Paul Greene has been 'around the traps', as the saying goes, for several years - releasing albums (his latest is Behind the Stars), touring all over the country, consistently pleasing fans of all types. Paul isn't strictly a country music artist, but as he's played at Tamworth a few times, I thought he qualified for inclusion on this blog, especially as he's embarked on a new tour that sees him travelling through Victoria, New South Wales and Queensland.
Just before the start of this tour - which sees Paul playing with his band, the Other Colours - Paul's drummer, Matt Sykes, died in a diving accident at the age of 27. Paul wanted to talk about Matt, so that forms part of this interview.
I’m pretty sure you’ve played at
Tamworth quite a bit in the past.
Yeah,
I have done Tamworth a few times.
I was there last year and I thought I
didn’t see your name on the program and now I know why, because you took a
break.
]Well,
I did it last year but I’m not a big fan of the festival, I have to say. I’m probably going to get in big
trouble for saying it because it’s politically incorrect. The festival itself is great, the musos
are great, but all the people in the town always seem really annoyed because
there’s so many people there spending money and, like, buying beer and things
and it just – I don’t know, it’s a funny way to do things. But, this year, I
had Australia Day off and I went and swam in a river and went to a barbecue,
and I haven’t done that for about 15 years, so it was really nice.
And you’re about to embark on a tour
but the circumstances have changed so I’ll let you talk about
Matt Sykes but obviously this is, on one level, a very straight-up thing of
your band dramatically changing quickly as you’re about to go on a tour but, on
another level, it’s you losing someone that you know really well, young. So how do you manage this now as you go
into your tour?
Well,
it’s hard. It’s a really hard
thing to find a positive in when someone that you’re that close to and someone
that is amazing as well, but, reflecting on his life over the last couple of
weeks has been a pretty amazing process in itself. You condense someone down and you think - yeah, I’ve been
thinking a lot just about how he was and learnt a lot. I guess I’ve learnt a lot, you know, in
the process of just trying to figure that out. The gigs are going to be – well,
I didn’t know how to quite go about it, and we’re going to miss him a lot,
obviously, but I was trying to figure out a way to make work. And my drummer that played on my last
record, Ellie, Ellie is coming on tour for a couple of shows and I’ve also got
– it was actually at his funeral, I met one of his students, a guy who’s only
19. And he plays just like
him. And I think I’m going ask [Matt’s]
parents if I can take his drum kit on tour with us, so I’ll have one of his
students playing his kit and he plays just like Matt. He looks like he’s about 14. He’s 19 but he looks really young. So I want to sort of celebrate it and want to just let
people know what an amazing bloke he was and tell his story, I guess. He was
really someone that lived for what he loved doing and was a great leader in his
community and brought a lot of people together. Just reflecting on those sort of things, I think, is going
to be a good way to remember him.
And, personally, yeah, I know that there’s going to be times when it’s
going to be a bit hard, as much just not having him on the bus or just not –
you know? Because the gig is,
like, three hours of the day or four hours of the day but you’ve then got the
other twenty hours. And our being
together, sleeping – not sleeping together – you know what I mean, like on the
bus. [Laughs] Sleeping in close
proximity’s probably a better way to put it. And his presence is going to be there, which kind of makes
you miss him a bit more, but I’m just trying to take on the lessons I learnt
from him and to supply them to my every day. So I guess I’ll be doing that with the shows as well and
just making sure that each one counts, because you just never know when it’s
going to be your last.
For you, as well, because it’s a small
band and obviously you didn’t just choose Matt or Neil Beaver, the other musician,
randomly, so I would think, on many levels which you may not know until you get
out on the road, it’s challenging.
Yeah. I have worked with Neil as a duo a lot
but the element of having a new one, having someone come on board is … well,
the thing is the music had sort of grown as his input kept building, and he got
to know the songs more and he was growing. The way that we played the songs had
changed quite a bit through his [playing] – he was very influenced by African
drumming and a lot of his African drumming was kind of coming into the music
and just adding another colour to it.
