Published in JUICE Magazine March '94

The-David McComb who left Perth with his band the Triffids was still a very young man. Even at those first gigs in the East, more than a decade ago, McComb's songs had wit, insight and genuine emotion, suggesting that the Triffids would go a long way. They did. To Europe, where they toured extensively, and back home to Australia, where they had chart action with the sublime Born Sandy Devotional (1986). David McComb has now put the Trifflds to rest and made his first solo album, Love of Will. I have interviewed McComb over many years and we have often disagreed about music - sometimes his. This is the second conversation we have had regarding his new album...

CRESWELL: This record has been a long time coming.

McCOMB: Four-and-a-half years. I wanted to be certain-that every song was right. I'm not obsessed with longevity, but a song has to last a few years. There's no point doing something that'll only last a few months. The criterion is for the songs to be as powerful as they can be.

CRESWELL: Why is this record taking so long to come out?

McCOMB: For once I'm not blaming the record company. It's my decision. Everyone in my band is in some other group, whether it be the Blackeyed Susans or the Bad Seeds, and I just have to wait until their schedules let them tour with me. The last time we spoke, you were disparaging the Blackeyed Susans as a second rate Triffids. Do you still think that?

CRESWELL: I can't comment on the new album, but I stand by what I thought of that show.

McCOMB: It's worth checking them out again. I say this as someone who is marginally connected, in as much as I've had something to do with the songwriting. The Blackeyed Susans make my life a bloody misery because the musicians work in my band, but I'd still defend them, Rob Snarski and Phil Kakulas in particular. I think they've got a good vision. I think you were a little obsessed with what's hip, and consequently the Susans may have seemed old-fashioned.

CRESWELL: Not at all. I think Rob Snarski is a great singer and they are all talented musicians. I just thought they would take it a little further. I'm not hip.

McCOMB: You got very excited when Nirvana came on the scene.

CRESWELl.: You were agreeing with me that people have orthodoxies and they stick to them. I think that the tribal element that goes with rock & roll is sometimes disappointing.

McCOMB: The Blackeyed Susans aren't just wearing waistcoats, they aren't like that at all in what they wear. I would like to stress this is a group that I'm only marginally a part of. I just think you shouldn't rush decisions without exploring their music a bit more.

These days you have to remain true to your convictions. I think that's what the best musicians do. Jesus, I'm sounding like a politician.

CRESWELL: Is that how you'd describe what you do now?

McCOMB: My taste in music is idiosyncratic, but I've stuck with it. I stand by all the records I've made.

CRESWELL.: This album sounds closer to the Triffids, whereas the last singles you put out were playing with hip hop.

McCOMB: If you're going to do that stuff, you've got to do it incredibly well. I think you can actually get something of the attitude of hip hop without choosing the same mechanical means. For instance, there's a track on the Urge Overkill record where they used a drum machine well.

CRESWELL: There's a lot more to hip hop than mechanics.

McCOMB: Yeah. Most of it is not relevant to Australia. What Schoolly D is saying on his latest record has no relevance here at all. I guess ultimately I'm just an old-fashioned believer in the relationship between music and lyric.

CRESWELL: You've called the album Love of Will after Will Akers, who was in the Trifflds early on.

McCOMB : Will, Phil Kakulas and I hung around together in Perth in the late '70s and early '80s. He chose another path. He's still a very good friend and songwriting partner. He's very acute.

CRESWELL: How do you think your songs have changed since the last Triffids records?

McCOMB: They're less romantic. Now I think the songs might still be about a man and a woman, or a man and a man, but they are interested in power and manipulation rather than self-pity.

CRESWELL: I find a Gothic quality in your songs.

McCOMB: Could you tell me what you mean by Gothic?

CRESWELL: The characters all have some moral ambiguities, or are in some way morally sensitive.

McCOMB: I'd plead guilty to all of that. I would also say there are a lot of mundane descriptions of character, clothing and environment. It's the same sort of balance that Paul Kelly maintains. The hardest job is keeping the balance, and I think that Paul Kelly does it incredibly well, between the artistic aspirations and the mundane details.

CRESWELL: The last time we spoke you said your favourite song . on the record was "I Want to Conquer You," but you didn't want to elaborate on it much.

