Cold Chisel: ‘We Don’t Like Labouring Over Things’

In the midst of Cold Chisel’s biggest tour in 30 years, Jimmy Barnes talks to MATT SHEA about triple j, dodgy heart valves, and returning to the recording studio after a 13-year break. Colour photo by STEVE BACCON.

Are Cold Chisel the finest rock’n’roll group this country’s ever produced? It’s a question that could only ever lead to circular arguments, the kind that invite thrown drinks and internet invective. But when it comes to Australian rock royalty you’d be hard-pressed to find a band with a purer bloodline: AC/DC, their metal-wielding contemporaries, drummed up plenty of success on foreign shores, but Chisel have very much always been a local phenomenon.

Built upon the songwriting of keyboardist Don Walker, Cold Chisel are more readily identified with Ian Moss’s soulful, blues-driven guitar playing and, of course, the lead-minted vocals of Jimmy Barnes. It’s a recipe that’s almost become strangely fashionless over the years, the group’s music passed down organically from one generation to another. triple j’s recent Hottest 100 Australian Albums Of All Time poll was derided in some quarters for its skew towards younger bands, but Cold Chisel made a strong showing: East landing at number 42 and Cold Chisel at number 65.

I spoke to Barnes just a couple of days before Cold Chisel embarked on their biggest tour in almost 30 years. He was in Sydney and would soon head off to rehearsals.

The tour kicks off in a couple of days’ time. Are you ready?
Yeah. We’re up and running. It’s good. We’ve been pounding it for about three weeks in the rehearsal studio, and it sounded really tight. It’s great.

Does it take you long to get back into the swing of things? Or is it immediate with you guys?
Um, well I guess the chemistry’s immediate. But it’s like anything – being a golfer or a bloody boxer or something – everything’s there and you’ve just got to hone your skills a little bit and tighten up some loose ends. As soon as we started playing it felt great, it sounded good, but there were a few trainwreck endings and a few bad chord changes, and I’d forget the odd word here and there. But that’s what rehearsals are for: getting all the stuff back so you can run on instinct and not have to think about it.

You went through a tough patch 10 years ago, Jimmy, and then open-heart surgery in 2007. Looking back, are you surprised you’ve made it this far?
Well, not really. I’m surprised that I’m still making music and doing all that, and as far as the public is still interested in all that stuff. I guess that’s because I’ve tried to keep an open mind and listen to what people like, and try to improve what I do, and learn and continue to grow. I think if I’d sat back and rested on my laurels I would have been gone a long time ago. It’s the same with Cold Chisel, where you’re trying to make yourselves better at what you do: better players, better band, better communicators, better songs, and basically that’s what I’ve been doing, personally as well as musically.

Tell me about that turn of the millennium period. What was the trigger for going down that path [Barnes was reportedly downing 10 grams of coke, six to eight ecstasy pills and three bottles of vodka a day), and how did you claw your way out again?
Health-wise?

Yeah.
I just felt that that over a period of time it was getting harder and harder to recover. So I’d still go out and work as hard and still put everything into my show, but it would take me longer to recover. I’d find that I’d just be knackered, basically. So I decided that I would start training, that I was getting older and that I had to get fitter. So I went and started training, and I found that really hard. My chest was hurting and because I’d smoked years ago I thought it could have been my lungs. So, I went to a doctor and he put me through a whole series of tests before telling me that my lungs are fine. But I said, “Well, there’s something wrong.”

That’s when I remembered that years and years ago – before doing one of the big entertainment centre shows – I’d done a physical, and one of the doctors said that he thought he could hear a murmur in my heart. He said that it could be a dodgy valve and that in 10 years or so I might want to get it checked. And it was almost 10 years to the day, actually, looking back at it, that I was talking to the doctor about it. So we checked my heart and the doctor said, “You’ve got a bicuspid valve.” That’s as opposed to a tricuspid, and it means the valve opens two ways instead of three and has to work twice as hard. Basically, the valve had worn down. The doctor said that I would have to have immediate open-heart surgery, and before I knew it I was in hospital.

