The Living End: The Past Is In Your Head, The Future's In Their Hands

Love them or hate them, you’ve got to hand it to The Living End; they sure as hell know what they’re doing.

A band born out of a love for 50’s rock n roll, they stamped their name on the Australian music scene in the late 90’s with rockabilly-punk anthems like “Prisoner of Society” and “From Here On In”.

Since then, they’ve released five records (four platinum, one gold), accumulated a die-hard global fanbase, and developed a reputation as one of Australia’s most formidable live acts – always remaining relevant, whilst at the same time maintaining a uniquely humble identity. It’s a true Aussie success story if ever there was one, and it’s something that Chris Cheney, Scott Owen, and Andy Strachan don’t ever take for granted.

Now, it’s August 2011, it’s been three years between drinks, and finally they’re back with album number six - the ambiguously named “The Ending is Just the Beginning Repeating”. The Dwarf was lucky enough to catch up with frontman and all-round nice guy Chris Cheney for a quick chat about the album, the touring, and what it’s like to be one of Australia’s biggest rock n roll bands.

Currently caught in the limbo between post-release and pre-tour, you’d think the band would be having a bit of a rest while they have the chance…but you’d be wrong: “No chance in The Living End,” laughs Cheney, “it doesn’t come into our vocabulary apparently.”

Amid a whirlwind of press and rehearsals, The Living End played a small headline slot at Day in the Park in Cairns, a show which proved to be a reassuring experience: “It was incredible…the new stuff got a better reaction than the old stuff,” says Cheney, almost in disbelief, “it doesn’t often work that way, particularly with us, because a lot of our earlier songs are what people think of as these classic live songs. So I think we’re getting to the stage now where people are actually wanting to hear new songs.”

The album is far from typical Living End - with stripped back 80’s elements, soaring melodies, and layered choruses, it focuses less on making us mosh and more on making us dance – a move that has unsurprisingly sparked a frenzy of mixed reviews.

Whilst The Vine and FasterLouder said it was “deprived of heft and depth” and “ultimately flawed” (respectively), Rolling Stone Australia editor Matt Coyte dubbed it “their best album yet”. It entered the ARIA charts at number 3, and has since dropped into the 20’s…yet many of the shows for the upcoming album tour have already sold out.

Clearly, the Australian public is one big bag of mixed emotions. But when asked what they think - whether they themselves feel that this is their best album so far - without even the slightest pause, Cheney says: “Completely.”

“When White Noise came out, I was really happy with the way that turned out – more so than I had been about any of our other records,” says Cheney. “I finally felt like it was a record that I could listen to, and it achieved what I had in my head - what I was trying to write, and the way I wanted it to sound – and this record just wiped the floor with that, as far as I’m concerned.”

That was post-production. Pre-production, on the other hand, was a mess. Cheney wrote a lot during a stint in New York in 2010, and admits to using GarageBand a fair bit to experiment with loops and structures. The band also spent copious hours jamming out ideas into a little home-recorder, and then listening back to pick out the bits that they liked.

“There was just a bit more experimenting with this album, I suppose,” says Cheney, “and no kind of settling for anything that we thought was OK. It had to be right. It had to actually be kickass before we went any further with it.”

When it came time to record, the band had about 40 songs that, together with producer Nick DiDia, they had to sift through and work into an album that would not only excite them, but also us.

“I knew that we had great songs,” says Cheney firmly, “I felt like we potentially had the best songs of our career on this record…but whether it turned out that way after the recording, you just never really know. You can think ‘OK, this song is the hit single’, and then you record the whole album and all of a sudden that song is left off the record for whatever reason. Things can just turn out differently to what you imagined, but I really feel like we had an idea in our head of how we wanted this record to sound, and to feel, and we nailed it.”

There are still epic riffs and singalong choruses aplenty, which should, as always, guarantee a killer tour.

By now, it’s no secret that The Living End are consistently great performers. VB bottle slides and double bass acrobatics aside - whether they’re at The Quokka Arms on WA’s Rottnest Island, or Hisense Arena in Melbourne, the guys give it their all each and every time. Even non-fans have been heard commending them on their unwavering energy and commitment on stage - praise that is nothing short of impressive when you consider the phenomenal amount of shows that they’ve played over the years.

“You just never know what’s gonna be your last show, really…” says Cheney thoughtfully, “you want that connection between the band and the audience, and the only way to get that is to give 100%”

“Initially when we started it was just out of desperation, to be noticed…you know, we’d watch bands play before or after us, when we were just shit-kickers playing to no-one, and we’d look at them and go ‘Ahh man, they’re incredible, we’ll never be that good!’” laughs Cheney.With such a knack for the stage, its no surprise that many think The Living End’s songs are specifically produced for live performance, and Cheney says that although it wasn’t always the case, those expectations do play on their minds when writing songs.“On our first record we were just writing what we liked, but it’s different nowadays because we obviously appreciate the fact that we might have the opportunity to play on the main stage of Splendour or Big Day Out. So there is that kind of mentality in the back of your head…that we want these songs to work even more so on a big stage.

Sure, the regularity with which they appear at festivals gets on some people’s nerves, but it’s only because they’re a band that are guaranteed to deliver the goods. And despite The Living End becoming a household name in Australia, the members have never acted like asshole rock stars. They’ve taken their music to the world, but have always stayed true to their roots. In short, they’re still just regular Aussie blokes who drink VB, listen to ACDC, and whose jeans are torn at the knees.

A humble attitude, a genuine drive and passion for writing quality music, and an undying desire to deliver a flawless performance each and every time – it’s no wonder The Living End are still standing.

“I think we all feel lucky and blessed to still be playing rock n roll for a living,” says Cheney, in one of many reflective moments in the interview. “We know that it’s pretty easy-come-easy-go in this industry, so we don’t ever take it for granted.”

Catch The Living End when they perform on Fat as Butter in Newcastle on October 22

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