Sain Unlimited Magazine - September 2000. By Pennie Dennison
What do you do when you're in the middle of recording one of the most anticipated albums of the year and you realise your amp is out of tune? According to Bernard Fanning you don't stress, you just take time out and play ping-pong while it gets fixed!
This is what the guys from Powderfinger did when they were in the middle of recording their latest album Odyssey Number Five and they realised they'd stumbled upon something pretty rare - an out of tune amp! In fact guitarist and vocalist Ian Haug is still blown away by the fact that an amp can actually be out of tune. "It was bizarre, we were trying to tune a guitar and it just wouldn't work, then someone asked what kind of amp we were using, and said 'it's the amp.' It turns out the amp was out of tune... I was like: I just don't understand how an amp can be out of tune! In fact you should write down the guys name who loaned us the amp - it's Paddy Dampsy," says Ian laughing loudly.
Ian and Bernard are rolling around with laughter as they relive the "amp" day, and this sense of fun and mateship is a real indication of the kind of special connection the group share as a whole. They are all incredibly supportive of each others work and share a deep respect for each member's talent. While there has been a lot of anticipation surrounding the release of the band's fourth album, the guys refuse to put pressure on themselves, instead they stress that their goal is to grow musically and remain challenged as a group.
"Look it's great winning awards and having lots of people buying our albums, but we try to take it all in our stride and we don't have massive expectations. I mean we do have some expectations but we don't think that our work is necessarily going to be widely successful", Bernard says.
"Yeah the expectations come more from ourselves... there has to be a natural progression in everything we do and if we're not challenging ourselves in some way then we wouldn't be happy,' says Ian.
If it's musical progression they're after, then Powderfinger have certainly achieved that with Odyssey Number Five. The album is a collection of big sounds that are built on solid song foundation, accompanied by intelligent and memorable lyrics. In fact at times the lyrics are so intimate that they manage to talk straight to the listener's heart.
So is this Bernard and the band's way of getting up close and personal with us? "Not really, maybe it's just that I've become less self-conscious when I write about things that are in my life. The lyrics are suitably vague", says Bernard.
Before the band made Odyssey Number Five, all five members sat down and thought about what they wanted from their fourth album. They decided to build on what they believe they do best - turning common emotions into alluring music. They agreed to make the songs big and tight, and aimed for an overall feeling of completeness for each track.
The first single to be released from Odyssey Number Five, 'My Happiness", is about love and the pinning feeling you experience when you spend time away from the one you love. Love and relationships are common themes on this album and Bernard sings about them with integrity passion and a touch of humor. He believes its the influence of soul and gospel music that has helped him to write and sing so honestly about love. "I listen to a lot of soul music that's unashamedly about love and how good it makes you feel and its really hard to express love without sounding cheesy, but when it comes down to it, its much more important than anything else to me," he says.
The rest of the band are just as committed to bringing the truth in Bernard's lyrics to life. "It's really important for us to agree with what Bernard is singing. You can just sit on a chord if someone's saying something worthwhile. It's just not the lyrics working, it's everything coming together," Ian says.
The guitar and bass driven sound that won so many hearts on the band's previous albums are also very present on Odyssey Number Five. Songs like 'Like a Dog' and 'We Should Be Together Now' conjure memories of that golden age of rock with big guitar riffs and drum beats.
Bernard seems to take more risks and push the boundaries with his voice on this album, exploring his range and playing with different tempos and rhythms. There's a real seventies Bowie feel to 'Like A Dog' and even a touch of Iggy Pop and U2.
"People keep saying different things about 'Like a Dog', Haugy wrote the riff for it and it all came together in fifteen minutes - it just came flying out of him. I was saying it sounded really like Public Image Limited, you know a kind of weird sound... I suppose you just discover ways of using your voice. I love David Bowie so it was bound to come out eventually. It could easily be Demmis Rusos as well - it's just another way of using your voice," says Bernard.
While Bernard enjoyed experimenting with his voice on Odyssey Number Five he stressed that it is the song writing that interests him more than the actual singing itself.
"I'm more interested in writing good songs than being a good singer. It's totally incidental to me. I never meant to do it really, I just got asked to sing 'cause Hauggy didn't want to sing anymore," he says.
Two of the eleven tracks on Odyssey number Five are already getting radio air play before the album has been released. "These Days" and "My Kind of Scene" have both been included on soundtracks for the films Two Hands and Mission Impossible 2. For Two Hands the band were asked to write a song after they viewed a scene from the film, while with Mission Impossible 2 they were invited to contribute a song to the soundtrack.
Last January "These Days" was voted number 1 on Triple J's Hottest 100 poll. It was also Song of the Year at the 2000 Music Critic's Awards, and while the band doesn't get too excited about winning awards; they certainly get excited about being voted number one by radio listeners. "We worked out that being number one on the hottest 100 makes us the biggest band in the world because its the biggest music poll in the world... we were telling each other that for two hours," Says Bernard with a big smile on his face. "Then we remembered we can't be the biggest band in the world because Ben Lee is the biggest in the world!" Bernard and Ian again fall into fits of laughter.
While there's a healthy dose of satirical humor going around in the room, as soon as the conversation turns to music the mood changes to one of seriousness.
"The production on this album it really good... also we've been playing together for a long time, and one of the only goals we set for ourselves is that we wanted to try and make it sound really complete. We didn't want to look back in six month this time and think: 'that could have been left off, or that could could have been improved.' But overall if we're 90% happy in a years time when we listen to it we will be fairly cool with it." Says Bernard.
The band are looking forward to testing out the audience response to their new album with a massive national tour in October. The guys are as committed to their live shows as they are to their recordings, and right now they're itching to get back onto the stage. "It's the whole energy and power thing about playing live - everything is turned up really loud and if everyone's playing well and it's going though a monster PA it's really empowering", Bernard says.
Powderfinger are a band's
band! They have little time for hype and marketing, instead they create music
that comes from a place of truth that can't be intimidated. Their new album
Odyssey Number Five is testament to this, and any Powderfinger fan will be excited
by the collection of powerful tracks on this album.
(Sain Unlimited Magazine - September 2000. By Pennie Dennison)