The Fauves On Tour With Custard And The Stress Of Leisure
The Fauves lengthy tenure (thirty six years) has resulted in them outlasting several generations of bands. Long have they posed like big game hunters on the African savannah with their feet astride the lifeless neck of the music industry. The Fauves’ appeal is difficult to define. Never fitting into any particular genre has afforded them a longevity rare in the music industry, while their extra-curricular talents have seen them involved in everything from hosting youth television programs to appearing on the popular TV quiz show Sale Of The Century.
The band been likened to a North Queensland cult. For those who have been indoctrinated, membership is a revelatory experience. Others tend to just walk past the large cyclone fence and peer through occasionally. Ania Kertes puts some questions to Andrew Cox about their new album Tropical Strength and their tour with Custard and The Stress Of Leisure.
The Fauves, like a trusted brand, have been around for a few decades now. How has your approach to music creation evolved over time?
It’s more streamlined now and we are definitely lazier. We used to learn every single song we wrote, which meant that we had a catalogue of about fifty before we’d even released our first EP. Now the songwriter demos all their songs and we try to choose a small batch that we can all agree should go on the record. Then we just learn those ones. At least three quarters of the songs we write get discarded because we never revisit them for subsequent records.
Recorded in Bali, Tropical Strength is lucky album number thirteen. It contains its fair share of witty and satirical songs (hello Un-Australians) which is something the band has long interwoven into its MO. How do you successfully balance humour with the more serious themes in your music?
We have clearly never successfully balanced humour with our darker side because a lot of people think we’re a joke band even though we don’t think we are. There is humour in our music but it is dark and growing darker. There is also a lot of sincere, passionate and emotional music in our catalogue but people still seem to think we’re joking.
Are there any particular events that influenced the songwriting for this album?
Not really. The passage of time maybe. Our last two records have delved deeply into the idea of being old, and being old in a band. It’s not particularly sexy subject matter but we’ve mined it harder than Gina Rinehart on a WA iron ore seam.
As the band matures musically, do you find yourselves challenging each other in the studio? Are there more debates about direction, or is easier to come to a consensus now that you’ve been working together for so long?
No, our main debates these days are about where we’re going to eat that night. You can’t still be having flaming rows about artistic direction 36 years in. We’re lucky that we share very similar tastes in music and know how to treat one another respectfully. Being in a band this long is about ego subjugation and the embrace of compromise.
The premise of Tropical Strength surmises the band’s continuing longevity. What do you attribute that endurance to?
Friendship and bloody-mindedness. We are still best friends, which means that getting together remains fun, whether we’re making music or not. Plus, we love the idea of being profoundly unsuccessful commercially yet persisting regardless, outlasting generations of bands that were way more successful than us but way less good, and annoying people who would prefer that we just went away.
Looking back over your career, are there any specific moments or turning points that you consider pivotal for The Fauves’ success or direction?
Getting dumped from a major label (Polydor) in 1999 was strangely the most pivotal moment in our career. At that point you have to decide why you’re in a band. Clearly, our shot at mega-stardom was over but it enabled us to proceed knowing the only people we had to please were ourselves, after bending ourselves out of shape for years trying to do what other people told us to do. Free of expectation and obligation, we could strip away anything that interfered with our love of making music together.
You are currently touring the country with Custard. How is touring in 2024 different from touring in the 1990s?
The rental cars are much more expensive. The drink riders are much less expansive. Overall, it’s more stressful because we do it less frequently and are not as inured to the grind. We used to blithely rock up to Ansett Group check-in with thirty five pieces of luggage and coolly stand aside as they checked it all on free of charge. Now every banal process in a touring day causes me inordinate stress. But I stress easily – the other guys don’t seem worried at all.
Is there a song in your catalogue that you still get a kick out of playing live, no matter how many times you have performed it? Or has it all become a blur of riffs and choruses at this point?
No. The hour or so that we are on stage is the least enjoyable part of the day. It’s about fingertips grasping on to cliff edges, trying to get through the show without stuffing up. Any evidence of us having a good time is purely faked. I die a little inside every time we have to play our song Dogs Are the Best People but we have to do it regardless because it’s the only song that we can be certain most of the crowd will know.
Bali or Australia, and why?
I don’t like relentless humid, hot weather so (southern) Australia. Bali is lovely to visit and we would definitely record there again but I couldn’t live there.
Interview By Anita Kertes
Catch The Fauves on tour with Custard and The Stress Of Leisure…
Tropical Strength is out now…
