They say that seventy is the new fifty and that is most certainly the case for the effervescent Ian Moss, who recently reached that birthday milestone. But Mossy seems in no hurry to slow down, with a recent sold out national tour celebrating 50 years of Cold Chisel, as well as a highly acclaimed solo album, ‘Rivers Run Dry’ that received rave reviews when released back in 2023.
Ian is releasing a new album, ‘Live at Anita’s’, recorded at his sold-out performance at the beautiful Anita’s Theatre at Thirroul during the hugely successful Rivers Run Dry Solo Acoustic Tour. ‘Live At Anita’s’ captures Moss at his supreme best as he brilliantly rolls through a stunning seventeen-song set. The album, available on Limited Edition Eucalyptus Green Double Vinyl and CD, is the first-time Ian Moss live recordings of ‘Flame Trees’, ‘Cry Me A River’, ‘I’m Going Back’, and ‘Green Green Grass Of Home’ plus the first-time live acoustic performances of ‘Rivers Run Dry’, ‘Out Of The Fire’, and ‘Nullarbor Plain’ have been released.
We talk to Mossy about the new album, as well as the recent Cold Chisel 50th anniversary celebrations and his early influences…
Sean: Hi Ian, it’s Sean from the Rockpit in Perth. How are you?
Ian: I’m good thanks Sean.
Sean: First of all, many happy returns for the other day.
Ian: Yeah, thank you. You know, you dread turning that particular age, but then I’ve arrived here in pretty good health and still fairly mobile, that’s what’s important.
Sean: Well they say it’s the new fifty so plenty of years to look forward to. ‘Rivers Run Dry’, what a fantastic album that was, and still is and you can always judge an album when a live version can appear down the track from these incredible tracks. We reviewed the album when it came out back in 2023 and we were extremely grateful when your team shared it across your socials. Excited to hear ‘Live at Anita’s’, which is out on May 2nd.
Ian: The ‘Rivers Run Dry’ album, it’s funny, there is acoustic guitar on it, but largely it was an electric album. But these songs, you know… I find the sign of a good song is if they scrub up well with one bloke and a voice, and yeah they have. So I’m really excited to release an alternative version of what I feel is a pretty fine album.
Sean: Yeah, it was a wonderful listen and one that I didn’t hesitate to review when I heard it. It captured me, and was just fantastic. I got to miss you when you came to the Riverside here to play that album on that tour. So I’m hoping to catch you this time but I may be too late as I see the shows to celebrate you out again solo have just flown out the door. There’s sold-outs on all of them. I think we’ve got a second show added in Perth at the Heath Ledger Theatre, which is just wonderful to see them being so well supported.
Ian: Yeah well of course as a musician you always want to see it a lot healthier (the music scene), but I guess we’ll never see those glory days of the late 70s and pretty much all through the 80s, where every pub and every corner had a band playing every night of the week. But it kind of feels like there’s a bit of that on the return, so may it continue its upward rise.
Sean: The album was recorded at Anita’s. I’ve not been there yet. What can you tell me about the venue? Is it one of those classic music venues that we have in Australia?
Ian: Look, it’s fantastic on all fronts. I mean, it’s an old Art Deco thing. It’s down at Thirroul which as a suburb just halfway between Sydney and Wollongong, which is just down on the coast. Really beautiful beaches and stuff there too. And I think it’s built in the 1920s something like that, an art deco kind of place whish has been beautifully restored and kept in its original glory. I think its around 800 seated but maybe up as much as 1500 if people are standing and the acoustics are just fabulous. The décor is just gorgeous, 1920s, 1930s decor, just fantastic.
Sean: Sounds stunning. I need to get myself over there to check it out. So, with your song writing, especially with an album like ‘Rivers Run Dry’, is it something that you really had to apply yourself to do or was that something that just came really naturally?
Ian: Oh man, it’s a usual thing. There’s always that, you know, every now and then there’s a bit of luck and a whole song can roll out within minutes. But if it doesn’t, it’s generally more a case of you’ve got some initial strong ideas and then it’s this case of you’ve got to put the hard yards in and extrapolate and turn it into something and work hard. And most of the songs on the ‘Rivers Run Dry’ album were like that, I’d say. There was lots of work, but rewarding work, work I don’t mind doing. Yeah, and songs from all eras. There’s a song that actually myself and drummer Kerry Jacobson, the original Dragon drummer who plays drums in the album, we started writing that track in 2000. And it was one of those things, we just got it to about 90% of the finishing line and it just took us so long, we just couldn’t get it across the finishing line. But we finally did, and we knew when we had it but there was just one part that was just driving us nuts. And we knew when it started unfolding, we had it finally. And that song is ‘State of my Emotion’ which is one of my favourites. A very Latin rock kind of thing which sits out on the ‘Rivers Run Dry’ album.
