Frenzal Rhomb

Fri 25th Sep, 2009 in Features

I can now tick off one of my life’s goals from the list, because I’ve chatted to a rock star – about my dog. Frenzal Rhomb frontman Jason – œJay’ Whalley heard her bark at the start of our interview, and, in a move fairly indicative of his scattershot personal style, interrupted my question to ask me if she was cute.

A few moments later, I steered the conversation back to the band, their recent tour with Nancy Vandal, and their appearance at Brisbane’s Sounds Of Spring festival.

Not that I really needed to – Jay seemed perfectly aware that the interview was to discuss the sophomore appearance of Sounds Of Spring, in a line-up that, like last year, features mostly Australian acts, with no big international headliners. “Yeah, I’ve been doing lots of interviews about Sounds Of Spring. They offered us an enormous amount of money to come out of retirement. It’s very exciting.”

He also wastes no time telling me his thoughts on his fellow line-up members. “Ahh, yes, it also features Australia’s premier heritage act, The Living End, and Australia’s premier songstress, Josh Pyke. And Shihad, that’s always awesome, The Fauves, and hell, even Shonen Knife are coming – they’re even twice as old as us!”

But Jay, despite his enthusiasm, reveals a festival secret. “Yeah, I fucken hate festivals. It’s all about queues. Huge queues, everywhere.” Surely not backstage, I ask. “Hell yeah, there’s even huge queues backstage, and you have to stand around and try to make conversation with Shihad, and we’ve got nothing to talk about, and the whole thing’s just a mess.”

After Whalley spent some time overseas in the past 12 months, Frenzal Rhomb recently performed a reunion tour around Australia. “It was surprising, it went surprisingly well. People always ask us, ‘Why do people still come to your shows?’, and I guess there’s an element of nostalgia, there’s just something that appeals to the 17-24 year old man, with no teeth, from the wrong end of the train tracks.”

And they brought along special guests Nancy Vandal for the ride, in what may be their last-ever shows. “Yeah, they probably shan’t be touring again. It was more of a personal favour for us, and it worked out really well, even though they were probably even less rehearsed than us.”

And are there any plans to begin recording a follow-up to 2006’s Forever Malcolm Young? “It’s funny you should ask, we were talking about that today. We don’t have any songs, but it’s something that we can start looking at.”

At the conclusion of their Arena show in Brisbane, Whalley begged fans to buy t-shirts in order to give him an income, being jobless after his trip. It looks like these pleas might have worked out for the best. “Yeah, it did. And I designed another t-shirt, which we only sold later in the tour, and it was so offensive, I can’t really say what was on it. It was definitely an inside shirt, not an outside shirt. But it sold really well, surprisingly. I guess that was the vibe of the tour, it got more offensive as the tour went on.”

When Frenzal Rhomb first emerged in the early-mid – œ90s, no one would have pegged them for a band that would make the distance. Fifteen years later, they’ve surprised a lot of people – including themselves. Did they ever think they’d still be around? “Oh gosh no. We found out today that our Not So Tough record, which was released in 1994 or 1995, is just about to go gold. It’s a slow-burner – it must be some kind of record, and we think it’s ridiculous that it’s sold even that many copies.”

And how has their live tour changed over time? “It’s a constantly changing beast, depending on how people’s ethics change as we get older. Like when we started, we would only eat Peruvian beef, and no Coke products. Now we’re older, it’s a little bit looser – we only drink Coke products, but I’m the only one who kicks a chicken to death for the rider. Everyone else is ordering celery with hommus, but I’ll kick a chicken any time.”

And what else is in the future for Frenzal Rhomb? “Well, I’m happy to say that my partner is pregnant, so we’re going to have a little child. It’s scary, but very exciting as well, so I’m going to do a bit of dad action for a while. After that, I guess we’ll see what happens.”

Frenzal Rhomb plays the Sounds Of Spring Festival at Victoria Park, Herston on Saturday 26 September (that’s tomorrow).