“I bloody well hope we’ll be around in another twenty or thirty years,� laughs bassist Scott Owen from the land down under. “I saw the Stooges recently and they were still passionate and fresh sounding. I think there’s still a lot of musical ground that we can cover as well, so I expect we’ll have the opportunity to keep making music long into the future.�
Australia’s finest, fittest, and most fervent punk pop export (a quintuple-platinum album, two platinum and five gold discs plus three Australian Recording Industry Association Awards), the Living End’s latest release is aptly entitled State of Emergency, a collection which finds the band stretching from its original retro revival posture into more musical/intellectually progressive pastures.
The trio’s singer / guitarist / primary songwriter Chris Cheney says of the title cut: “it felt like every time the news came on, somewhere had been declared a state of emergency. The song deals with the paranoia and uncertainty generated from this…it also has a very positive message and promotes unity and not being oppressed by fear, whether it be a false alarm or the real thing.�
Returning to the producer’s chair is the legendary Nick Launay (INXS, Gang of Four, Midnight Oil, Silverchair). After rummaging through fifty or so of the End’s best demos, Launay conjured the arrangements and blended various ideas into a cohesive collection. Quite the perfectionist, Launay forbade the veteran ensemble from dropping any song in mid-progress until he was convinced that a particular track had been completed to his satisfaction. “His experience in recording techniques is what makes him amazing,� Owens reveals. “We set up a few different ways in the studio before he was willing to begin recording. He wanted us to all be playing at the same time rather than doing layered rhythm tracks. He’s got the ear to get the organic sounds of an instrument, which is exactly what we wanted.�
Among the many bands that came of age during the mid-1990s post-punk explosion, which included a slew of California bred stalwarts such as Green Day, Offspring, and Rancid, Owens notes “I don’t think our style has changed much over the years, but we have grown as musicians. The song writing and recording has definitely become more focused. We’ve worked hard to become more competent in the studio to produce the results we’d originally imagined.� Among the many stand-out cuts is “We Want More.� Cheney notes “I find that in terms of where popular music is sitting at the moment, there is way too much style and not enough substance. That track is probably one of the more Rockabilly influenced ones… it has that anthemic stomp element that I think is a bit of a trademark for us.�
State of Emergency has been out in their home country for awhile and concert goers are warming up to the new material. With new fans constantly coming into the fold, the band’s back catalog is seemingly always in demand on stage as well. Owen comments on their impending US invasion via the Warped Tour and their own headlining trek which will take State of Emergency coast to coast, south to north, and on to Canada, “I am always amazed at the sheer volume of everything in America. It is the land of opportunity. Coming from a country with a much smaller population it just seems that everything is so big, maybe too big in some cases. But this is the charm of the States. I also love the way that in the same country, there can be cities that are so very different than each other. “
State of Emergency is released July 11th on Adeline/ East West Records.
The Living End
Adeline Records
East West Records
