The Wombats

Mon 17th Oct, 2011 in Features

The Wombats drummer Dan Haggis is in a buoyant mood as the band are in the middle of their largest Australian tour to date, with their Sydney show only hours away. The chipper Liverpudlian doesn’t let the overbearing effects of jet lag overcome him as he chats with FL about frequent Australian visits, partying harder than Pete Doherty, and being pelted in the groin with a tangerine.

Hey Dan, how’s it going?
It’s pretty good mate, I’m just smelling my microphone.

Smelling your microphone? What’s it smell like?
It smells like shit.

Why does it smell like shit?
Oh just because it’s been absorbing all the spit of mine from throughout the tour into the foam, I think I might need to rub some Fisherman’s Friends on it.

Right… So your Sydney show is just a few hours away, what are you doing to psyche yourself up?
Well we just finished sound check, so not much really, we don’t want to psyche ourselves up too soon and then you get a come down, and when you get on stage with a come down it’s like the worst thing ever. We’ve had them before where we think we’re on at 10 but then it gets pushed back to 11 at the last minute [laughs] I dunno. I guess we will have a few beers or something.

So you’re back again, and so soon, pretty much the third time in 12 months, and then you’re also back again in March for Future Music Festival. I’ve seen more of you than I’ve seen actual wombats, ever. What keeps drawing you back? Are you guys looking for houses out here yet?
[Laughs] To be honest it just seems that people demand to see us, and the promoters and the label are really keen to have us out here, and we’re not difficult to persuade. It’s like as soon as we get an email saying “h do you fancy coming back over to Australia” we don’t even think twice. We’re kind of hardcore travellers, we don’t really care, we’ll get on whatever plane it is and if there’s people who want to see us, we’ll do it. Obviously the Aussie fans are amazing and it’s a beautiful country.

Have you made any changes to your act since your last visit? Why should people be excited about the tour you’re on now as opposed to the one back in April or the one coming up in March?
Errm… well we’ve added a couple of new songs from the new album into the set and one or two from the first album that we didn’t play back in Parklife or in April during the Groovin’ the Moo tour…. Errm… we’ve got lasers as well so…

Lasers? Lovely.
[Laughs] Yeah it just gives it the extra bumper.