MCCOMB: The worst thing people can assume about the song is that it's about rape, and I'd like to make it dear that it's nothing to do with that. It's completely concerned with how people in love manipulate each other. Despite the sophistication of modern life there is still a bottomless well of people who want to seduce and conquer each other. It was written very quickly, almost unconsciously.

CRESWELL: It's funny that no matter how civilised we get, we still have the same grey areas in our relationships with each other.

McCOMB: The obvious example being Bosnia. I think that human beings are extraordinarily arrogant about how knowledgeable they are. I think they fail to realise how base and capable of such stupidity and ignorance we are. When people ask me about my religion, the closest I come to religion in my beliefs is that I'm ignorant. That's as a far as my belief goes - the certainty of my ignorance.

CRESWELL: Are you less romantic personally?

McCOMB: I've got a firmer grasp of things. Both my A&R person and my manager - both good friends - said 'you're not putting those religious songs ["Life Like," "Leaning'] on the record.' I ignored them of course, as one does one's good friends. They're not really religious songs; they're love songs, but they're not towards a woman.

CRESWELL: You've been reviewing television programs for Radio National. How do you like having the boot on the other foot?

McCOMB: I like it. It gets to be difficult if it gets to be serious. I reviewed the NBC Today Show, which is one of the best things that America has given us. I also did Paradise Beach. When you're talking about something like Paradise Beach, the more serious your review gets the more stupid you sound.

CRESWELL: Do you watch much television?

McCOMB: I have very old-fashioned tastes. I go for BBC documentary type things apart from the odd, junkie-like snatch of commercial YV. I like supporting the ABC.

CRESSWELL: You've resisted going out as the solo troubadour with an acoustic guitar.

MCCOMB: Basically I'm not good at that. I can't accompany myself well on acoustic guitar. I like to play with people who play music loud. Have you heard Warren Ellis? He plays in the Blackeyed Susans. He is the best musician in Australia today. When you play with him it's quite unlike working with anyone else.

CRESWELL: 'The Triffids had a very naive approach.

McCOMB: I thought that. I now think of the Triffids with a great deal of respect. They might not have been techno musicians - neither am I - but they had a good spirit. It was a hard derision. It was a question of whether to keep the locomotive running downhill after the fuel is exhausted or to put the brakes on.

CRESWELL: It must have been a difficult derision.

McCOMB: Yep. It still is.

CRESWELt: Did you ever feel that your thirst for music was quenched? That you wanted to give it away?

McCOMB: No. The reasons can be directly ascribed to several specific songs. There was "Goin' Back To Call" by L.L. Cool J, the Geto Boys' "My Mind Is Playing Tricks on Me," which is incredible, and to a lesser extent the Urge Overkill album, which has a lot of good songs on it. All these songs have kept my faith..

CRESWELL: there was a certain naivete to the Triffids that doesn't seem to be on this record.

McCOMB: Certainly not, but there are things you can do in your thirties that you couldn't before. I think I'm capable of writing better songs than before - more measured, more powerful. Whether anyone agrees is another matter. When I say measured I don't mean softer.

CRESWELL: Are you less romantic as a person?

McCOMB: Yeah. I'm more interested in other things - science, politics - if that's what you mean by less romantic.

CRESWELL: What about in relationships?

McC:OMB: No. Overall in my relationships with my friends I find that I'm a pretty loyal person, pretty sentimental and not very pragmatic or expedient. I don't think I'm at the ruthless stage yet.

CRESWELL: Have you ever feared that the well would dry up?

McCOMB: No. I don't want you to get the wrong end of the stick about that. I don't view the songs I write as autobiographical to any important extent. I despise people who use songs like a diary. There's a big distance between my life and any of the characters in the songs. In fact, if there is a problem with these songs it may be that they are too cold, too removed. But even though they are not about definite people, that doesn't mean they're any less emotional or real.

CRESWELL: So what are your plans for the next few months?

McCOMB: I'll be touring with the Blackeyed Susans in February and then going out with the Red Ponys in March. All I do in the Susans is sing two or three songs and play the guitar. It's very easy.

CRESWELL: So what exactly is your role in the Blackeyed Susans?

McCOMB: Rob Snarski and Phil Kakulas are two of the best friends I've had in my life. We're very dose. And that goes for Warren, Jim and Graham Lee. We have lots of fights and often almost come to blows. People have to realise that in 1994 musicians are going to be in more bands than one. Get used to it.

Toby Creswell JUICE magazine, march 1994

JUICE/MARCH '94