Bachelor Girl Hit The Road For A National Celebration Of ‘Waiting For The Day’

Nearly three decades after releasing one of Australia’s most beloved pop records, ARIA Award-winning duo Bachelor Girl today release Waiting For The Day: Artist Sessions – a breath taking reimagining of their landmark 1998 debut album, available everywhere now. Featuring fifteen reworked tracks and fifteen celebrated Australian artists, Waiting For The Day: Artist Sessions transforms every song from the original album into a vibrant new collaboration, honouring the enduring legacy of Waiting For The Day while introducing its timeless songwriting to a new generation.

Developed, produced and realised independently over two years, the ambitious project brings together an extraordinary lineup of Australian music royalty, with collaborations from Darren Hayes, Guy Sebastian, Delta Goodrem, Jessica Mauboy, Tommy Emmanuel, Ella Hooper, Sheppard, Jack Jones, Suze DeMarchi, Jon Stevens, Michael Paynter, NERVO, Courtney Act, WILSN and Kaylee Bell. Tania Doko chats with Rob Lyon about this album and the tour they are on.

It sounds like it’s all happening for Bachelor Girl at the moment. You’ve got to be pretty excited with how everything’s shaping up?
Yeah, it’s a time. Looking forward to getting to The Gov. Adelaide’s been good to us through the years, so… yes, I think it’s going to be a sold‑out show, which is fun.

It’s hard to believe it was 1996, when Waiting for the Day came out. It feels like so much has happened in that time. I still remember that first single dropping.
Yeah. It’s, you know… what, twenty eight years ago? And yet it feels like yesterday. The great paradox of life.

When you look at everything that’s happened, what have been some of the standout moments, particularly when that album came out?
I would say 1999 was a big year for us. Couldn’t get off the radio. Whether you liked us or not, that was the truth. We were the most played act, non‑U2 and Mariah Carey, so that’s kind of bananas. Then we got to go overseas, we got to Norway, we got to Sweden, we were signed by Clive Davis. Incredible. I think we were pretty present to how incredible it was, but on some level you can’t really know how long it’s going to last, and maybe you take it a little bit for granted. That’s why it’s nice to revisit now, because I think you get to relive it a little bit again, at least what the songs meant to people, and what they mean to you. Thirty years on, you’re even more grateful and even more appreciative of what happened and that they still have helped so many people. Maybe the messages didn’t date; maybe they became even more important from a message point of view.

Even at the time, did you have that feeling that this was a special group of songs, that thirty years on we’d still be talking about them and they would still mean so much to so many people?
Oh, you never know. I mean, you have a good feeling about things. We had a good feeling about the record, but we’re never that cocky. I don’t think any artist is. You just don’t project into the future like that. One thing we were committed to was writing songs that shed defences, for yourself and for other people too. Inside of this pop band, I think we rocked out and tried to write songs that had a bit of a psychological, okay, I’ve got to think about this now.” A thinking‑persons‑pop song, if you like.

There’s no way we could revisit this record if we weren’t proud of the songs. We would just shelve it and go, “Okay, that was that, that was the 90s.” But we’re still proud of the songs, and it did pretty well in the world, and it felt right to revisit and put new clothes on them, and then invite many of our artist friends on the record.

When you set such a high benchmark with that album, did you feel a lot of pressure after that to keep matching it, or even topping it?
So, what happens is most artists have their whole lives to release their first record, you collect all the best songs you’ve ever written and then the second record happens, and I’m not talking about anything unusual here, but of course there are more people involved, more opinions. There are some songs we tried six or seven times, new lyrics, new recordings, new productions, new mixes and it can start getting a bit stir‑crazy.

Of course you’re very aware of the platform you have as well, which is a great thing, but yeah, it may be a little intimidating. That’s definitely the case and we made a third record, and that was a pretty tumultuous time in the business. James and I went our separate ways, he moved to the UK, and then shortly after that I moved to Sweden. Having this break, doing other creative ventures, was good for James and I, I think, because it feels new again. It feels fun and I think many of our colleagues probably haven’t had that or they didn’t make that choice, or they haven’t been able to have that privilege of stopping. And yes, it’s fun to revisit and suck the juice out of it all over again, if I can put it that way.

