) who I adore. If I’d have opened the door and Nina Simone was there it wouldn’t have surprised me.

A: Theatre seems to be a quite a theme in your career of late with your What Rhymes with Cars and Girls production also touring Australia this year. An Actor Repairs is mostly concerned with analysing the twilight years of an ageing actor; subject matter that would comfortably lend itself to a theatre production. What stopped you from going one step further and creating a fully blown theatre production around these songs?

T: I read the script that I wrote. [Laughs] 

It was initially written as a monologue ‘cause I was asked to write a piece for a theatre company down here. I worked on it and worked on it and one night I’d just had a couple and read it and thought “Mmmm it’s just not quite there yet.” And so at the same time I was writing songs that had a similar theme … but a bit more personal because I’m kind of at a very odd stage in life where you know, you’re kind of closer to the end than to the beginning. I didn’t want to complete the whole project and get it all tied up and work with a dramaturge, I just wanted it a little open ended. I kind of wanted someone like and Aidan Fennessy to tap me on the shoulder and go “Hey Tim, I’ve written it”…and then we’d start collaborating.

A: Does writing an album around this subject matter and touring in a way that incorporates songs from different times in your life encourage you to personally reflect on different chapters in your own career? 

T: Well oddly enough we’re actually doing a lot of songs by other songwriters as well; Dietrich, Simone, Newman, Wainwright. And we want to do those songs because Clio, Xani and I do them for fun. And I kind of resent in a way that tours go out and promote a record. It seems a little but too product orientated you know like “Here’s our new record!”. So the show’s pretty much all over the place and because of that I don’t really get the opportunity to reflect on what I’ve done because a lot of the time I’m taking on characters from other people’s songs. I want to create a performance where it’s maybe a little bit baffling, then pleasing and also a little bit aberrant. I like each night to be a little bit different and to not condescend to audiences. I don’t want to treat audiences as prospective buyers.

Tim Rogers plays Hobart’s The Goods Shed on May 3. An Actor Repairs is out now.

-Amanda Laver