You Am I On Thirty Years Of ‘Hourly Daily’
One of Australia’s most beloved and enduring rock bands, You Am I announce their STRUNG UP tour, a special run of east coast Australian performances celebrating the thirtieth Anniversary of their seminal 1996 album Hourly Daily. Featuring handpicked orchestral manoeuvres from Hourly Daily and selections from across their entire career, the tour will bring these iconic songs to life in a spectacular new live experience.
Gracing some of the country’s most prestigious stages this October and November, STRUNG UP will see You Am I reimagine selections from Hourly Daily alongside fan favourites from across their celebrated catalogue, joined by a string quartet for a series of uniquely ambitious performances. A landmark record in Australian music history, Hourly Daily debuted at No.1 on the ARIA Albums Chart and remains one of the defining releases of the 1990s. Three decades on, its rich melodies, storytelling and unmistakable character provide the perfect foundation for this one-of-a-kind concert experience. Andy Kent talks to Rob Lyon about Hourly Daily and this upcoming tour.
Congratulations on another significant milestone, thirty years of Hourly Daily. I can’t believe how much the time has whizzed by.
Yeah, I think everyone’s doing these anniversary things, and it feels like people dig it, but it’s just reminding everybody how old we are.
I still remember going down to the Virgin Megastore to get my copy when it came out. It still stacks up as one of the great albums ever, even now. On reflection, can you believe how impactful the album has been and how much it influenced the trajectory of the band?
Yes, but it’s hard to feel it and see it from our point of view. We spent a lot of time overseas around the time that record came out. It felt like we were only back in Australia for a few months of the year, and we were touring at that point. Once you’re done with touring, you basically hide away somewhere. It feels like we were here, but we weren’t here, you know what I mean? It’s great that people love that record. When something is embraced on that scale early, especially by other musicians, and then filtered through them as music filtered through us, it gets locked in time. Some records age, but when it gets into people’s heads and musicians’ heads, bands form, songs are written… it just gets locked in.
Are there any moments that still stand out for you as significant, or that you look back on proudly?
It’s weird, we’ve been talking about this particular release and going through the second disc that’s coming out with it, which you can pre‑order. It’s got a bunch of demos on it, and I think people are gonna freak out when they hear them. Some of these songs are not released and not even formed, they’re just half‑ideas, but they sound really good to me. There are a couple of songs where I’m like, “Fucking hell, why didn’t we put those out?” They’re really good. If you put them out now and it was a younger band playing them, people would be like, “Fuck yes, this is really good.” But it really is mid‑90s. Listening to that and talking about that time is taking me back. The demos… I don’t remember any of it. I think it was probably only two days that we did it.
What do you remember about making the record proper?
INXS had spent too much money on this recording studio in Darlinghurst in Sydney, just off Taylor Square, just off Oxford Street, on Riley Street. It was on the corner. You wouldn’t know it now; it’s just a bland building. But underneath, on the ground level, they built it out into this massive studio. I’ve never been in a studio that big. They had triple‑pane glass, acoustic treatment, five massive rooms you could see into. But they’d ripped all the gear out. They basically went, “This is not a good business idea.” Gary Gary Beers took the SSL desk, which is now at a studio on the Central Coast. Everyone took the gear. I remember they had to make $3,000 a day for years just to pay it off, they spent a shit ton of money and then went, “Fuck it, don’t worry about it.”
So we walked in and it was empty. But the acoustic treatment was there, the rooms were there, all the cabling was there, they’d just taken out the main pieces. We populated it with every bit of cool gear we could. There was a massive production kitchen area, and we set up indoor cricket nets in there. We just inhabited the whole place for a couple of weeks. It was really fun. Bought stuff in, people visited, and we just plotted through it. The US label probably had ideas about what the record should be, and we decided we were just going to do it with friends of ours in Sydney and do it our own way. Then send it across to them, basically.
The demos you talked about that no one’s heard before, was there any temptation to go in and finish them off, or are they better preserved as they are?
They sound great as they are. To redo them… I mean, they sound really good. I think it’s cool that they’re coming out on a record. I’m sure we could turn them into a more polished thing and add to them, but the essence of what they are is there, and they sound really good. And then there are other songs that did end up on the record, which people will know, but you’ll hear the early version of them before they became faster or had extra bits added. You’re hearing the early version of some of these songs. I’m excited for people to hear them and realise they might have heard those songs for years, seen them live, heard them on the radio and now they’re hearing different versions.
Were there plenty of other gems in the archives you could have gone with as well?
Yeah, there’s a bunch in there that are really good, but they’re rough as guts. There are howling notes through it, you can hear the players going, “What should I be doing here?” And that’s just the process. To the untrained ear it sounds like a mistake, but that’s how music’s built, a series of stumbling idiots until they find where it sits and then it starts to level out. Some of the vocals are just mumbled, some aren’t even there. And then there are others where some songs are pretty bad, and then suddenly they find something. They’re demos, so we thought some of it’s not worth putting out, people would go, “What is this?” Some of them are only for the diehards. So we narrowed it down to what we thought would be more digestible and interesting, less “What is this shit?” But yeah, there’s a bunch left over.
