Presidents Of The United States Of America - Transcontinental Relations

The Presidents of the United States of America have never been a band known for doing the obvious. From the outset of the band when they decided that basses and guitars only required two and fours strings respectively to creating brilliantly absurdity and down right fun rock and roll during the height of the shoe gazing depressive and downright surly grunge era. Given their eschewing of the bloody obvious then their break up at the height of their career after selling a few zillion copies of each of their eponymous debut and its follow up release ‘II’ , should not have come as a surprise to fans and the media given their history of doing things their own way.

After an eight year absence from the world stage the Presidents again returned for another tern with the release of “Love Everybody’ in 2004. The energetic rollicking rock goodness had returned with then and whilst the album was not as commercially successful as its predecessors the band still causes a rousing reception when they graced our shores to tour it on its Australian release last year.

2006 sees the Presidents again return to our humble country and The Dwarf took the stellar opportunity to catch up with drummer Jason Finn to discuss the love affair between the Presidents and Australia as well as the simple joys of autonomy.

When asked what keeps the Presidents coming back to Australia Finn muses unexpectedly ‘It’s the only place that puts beets on burgers, we can’t get them anywhere else so we have to keep coming back! I mean you have to make sure you have the egg and everything on the burger as well; it doesn’t seem like it should work but it does, its so wrong yet so right’. Seriously? The Dwarf replies. ‘Well that and even when we were huge everywhere else we were always super-huge in Australia’. So a mutual love of beetroot on burgers and the President music is enough to keep the boys coming back, but The Dwarf asks, what else has been happening in the Presidents world? Finn reveals that since the release of ‘Love Everybody’ in the USA in 2004, the band has been following the touring treadmill ever since.

Given the fact that this is the second time around for the band The Dwarf begs the question how the band manages to keep it together given the notorious grind that the road can be. Finn reveals the secret of their success is simple ‘We have learned to take breaks! For every long tour we do we need to take a break and relax. It keeps us fresh and stops us from burning out’.

Another key element of the Presidents reformation is the fact that unlike in their previous incarnation, they have chosen to opt out of the mainstream record industry and form their own record label to publish and manage their own recordings. Finn elucidates that the move was largely motivated by creative purposes ‘We decided to take ourselves our of the mainstream so we didn’t have to compromise’. It is a move that has also prompted the band to go as Finn explains ‘Back to basics’ in terms of writing, recording and managing their output.

Despite the ensuing years and changing rock scene, The Presidents of The United States are back in the country again, doing what they do best, rocking up the big stuff in their own way, oh and eating burgers with beetroot.

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