Regurgitator On More Than Thirty Years In, Ten Albums And Counting… And Still Together!

Regurgitator have always thrived in the chaos of pop culture — the noise, the overload, the constant stream of blips, beeps and bizarre ideas that stick in your brain like static. Formed in late 1993 in Brisbane, core members Quan Yeomans and Ben Ely launched into a wonderfully crooked creative path, making EPs and albums in some truly unusual places.

Across the decades, they’ve toured relentlessly across Australia, New Zealand, Japan, the UK, Europe, the USA, Asia, the Middle East and appeared at a huge list of festivals including Big Day Out, Good Things, Meredith, Golden Plains, Mona Foma, Spring Loaded, Clockenflap, Reading, Fuji Rock, Groovin’ the Moo, The Falls and more. They’ve shared stages with Boredoms, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Helmet, The Melvins, Weezer and KISS. This tour kicks off to a sold out show in Adelaide on Saturday and Ben Ely talks to Hi Fi Way about the tour.

Jukeboxing all the hits must be exciting being able to do that all over again.
Well, it’s a lot of songs, this is the longest show we’ve ever done in our lives, in our thirty-two years, or whatever. I think we had about fifty‑plus singles. We didn’t want to play for two and a half, three hours, so we just cut it down to like, forty something songs. So, we play for about two hours, but it’s every single we’ve ever done. It’s pretty fun and there’s a lot of music there.

It feels like every tour, the love for Regurgitator just gets bigger. You must be blown away by the impact the band still has?
We do feel really lucky that we’ve been going so long. It started as a side project, and it wasn’t really intended to go anywhere, so, for it to be together after thirty-two years, it is quite amazing. The funny thing is, ten to fifteen years ago, we used to see a lot more younger people coming, and then I met a few of these young people at shows or get chatting, and a lot of the kids are children of our fans from the 90s. So, we do feel really lucky to be able to play to kids as well as the older people too.

Have some of these songs changed much live?
Oh, most of them sound exactly how they sound. I think there’s probably one or two that are slightly different, but mostly we’re trying to just play them how they sound on the record.

Having Sarah Lim the band now, how has that changed the dynamic?
She’s so great, she’s amazing. Our guitar tech from Boo, Luke, listened to the Invader album and said it was really good, but suggested we get another player to handle all the keyboard and guitar parts. He recommended his friend Slim, who’s Sarah, and she was fantastic on the Invader tour. We asked her to keep playing with us because it’s so fun, and she adds so much to the show and the sound. She’s also just a great person to be around. It really helps the show a lot.

When you look back at those early EPs, do you still feel proud of them?
They seem pretty primitive, but I guess that was part of the appeal. It’s almost like looking at a really old photo album you’re living inside, playing those early songs teleports you straight back to that time in our early twenties. I’m in my mid‑fifties now, so it’s a real trip to feel that way again, which is what the music does to me.

Do you get nostalgic on tours like this?
Yeah, that’s the nostalgia, that feeling of being teleported back to who you were then. But as a band, we’re writing and working toward a new album for later this year or early next year. We always want to keep moving forward and trying new things. I did a soundtrack for a sci‑fi film recently, which was really fun, and it reminded me how important it is to keep challenging yourself with new projects.

What does the next chapter for Regurgitator look like?
We’re going to keep writing new music and work toward another record. I also love making visual art, it’s what I do when I’m not smashing my ears with noise.

Do you have any sense of where the next album might go sonically?
We’ve got all these weird projects, Quan and I even have this thing called Shit City where we make up songs on the spot, and they’re really terrible. We like doing odd stuff, but I think we’re also going to make a more serious Regurgitator record. The next one will probably be more experimental and a bit more sonically challenging, maybe less pop and more strangeness. You just make stuff and see where it goes. You can never tell.

Invader was such a great album. Is it frustrating that albums don’t get as long a life these days?
I think you just do what you like. I still love records, collecting albums, buying vinyl, putting them on and listening all the way through. I’m a fan of the album as a format, and some people I know are too, so we just play to those people.

Will Shit City have its own release?
I think we’d like to! It started because COVID happened, and then I hadn’t seen Quan for years. We got together one Friday night, we were so excited to see each other, we just started writing all these crazy little songs that were very short. Some of it is more like Flight of the Conchords or something, it’s just weird comedy noise stuff. I would like to release Shit City. I don’t know about Quan, he might not want to. He might be more of a perfectionist, whereas I’m like, yeah, whatever, just chuck it out.

What’s inspiring you creatively at the moment?
I’ve got a lot of ideas, songs just hit you at strange times, like when you’re driving. We’ll see what they turn into. Some work, some don’t.

Is there a deep cut you wish people talked about more?
I don’t really think much about what people think of us, I’m more focused on how I feel about what we do. The last track on Invader, Tsunami, works really well live, and I like it because it’s more emotive than most of our ridiculous Regurgitator songs. Doing something in that vein felt pretty cool, and it’s a direction I’d like to explore more in the future.

Interview By Rob Lyon

Catch Regurgitator on the following dates, tickets HERE…