But I guess it’ll just keep evolving and become something new, that’s how
each person brings their own inflection and their own thing. And that’s what’s great about playing
with other musicians. So it’ll be
interesting to see what it turns into.
You never really know, when you start playing with someone, what effect they’re
going to have on the music and how it’s going to permeate their playing or
permeate through the music, but it’s all an interesting process and you kind of
figure out pretty quickly if it doesn’t work. And it’s a really great thing when you find someone where it
does work perfectly. But someone
that’s just prepared to get in the bus and travel up and down the east coast
and do gigs for nothing [laughs] and just leave their homes and girlfriends and
things. And it’s a lot to ask
someone to be in your band and be there for you and go and eat two-minute
noodles on the bus for weeks on end.
While you’re talking, it’s making me
think, yeah, the fact that musicians, particularly those of you who have been
playing for a long time, are essentially doing something in service of
something greater than yourselves. Even though there can be ego involved and
everything like that, there’s something bigger than you that obviously keeps
you in it and keeps you going.
Yeah,
definitely. Well, there’s the
music itself. For me, it’s kind of
a gift, I guess, and I just live it all the time and I love what music has done
for me and the journey that it’s taken me on. But there’s an element to it as well, that it’s important to
keep Australian music going. You
know, it’s part of our culture, there’s these stories to tell and if it was
just about me and my ego, it just wouldn’t – there’s not enough in that for
me. It’s definitely not about the
money. There’s a bit more and, I
guess, it’s with the way I write, it’s quite personal or it comes from direct
experience but that’s the whole point of it being the Paul Greene project, you
know? I play in other bands where it’s not my heart and soul on the line. But I just make music for the music’s
sake, and with the Paul Greene project, it’s being myself and being open. And the people I meet on the way and
the people that kind of get the music, they always seem like really nice
people, you know? It might sound a
bit like hippy bullshit but it’s true. It’s brought some amazing people into my
life. They’re all at different levels, a lot of different reasons for doing it
other than ego and rent.
Given that you did have a bit of a
break and you released a new album last year and you’re going out on the tour, is
there a sense that this is almost like a new beginning, this phase you’re going
into now?
Definitely,
yeah, just the way my life has been turned upside down. A lot of it around
music. I’ve separated from my wife and that’s been a massive change. I’ve still got two young daughters –
that’s been a massive change, just being a part-time dad week on, week
off. But that’s definitely going
to represent itself musically.
But, at the same time, it’s like I’m always looking for the positive in
things – I just guess I feel like I’ve grown a lot in the last while, been
through a lot of shit but I guess you either fight it or you kind of accept it
and learn from it and grow. That’s
kind of what it’s about.
Yes. And it is if you plan to be doing it for a while, because if
you stay stagnant, then your audience tends to tail off and if you’re still
doing it after all this time, you still have an audience.
Yeah.
I’ve got people that have been coming to gigs ever since the start, and [they’ve]
really been a part of the journey.
But I was solo for a very long time and having the Other Colours, it definitely
changed. Also because I do a lot of producing and I’ve worked with other bands,
and even that’s sort of becoming a great part of the proper development of the
project as well. It keeps changing
and little offshoots appear. A lot
of things that I see, that I get exposed to through mainstream media, it’s very
much passion based. But I guess
there is a lot of musicians in Australia that maybe don’t get the recognition
in the mainstream but there’s people out there that love what they do and
support and get out and go and see the gigs and buy the albums, and that still
exists, you know? And it’s almost
like having a little community as you travel round, people that have seen
you. And most people that know me
have seen me play and then come back to a gig and brought friends with them
because they liked it the first time.
That’s awesome. That’s just a phenomenon in itself. It’s just a nice reward for the effort
I’ve put into doing it.