The whole box‑set package looks really cool. I’ve ordered mine and can’t wait to get it. Was there any temptation to do a CD as well, or is vinyl just a better fit?
I think some really well‑thought‑out bespoke packages are great. The booklet’s going to be great, there’s so much stuff in there. We’re still finalising it, adding to it. But if you go too far, someone will say, “Why isn’t there a cassette?” or “Why isn’t there a double cassette?” So I think making one nice package is cool.
When you finished recording Hourly Daily, was there a feeling the band had found its sound?
I mean, yeah, and then there’s the next record after that, and the next record after that. It felt like steps into it. There’s more maturity from the EPs to the first record, to the second record, to this record. But that’s just the band growing from being eighteen to twenty four, playing hundreds of shows, digesting music, working out how we play with each other and then deciding to add a member, which means there are other parts you can put on a record that might not be played live, you can fill the sound out more. I don’t know if we thought we’d found anything; it was just what it was at the time.
If you had your time again, is there anything you’d improve about Hourly Daily, or does it capture that moment perfectly and is better left as it is?
I think with anything, whether you’re painting, making ceramics, creating a garment you want to get it to a point, and then you just have to let go and move on to the next thing. There’s never a point where you’re one hundred percent happy with anything. Art is created with the best intention, but ultimately you just give up on it because you could work on stuff for years. You could come back and go, “We’d do this now, those guitars could be wider, why don’t we put a flanger on that, maybe an extra vocal…” You could go on forever. Ultimately you just go, “That’s it. Move on.” I don’t think anyone’s ever contemplated going back on previous recordings. It’s all about what you do next, you’re satisfied by what comes next rather than what you’ve done.
The milestones do continue, there’s the twentieth anniversary of Convicts as well.
Keep going, man. I could go on for years. I think there’ll be a point where everyone’s a bit tired of that and they’ll want something they haven’t heard, you know what I mean?
Having spoken to Tim before, he doesn’t get caught up in nostalgia, he’s very much looking forward. Do you feel like once the Hourly Daily celebrations are complete, it’s more about moving forward with whatever comes next?
Yeah, who knows? It seems like it’s five years between albums for us these days, so I think five years might be up soon. It’ll depend on the location, who we’re working with, how it will feel. We’re all up for playing music, it’s just where, how, with who, and for what purpose.
The Strung Up concert looks great. Have you been intrigued by the fan poll and the songs people hope get the orchestrated treatment?
Yeah, it’s interesting. A lot of it writes itself. Looking at what people have chosen… I could have picked eight out of the top twelve beforehand. People know what they want, and it was a good exercise to let them think about it and put forward their ideas. It’s also good for us to see what people want. Ultimately, we’ve got to work out what’s best for the setup with the strings. We don’t want it to be a rock band with a bolted‑on string section trying to keep up. It’s about finding what material the strings will work with and moving forward.
I’ve seen so many atrocious performances where metal bands play with orchestras, I’m sure fans of those bands think it’s amazing, but there’s a lot of nuance and dynamics to be explored. That’s worth doing, and it’ll take rehearsal. It’s kind of prestigious, and we’re lucky enough to have both sides of the coin with our songs. We could easily turn up to a pub the next night and bang out the exact opposite of what we’ve just done. But it’s appealing to try something different.
For these dates, is it the same string section you’re taking on tour, or are you working with different ones in each city?
No, we’re taking out the same people. We want to rehearse it properly, it needs to feel locked in. A lot of people will roll in and there’ll be string players who literally read their parts and then everyone goes home. That’s how that world works, but we’d rather have it more locked in.
Is there a chance the tour might expand to Adelaide or Perth, or is it just too costly to take it around?
It’s pretty expensive, but we wanted to see how it went creatively. If it goes really well and people dig it and everyone feels it was worth it, maybe we’ll do it again. Then next time we might look at expanding it depending on what people say. We’ll see.
Has the process of orchestrating the music and working out the arrangements been complicated but also fascinating in terms of how that world works?
Yeah. We’ve got Mel Robinson doing the arrangements, we’ve worked with her before. She did the arrangement for the tune we play, the ARIA’s. It’s important to work with someone who understands what you’re doing, and we know she does. I’m looking forward to hearing what she writes for these parts initially, and then there’s always the “Why does this go here? It probably should do this,” or “Maybe this.” We talk all sorts of nonsense, “Is it warm enough? It’s a little too purple. Why is it sharp there?” Using textural and colour words to explain something. We’ll get into that conversation because we can’t speak classical language, and she has to. So we’ve got to work out a way to adjust the arrangements once we hear them. It’ll be collaborative, and we’ve worked with them before, so it’s not like we’ve got some maestro from some wank orchestra coming over the top with exactly what they think. It’ll be fine.
What’s next for You Am I? Once the Strung Up tour is done, will we see more over the summer, or is it too early to tell?
I think after that, that’s enough for now. We’re booked for a festival in Launceston. There’s a few bits and pieces but this is where we’re focused right now.
Interview By Rob Lyon
Catch You Am I on the following dates, tickets from TEG Dainty…
