It’s Grinspoon Euphoria With New Album And Tour…

Legendary rockers Grinspoon are back with with new album whatever, whatever!

First taste was the single Unknown Pretenders which marked the first new music from the band in twelve years. This single ushered in a new era for Grinspoon: their eighth studio album titled whatever, whatever is out now. It’s an album of ferocity; an injection of adrenaline that marks a period of rejuvenation and a new peak for the band, who’ve spent recent years touring nationwide celebrating their untouchable seven album-strong discography and legacy to date.

The band are also heading out on an extensive forty five date ‘whatever, whenever, wherever’ tour across the country, kicking off next month. Hi Fi Way speaks to Phil Jamieson and Pat Davern about the album and tour.

It definitely seems like we’re in the midst of Grinspoon euphoria at the moment. You must be pretty happy with how things are going at the moment?
Phil: Yeah, it seems no matter what we do though, there’s always somebody that’s upset about something.

Pat: It’s social media though, it’s a vacuum. Everyone’s guided by their algorithm, you know, haters going to go into the hate pile, but I like the idea of Grinspoon euphoria! That makes me feel good.

How could anyone complain a, a new album and a tour and in Adelaide, another three shows, what’s to complain about?
Phil: I can list a few things in the forty five shows that we announced that you would think that that’d be enough.

Pat: Are we going to Canberra though? Are we going to Canberra?

Phil: We went to Canberra January, but what I have found is that we’re playing somewhere on a Wednesday. They’re like, it’s a Wednesday. I’m like, well, yeah, but we are there. Some people are angry about the day of the week we’ve chosen to play, which is just is what it is. In the back of our minds, for example, especially with the tour, we really tried to play more places like Alice Springs, Broome, Port Douglas and those places, but because of venues and logistics it just didn’t work. So even though the forty five shows are what they are, people are like, where’s this and where’s that? I’m like, well, we actually gave it a really good crack. It’s just funny. I think Pat’s right, it is an algorithm vacuum. The hate pile goes in the hate pile. There’s been a lot of positivity about it and we’re really excited. It’s been a little while since we’ve gotten on this rodeo.

Even after the last tour which was enormous are you surprised that the interest is even stronger again?
Pat: I think maybe we’ve got a little bit more to say this time. We’ve been doing the back catalogue activation for a while, the Easy Detention Tour, which we just came off and it’s going to be almost twelve months before we get back on the road for this one when you put it all together. So, I think having a new album, having new songs to play first time the audience will have heard us play the songs, I think that there’s a lot for our fans to get excited about

Phil: And us well.

Was there always the intention of doing another album?
Phil: No, in February, 2020, we went into a studio in Adelaide to maybe get an EP together. Was that right Pat?

Pat: Or even just a song.

Phil: That’s where Unknown Pretenders came from. Then obviously the pandemic happened. I went and did whatever I did, and then we kind of reconvened. I think we’d sort of backed ourselves into a corner, for better or for worse, we were doing like anniversary tours, greatest hits tours and celebrating the birth of Pat’s child tours. There’s only so much I think you can look back without looking forward. For us new songs as, as Pat or I insinuated is that new songs gives us legs. It really makes us feel, especially for our set list and our live performances, it’s really fun to play new stuff.

Before you got to Adelaide were those ideas already floating around?
Pat: Yeah, I think so. I think that Joe, our bass player was a catalyst because he really wanted to record some new material. I think he had some stuff. I’d had some stuff that I’d been recording during the pandemic. I think Phil always has stuff on the go, so it was really just let’s get our shit together in a way and get together and see what we can come up with. When we went into that studio in Adelaide, there was no agenda, it was let’s see what you’ve got and what can you bring to the table, which is a very us kind of thing to do. That’s generally the way we work.

Did you all individually have ideas of how you wanted the album to sound? Were you almost on the same page?
Pat: Never, never on the same page!