That took me about six months to recover, because I’d keep getting out of bed to go to work. I wouldn’t stay down long enough to recover, which is a tip for anyone who has open-heart surgery: do exactly what the doctor tells you. [Laughs] But once I did recover and got back on my feet, everything made more sense – I had more strength, more energy. Just the fact that I’d stayed sober and straight all of the time that I was recovering – and prior to it, thank God – made it a lot easier. It was all about that, really. And the fact that I was healthy, sober, straight, focussed, and my heart was working well meant I had twice the energy I had prior to going in. I just did what I did, and it all came back.

Now, Chisel. How often do you get people asking when Cold Chisel are going to tour next?
Every single day. [Laughs] But that’s OK. People really love the band. They come up and they talk to you about lots of different things: about songs, gigs, and about Cold Chisel, and that’s just par for the course and we’ve done that since we formed in the old days. So yeah, it’s something that doesn’t bug me. It’s great. And just the fact that we’re in the process of getting out there, it’s really exciting and I’m looking forward to it. It’s a great rock’n’roll band.

What do you think is the key to Chisel’s success? What sets you guys apart from other bands?
There’s a lot of things, but ultimately it’s about the chemistry of the band; the particular combination of players and songs. Don Walker’s songs are great, but Don’s songs done by Cold Chisel sound fantastic. The combination of Don’s songs and the chemistry of the players made the band quite unique. Plus, we lucked out. We came along at a time when we really connected with an Australian audience: they got what we were doing, we got what they wanted, we were the same as them, we felt like them. It was a lot of luck, but a lot of work as well – from us and the fans – and we went through hard times together and we went through great times together. Basically, the band was the result of those good and bad times.

You guys made a strong showing in triple j’s recent Hottest 100 Australian Albums Of All Time poll, which was dominated by younger bands – East at number 42 and Cold Chisel at number 65. Did that surprise you?
It surprised me that we got in at all, because triple j stopped supporting us when they were Double J. I mean, triple j’s supposed to support Australian music, but once a band sells more than, you know, 50 records, they virtually stop supporting them. I fucken hate triple j. [Laughs] But they play great stuff. It surprised me that: a) we were still relevant in the 100; and b) that they actually allowed people to know that. [Laughs] That was just a little bitch about them: they do play a lot of great music. But they did stop supporting us when they were Double J.

Have you noticed the band getting a little more cred with that younger, alternative listenership?
You know, it’s a funny band, this one. When we were all in our prime in 1980, we weren’t trendy or inner-city, or anything at all. We were a working class band. When we broke up, we suddenly became really trendy. The Last Stand [tour] really took it to another level, and we became [trendy with] the inner-city, the cool bands all liked us, the cool punters liked us, and young fans liked us. And over the years – from 1983 through to now – there’s been this troupe of young fans that have kept coming through. When we played the V8s a year-and-a-half ago, or whenever it was, it was amazing how many young punters who were there. It wasn’t just people being dragged out by their parents – there were gangs of young guys coming out with their mates. I remember when we did The Last Wave [of Summer] in 1998-99, my son was in high school and all his mates were hitting me up for tickets. I’m asking, “What do you guys want tickets to Cold Chisel for?” But they were huge Cold Chisel fans. I don’t know why these new music enthusiasts picked up on us. Whether it was because the songs meant something to them, I’m not sure. But we were a pretty rebellious band and we didn’t give a fuck about anybody, really, and maybe that’s what struck a chord with the new fans. I think a lot of that goes down to the strength of Don’s songs.

The Best of Cold Chisel: All For You – how long has it been in the works for?
Quite a while. We’ve had “best-ofs” over the years a few times. We just wanted to update it, and it’s really like topping up your catalogue. We’ve just done the digital release for the first time, and included in that digital release is rare stuff that’s never been put out before. Also, there’s been Last Wave … since then, so there’s a few new things to take into account. And people like to listen to music like that, with a line-up of all the hits.

