The Break

Wed 13th Oct, 2010 in Features

If you asked your average punter what they thought Rob Hirst was up to these days they would probably be stumped, assuming that since Peter Garrett left showbiz for, well, another kind of showbiz, there wouldn’t have been much going on. However, as Hirst tells me, the goings-on of his life “could fill a couple of short thrillers”. Musically speaking he’s having a ball, playing in raucous blues outfit Backsliders as well as The Break, a “sci-fi surf band” (described as “ Wipeout in space, in 3D” on their website) that also includes Jim Moginie and Martin Rotsey from Midnight Oil and Brian Ritchie of The Violent Femmes.

It seems to be a rather odd combination: what do the Oils (uniquely Australian, politically-motivated rock) have to do with the Femmes (slacker Americans famous for handclaps and songs about masturbation)? And how did surf rock come in to the picture?

But, as it turns out, the whole thing couldn’t have been more natural and organic. Both bands shared a tour manager for many years, and played on the same bill on many occasions, and so came to know each other quite well, and “when the Oils would cruise past Brian’s home town of Milwaukee Brian would take us out for a giant, slap-up Bavarian meal”, says Hirst. And then Ritchie moved to Hobart (“of all places”), the ex-Oils invited him up to Sydney for a jam (“before anyone could get him in another band”) and they all realised they shared similar taste.

Hirst is full of praise for the band, and Ritchie in particular. “He is an excellent bass player”, “a really great singer” and (oddly enough) “a master of the Japanese flute, or shakuhachi, of which I think he has the largest collection this side of the Mason-Dixon line”. But surely it was weird for the ex-Oils to have another person in the room, for the first time in thirty years? “Not weird at all. That was the amazing thing. As soon as Brian started playing it really felt like he’d always been in the band. And from a rhythm section point of view, I think it just fitted immediately. It was quite uncanny.”

Far from being apprehensive about starting from (almost) Square One with a totally new band, Hirst seems genuinely excited to be back on the local circuit, and competing with younger bands. While he acknowledges that they have an advantage of “the names that we come from, and the history that we have”, Hirst is quick to point out that, essentially, you are only as good as your last show. “You’ve got to go out and prove yourself every time you play, just like you always have. And there are so many great bands out there. It’s probably more competitive for these spots at festivals and in pubs…than it’s ever been. And there are so many great bands out there…Tame Impala, Cabins, who I think are just excellent. And all these bands coming out now are incredibly musically literate. And in a way they have an advantage, because they take the gems of music past, and make these new hybrids, and it’s just amazing to watch.”

This tremendous enthusiasm seems to extend to all aspects of life in a ‘new’ band. I ask about the Annandale shows, which he describes as “tremendous”, and says it takes him back to the early days of the Oils and “that late 70s/early 80s period from which Midnight Oil, and Cold Chisel, and The Angels all emerged. With its blacked-out windows, and sticky carpets, it’s really the last bastion of a hard rocking gig in Sydney.” I ask him about life on an independent label (South Australia’s surf-oriented Bombora), and he waxes lyrical about being “lighter on your feet”, and having a real connection to the people working at the label.

“You can ring up and talk to the boss any time. And there’s a real love of surf music and the kind of music we’re making…and it’s quite palpable.”
But before you get the impression of Hirst being as giddy as a schoolgirl, I should point out that he is also incredibly thoughtful and considered when conversation switches to the changes in the music industry since the last time he was in an up-and-coming band.

Far from being frightened by the internet, he sees it as indispensable at a time when the record companies seem terminally ill, struck by “great inertia”, and commercial radio is getting narrower and narrower. Yet he points out that even with all the MySpace friends in the world, it all comes down to the quality of the songs, and ability of the musicians, and the ability of your ‘image’ to set you aside from the masses. Furthermore, as you can now record entire albums in your, Hirst point out that novelty-size cheques from major labels are no longer a necessity. ”You should be able to do it cheap, compared to the kind of money we were spending on albums in the late 80s/early 90s which, in retrospect, just seems ridiculous.”

But this interview was set up to publicise The Break’s show at the Melbourne Festival. They’re sharing a bill with Dengue Fever, a California-based band with a Cambodian singer, who play in the style of the music that came out of Cambodia in the 60s. Hirst confesses he doesn’t know them specifically, but casually mentions that he imagines it is similar to the sort of stuff that he heard when The Backsliders toured Cambodia a few years ago.

So what was that like? “It was extraordinarily sad, because the place is completely shattered still by the period ‘75-‘79, before Vietnam invaded and the Pol Pot years. But we had some amazing gigs there. There was one show at the Foreign Correspondent’s Club in Phnom Penh, overlooking the confluence of the Mekong and the Tonle Sap rivers, which was really something like out of a Joseph Conrad novel, with the heat, and the timber fans, and happy hour people coming in for drinks – people who cleared landmines up on the Vietnamese border, and the locals, all of whom have been affected in some way by that horrific period. It was an interesting tour, and that show in particular was amazing.

“And The Backsliders played in Vietnam as well, at a benefit show for the Sunrise School, a school for children who have suffered from America’s terrible legacy with defoliants, which has passed down through the generations.”

There’s not a lot of people you can chat to about touring Cambodia and Vietnam, I point out. “Well that’s just opening up now. In fact they’re talking about Vietnam becoming one of the major stop-off points for bands coming down who would traditionally go to Japan, and maybe Hong Kong, and they’re talking about Vietnam as an emerging music destination.

“I guess what you forget is that Vietnam is one of the youngest countries in the world in terms of its demographic. So most people there are under the age of 30, and have no memory of the war years, either the American or the French wars, or indeed other wars that were fought against Chinese, and Khmer Rouge. It’s a country that’s been immersed in war for 120 years non-stop. But the current generation has no experience of that, so you do get a sense of optimism and hope for the country’s future, despite its incredibly painful past.”

Speaking of optimism, before signing off I ask Hirst what the plans are for The Break. Given that the band members don’t all live in the same city, and all the individual members have other projects that they are working on, is this a one-off thing?

“We actually find ourselves in that great situation where we don’t have to go out and play every night of the week, and we can cherry-pick the more interesting gigs. So as a result we’re playing the Melbourne Festival coming up, we’ve also got Woodford at the end of the year, plus the Bluestown festival down in south-western Western Australia, and another little run with The Hoodoo Gurus…Plus we’ve got some shows in Sydney with Dog Trumpet, who as you would know is Reg [Mombassa] and Pete [O’Doherty] from Mental As Anything – they’ve got a new album out as well. So we’ve got a few shows in and around Sydney, and we’re just working on these collaborations, and cherry-picking these gigs – it’s really great.”

”[And] we’re really looking forward to getting back in to Jim’s Oceanic Studios up here on the Northern Beaches… and recording a follow-up, because playing live has really opened up the possibilities of playing in an instrumental band, and how far you can actually take it, and how many new hybrids we can possibly create by marrying surf music with all these other forms. It’s very exciting.”

The Break play at the Melbourne International Arts Festival on Saturday 16 October with Dengue Fever (Cambodia / USA), and Johnnie and The Johnnie Johnnies (Australia).