“A freaking love affair with music”: Hard-Ons bring 40th Anniversary celebrations to Perth
Veteran Aussie punk rockers Hard-Ons have released their new album, I Like You a Lot Getting Older, ahead of their 40th Anniversary Australian tour, which hits Amplifier on Thursday, November 7—with tickets available now. The tour is also preceded by the release of their long-awaited documentary Hard-Ons: The Most Australian Band Ever. DAMIEN CROCKER caught up with Peter “Blackie” Black to talk about their milestone year and the evolution of the band.
So how are you guys feeling about the 40th anniversary?
You know I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t stoked because sometimes you do sort of stop, take a deep breath, and go ‘far out’. We’ve been doing it for a long time. I think I just count myself more lucky that after all this time, I still get to do it because I’ve got such a freaking love affair with music and being in a band and creating music.
For many bands, an anniversary like this is an excuse to revisit the greatest hits or a defining album, yet other than this being called the 40th Anniversary Tour, in many ways between touring and releasing new music, it’s pretty much business as usual for you.
Yeah, it’s not such a milestone in that way. For me to do something like stop everything and go on a tour where say we replicate this record or replicate that record, I would have to be paid shitloads because it would feel like a job. I mean, going back and doing something that I did 20-30 years ago wouldn’t be as exciting. We’ve got a new record out, and the last couple of rehearsals we’ve just been smashing the new record, trying to see which songs will sound shit hot live, and that’s really got my “can’t wait” sort of juices flowing.
Our love affair with music hasn’t abated at all, and we’re continually trying to learn. I mean, I’m even thinking of going back to guitar lessons, thinking I need to know more so I can write better. I feel like the guitar’s still locked in some parts for me, and I wanna open it up more.
That’s funny because when I see you ripping it up live, it doesn’t look like anything is locked on that fretboard.
Well yeah, trust me, it is. I can dazzle with bullshit.
What is different for you today compared to the early days?
I think what’s different for us now, like massively, which is a bit of a bummer, is that playing music in this country is not really rewarded financially, so all of us have day jobs and we can’t tour like we used to. So we get people going, “Why aren’t you coming here?” We literally have constraints and can’t lose our day jobs, and we also have families that we have to look after, so the band technically really is a hobby.
I know I get a lot of people saying, “Why aren’t you doing this? Why aren’t you doing that?” And that’s the hard reality of it is we have to work as well. We have to pay the rent. Then we can go on tour. That’s the biggest difference, whereas 30 years ago people loved going to see live music, so we used to tour for half a year and we could sustain it. We go to Europe, and we go 3-4 weeks max. We go to Japan for a week and a half and come back. We tour Australia on the weekends, and during the week we’re back at our jobs.
One big difference for Hard-Ons in recent years is Tim Rogers out front. What has he brought to the band, especially in terms of the touring and live experience?
It’s actually been incredible. The thing that Tim brings to the band besides his massive enthusiasm is his vocal range, natural harmonies, and also his syntax. He’ll sometimes take melody as it’s already existing and phrase it in such a different way. I guess in a roundabout way I’m trying to say he’s brought more melodic power and he’s brought a lot of soul into the band, which is so fucking exciting to work with.
When we asked him, he actually thought we were taking the piss because he said you’ve been my favourite band for so long I kind of always wanted to do this. So I think that enthusiasm and him getting to flex in a different way as well is really exciting for him. At first he was a little bit nervous, thinking he was the new guy and shit, and it’s like, we’re way too old to even think that way, and he says, “Can I do this? Can I do that?” We said, “Mate, you don’t have to tell us; just go out and do what you feel because we asked you to join the band because we know it’s gonna be good, and it was.” We put our trust in him, and it’s paid off massively.
I guess it also opens up opportunities for you musically for your new recordings as well.
Man, it really does. There were times when I’d have a song and I’d have the melody, and I would think this is way beyond me. I’m gonna leave this aside and maybe tackle it later, after I have a few more singing lessons. But now I don’t have to do shit like that. It’s like I can’t wait to hit him with this, or I can’t wait to see what Tim does with that. His ideas are shit hot. Let me just put it that way.
Are there things you didn’t expect to be doing 40 years into playing?
No, I never expect anything. You know, you can always hope for things, but for me, I guess I learned from my parents. My parents were immigrants from former Yugoslavia, and both of them were just super hard working and I think that’s what they instilled in me. My dad was like, “Fucking work if you want shit done.” You just work, and that’s kind of how I approached this. I never think I want this, I expect this, or I think I deserve this. I doubt if I ever think that way; I just love doing it, so I just put my head down and do it, and whatever comes, it’s been pretty awesome.
I think that’s been a big part of your longevity and why you guys still love it so much.
Yeah, I think so. I guess one of the other things is that we’ve always been an underground band as well. We’re not household names; we’re not Top 40 stars or any of that sort of shit, so there’s never been any expectation on us as well. We’ve just been pretty much left to do whatever we felt like, and that freedom is pretty important for a creative outlet because I do know certain bands at times who were friends who did get a taste of the big time, and then when it didn’t last, they were like, “This is fucked.”
I guess I’ve never been in that situation to even think that way. I think that maybe all that sort of shit’s been a very lucky component of our longevity.
In the last few years, Hard-Ons have been pretty consistent with the releases. Tell us a bit about the new album I Like You A Lot Getting Older.
This new record, in my mind, it’s uber pop. There’s a reason for it, which I probably can’t talk about, like bits of it are even bubble gum.
We sort of go through phases where one record would be a bit heavy, then the other one would be more poppy. Those sort of cycles that just sort of happen naturally: you play these sort of chords for a while, then you get bored, then you play those sort of chords for a while, then you get bored, then you spin it around. But yeah, this one just came out pretty pop.
The documentary Hard-Ons: The Most Australian Band Ever has just been released. I guess like Hard-Ons’ journey, there’s been a few ups and downs getting this one to the screen, so you must be pretty happy to see it get to this point.
Definitely, I felt really bad for Jono (Jonathan Sequeira) when things turned to shit and he put his heart and soul into it. When people ask me about the doco, I don’t really know what to say because I’m not making it; he is, and he’s been on it for years and years. But I put my trust in him because he made the Birdman documentary, and I fucking love it. So he’s got a knack for it; it’s his thing.
I don’t want to sound like I’m being snobby, but I get people like, “Oh, I filmed you guys the other night; here’s the footage.” I’ve never watched any of it at all because I play the gig. Watching myself on the computer afterwards… I’d rather watch paint dry. It’d be a lot more exciting.
