Barfly.com.au, November 2003, with Scott Owen

Article by: Tony Hillier


THE LIVING END
LIVING FOR LIVE MUSIC

The End product ... LIVING FOR LIVE MUSIC

The Living End has hit full stride again after the band's career stalled last year following singer-guitarist Chris Cheney's horrific car accident. Double bass ace and co-founder SCOTT OWEN updated TONY HILLIER during a break in the trio's current national tour, which rocks into Brothers Leagues Club on Tuesday, December 9th with Gyroscope and The Casanovas in tow.
 
TH: The Living End has been described as Australia's premier live band. Is that a title that sits comfortably with you?
SO: Playing live is where we feel the most comfortable you know and that's definitely what we've realised since we started the tour. That's what we do best, that's where we get our kicks, and that's what we've been doing for years and years. Apart from when Chris [Cheney] had his accident we've never hibernated into a studio.

TH: With that reputation, of course, comes the responsibility of having to perform well every time you play. Is that a bit of a burden?
SO: No not at all! We always look forward to playing live. That's another thing we've learnt over the last couple of weeks, and last year when we didn't play that many gigs. We kind of realised how hungry we were for getting out there and playing live and how important it was t o us. Now is the biggest reward of all ... going out on tour. We've got something like 40 gigs between now and Christmas and it's not a daunting thing at all. We're all looking forward to getting up there every night and just doing it. It never gets dull. There's just nothing that matches the feeling of getting up there and playing a set and nailing it, getting everything right.

TH: The enforced break caused by Chris Cheney's accident obviously put your international career on hold. Will you be picking up the strands next year?
SO: Yes definitely. Modern Artillery [the band's new album] is not coming out in America until February. So early next year we'll jump on a plane and go over there and have another crack at it.

TH: What's your current status in the USA?
SO: It seems like we've lost a hell of a lot of ground, having not toured there for the last couple of years. But we've been over there doing the album; we've been over to L.A. a couple of times this year; and people still seem to know who we are. It was going really well over there prior to our break ... we were playing decent sized venues and getting played on the radio and getting on good tours. Hopefully we can get back to that.

TH: And Europe?
SO: Yeh hopefully we can get back there later next year as well. We've had a taste of doing gigs over there. We've done a few tours and done some of the bigger festivals; Leeds and Reading a couple of times and Germany, Belgium and Holland.

TH: It seemed as though you came out of nowhere in 1998 but obviously you'd done some playing before that. What is your history?
SO: Chris [Cheney] and I have been playing since high school, basically since we were 17, doing the cover band thing then slowly moving on to do our own thing. We played in pubs around Melbourne and country Victoria, made the odd trip up to Sydney, over to Adelaide and Brisbane ... the general hard yakka that every young band goes through. We put all our money into this little kitty we knew one day would become The Living End.

TH: And how did The Living End break?
SO: Getting the Green Day tour was a bit of a break for us because that was basically the first national tour we'd done. That was great for us, we'd just put out our first EP and we got to play in big venues in front of big crowds with a good band. It was a jump into the deep end.

TH: How did you occupy your time while Chris was recuperating from his accident?
SO: It was a couple of months of just sitting around while his leg was healing, he couldn't walk for a while. Most of the time we were writing tunes. As soon as he was alright to play again, we basically went straight into the rehearsal rooms, getting stuff together for the album. It wasn't long after that Travis [The Living End's original drummer, Travis Dempsey] quit. As soon as we got Andy [the band's new drummer, Adelaide native Andy Strachan] on board, we pretty well got stuck into making demos. Andy's just fitted perfectly; we communicate well and he understands all of our ideas. He's a really nice guy and he's got the same sense of humour as me and Chris.

TH: I read somewhere recently that you have up to 100 unrecorded songs on hold.
SO: Well, yeh, floatin' around. We spent months and months getting material together for the album. We ended up having 50 or so songs to choose from. Where we were rehearsing there was a little recording studio, so we could go in and do really good sounding demos. We've got stacks of good songs 'cos we spent most of last year just doing that. I hope this doesn't sound arrogant, but it's all good stuff. We put time and production and thought and everything into all of those songs. I mean it made it hard to choose the ones that went on to the album [Modern Artillery] but it's great to know that we've got all these songs up our sleeve. If we need to do an album in a hurry we could whip one out any day. Our philosophy with all those demos was just to pick the best songs for the album.

TH: How does Modern Artillery differ from its predecessor, Roll On?
SO: It's more basic, direct and maybe even a little more emotional. When I say emotional, I don't mean sad and soppy, I mean focused on one emotion rather than trying to steer it in all these different directions, just one kind of passion driving one song rather than trying to put a different bit of passion into every part of the song. Roll On was like a rebellion against the "Prisoner Of Society" three-chord song. Everyone was like "Oh my God, look at this new punk-rock band", definitely no complaints about that. But when we were making Roll On, we had a point to prove that we weren't just a three-chord band. We've got all these different influences and can play all these different styles and stuff, so damn it we were going to put them on.

TH: How would you personally describe The Living End's music.
SO: I don't know. I mean there's certain things that exist in ninety per cent of our songs that is definitely like energy. We are a poppy kind of band; whatever we do seems to sound melodic. We always try and mix it up so much that it makes it kind of impossible t o describe our sound in a few words.

TH: Apart from The Clash, what's been The Living End's major influence?
SO: The Stray Cats were a big influence when me and Chris started out. We thought it looked like fun, so we started off playing rockabilly. You had to play double bass to be in a rockabilly band, so I taught myself to play. The double bass isn't built for rock'n'roll bands, for touring. It's like a classical instrument that's been treated like a Fender guitar. I think I've learnt my fair share of cabinet making over the years! I've always got two with me on the road, just in case.

LIVING END GIVEAWAY Barfly is giving away several double passes to The Living End concert, courtesy of the promoter. First to email: editor@barfly.com.au and name the band's new album get lucky. Name and contact number required.