When rock bands get a bit older, the kind of music they make tends to change a bit, too. People start referring to it differently, using phrases like “old school” and “dad rock”. Some bands, understandably, get caught up in it––doing the big rock-opera thing, moving into new sounds, writing crazy concept albums. The Living End have been around nearly 25 years. They’re into what would probably be ‘dad rock’ territory for most other rock bands. Of course, The Living End––the iconic trio of Chris Cheney, Scott Owen and Andy Strachan––have never been most other rock bands.
Their eighth album, Wunderbar, isn’t an expansion into electronic sounds, or a step into soft-rock crooning. It’s not needlessly baroque, or needlessly minimal. As lead singer and guitarist Chris Cheney says, “We’re not trying to re-write Dark Side of the Moon or anything.” Instead, Wunderbar does what The Living End do best, what’s kept hundreds of thousands of fans listening for nearly a quarter of a century: straightforward, heart-pounding, guns blazing rock and roll. It’s what The Living End are known for. It’s what they’re good at. It’s what they love. And Wunderbar is their best straightforward, heart-pounding, guns blazing rock and roll album yet. Andy insists that keeping the formula simple is the key to The Living End’s success: “We still get off on playing live and giving 100%,” he says, “We still try to write the best songs we can, and we still give a shit! Which is probably why we’re still together.”
Wunderbar came together quickly, faster than a Living End album has ever really been made. After deciding to write and record a new LP in September 2017, the band booked recording and preproduction sessions in Berlin, Germany, for January 2018, giving them four months to write an entire record. “We had limited time to write,” recalls Chris, “which we were freaked out by at first. But it turned into a good thing because it meant full steam ahead.” And full steam ahead they went: from its initial, harebrained conception, The Living End ended up writing one of the most raw, conscious, and politically vital albums of their career. Some artists can’t work under pressure, The Living End, it seems, thrive on it.
Frontview with the members of The Living End on the eve of the album release.
First I show you a single of the Stray Cats (Runaway Boys-1980), first thoughts?
Chris: ”That was the beginning for Scott and I in many ways. This first single of the Stray Cats has a huge influcence up to this day.”
Scott: ”It’s a Rock ‘n Roll Classic that still sounds good. Our first coverband, we called it the Runaway Boys.”
You just opened day 6 of the Festival Lokerse Feesten.
Scott: “ A lot of sun in the face.”
The band started in 1994, just go with us back in time.
Chriss:” The first Living End EP came out late 1995. I played together with Scott, our sisters were friends @ Highschool. “
Scott: ”We met when we were 5 or 6 years old, went to the same high school. We were starting getting into music at 16.”
Today it’s ‘Punkday’ on the festival, do you still feel like punks on stage?
Chris: ” Yes I did today. I feel on stage that we have something to proof. Not everybody knows who we are. You don’t just win them over by smiling at them, you have to work it. I felt today we dug in.
We played as hard and as energetic as we could and as well as we could. I don’t think we ever felt as a punkband, we’ve always been a rockband. Maybe we’re a punkrock band. We listened to much to other styles of music, to be just punk. I love also Beethoven and shit like that. Beethoven was a punk! What a great songtitle! “
You’re coming of the other side of the world, Australia, did you know something about Belgium?
Scott: “Belgian chocolate and waffles. What I learned here in Belgium, is that you have to put the waffle on top of the cup, when the tea or coffee is hot and it will melt the honey or the sweetener that they used in the waffle,gooey. . Oh they are good,the waffle huts!”
Is there live already a try out of songs of the new coming album?
Scott: “In Australia we did 2 small gigs where we played just new songs. And then we played a few new ones here and there. “
Chris: ”It’s hard to play in 40 minutes to play to many new ones. But today, it felt so good to play the new song Don’t loose it. You write the song, you work on them in pre-production and finally record them. You don’t really know how they gonna feel in the middle of a set amongst all the other songs.”
