Grinspoon - No Sleep til Soundscape

Grinspoon are back, older, wiser but no less manic, albeit in a new and more touchy-feely kind of way, as Joe Hansen explains.

Despite releasing a rocking new album, Grinspoon's bassist Joe Hansen is feeling old.

"I don't want to sound like an old fuddy-duddy but back in our day when we started touring things were completely different".

Hansen is back on the road with the rest of Grinspoon promoting their latest offering Alibis & Other Lies. It's Grinspoon's fifth album in their 12-year career and over that time, the band has adapted to a drastically changing music industry within Australia.

"We got our first mobile phone as a band a couple of years into it and it was this massive thing and we thought we were being really technologically-advanced. No one had mobile phones and now I don't know how we lived without them".

Though the band might be feeling old, as young upstarts like Operator Please are making their presence felt, audiences are taking to Grinspoon's new material with a fresh enthusiasm. So much so that the band is again touring their new album for the second time this year, as well as playing the festival circuit.

"It's pretty much across the board. People are reacting to all of our new stuff. There doesn't seem to be any dead spots yet, and if there are we usually get rid of those songs pretty quick (laughs)".

And that's good news for the Lismore four-piece, who have outstayed many of their peers to remain a favourite act for festival-goers over the years. This summer Grinspoon will be in the thick of it, playing Pyramid Rock Festival, Tasmania's Soundscape Festival, and of course, the Big Day Out. These bigger shows seem to suit Grinspoon's traditionally big rock sound, and it's an experience the band gravitates towards.

"You walk onstage and you see 40,000 people in front of you. It's a pretty huge buzz just to have that massive crowd and the feeling of the enormousness of it gets the blood racing... It can be overwhelming, though playing to 200 people is probably even scarier as you feel like everyone is looking at you. But when there are heaps and heaps of people it just feels like a general mass of people and you just focus on what you have to do".

With the festival season approaching, punters are gearing up to hang out with their friends and have a 'festival experience'. But as it turns out, bands too use the festival circuit to hang out with other acts over the summer. While there are notorious stories of international artists offending local bands over the years, Joe maintains that the experience is a mainly positive one. The communal environment provides an opportunity for acts to share war stories from throughout the year and to offer advice to younger bands that are coming up through the ranks.

"When we first started there were definitely bands that would take you under their wing and give you advice and say ‘This is a good thing to do and this is not’. And I think that's really good. And it doesn't have to be older bands either. Different bands have had different experiences. There is a bit of narkiness as well but I definitely think you help where you can and from our point of view you want to see everyone succeed. There's definitely enough room for everyone to have a good go at it".

All this kindness isn't very rock n' roll. Could it be that the 'Spoon are mellowing in their self-confessed old age? Apparently so...

"We used to enjoy fighting with other bands. We used to have a really good go at The Living End. It was actually really good... a friendly rivalry and we'd sink the boot in whenever we could but after a while we all got tired of it and now we're all friends. It's actually quite mushy and embarrassing".

Thankfully Tassie audience's can expect the rock and roll to be delivered on stage, even if the backstage antics have matured.

"Nothing's changed. We've got the new music obviously but we'll be as drunk as ever. Phil won't be, but we will be probably drinking more".

And that's a promise I feel confident that Grinspoon will deliver on. Even if their drunkenness takes on an older, sourer feel, which sees them complaining about modern technology and the lack of morals and social etiquette displayed by their youthful screaming fans.

Grinspoon play the Pyramid Rock Festival, Phillip Island December 31st, Soundscape, Hobart, January 26th and The Big Day Out nationally

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