Grinspoon are on the brink of releasing their 8th studio album titled whatever, whatever, which will arrive on August 9. Described as an album of ferocity; an injection of adrenaline that marks a period of rejuvenation and a new peak for the band, who’ve spent recent years touring nationwide celebrating their untouchable seven album-strong discography and legacy to date. First single Unknown Pretenders marks the first new music from the band in 12 years. The track’s unbridled power is quintessentially Grinspoon – heavy riffs, pounding drums, and charismatic vocals from one of Australia’s most highly-regarded front men, Phil Jamieson.
The band have also announced they’re heading out on an extensive 45-date ‘whatever, whenever, wherever’ tour across the country, kicking off in September, taking in most corners of this huge country. We managed to grab some talk time with bassist Joe Hansen to talk about the band’s return to the studio, regrouping to write and to find out how much they are looking forward to getting back out on the road.
Sean: Hi Joe, thank you so much for your time. I really do appreciate it. It must nice to finally be able to talk about new music from the band.
Joe: Thanks Sean. Yeah it’s actually really nice to be able to talk about new stuff and to have this new album come out. So, it’s actually super exciting for us to have this new music.
Sean: Well we have had a taster with the first single ‘Unknown Pretenders’. It’s got a real punch to it, a really wonderful track to kick it all off with. How much are you looking forward to getting back out there to play live?
Joe: Yeah, it’s going to be a lot of fun. That was kind of our intention with the record was to write songs that we could sort of sit into the set, play live and would be like super fun songs to play in that live setting and fit in well with all the other songs we already have in the set so yeah, it’s gonna be good and so looking forward to it.
Sean: Well, of course, there are a huge run of dates as well on the back of that. I hope you’re match fit and ready to go because that’s a that’s a heck of a tour [laughs]
Joe: [laughs] Yeah I don’t know if I’m match fit as yet. It’s a little bit daunting. It’s kind of like the old school tours that we used to do where you just jump in the van and you just keep driving and gig after gig after gig and so it’s going to be fun. We’re looking forward to it. We haven’t done a tour like that in a while so it’s going to be fun to get into it. We just need to pace ourselves a little bit i think to start with.
Sean: The new album which is out in August. It’s fantastic to finally get a new full-length album out. What was that like to get back in the studio finally and to get back together with all the guys to write and record again after so many years?
Joe: Yeah it was kind of a funny experience because we started in 2020, February. We were in Adelaide and we went into the studio and recorded a few songs. We were sort of just going in and mucking around. We ended up with recording four or five songs and ‘Unknown Pretenders’ was one of them. COVID hit and so that sort of scuppered that plan and then over time we sort of got some more songs together and then we thought, “Well let’s do a full album” and then we ended up recording it last year. So we ended up with a full record when it sort of just all happened, sort of bit by bit but it was great. It was really relaxed in the studio with Oscar Dawson. We recorded in his home studio, just in his backyard basically, so it was super chilled out. It was nice, good fun and you know, we were sitting around his lounge room and having dinner in his dining room and it was very chilled sort of experience so it was nice.
Sean: It must have almost taken it back to the early days, where you’re saying you’re sitting around in the lounge and chilling out in someone’s home studio. It must have been a bit more back to basics again in a way.
Joe: Yep, very much so which was really good because we’ve done the big studio thing, we’ve sort of gone to L.A. and recorded with the big producer in the big studio, and done that and that’s awesome. That’s great and it has its own charm about it. It’s fantastic but I think for this one, it was just really good just to strip it back to a suburban home studio and just really get in there together and it was just the most relaxed and enjoyable recording experience we’ve had in a long time.
Sean: Was the song writing quite a natural process? Did it all come back pretty easy as a group and how do you go about putting the songs together? Is it just ideas all coming together when you get in the studio?
Joe: We tend to write separately and then bring the songs to the band so that’s kind of just how we’ve always done it and especially with the fact we all live separately now so we don’t tend to jam much. We don’t tend to get together and jam stuff out. We sort of write songs, send them around, and they always turn out different once the band gets hold of them anyway. So, yeah, we will send all our material around to each other and learn it, come together, adapt it, change it, and all that kind of stuff. But, yeah, it was pretty easy, to be honest. Yeah, it was surprisingly easy, easier than a lot of times and a lot of other records we’ve done that’s for sure.
Sean: A lot of it must have been down to that relaxing vibe that you were saying you had.
Joe: Yeah, I think Oscar was very good at just chilling everyone out and making a very enjoyable experience.
Sean: I was looking at the dates and you really are going all over the place, which is always great news. When we hear these national tours announced and they miss parts either Tazzy or WA we all get a bit disappointed but you guys are covering literally everywhere. It’s just an incredible run of shows. Obviously the hardest thing always is when you bring out a new album there’s some crowd favourites that are going to have to drop out the set and where these new songs come in. Is it a case of putting all the songs in a hat and having to draw them out?
Joe: Yeah, I think you’ve got to be a little bit selective in how many of the new songs you add in there as well and I think everyone wants to hear the old famous ones, we all know that and that makes for a good night and it makes it fun for us. If the crowd’s having fun, we’re having fun so you’re not going to play the whole of the new album – no one wants to hear that to be honest and we know that. So what we’ll probably do is we’ll probably swap songs, new songs in and out, play different songs at different venues and also probably as the tour goes on, we’ll get more of a feel for it too. Like we might end up adding a whole bunch of new songs if that’s the vibe or not. So you sort of adjust as it goes on the tour but yeah, definitely we still have to play all the old hits otherwise people get
very unhappy [laughs].