What I tend to find about country music
and related genres, in Australia we’ve developed a really good storytelling
culture around song and it’s related to that country music scene and any other
genres that can be tacked on to it. And I think that’s what you’re describing
is you’re telling stories over the course of time and people are coming back to
see your stories and they’re buying your albums with the stories on. So I guess what interests me,
therefore, about you as a songwriter is how you feel about that storytelling role.
Well,
it’s funny how the journey and the travelling around Australia in my bus and
the people I meet and the places I go – I go pretty off the beaten track – it’s
like the muse for the music. It becomes
where I find the inspiration. But
I try not to be too literal in the way that I write about it – you know, ‘This
is a song about going for a swim at the beach and it’s called “Going for a Swim
at the Beach”, and the first line is, “I’m going for a swim at the beach”.’ I try to put in a bit more metaphor [to
describe] the experience of driving 1000 kilometres without seeing a town, the
way that affects your mind. You
know, that comes out of my soul, really.
It’s that experience more than the actual kind of events. I figured out
pretty early on that a lot of the best songwriters were in country, it’s where
the art of songwriting is the thing that is respected, and that’s what’s
important. That’s what’s really
important about country music. And
I think people often mistake country music as a style of production, where you
have to sing in a certain voice and have a lap steel guitar on this bit here
and a fiddle on that bit there.
And I’ve always tried to be non-derivative. So not take too much of anything but borrow parts from
things. And so I know it’s a really
amazing response from country audiences.
I was touring with Adam Brand a few years ago and the audiences got it
because it was storytelling and the lyrics aren’t just there to be catchy,
they’re not just there because I think that, you know, Triple J are going play
it. The lyrics are there because
I’m telling a story about a situation or a place or an experience. And that really translates well to
country, which is why I’ve kind of made so many friends there. And, yes, I do feel very at home with
country even though, if you listen to it, I guess it doesn’t have that country
production thing about it.
And that’s a really good way to put
it. I’ve actually not heard anyone
put it in those terms before, but that’s what it is. You’re right, it’s people thinking it’s production not style
and soul or story.
Yeah. An experience. Like, if the song is about experiences
rather than songs about how great you are – yeah, there’s a style to it. I’ve
listened to a lot of country, actually.
Come to think of it, my iPod’s got a lot of country. I’d love to make a country record one
day. I think I will do it like a
traditional country record.
I think if you’re touring with Adam
Brand and the audiences are responding to you, you already have made a country
record.
Yeah,
that’s true. Thank you. Thank you for reminding me of that.
I’m looking at your tour schedule and
thinking there are a lot of dates here that are really
back-to-back-to-back. Like, you’ve
got four nights in a row often at different places. Do you like doing that because you get a bit of momentum, or
is that just the way you have to schedule it?
Well,
it’s a big country to get around and I used to just tour non-stop but I could
just mosey my way from town to town.
But these days I try to make it a bit more concise and try to rest a bit
more because the way I was touring was killing me. I don’t have the luxury of
having a whole week to just hang around somewhere and wait for the next weekend
and do some more shows. I’ve got
to keep it pretty concise and pretty tight, and then I like to come home and do
a bit of fishing and do a bit of gardening and try to – well, I’m doing a lot
of writing and recording and things at the moment as well. So I try not to spend as much time on
the road but, still, I like to get out there. I think once a year, I’ll probably do a trip where I just go
bush for months on end and I just go and do little towns and play in pubs and
that sort of thing. But the venues
are kind of few and far between. Even on the east coast – the west coast even
more so –there’s only so many places to play and I’m partial to the odd drunken
pub gig, you know? But I also like
to play in nice places that have good sound and where I know that my audience
is going to come and have a good experience and not have to deal with topless
barmaids and stuff like that.
The country audience, in particular, is
used to going to RSLs, they kind of like that nice, more sedate
environment. So I guess the trick
for you guys is obviously finding places where you want to play but also where
your audience expects to come.
