There are some Australian releases you need to own. Midnight Oil’s Diesel And Dust, INXS’s Kick, Cold Chisel’s East, The Saints’ (I’m) Stranded and The Church’s Starfish to name a few. But seriously, every self-respecting Australian music lover needs to own the Sunnyboys’ debut, self-titled album. It’s a flawless 40 minutes of electrified, passionate pop rock, combining the male angst of the Violent Femmes’ first album, the melodic sensibilities of Crowded House, and The Saints’ ability to rock the fuck out. The album is almost disconcertingly beautiful, delivering loneliness, alienation and lost hope sung by singer/guitarist Jeremy Oxley and backed by a ludicrously tight band. Oxley’s lyrics were acutely accurate explorations of the male psyche. Tracks like Alone With You, Happy Man, Gone and Liar represent a genuine high water mark in Australian rock history.
Incredibly, most of the album was written by Jeremy Oxley and bassist Peter Oxley when they were in their late teens and early 20s. Despite being so young, the Sunnyboys went huge, and their first album went gold. Unfortunately, they never managed to repeat the brilliance that was their debut long-player. They peaked too quickly, and within three years the band had split up. Jeremy has had famous problems with schizophrenia, but that aspect of the band should only inform an understanding of the Sunnyboys’ brilliance, not dictate it.
FasterLouder spoke with Peter Oxley at his current job – as owner of Wedgetail, a wood-fired pizza restaurant in the Sydney suburb of Newtown.
FasterLouder: Was there a moment – 20 odd years ago now – when you thought you’d made it?
Peter Oxley: Not really in those terms. It happened so quickly that we didn’t really…[have time to analyse]. In the time that we were together for three or four years almost, everything was moving so quickly that we never really stopped to sit back and have a rest and go ‘well oh yeah, that was alright, that gig. Now let’s work out what we’re going to do next.’ We would play, record, play, record, play, record, go on the road.
FL: You released three albums in four years so you must’ve been busy.
PO: Yeah, three studio albums.
FL: [Is] there a moment you look back on that kind of defines the Sunnyboys era for you?
PO: The beginning was great. When we first started playing and we were building up a pretty big audience. That was pretty exciting. It got, not worse, [but] it got harder because we lived out of each other’s pockets, we were young, and we started running out of energy.
FL: Do you think it was bad being so young at the time and having so much success?
PO: I think it would’ve been better to build up to the success, rather than having it straight away. You just don’t know how to handle it in some ways. Back in the 80s, there were lots of places to play. We used to play all the time. We used to go on the road all the time. We travelled the deadly Hume [Highway] 20 times a year, probably more. So, it was sort of an endless run of playing shows. The industry was sort of geared that way mechanically. Like, ‘quick, you’ve gotta’ get out and play, you’ve gotta’ keep playing, because if you don’t, people will forget you, the audience will forget you.’ And in hindsight, that’s just not true. (Laughs). But you’re told that, and as young men you go ‘oh, ok!’
FL: You didn’t have a moment where you thought ‘maybe this is fucked?’
PO: Towards ‘83. That’s when we changed management [and] we went with Michael Chugg. He got us out of debt. We were in debt from going on the road through naivety. (Laughs). We did get back on track and think ‘Ok, we’ve got to sort this out.’ And we did. Michael Chugg was a more professional business person and that’s what we needed for our brains as well as being able to pay the bills.
FL: Do you look back on that time favourably or with a bit of regret that you didn’t have management helping you?
PO: Well, it’s always in hindsight of course. And you do look at it going ‘damn, if only some elder brother had come in and said “guys, you always seem to be on the road, have you looked at the figures for the last tour?”’ Because we never bothered doing anything like that. Whereas, if you were a bit older – not 19, 20, 21 – if you were getting to 25, 26, 27, you would have more life experience to go ‘maybe we better have a look at where all this money’s going that we’re actually earning.’ When we were at that age you sort of go ‘ooh, sure we’ll go and play.’ We’d get our weekly wage.
FL: Do you think your albums at the time reflected your different mood? The debut album as opposed to Individuals for example.
PO: I think so. I think on Individuals we were a bit tired. We basically started playing, didn’t stop, recorded the album, kept playing… Sensibly, there should have been a little break in-between.
FL: Do you look back on Individuals and your debut album and your other albums and listen to them? Do you ever put ‘em in the CD player and rock out?
PO: Yeah. Because I’m in this environment [at Wedgetail] and we play music here all the time, I do play all the albums here. Because I employ people and they go ‘Oh yeah, Sunnyboys.’ And they’re usually young so they’ve never heard of the band so I’ll play them a record. Also, customers know that I’m here, and I’ll get requests to play the music.
FL: Does anyone bring a bass along and demand you play along?
PO: (Laughs). I can do air bass. I enjoy playing all the records. I sing along.
FL: Does it blow your mind a bit that kids who are so young are getting in to your band? Did you ever think…were you aware how good you were, the debut album for example. Did you think people might be listening to it in 20 years?
PO: You don’t really think about that. It has lasted. [The songs still sound] really good… All my family play music and we did an FBi interview a month or two ago, and they played a Sunnyboys song. I hadn’t really listened to it in a long time, and it was really fresh. It could’ve been recorded bloody yesterday. I don’t think the music has really dated. We weren’t New Romantic, we weren’t a punk band, we weren’t like an AC/DC band. It was just like it was pop rock ‘n’ roll music with great melodies and really good lyrics.
FL: If you released the album now, you’d be acclaimed as the latest ‘it’ band.
PO: We’d be on the cover of Rolling Stone. (laughs).
And he’s right. The Sunnyboys were bloody amazing, and today they sound better than 99% of the current ‘rock revolution’ bands. A 2-CD compilation entitled This Is Real is in shops now. It contains all the Sunnyboys’ singles and b-sides and 21 live tracks capturing the ‘Boys at their electrifying best. Check it out now!