Phil: Never on the same page. I think that’s part of our strength, to be honest. We went into the Adelaide sessions in 2020 with all very different ideas about how new Grinspoon material or just a song should or would or could be. That was a little bit fractured that session, to be honest. None of us walked out of there overly happy, I don’t think. We did get Unknown Pretenders in the can from that. So, we knew we had a pretty good banging track. Then the pandemic happened, I did a solo record and then Joe said, why don’t we just all come together, and each bring four songs. That’s what we did, there was no arguments. They could be a thirty-minute opera, they could be a thirty second punk song, they could be a pop song, it could be whatever they wanted to be. Rather than have an A&R person or be on the same page, we all agreed to disagree and hence we ended up with whatever, whatever, which does a lot of different things in my opinion. I mean, it all sounds like us, but it definitely oscillates between some pretty hectic little tunes and some pretty numbers as well.

I’ve played a dozen times already and absolutely love it.
Pat: What’s your favourite track Robo?

Phil: C’mon Robo what’s your favourite track?

I love Live Fast Die Young.
Phil: Oh, good answer. That’s mine…

Pat: Bad answer. Bad answer!

Also, This Love and Blood On the Snow, absolutely love those.
Phil: Yes!!!

Pat: Ah, I got fucking boned. Fuck that!!!

Phil: It’s funny, Rob, I think I got asked yesterday in an interview, what’s the secret of longevity? I was like, it’s because we care so much. There’s really no one in this band that doesn’t give a lot of fucks. I think that what makes it good. We’re all pretty passionate. We all agree to disagree and hence we’ve ended up with this record, which as you pointed out, This Love and Blood On The Snow are very different songs. They speak to, I think in some ways Grinspoon’s strength. because we just do lots of different things and have a lot of fun doing it.

I thought the clever part was Pantomime which is like the lull before the storm, before you bowl us over with Never Say Never. I thought that was well played.
Phil: Yeah. Oscar Dawson who produced a record, on Holy Holy’s previous record did a lot of interlude stuff. We’ve always done songs by blocks, haven’t we Pat? We’ve never really had interlude stuff on our record. Never. Especially Black Rabbit, which is song, song, song, but because of the different, I’m not going to say it’s wildly different genres, but because the songs are different, I like the idea of having little bits of, you know, little cuddles here and there. There’s a little interlude also before Can I Make You Feel? as well, which I think works well. I’m glad you like the record. I really like it too. It’s funny, everyone’s got their favourite songs. Yesterday interviewers were saying something different again. Yesterday the guy liked four, five, and seven Pat, so you are, okay!

Has anything in particular influenced the sound of this record?
Phil: That’s a good question.

Pat: I think Oscar had a fair bit to do with the soundscape elements on the record. When you’re looking from like a production angle, not the songwriting necessarily, but just the production I think that a lot of stuff was brought to the table in the studio that we wouldn’t normally think of. Him being a guitar player obviously helped as well. He’d turn around with ideas and stuff. It was collaborative with him when often when we’ve been in the studio with a producer who’s very much just a fader and a button pusher. You know what I mean? I’d have to say that some of that you can definitely hear on the record. Phil, do you have an opinion on this one?

Phil: I just thought that it’s after the songwriter, I think that Pat particularly is quite fastidious in how he approaches not only the crafting of his songs, but also the way it sounds. So, for example, Nasty, The Only One, four, five and seven are all Pat’s compositions. He had an idea of how the guitars were going to sound in Nasty, the way the guitar solo was going to sound in Nasty. Joe’s a little more like, make it sound like a guitar, make it sound like a bass and I’m always angling for as far as I can push the boat out. On Live Fast Die Young, I wanted that guitar part to be so tinny, like so tiny and tinny and almost aggressively kind of lo-fi in some ways. It’s the way the songwriter has their head in it and then with Oscar’s, I’m going to say his avocado on toast approach where he just kind of drift in and out of each other’s production ideas.

What was the energy like in the studio?
Phil: Lots of coffee! It was good. It was winter in the Peninsula last year in Victoria, so it was cold. For songs like for I Love You So Much and This Love are the easiest tracks to do. Once we got rid of Kris, the energy was better hey Pat!!

Pat: Yeah, yeah, yeah! Once you got all the drums out of the way, I mean we hadn’t done anything like that for a long time. We all stayed in a house together, which was very strange. We’ve never done that before, we’d all get in a get in the car in the morning to go to the studio and it was a bonding experience in that way. We’ve been around a long time now, we know what each other’s personalities fairly intricately and we make the best of when we are together. We definitely had a great experience doing it and there was a lot of good energy for sure.

