Ed Kuepper

Wed 29th Apr, 2009 in Features

I’m gonna talk to Ed Kuepper, I tell people. You must be quietly shitting yourself, they reply.

“Why would I be?” I ask Mr Kuepper.

“I’m a scary fellow,” he laughs. I laugh too. But I believe him.

We’re yarning after the tremendous event that was 2008’s All Tomorrow’s Parties festival. “I’d say if you weren’t there,” confirms Kuepper, “you missed out on something. It was a great festival.” It saw The Bad Seeds curate a stellar line up of old punks and crusty demons including themselves (funny that), Kuepper’s seminal punk outfit The Saints and his less-celebrated follow-up The Laughing Clowns.

“You said a Laughing Clowns reunion,” I remind him, “would be highly unlikely.”

“Well I think I was being entirely honest when I made that statement,” he replies. “I’m kinda surprised, in a way, that it happened. We did the shows at ATP; that was how we came together. Those shows went really well. It was always something that nobody could predict – œcause The Clowns haven’t played together in a long time. And in some ways it would appear that we’d disappeared. You know, I thought we would play well, but whether people liked it was entirely another matter.”

In a career that has been lengthy, prolific and revered, Kuepper might be a contender to curate something like that himself. “I’m not a hundred percent sure that I’d want to,” he muses. “But as a thing to be involved with – in terms of performing – it was fantastic.”

It was at ATP that Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds waved off founding member Mick Harvey after more than 20 years. That left an enormous pair of shoes to fill – a vacancy that they knew Kuepper could fill. His contemplation of the future appointment is as measured as his tone, and conversation, with me.

“There’s always an element of…” he begins. “You can kind of plan things and discuss a theory of what you’re about to do, but you have to wait until you’re actually doing it before you get a really solid idea. I’m feeling pretty optimistic.”

I ask which of his own recordings he would recommend to a listener new to Ed Kuepper.

“Oh, my own stuff?” he asks, mildly surprised, as if forgetting that he is THE Ed Kuepper. “Well, it sort of depends. Generally, I tend toward recommending the most recent thing, which in my case is a fairly under-publicised album called June Lee and The Yellow Dog, which came out at the end of 2007. That’s probably the album that I’m most satisfied with. I’m really happy with that record. Whether it’s something that appeals to other people, I’ve got no idea.”

The solo Ed Kuepper, of course, is resting. There are a couple of shows coming up with The Laughing Clowns for a start. Interestingly, the next gig is a part of Melbourne International Jazz Festival. Interesting in that The Laughing Clowns were sometimes pigeon-holed by lazy people as – œjazz rock’, a label that Kuepper does not roll with at all.

“No, I’ve never called The Clowns jazz rock. If someone did, they haven’t been paying attention. Anyone who knows anything about The Clowns would not call it jazz rock. It’s much more complicated than that. There was an element of jazz influence in The Clowns and I’ve never denied that. Some of the things that influenced me when I was writing The Clowns music were artists that would be generally classified in jazz – in the jazz genre – but they weren’t typical, or at least not mainstream, jazz things. It was never my intention to create some fusion thing. And it never was [some fusion thing]. The Clowns are much more unique than that.”

As a part of such important Australian bands, as a soloist, as a sometime composer and film scorer, an ARIA winner and all round prolific artist, how does Kuepper decide which projects will be worthy of him? Do people sometimes call up and say, is this up your alley?

“Not as much as you’d think. Generally, if I want to do something I have to instigate it,” he sighs, admitting that he experiences varying levels of success treading this line. “Some things are kinda out of my control. I did try to instigate a theatrical production of June Lee and The Yellow Dog because I think its theme and overall content would lend itself really well, but that’s proved to be really hard to get off the ground. So not everything works.”

At what point do you say, well this isn’t gonna roll, let’s look at something else?

“It doesn’t necessarily get permanently shelved. I still think it’s a good idea and I’m going to pursue it when I can. I think you have to be a little thick skinned about things. You can have an idea and be the only person that thinks it’s a good idea,” he laughs. “You can either chuck it in, or you can keep going. Generally, if I have an idea I take a lot of convincing otherwise.”

Laughing Clowns have these three shows lined up for early May.

Friday 1 May – The Forum, Melbourne [Melbourne International Jazz Festival]
Saturday 2 May – The Basement, Sydney
Sunday 3 May – The Basement, Sydney