The Baby Animals Are Ready To Roar In To Town For The VAILO Adelaide 500

Not long now until the VAILO Adelaide 500 After Race Concerts kick it in to full swing. The Baby Animals will be roaring in to town to play on Saturday night with Icehouse, The Screaming Jets and the Australian Rock Collective making for an awesome night of Aussie rock music. Fronted by the leading lady of Australian rock music, Suze DeMarchi, hard rockers Baby Animals are ready to bring the house down with their legendary hits Rush You, Early Warning and One Word and she talks to Hi Fi Way about playing the race next weekend.

The band must be excited to be returning to play an event of the size of the VAILO Adelaide 500?
I’m always happy to come to Adelaide first of all because I love it there. It is one of my favourite Australian landscapes, it is so beautiful as opposed to everywhere else in the world. I think we played there a few years ago, those events are always a lot of fun. There is always a lot of excitement, it’s fun backstage and the crowds are always pumped.

It doesn’t get any better than playing in front of thirty to forty thousand people either?
I get excited playing in front of five people! It is always better when the crowd is engaged especially events like that. There is always a different atmosphere.

Do you get in the race day spirit and all the other festivities going on?
I’m not hugely in to it but last time we got involved a little bit and did a hot lap. We went for a race, it was fun! We’ll watch the race but outside of my normal life I don’t but if I’m there I’ll get involved.

Does the backstage vibe feel more like a reunion these days?
It is always fun to catch up with everyone, we have been playing a lot of shows with The Screaming Jets lately and with those guys we have known them for thirty five years and we go way, way back. It is especially nice to catch up with those guys given what they have been through lately.

Absolutely, Paul Woseen’s passing has hit everyone hard, a shame he can’t see the reward of his hard work that went in to their new album?
You know what? Somewhere he is there, I don’t think he is completely gone and I think that is because he left so much music and so much of himself here. It has been tough for the guys and there is no replacing him. There’s no replacing anyone but musically he isn’t replaceable. He had such a style of his own and very distinctive.

The Screaming Jets show at The Crown & Anchor here in Adelaide was one of their powerful and emotive performances I have experienced.
I understand what you are saying, it is full on, they are like family, it is incredibly sad, the timing, everything…

Are you amazed at the legacy these songs continues to build and seeing how much they to people?
It really does, I think there is something about keeping at it for so long, we love playing and don’t want to stop playing. We are fortunate that we have some songs that people recognise. When we played in Melbourne at The Corner Hotel, there were some fourteen year olds there, young musicians with their parents that came to the show. That’s three generations now coming to the shows who know the songs. It is really touching that sort of recognition where people recognise the songs and now they bring their kids to the show which is great.

With that generational shift now do you notice more streaming happening with your music?
The whole industry has just changed, talking to my manager the other day about making a new record, it’s like I’m from the old school where you go and lock yourself away in the studio for a couple of months. That was a luxury of being able to do things that way and we were so lucky to ever do that. There is something really magical about being able to really focus on something that hard all day every day. It is almost impossible to do that these days. Everything about the music industry has changed, the way people listen to music, what they buy, everything has completely changed. In terms of Spotify, I don’t care how they hear it to be honest, if they listen that way that is great. I don’t think Spotify financially helps anyone unless you’re like Beyonce where you’ve got a billion streams. It is always nice to know that there are always people out there listening.

Is a new album in the thought process?
We are thinking about it, we’re getting close to getting time booked in the studio, we’re are trying to organise and manage it. We want to have something out next year and everyone is in different states. Getting everyone together in the same room is a bit challenging but we are working on making that happen.

Are you exciting by the early ideas you are working on?
It is the first time that I felt really excited about writing again. I don’t know why or whether it was the pandemic, everything felt a bit heavy for a while. I feel really inspired lately and that I really want to do a new record. I’m now ready for that kind of challenge of making something really great. All the ideas are sounding a little bit like our roots and all the stuff that we grew up listening to with the music we first started to make. I don’t know what we are going to come up with. In my head it feels like it will be back to our roots.

Interview By Rob Lyon

Catch the Baby Animals with Icehouse, The Screaming Jets and the Australian Rock Collective at the VAILO Adelaide 500 on Saturday 25 November. Tickets HERE…