Did you feel that excitement as the song started to take shape?
Pat: I don’t know if you ever think that like, I don’t know if you ever think we’ve definitely got something here. I think that towards the end it was like, this is sounding really good. I think that was more of the where the vibe came from. When everything started to come together in the end we’re like, wow, this sounds like a really good Grinspoon album.

So what was it like for you when you put the headphones on and listened to the album start to end for the first time?
Pat: I haven’t done that yet.

Phil: I did all that Rob, so I sequenced the record, so I ran point on all that! Sequencing’s important in my opinion because everyone is, well, let’s say a fair few of us are into vinyl these days. I did that. I’ve listened to the record in sequence a fair few times, there’s only one song I skip, which will remain nameless.

Pat: Can I guess?

Phil: For me, I like it. When we did Guide to Better Living or Easy, it seems like a long time ago because it probably was. A lot of effort has been put into this record, including in sequencing, including in the art and including in the title and those little bits you mentioned like pantomime, not that thought hasn’t been put into other records, but we’ve tried to make it as an enjoyable listening experience as possible. I think ending with Underground and opening with I Love You So Much are good little bookends for the record as well.

Was Unknown Pretenders, was that the obvious choice for the first single?
Phil: I’m not saying it was obvious, I guess Grinners are known for playing in drop D a lot, which is a guitar tuning and that’s one of the only songs on the record that wasn’t drop d. Having not released music for original music for twelve years or thereabouts, I think it fit the brief. I’m terrible at picking singles. I didn’t even think Chemical Heart was a single, so don’t even ask me about what’s going to work on the airwaves. I just was like, whatever you guys think, and they thought that.

Pat: That was pretty much the transaction on the single side of things. We’re back with Universal and they’ve got to like the record, want to sell the record and what do you guys think is a great first single. Between our management company and the record company, they formulated a plan and I feel like it’s a good plan. We like all the songs as Phil said, it’s really hard to go, this should be a single because I think they’re all singles. It just depends on people’s ears really.

Were there any songs left over?
Pat: Zero!

Phil: None left, there’s no songs left.

Pat: We were going to maybe think about dropping a couple off the record, but that would’ve just been another argument. So, they’re all on there, you got everything. That’s all we’ve got.

Are you looking to play the album start to end on this tour?
Phil: We won’t be doing that on this tour. I’m just constructing the set list, at least I’m going back and forth about it at the moment. Obviously, we’re doing five shows a week and that goes for twelve weeks approximately. In the back of my mind, a really important thing to think about is fatigue and also making sure everyone gets their money’s worth. I’m working out what I can do vocally and what everyone can play to a level of awesomeness for want of a better term. We won’t be doing the album start to finish. We’ll be definitely playing some tracks off it, which ones they are yet to be decided. We’re going to be playing huge amounts of the last seven albums as well in the live performance. I’ve worked on the staging, looks good, the set looks good, the backdrop looks good. There are little tricks I’ve worked out in as far as production goes, which is going to be fun. We’ve got Press Club with us, which is incredible. There’s lots of things to like, the set list will be the set list. It’s just a matter of working out how best way to make sure when we get to Sunday, for example, that people are still getting their money’s worth. I want to make sure that that’s high on the list of things, we’ve just got to pace ourselves really.

Any special preparation to get through twelve weeks of touring?
Pat: No more than usual! It’s all, it’s all about staying away from the rider basically, once we actually get out there and start doing it. I don’t think you can get in to the rider too much when you’re playing five nights a week. It’s probably moderation and push ups.

Phil: Push ups, yep!

After a well deserved break after this tour are thinking about plans for 2025?
Phil: Next year we turn thirty, the band that is, so there’s been a few discussions about that. I think I’m just literally going to get to December 9 or December 10 or whatever date it is, and just collapse in a heap. Whatever the faceless men, the powers that be, whether it be our agency or management, having the can for us in 2025, but it’s one foot in front of the other, it’s a really, really busy time for me up until the tour starts anyway. It’s going to be quite hectic.

Interview By Rob Lyon

Grinspoon’s whatever, whatever is out now, buy HERE…

Catch Grinspoon on the following dates with Press Club, tickets HERE…