The Southern River Band Are Going ‘D.I.Y’

In between tearing up stages across Europe & the UK, The Southern River Band have released their new album D.I.Y. via Cooking Vinyl Australia featuring recent killer singles Vice City III and Stan Qualen, plus fan favourites such as Do You Miss Me When I’m Gone?, Chasin’ After Love, Chimney and more… this is one classic rock record you’ll want to have in your collection. To top that off The Southern River Band are going on tour starting in Adelaide on Thursday at The Cranker. Hi Fi Way speaks with Cal Kramer about the album and tour.

It sounds like you’re definitely saving the best for the first stop in in Adelaide on this tour?
Mate, it’s going to be good to get back. We were only just there a couple of weeks ago, for Beer and BBQ Festival. That was bloody great. That was bloody great down there.

The new album D.I.Y is great are you looking to play most of that on this tour as well as all the hits?
Yeah, I think so. We were talking about that the other day, probably going to have to do that. We’ve got a few new songs as well, because we are thought that we better bring something brand new to the people because we are always touring. If you want to call them hits, I’ll want to call them hits, and we will be playing the hits.

I read somewhere that you said this is the best rock record released in the last twenty years?
Well, I don’t know about that, but we’re pretty proud of what we’ve created and we’ve been wanting to do an album like this for fucking ages and we were able to actually get in the studio as a unit, sit all four of us in a room and play rock ‘n roll songs live. I think that really translates. So if people are into that then that’s what it is.

Was that one of the challenges not all living in the same city?
Oh, no, we do. It’s just, you know, time constraints and shit like that and having the unit be tight enough to go in and just be able to, because we’ve been playing so much, we’re like, yep, we’re ready to get it done. Essentially we’re playing live and capturing rawness of SRB, which is something that I think a lot of bands struggle to do in the studio and I know that we did, but compared to some of the other things that we’ve had to do, it’s it was piece of piss and fun. I think that that really translates.

How did the European and UK tour go? Do you feel like you’re starting to really get noticed over there now?
Yeah, it was unreal, we sold out like eighty five percent of our shows. Every time we’d rock up to a town, we would get told this just sold out, that just sold out. It’s so surreal to be doing that on our first time over there. When we announced our first show, it sold out in four days and we had to more than double the size of the venue and then. Then it just went from there. So, it it’s a surreal feeling to see it clicking the way that it is over there and I wouldn’t danger for the world.

Do you think at some stage you might need to be sort of based over there to really capitalise on the attention that you have over there?
We’re going back as soon as we can. There’s some already some stuff in the works there. Ideally what we’d like to do is follow the sun right! Do the European summer, spring, all that sort of shit then come back and do that here as well. The reality is that we’re going to be spending a lot more time over there. We could be doing worse things!

Is the tricky thing when you get the attention overseas trying to maintain that momentum back here in Australia as well?
Yeah, the hardest thing is financing everything because it’s so expensive. Even when things go off without a hitch and you sell heaps of tickets, it’s not an easy fair to travel a touring party and maintain momentum just from a financial point of view. It’s definitely challenging, but we’re selling tickets, we’re going there, mate. If there’s going to be people there, we’ll fucking find a way to get to play for them.

Are you really stoked with how “D.I.Y” panned out?
We’re fucking stoked, man! It’s always been the intention to be able to create something like that. For various reasons over the years we just haven’t been able to do it. Most of those songs are the first take as well. So, it’s like going in there having that thing and then looking at it and going, that’s the fucking Southern River Band. It’s not like, oh, you got to see this live or excuses, reasons, whatever you say we don’t feel that we need them for this one because it is what we’ve always been trying to create. We’re fucking so stoked with it and hope people take to it as much as we are.
Does that create more pressure going with one take? Well, because we’re touring so much, that’s the thing we were playing and we felt that we were at the top of our game and we knuckled down for about a week in a rehearsal room before that, which is a fucking long time for SRB to rehearse. But yeah, we went in. We did like two or three takes of each song, but it was just funny the ones that you end up picking were basically the first one of time of each track.

Did you get that feeling in the studio that you really did have something?
My favourite albums are a bit of a journey, you know you you got to sort of have its ups and downs and everything. I think that we’ve managed to capture that and it is a listening experience that you can do start to finish. The only near hiccup was once we were getting ready to go away, we needed to have everything done before we left for Europe to be able to get it out when we wanted to get it out. I think we got all the masters and everything delivered like the day before we left or two days before we left because you just got to get it mixed up, mastered and tweak it all at the back end. We were cutting it a bit fine, but other than that, it was a fucking pleasure to make. It was really, really good and just fun, you know, it was music for music’s sake, because of the way that we did it I think that shines through. When you compare it to some of the other challenges of trying to make an album sometimes, whether it be financial or people’s times or anything like that, this one was a fucking breeze, man! Thankfully!

Compared to Rumour And Innuendo, how do you think the SRB sounds changed?
I think we’ve just been sort of honing it and because we’re playing so much now in the line up in the band, the way that it is, everybody’s firing on all cylinders and everyone’s got so many K’s in the legs, so to speak, that you can really feel that it’s a rock and roll band in there. Like I was saying, I do think that that shines through and it’s just doing it so much. The more that you play, the better you get and we’re not really a rehearsal band. We’re a playing live band and that creates that energy you feed off and that’s really what we were trying to capture.

I absolutely love the movie for “Vice City III”. Do you have a whole heap of fun doing that?
Yeah, that that was great fun and getting our mates in for the casting there, we were pissing ourselves laughing because we’re going Jesus Christ, it looks like it’s been cast by a Hollywood director. Everyone’s fucking perfect in it!

Do you reckon there’ll be a Vice City IV?
There’s a Vice City IV and there’s a Vice City V. So, they’ll be coming soon. Yep. I think five is a good number to leave it at.

Will a follow up album come much sooner do you think?
We’re already deep working on the next one there and we’ve got a bunch of ripper songs that we are getting ready to take the task. I imagine that we’ll probably be trying to get back in the studio sometime later this year.

Interview By Rob Lyon

Catch the Southern River Band on the following dates, tickets HERE…