In the ghetto with Tumbleweed

As far as being in the right spot at the right time, no story is greater than that of iconic Australian rockers Tumbleweed. Very few bands are able to boast landing a support spot for arguably one of the best bands in the world. But touring with Nirvana aside, there is a lot more to these Wollongong war horses.

The Dwarf’s Chris Wood was lucky enough to have a chat with guitarist Paul Hausmeister about the rigors of planning one of the more anticipated comebacks in Australian musical history, as well as finding time to discuss cult classic Elvis songs.

You’re about to embark on a mini-tour that includes an anniversary spot at Homebake Festival as well as a spot at Meredith Festival. What’s going through your head?

I’m digging it. I think we all are. It was a little daunting at first. Back at our first jam, people were concerned about how that would turn out.

Who made the call about getting together for a jam?

Over the last few years the guys from Homebake would give us a call, asking if we’d be interested in performing. We’ve all been in other bands in the last ten years. And we were all hearing from these guys indirectly and through each other, which meant it didn’t happen. Either that or we were just to damn slack! So the call went out again, with them saying it’s the fifteenth anniversary and all, do you guys want to do it again? We headlined the first one in Byron Bay, so there’s this sentimental thing with them I suppose.

So it was pretty good timing for a comeback?

Yeah, I suppose you could say that. At around about the same time, there was this feature article in the local rag in Wollongong, which basically detailed what we were up to. When we all read that, we kind of realized that everyone has grown up over the last thirteen years, and things have changed. So everyone was thinking that this could be a good thing. I went out to dinner a week after the Homebake call out, and Richie [Lewis,singer] ended up eating at the same place. He came up to me. One thing lead to another and a week later we were all in one room together jamming together again.

Do you think it’s a natural progression of a band to get together one day after disbanding for a first time?

I think if you’ve got the right people in the band, then yes certainly it’s likely to happen. We weren’t school buddies that hung out all the time like some bands you hear about. But when we eventually got together in the beginning from our different bands, we seemed to click really well. The right dynamics were all there. Particularly with myself and Lenny [Curley, guitar] coming up with guitar parts. And getting back together now just feels right. Whether it was something that was always going to happen or not, I don’t know. I suppose I was hoping it would happen.

Now going back to ’92, you were put in the enviable position of supporting Nirvana on their only Australian tour. How did this come about?

It was basically a case of right place, right time. They didn’t really know us prior to the tour, it was more to do with being tied in with the booking agency. There was a lot of people helping us out at the time.

And what were they like to be around?

Dave [Grohl] and Kris [Novaselic] hung around and watched most of our shows. They hung out with us. We hung out with them. And it was all good fun. There were probably hundreds of bands going for that spot. We just happened to be taking off at that moment, and luckily our music tied in with what they were playing. So it was probably more luck than anything (laughs).

There’s no room for modesty in this interview! Feel free to pump yourselves up a bit!

Well, we all know what the music industry is like. But I suppose they really loved our music!

That’s the spirit (laughs)

That tour was just amazing. Those Melbourne shows were just incredible. I think we did seven shows with them [overall]. We weren’t down for the full tour. I think we weren’t meant to do the Brisbane show. But as it turned out, Kurt was ill so they didn’t end up playing anyway. Yeah, but those three shows in Melbourne at the Palace were just amazing.

Well, I was a bit too young to have gone myself, but I’ve got the recordings and they sound pretty intense…

As I said, they were just amazing. Kurt just had everyone in the palm of his hand. I mean, when they played Polly, he just had everyone in the place singing along. I’ve never seen anything like it. He had everyone sing Polly and stuff like that. And obviously when things ‘heavied’ up, he had the masses jumping up and down. And they were just amazing live. I’ve never seen anything like it. The sound was incredible, and the music was played perfectly. Dave Grohl was an animal. We usually watched the whole show. Sometimes we just sat side of stage and watched him drum the whole show. Just an incredible drummer!

How hard did they work to perfect their live sound? Did the whole grunge image in some ways muddy their efforts of preparing for a show?

I would say that’s definitely true when it comes to Dave and Kris. They were there early for sound check. But the professionalism didn’t stop there. They had a great crew. They had this guitar tech who would strip a guitar and have it ready to go in no time. He’d actually pull the necks off them. We’d be side of stage. He’d grab a guitar. And rather than just re-string the thing, he’d pull the neck off and re-set the neck and then re-string it within a song. He’d actually just have guitar necks sitting by the stage and if one did break [read as: Kurt smashed it against something] he could put a new neck on a guitar, as well as string it within a song.

That would have been unheard of in the local scene in Australia.

We just couldn’t believe how professional they all were. The sound was amazing. The crew that they brought over with them was top-class. As far as Kurt is concerned, we didn’t really see him. So it’s difficult to say how professional he was compared to the others. We never really saw him. He’d show up for sound check and then go off on his own. He looked very crook. And he was. We knew that he was at the time. He had some type of stomach problem. But as soon as he walked on stage you couldn’t tell. He was just on fire.

With your current tour, are you hoping they’ll open your music to a whole new audience?

Yeah I hope so. There are a lot of younger people that have come up to us over the years and said, “Hey, I really like you guys. My brother use to listen to you, but I never really got the chance to see you because I was too young.” So I think there is a new audience out there who will come along to the shows.

So what’s involved in the immediate future?

At this stage we’re doing the four shows we’ve got lined up. We’re just really concentrating on that at the moment. And making sure it’s not too much of a stress initially. The jams are fun at the moment and we’re having a great time. But I suppose the real test is doing live shows. Then, hopefully we can look at lining up a tour. There’s no real talk of writing new material just yet. And I don’t think we should be thinking about it. We have to concentrate on these shows at the moment and making sure we’re all tight the sound is right. It has been going well. And I think that we probably will get serious about it in the next month or two.

Any bands lined up for the support spots for the next couple of shows?

Kram is lined up for the show in Melbourne at the Hi Fi Bar. I’m not certain about any others for that show. Our first show that we’re doing is in Wollongong. For the shows in Wollongong we’re going to put on our favourite local bands High Test and Baby Machine. The other shows are festivals, so we don’t really get a say about who plays with us there (laughs).

What can we expect from the upcoming shows?

What you can expect is songs that only us five guys have played. Basically stuff off the first few albums. Included in that is a bunch of songs that we didn’t really play live back in the day. If there is such a thing as a greatest hits, this is it.

Any wicked covers?

There will be no Cliff Richard. That cover of Devil Woman was a shocker [laughs for a good ten seconds] but there will be covers. We’re running through those at the moment. We’ve got a list of about eight that we’ll plough through and then pick one or two of the best ones.

Finishing up with a hypothetical question. If you could have written any song in history, what would it be?

Oh crap. That’s a hard one.

That’s what I love to do; steer the interview one way, and then really trip them up with a hypothetical.

Probably In The Ghetto.

Good one. Is that actually written by Elvis?

Nah, I don’t really think he wrote a lot. As far as desert island discs go, it’d be Elvis, Elvis and more Elvis!

TUMBLEWEED PLAY:

31 Oct- Waves - Wollongong, NSW
5 Dec- The Domain - Sydney
10 Dec- The Hi Fi Bar- Melbourne
11 Dec- Supernatural Amphitheatre - Meredith, VIC

Share this article on Facebook