The Living End: More Than White Noise

The Living End need no introduction. I could go on about all their awards and achievements; but all I feel I really should say is this - they are arguably one of the best, or the best bands in Australia: hands down. Yes, it is a big call, but ask any punter who has just witnessed their live show and I’m quite sure they will tell you the same thing. How then, after ten years of writing, recording, and touring are they STILL serving up some of the most unique and original rock and roll tracks being released? Perseverance and determination.

The road for The Living End certainly hasn’t been an easy one, but at the end of the day, the trio have proved they are unstoppable and are about to unleash their sixth studio album White Noise - and with it, show a mature approach while not letting go of their rock and roll roots.

The opening track How Do We Know grabs your attention and guarantees that you’re in for a ride as the brilliant White Noise takes you through a journey of vocalist/guitarist Chris Cheney’s in depth melodic stories, with a maturity never before showcased in their previous albums. Drummer Andy Strachan shares his thoughts on the album. “I would say it’s very different. Whatever we do, it’s going to sound like The Living End, you can’t get past that, but I suppose there’s a heaviness and a rawness. It’s almost like we’ve slowed everything down and made it heavier. The riffs really stand out. Chris’ vocals and his lyrics on this record are by far the best he’s ever written - his voice sounds better now than it ever has.”

Being such a tight musical unit means perfection, combine that with a short time frame and there would have been some strain in their camp. As usual, they powered on and made it through without a scratch, and Strachan explains how they embraced that pressure. “Pressure is good in a way. If you can deal with it in the right way, pressure can be a good friend. There was just a bigger energy in the room when we knew there was a little bit of pressure. You focus yourself on it that way and you don’t have time to get distracted.”

“We’ve recorded and released it very quickly this time. Absolutely without doubt the quickest we have recorded but that was the plan, we just wanted to not allow ourselves the time to overdo things we just wanted to keep it really organic. Spontaneity is sometimes the best way to create …”

But this spontaneity almost didn’t happen. It wasn’t overly publicized but Cheney departed the band for a short while before being convinced to rejoin his band mates and give it another go. The band took a lengthy hiatus to live life away from the band before they inevitably came together once more.

On his ‘holiday’ Strachan says that “the last record was fairly insane for us. We toured for nearly two years almost non-stop. We got to the end of it and Chris was like ‘man I gotta get out or else if it continues like this, I just don’t think I should do it.’ so we really had to allow ourselves the time to discover our passions again…and thoughts get into your mind like ‘what the fuck would I do if I wasn’t doing this band?!’ I don’t want to be in another band! We’re so lucky to be able to do what we love to do and to lose that would just be devastating. I’m pretty grateful that were back on track.”

“There were a couple of months there where we agreed to not speak about the band, not talk to each other just go away and do our own thing - not because we hated each other or anything but to allow each other the space that we needed, and after that time we got together here and there and just enjoyed playing again without any pressure. We’d just get into a room and jam, we weren’t too serious about anything. We learnt to smile and just played music again and it was an amazing feeling really.”

But it was that one day that Cheney gathered the troops and played the riff that started everything again - the riff that created became the opening track and unleashed the creative gates that has now become White Noise. “We sort of started writing and nothing happened so we tried again and Chris came in with this riff and it kind of just shocked the shit out of me and Scott [Owen, bass]. It was so dirty and so big and heavy and so unlike what we expected and we thought ‘fuck, we will come out and we will shock people, we will really make a statement and people won’t expect it.

“I hate to say it but I love every track. There’s one track I love in a very self indulgent way because it’s so rockin. The is another song that sort of strays from what we have been doing which is a really laid back, reggae kind of song that feels like a cold Coopers Pale Ale in the backyard at a barbie. It’s just got this real undeniable feeling. They’re my two secret favourites but I’m just really stoked with the way every song turned out.”

At the end of the day though, it’s the musicians that need to be happy with the music they’re making. Strachan agrees. “We worked out that we had to please ourselves first and if we liked it, we were fairly confident that everyone else will. I really think you can notice the difference between a band that is playing what they really want to play or seeing a band that’s just going through the motions and just trying to write a hit record.”

To top off the release, The Living End are preparing themselves for a run of shows to celebrate. “We can’t wait. It feels likes it’s been so long. Obviously we just want to play the new record to people. Hopefully everyone’s going to go out and get it so that when we play hopefully to lots of people everyone will know the new songs and can really get into the live thing because essentially that’s what we want to do - we want to play the whole record from start to finish.

If that hasn’t sold you – I don’t know what will. White Noise is most probably the best album you will buy this year.

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