Old Man River and Passenger

Thu 10th Feb, 2011 in Features

Old Man River and Passenger are touring across the country on the two month ‘One For The Road’ tour, and planning on slotting a series of street gigs into their busy travel schedule.

Before they jumped on the tour bus Passenger, aka Mike Rosenberg, had a few questions for Old Man River band leader Ohad Rein about his latest album Trust, the ultimate in fan mail and parental support. Oh, and they also gave us a taste of the show, by performing Elton John’s Tiny Dancer in video clip paying tribute to Almost Famous.

To kick things off, I know you usually tour with a band; how do you feel about going out on the road with just an acoustic guitar?
Yeah it’s interesting my latest album Trust ended up having so much layers in it that it’s kinda closer to Sgt. Pepper in production, so it’s going to be a good challenge to strip back all these songs to their barest form… a bit of nudity that’s what we like! But come to think of it all the songs I ever wrote started off on the guitar or the piano as little naked babies so it will be literally bringing it all back home in these shows and people can have a glimpse as to how those songs really sound without any distractions.

Is it possible to pinpoint the moment when you decided that you wanted to take music on full time?
I was dreaming about it from a very early age but I think back then the rock star fantasy was a way of escaping the fact that I was a little pimpled teenager who just wanted girls to stop ignoring him… it was only later on that I truly realized this was my purpose. It was during the time I was living in New York, I was there during September 11th and just after that major event I remember getting very conscious about the choices I needed to make in my life and I immediately quit my job and started busking as a means of livelihood…it was like jumping into the water and really committing to music as a lifestyle even if it meant eating less…

How do your family and friends feel about your musical career?
Everyone’s always been very supportive and really involved as well. I always end up working with most of my friends on music related stuff be it recording or shooting videos or creating artwork. it really helps with keeping the right vibe.

If you were to have someone famous, alive or dead, email you and say that they have fallen in love with your music who would it be and why?
If Ludwig Van Beethoven despite the fact that he’s dead and deaf for the later part of his life and not acquainted with rock’n’roll or e-mails for this matter… anyway if he was to say something like that I would definitely retweet that shit!

And finally, what musical event/festival/tour would be your dream gig to get? Other than the “one for the road” tour of course.
Some bill that would have Wilco, Bob Dylan, Beck, Jagjit Singh, Jay Z and Battles all playing on it would be pretty pretty sweet!

Old Man River and Passenger are playing these dates, with support from Daniel Lee Kendall.:
Wednesday 9th February – Clarendon Guesthouse, Katoomba
Thursday 10th February – Heritage Hotel, Bulli
Friday 11th February – Annandale Hotel, Sydney
Saturday 12th February – Northern Star Hotel, Newcastle
Friday 18th February – The Soundlounge, Currumbin
Saturday 19th February – Old Museum, Brisbane
Thursday 24th February – Republic Bar – Hobart
Friday 25th February – East Brunswick Club, Melbourne
Saturday 26th February – Between The Bays Festival, Mornington Peninsula
Sunday 27th February – Adelaide Spiegeltent, Adelaide
Friday 4th March – Amplifier Bar, Perth
Saturday 5th March – Mojo’s, North Fremantle
Sunday 6th March – Nannup Festival, Nannup