What’s also exciting is the Waiting for the Day artist sessions. It’s a really awesome way to commemorate the album. Were the artists who sang these songs obvious choices? Did you approach them? What was the process for getting people on board?
Well, they’re all either friends or colleagues, or people we’ve written with. They’re all people we admire, respect, do great work. I mean, Darren Hayes, for instance, recently was still in touch with, so we’ve understood each other. Darren might even be more frustrated with us that Buses and Trains didn’t do what he thinks it should have done in America. With Darren, it was interesting because we wanted him on the record, but it was about finding the right song. We played him a couple of the singles and he said, no, I don’t need to be on one of the singles, play me some of the deep cuts and then we played him “Blind” with my vocal on it, and he rang me straight away and said, I need to be on this song.

So the songs found the artists in some ways, and in other instances we had a really good instinct about Treat Me Good with Jess. Funnily enough, she said many times that Treat Me Good showed up at a really good time for her. She’d just left her label, and she really had to back herself. So Treat Me Good became very important to her from a message point of view. Very timely. It was a mixed bag of lollies, but that’s what you get when you ask fifteen artists.

Oh, it’s a pretty good bag of mixed lollies, I can tell you that. Jon Stevens, Suzi Demarchi, Delta Goodrem, Guy Sebastian, just with those alone, that’s impressive, and that’s not taking anything away from anyone else who’s on there as well. Shepard’s version is great too.
Probably could have asked another fifteen artists. I don’t know if they’d have said yes. They’re the ones where the timing worked. They felt aligned with the song. So yeah, there are many ways to work it out. But it’s nice to be unleashed.

Does it get you thinking about collaborations in the future, and other people you might work with down the line?
You know, I might not do that for a little while after fifteen artists. Not yet. We just collaborated with James for a while, and my beautiful Melbourne musicians who are touring with us on this tour. But we have asked some of them to join us live, so depending on what show people come to, they might get a special guest that appears on the record. Stay tuned.

Are you looking to play the album start to end, or are you going to mix it up a little and surprise people? What’s the plan?
We’re definitely playing the whole record, but no, not start to end, because all the songs have different clothes now. You want to make sure the setlist has the right arch, the right ebb and flow in the right places. But no, we’re definitely not leaving anything out. So those lovers of the original Waiting for the Day will get it all, and they’ll get some pleasant surprises with the productions. We have officially started, releasing the album today, and the first Melbourne show is the following day. So it’ll be a surprise to all of us, including us, because it’s not as if we’ve played this set to death.

The Gov must be one of those special venues to play here in Adelaide?
Oh, Adelaide’s been really kind to us. I love The Gov and yeah, it’s virtually sold out, so get on it if you’re wanting a ticket.

When the album comes out how are you going to celebrate?
We have some Melbourne promos, we’ll be in our hometown of Melbourne. I think we’re just going to celebrate by calling each other and saying, hey, we did it. Record releasing these days is… wow, it’s amazing to do it, and the business is so fragmented. We’re our own label. We’ve had help, of course, we’ve got a great team, but I think just sitting back and enjoying the moment, and not doing anything business‑y — just enjoying it with our families and friends. But again, we’ve got the first Melbourne show the next day, and I think that’ll be the real celebration the following night.

Interview By Rob Lyon

BACHELOR GIRL – WAITING FOR THE DAY REDUX TOUR DATES

SAT 08 AUG | BRUNSWICK BALLROOM, MELBOURNE VIC | 18+ | SOLD OUT

SUN 23 AUG | THE TRIFFID, BRISBANE QLD | 18+

FRI 28 AUG | THE GOV, ADELAIDE SA | 18+

FRI 04 SEP | CUBE 37 FRANKSTON ARTS CENTRE, FRANKSTON VIC | ALL AGES U15s W ADULT

SUN 18 OCT | THE FACTORY THEATRE, SYDNEY NSW | 18+

Tickets available from https://bachelorgirl.com/