Sean: So, taking you right back before the Cold Chisel days, what were your influences growing up, and when was that moment you realised that music was your future and your lifeblood?
Ian: For my influences, you know, you’ve got to start from a really early age. When I was four or five years old and heard Johnny Horton doing ‘Battle of New Orleans’, I thought that was pretty good, solid rock and roll back then. I even got into Elvis Presley and I remember hearing ‘Hard Headed Woman’ and going “woah, what’s this? How’s the energy? This is fantastic” and then of course along came The Beatles and all the beautiful melodic stuff. There’s a really silly era of music in the 60s that I never got. Stuff like ‘Y0ellow Polka Dot Bikini’ [laughs] and ‘James (Hold The Ladder Steady)’, you know I always look back and say what what the f*** was that? [laughs] What were they thinking?
And then out of those ashes, rose the phoenix of Psychedelia Rock and, of course, Jimi Hendrix and Cream and Led Zeppelin. And by that stage, I’d only just picked up a guitar. I’d been learning the fabulous vibrato stuff from the brilliant Hank Marvin on guitar and trying to learn all his parts. And then Hendrix came out and everyone scrambled to find a fuzz box and turn their amps up past 11 and get into that stuff and that’s, that’s pretty much where Cold Chisel started. The main influences were of those kind of bands. They influenced Cold Chisel and me.
Sean: You touched on Chisel. As an English kid, coming here on holiday to visit family, my uncle was a die-hard fan, so every time I got in his car as a 12, 13, 14-year-old, there was these cassettes being run through over and over again until they were just nearly wiped clean from being constantly played with this wonderful music. And that was my introduction into Australian rock music, Cold Chisel and bands like that and here I am today getting to talk to people like yourself about this amazing legacy the band have left, and continue to leave. I went to the 50-year anniversary celebration shows at Sandalfords. I was there on the day without the rain luckily and it was one of the most incredible show I saw last year. Unbelievable Mossy! And I loved the silver nail varnish. I couldn’t take my eyes off your fingers on the fret with that silver nail varnish on. It glistened in the spotlights every now and again. But what a wonderful night that was. And what an amazing tour.
Ian: Yeah, absolutely fabulous night there at Sandalfords. I’m glad you picked the better of the days. The Sunday night was rather wet, windy and cold there for a little while, at the start of the night but we soldiered on through. The crowd weren’t going anywhere. So we thought as long as we don’t get electrocuted, we won’t go anywhere [laughs]. And it all went really fine. And the whole tour was just a dream run.
Sean: I did get to meet you very briefly at Mundi Mundi last year as I was interviewing a few of the artists. It was just the most incredible festival I’ve ever been to. What an amazing place to be, out in the middle of nowhere with this amazing setup and line-up.
Ian: It’s amazing to think that once upon a time, somebody suggested that kind of idea, that idea of a venue. It would have been crazy, you know, who the hell’s going to drive out there in the middle of winter? But that’s how the Big Red Bash was born. Isn’t it right in the middle of winter? Well, it’s probably a lot better than summer. It’d be pretty intense out there. [laughs] But no, that’s good. And so Mundi Mundi came later but they’re just equally wonderful gigs, they just go off and they have a wonderful family like atmosphere but they’re still rock and roll.
Sean: It’s that build it and they will come scenario. I had the most amazing three or four days there. I hope to go back this year. Ian, I’d love to finish with a couple of general ones if I may.
Ian: Of course.
Sean: My restaurant question, if you could invite three musicians dead or alive to join you for dinner, who would you have sat with you?
Ian: Jimi Hendrix, Wes Montgomery and Duke Ellington.
Sean: Wonderful, what a selection. Very diverse.
Ian: Yeah. Fantastic.
Sean: What was the last album you listened to?
Ian: Oh, the last album I listened to… I’m just really liking American white Soul singer Alan Stone. They’re great pop songs, but they’re quite complex, they’re not just three chord wonders and really catchy and really soulful.
Sean: Fantastic. I’ll check him out after this call. And the final question, if you could be credited with writing any song ever written, what song would you choose?
Ian: [laughs] Oh boy, that’s a tough one, so many great choices. How about, I’ll just go with ‘I Can’t Make You Love Me’. She didn’t write it, but Bonnie Raitt did the first recording of it.
Sean: Oh, what a fantastic artist she is.
Ian: She’s incredible. Yeah, and to my mind, still does the best version.
Sean: Ian, thank you so much for your time. I really appreciate it.
Ian: No worries, Sean. Good to talk to you.