Yeah,
that’s true. I’m quite mindful of
that, I like to ensure the audience is going to have a good experience with
it. I’m just trying to make it
somewhere accessible, too. And there’s
a lot of places to play but I don’t have the luxury of having as many
supporters and some of the mainstream country guys, though … Hopefully people
find out about [the gigs] and leave their iPhones at home and come out and
support live music and hopefully, they have a great night and want to come back
again.
In Victoria, at one of your gigs,
you’re being supported by Jed Rowe, who I’m a fan of – he’s great.
I’ve
got some fantastic supports on this tour.
I just went and saw Hussy Hicks [one of the support acts], who were
doing a lot of the north coast and they’re playing in Sydney and they are one
of the best bands I’ve seen in so long.
And the other bands, I’ve had a look on YouTube and seen some of the
other stuff and I’m really looking forward to seeing some of these bands. The
quality of the support acts that we’ve got is phenomenal. It’s going to keep me on my toes.
You mentioned earlier that you’re doing
some producing and I know you also songwrite with and for other people. So, in terms of organising your time
between touring, writing for yourself, recording, producing, are you one of
those people who likes to structure your time or do you tend to go in a flow?
No,
I’ve kind of planned roughly what I’m going to be doing for the next 18 months.
I think things pop up randomly and I have times where I’m going to work on my
new record. At the moment, I’ve
just started – well, I’ve got Karl Broadie here, he’s actually in the room just
next door. I’ve started working on
an album with him, so that’s a project I’m going to really sink my teeth into
when I get back from tour this time and I’m really looking forward to that because
I’m a huge fan of his songwriting and of his music. And, you know, we’ve been good mates for a long time so I’m
really excited to be working on that project. Yeah, and things come up and I’ve got a rough plan but it
tends to change [laughs].
Karl’s a wonderful performer and a
great songwriter. So I’m really
interested in the idea of you two working together.
We’ve
just tracked the first song this morning.
We were just about to track our second one when you called, just doing
guides at the moment. It’s great,
you know? He co-wrote a song of
mine last week as well and we’ve always worked well together as writers. So he’s promised me to work on this
record, too. It’s always been easy
for us, you know? We’re just both
– we have a lot of respect for the songs themselves and so we’re hoping that,
with that combined, we’re going to do something that we both really enjoy and feel
is going to be doing something good and worthwhile and, yeah, enjoyable.
Your first gig on this tour is on
Thursday so you’re obviously trying to get a quite a bit done before you head
off on the road?
Yeah,
you know, never a dull moment [laughs].
I’ve still got to get the car serviced. I haven’t done that yet.
Are you in northern New South Wales?
No,
I’m down the south coast, I’m at Nowra.
Ah, I thought you were in northern New
South Wales and I looked at your tour schedule and thought, ‘How is he going to
get from northern New South Wales to the ACT for Thursday?’
No,
the ACT’s only two and a half hours from – three hours, maybe, from where I
am. Just up over the mountain
really. So I’m about three hours
south of Sydney and about three hours east of Canberra.
Well, I think that’s well situated to
be just far enough away to have a bit of peace and quiet but close enough to
get where you need to go.
That’s
exactly right. And you can still
get a decent coffee.
Paul Greene & The Other Colours play:
Friday 15 February - The Greenwell Point Hotel, Greenwell Point NSW
Saturday 16 February - The Heritage, Bulli NSW
Sunday 17 February - Lizottes, Newcastle NSW
Thursday 21 February - The Camelot Lounge, Marrickville NSW
Friday 22 February - Kelt's Bar, Leonay NSW
Saturday 23 February - The Beachcomber, Toukley NSW
Sunday 24 February - The Brass Monkey, Cronulla NSW
Thursday 28 February - The Beach Hotel, Byron Bay NSW
Friday 1 March - The Queen Street Mall, Brisbane Qld
Saturday 2 March - The Royal Mail Hotel, Goodna Qld (lunchtime)
- Joe's Waterhole, Eumundi Qld
Sunday 3 March - The Hoey Moey Cafe, Coffs Harbour NSW
For full details, please visit www.paul-greene.com
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