Sean: If they’re anything like ‘Unknown Pretenders’ then I think the fans are going to be screaming out for as many of them to be put into the set as possible.
Joe: I’ve got to be honest, the new songs I’d like as many of them to be put into the set as possible. The majority of them will sit very well into the Grinspoon set and I honestly reckon people will really dig them. I haven’t been this confident about a sort of audience response or a fan response from our new material for a long time so I think they’re going to get a really good reception and I genuinely believe that because they are good, fun, up-tempo songs so yeah, I think they’ll dig them, I honestly do.
Sean: Taking you right back to the beginning Joe, to the early days, obviously the Triple J Unearthed recognition was a big part of Grinspoon’s life story and it’s still going now. With the Unearthed platform, how much was that an important part of Australia’s building blocks for young bands?
Joe: I think, especially in the beginning, it was super important, I really did. There was a lot of bands got really good exposure from Unearthed. I mean, certainly we did and Lismore was the very first town that they came to, so we were particularly lucky that we got a lot of focus when we won. I don’t know how we won because there was Lismore bands that had many more songs and had been around for a lot longer that also entered but we were the lucky ones and it gave us a lot of exposure and really sort of kick-started us and just gave us that sort of national airplay that eventually led to getting where we got so I think it’s a great thing. Obviously the way it all works has changed over the years but it’s still a cool thing and you know I think it’s a great thing for young bands to definitely build their profile, for sure.
Sean: It’s certainly the fairy tale story that shows that it works and pays off to get involved in things like that in the early days. And here you are about to put out your eighth studio album many years later.
Joe: Yeah, for sure. Like, you know, when we sent our cassette demo in in 1995 we’d only written probably three or four songs so we weren’t really expecting too much and then like you said here we are still still kicking along and doing okay so yeah, I’d encourage all bands to definitely use that as a platform because you never know where you might get to.
Sean: Joe, before I lose you I’ve just got a couple of general questions if that’s and the first one’s my restaurant question; If you could invite three musicians dead or alive to have dinner with you who would you have join you?
Joe: Oh jeez, bloody hell! [laughs] I mean I’m not going to get this right. I’ll think of someone else as soon as we hang up but I mean Mile Davies would be cool – I’m not even a big jazz fan but he would be cool to have it at a dinner. I’m pretty keen to say Timmy C as far as bass players go, from Rage Against the Machine. I don’t know if he’d be a great conversationalist but he’s a cool bass player so I’ll get him along. And who else? There’s got to be someone really super obvious. I mean, you can say Jimi Hendrix. I mean, probably everyone says that.
Sean: He’s a popular guy. He’s got his own table at this restaurant [laughs].
Joe: [laughs] I mean, do you ask this question of many people?
Sean: Every time as it’s one of my general ones just to finish. And I love the answers because they are so diverse. And sometimes I’ve had someone say three of the Beatles. And I’m like, but who are you leaving out? [laughs]
Joe: Yeah. What would be the most common answers?
Sean: Freddie, John Lennon, Hendrix… they come up fairly often. They’re the common ones. But then I get the cool ones like Miles Davis and there’ll be people I’ve never heard of like jazz pianists and obviously you’re getting very specific for the type of muso you interview, like you being a bass player there are usually bass players in their answer and the same goes for guitarists, drummers or vocalists.
Joe: It’s a great question. I mean Billy Bragg would be cool as well but as long as he didn’t get too far down into politics. I would be, “Billy, I know you’re into that shit but like be cool Billy Bragg and not fully political”. I think he’s mellowed out in his older age but I love Billy Bragg he’s a legend. Oh there’s so many, and I’m sure I’ll think of half a dozen as soon as we hang up.
Sean: What was the last album you listened to, Joe?
Joe: That’s a good question, actually. You know, it’s really bad, isn’t it? I don’t think I’ve listened to an album. I’ve just listened to songs. But probably actually the last album that I think about was The (International) Noise Conspiracy, ‘The Cross of My Calling’. It’s an old album. It’s not a new album.
Sean: Well, I’ll put you out of your misery with the last and easiest question. If you could be credited with writing any song ever written what song would you choose… and you can’t have happy birthday.
Joe: What’s the best song ever written or credited with the best song? I mean, yeah, no. It’s a hard one. I’m not going to come up with a good answer either. It’ll probably be a really good standard. However you feel. I mean, if you could say you wrote ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’, you’d be pretty stoked, wouldn’t you? But, I mean, that’s probably a pretty common answer.
Sean: That’s not as common an answer as you think.
Joe: You’d be pretty happy with having written that. But then again there’s a billion other songs that are less grandiose that I wish I had written as well.
Sean: Do you know what? You can have for 24 hours Joe? That’s your song.
Joe: Alright, I’ll take it. I’ll get the royalties [laughs].
Sean: Joe, we wish you all the best for the new album and subsequent tour and hope to catch up when you head to WA.
Joe: Sean, thanks for the support. Really appreciate it.
