POWDERFINGER The day they come

Powderfinger will be joined by Swervedriver and Not From There at Belvoir Amphitheatre on Saturday, December 12, and Bootleg Brewery on Sunday, December 13. Will Powderfinger hit the heights again with their third album, Internationalist? RAN DA KHAMIS takes a pressure reading from vocalist Bernard Fanning.

The times have been good to Brisbane’s Powderfinger since they released their second album, Double Allergic, some two years ago.

The breakthrough single Pick You Up established the five-piece as a regular radio staple, before subsequent favourites Living Type and DAF further stretched their popularity. By the time Powderfinger began touring the country in support of the album, they had already won the masses over.

This time around, with their current album, Internationalist, it appears Powderfinger may have relaxed their old ‘every song has to be a killer’ approach, perhaps owing to the strength of their established reputation and the thought that they’d rather play songs with a decent lifespan.

“Maybe subconsciously we did relax a little more with this album,” vocalist Bernard Fanning admits to X-Press Magazine. “But writing songs is just like an everyday thing for us, rather than writing an album in particular. It only seems to start to take shape a few months before you’re gonna record. You know, like when you get to the point where you think, ‘Oh, we’re just about ready.’ So there’s no real direction.

“I suppose it’s just when you look back at what you’ve been doing over the last year or so and collate it and decide what’s the best, that you start to get an idea. Well, that’s how it works for us. We’re not Pink Floyd.”

Two years of preparation for the album, along with high expectations from both the record label and Powderfinger themselves, might make the band feel a little ill at ease if they couldn’t hit the mark with Internationalist. Fanning, however, appears unconcerned.

“I don’t really feel any pressure, ’cause if they didn’t think it was gonna be a winner, they’d have the option not to give us the money,” he explains.

“So if they are saying, ‘Okay, we’re prepared to put this record out’ and promote it, and then if it stiffs — that’s their problem rather than ours, because they decide to go along with it. I mean, the relationship between bands and record companies is mightily weighed in the record company’s favour, so I have no sympathy for them if it fails (laughs evilly). I’m not saying that I don’t like them or anything. All I’m saying is that it really is a commercial decision for them, and if they make a bad one, then it’s not really our fault.”

A good decision was the release of the delectable single The Day You Come, which received ample airplay and reveals Powderfinger at their best, employing restraint as Fanning’s vocals soar into falsetto. The result is a haunting, spacious and melodic hit. While it may be the perfect introduction to the album, it stands out in comparison with the feel of some of the other songs.

“I suppose I was just trying to do different things with my voice,” explains the conspicuous vocalist. “I’ve always been taken by that style of singing, not that I’ve ever necessarily been able to do it. A few people have said that it sounds a bit Radiohead-ish, but I dispute that simply because a lot of people say that, I think, ’cause I’m using falsetto vocals. That’s just a singer’s tool. It’s not Radiohead’s or Jeff Buckley’s tool; it was Marvin Gaye’s tool a long time before it was Thom Yorke’s. It’s not like I went out of my way to write a song with haunting vocals on it.”

Other highlights include Already Gone, which progressively builds in dynamics with each verse, the melody culminating in an explosive chorus. Passenger is another track on which Fanning’s vocals excel. Others simply demand that your curiosity be satisfied, like Belter.

“That’s about Polly,” he says with trepidation, hesitating before adding, “Just someone.” He pauses. “Just this girl … a friend of ours.”

And Capoicity. “It’s such a stupid name!” he blurts out half-heartedly. “It’s a story about a failed relationship, not autobiographical by any extremes. Just a story about lost hope.”

As it turns out, the finger points directly ahead to the future, with Internationalist offering a measure of comfort and a clearer sense of perspective.

“Well, it is better these days ’cause we have some money now to do what we want to do. I’m no more satisfied as a human being than I used to be. In the big picture, it’s not that big a deal having a multi-platinum-selling record, although I suppose it gave us the confidence we needed to think we weren’t being ridiculous and being totally out of our depths.

“It’s great to be able to support yourself by playing your own music. I’m probably happier now than I was a few years ago with myself, just as a person, my girlfriend and all that sort of stuff.”

This excerpt originally appeared in Issue 617 of X-Press Magazine, published on Thursday, December 10, 1998. Share your memories of this and other classic X-Press content by joining the Rewind Facebook group. Rewind: 40 Years of X-Press Magazine by Bob Gordon is on sale now in hardcover and softcover.