You wanted to play one more song today, but the organisation respected the time-table.
Scott: “ Yes, we wanted to play one more song, but we had to do the right thing. “
The title Wunderbar, is it referring to the city Berlin or maybe to the hit of Tenpole Tudor in the 80’s ?
Chris: “ Tenpole Tudor....oh cool....don’t know much about them but they were a big band, very popular. We just wanted to tie in with the German experience. We recorderd there with a German producer, we spent six weeks , it’s a place that we love going, inspiring.”
You had a limited time to write the album, under pressure, a good thing or not?
Andy: “We did, we pushed ourselves into a place, out of our comfortzone anyway. We thought, let’s do something radical, which we did, going to Berlin, in the middle of winter. And I guess, if there’s a good spot, a good time of year to write a record, it’s Berlin in the middle of winter. The snow, you don’t wanna go outside anyway. Get out of our comfortzone was a healthy thing. “
Tobias Kuhn (producer), spoke the same musical language as the band.
Scott: “Yeah, we’ve been toghether for a long time. So we got a unique way of working together. He’s extraordinary. “
Political messages on the new album?
Scott: “Social politics in the song Not like the other boys. “
Chris: “ It’s about discrimination and Death of the American Dream is pretty political as well”
The videoclip shoot “Don’t Loose it” looks funny, any bloopers collected?
Scott: “ Yes, plenty! “
Andy: “You have to do a lot to shock people these days. I got the dress and it was a lot of fun in making it. The big reveal at the end is a guy called Molly Meldrum”
Scott: “He’s the best inteview journalist from the 70’s 80’s with an extraordinary life, he was in the Elvis Jump suit. It was so humble to have these celebrety kind of people being in our video, it’s awesome.”
Release date of the album is september 28th, an international release?
Chris: “In the past, we released in Australia first, but fans of Europe imported it already then. So now we go for a release all over the world”
Let’s focus on a few songs of Wunderbar.
Chris: “ Not like the other boys is about a boy, a political song. We all have kids on the primary school now. On the school of my daughters, there are a few boys who are different, and that’s ok! There’s a little bit attention at the schoolyard, but kids can be cruel. Be whatever you want to be. There are bigger problems in life, isn’t it?”
Death of the American dream is a song that evolves in the middle from heavy to a campfire song.
Chris: “ First I had the title for a different song. I had so much imagery around it, I love the fifty’s Americano. Parents and teenagers had succesfull jobs , they were buying cars. Listening to Rock ‘n Roll, Freedom, Liberation,...This country was the place, and now it’s wounded. When I lived there, my friends had so much shame about the political situation. This is like a letter to America, I adore the place, I love living there and l love the people. “
Chris, you returned to Australia after living in LA.
“The coffee was better!”
The members of “Die Toten Hosen” appear in the backing vocals.
Scott: “They flew in independantly to say: we will be a part of this. They spent half a day with us, yelling and screaming in the microphone, it was so a big honour for us. We met them years ago when they first came to Australia. We played together on tour and they invited us to Germany”.
What do you mean with the lyrics in the song ‘Love won’t wait’?
Chris: “I was thinking about this song earlier today. I love the lyrics because it’s so simple, so direct. There is so much negativity in the world, so much horrible stuff that we see. I love white white, and say ‘do it now’ because you never what’s around the corner. Andy and I came in Germany with the chorus.”
Andy: “It’s a cinematic song, it’s a really challenge to sound true.”
“Drop the needle”, about drugs?
Scott: “When I first listened to this song, I thought , it’s not about heroïne, it’s about music.”
Amsterdam
Chris: “It’s a sort of word association, we love Amsterdam. In the song you hear ‘I don’t wanna go back to Amsterdam’. For me it reminds me for a bad time. Something I was going through at that stage, I will always think about that. It was just a kind of using Amsterdam like time and place, but not necessarily anything to do with that city. Amsterdam, what can possibly go wrong?”