Was there a lot of to-ing and fro-ing over the plan to allow punters to select the songs?
No. I can’t remember who came up with the idea but we were all pretty well behind it. It just threw up a lot of surprises. Something like ‘Ita’ for example was originally written as a bit of a joke and comment about Australian culture, but it’s become really popular over the years. Having the fans get involved like that has been fantastic.

I was sorry to hear about Steve Prestwich’s passing. Did that give you second thoughts about the “best of”, the tour and the potential plans for a new LP?
It was very sad. But we started doing this all with Steve. We started recording material for the new LP in December last year, so we’d already started recording the album when Steve got sick. It was really, really sudden, he died before we even had a chance to think about it, and when he was gone we were just sitting there going, “What do we do now?” Basically, after a couple of months of thought and recovering and grieving, and all that sort of stuff, we just thought that we were already up and running with this process. Steve would want us to keep playing and not just shelve it all. So we continued partly as a tribute to Steve, and also he was one of us and knew what we do. We’re a rock’n’roll band and he’d want us to play. So it was a two-pronged thing. We wanted to do it to acknowledge Steve’s work, and the work that he’d done on the record already, and also just to continue what we do and what we love.

It’s very difficult, though, every time we play a song of his. We’ve been rehearsing for three weeks and yesterday I teared up when doing ‘When The War Is Over’. It happens at the strangest time: you might be walking down the street and you hear a Scouse accent, and suddenly you’re getting all misty about things. But I’m glad. There are lots of songs on the radio that we used to laugh at or sing along to or whatever that remind me of one of my best friends, so it’s good.

Now, the tour. You’re playing 37 dates of 20-song sets. It sounds like a mammoth job. How do you tackle such a huge schedule?
It’s pretty daunting. But we’re all pretty fit – we’ve already been rehearsing for three weeks, everyday. We hammer the set two or three times a day. So we’re all match fit and ready to go and looking forward to getting out and playing to the audience. We haven’t toured this extensively as a band since 1983. The more recent tours we got to play to some of the fans, but not all of them, so it’s going to be good to get out and play to all the really hardcore fans, as well as all the fans that couldn’t make it to the other shows.

Do you enjoy touring, Jimmy? Are you a natural traveller?
Yeah, yeah. When I’m not touring I go on holiday. [Laughs] We’re like gypsies now, we’re so used to touring.

You’re playing a variety of different venues – wineries, theatres, big top tents and seated arena shows. Do you guys have to think about changing it up for those different styles of venue?
We do. We like playing all those different types of venue. I mean, we’re starting the tour off on at Panthers in Newcastle, which is a workingman’s club and is one of our old stomping grounds. But, yeah, we like covering all these different shows simply because they are all different. You play differently outdoors to indoors. You can play more intense and faster material indoors and not lose definition, whereas the bigger the show the less definition you get and you have to slow things back a bit and get more power. It’s a really good occasion to get into a small room and play flat chat and frantic and just run on energy, and other times it’s just great to get into the big arenas and put on a production with the whole weight and momentum of the beast behind you to let the show roll that way. They’re different animals.

There are surely going to be a lot of people at the concerts who are seeing you guys for the first time. Is that something you’re all acutely aware of?
Yes and no. We figure that anybody who’s going to come is there because they like the band and they like the songs. Our main concern is to give the songs the importance and credit that they deserve, and play them as well as we can. We figure that if we keep hold of that side of things, the audience will take care of the rest.

Now looking ahead. You guys are finishing off the new Cold Chisel album. For you, Jimmy, what are the plans for the rest of the year?
Well, we’re touring until December 12 or something like that. We’ve already finished recording the album, which will probably come out early in the new year sometime. We haven’t even worked out a name for the album – we’ll work out a name and strategy for the release of that, and if we all enjoy the tour as much as we think we will, we’ll probably do something again next year.

How do you go about writing and recording a studio album after a 13-year break?
It’s an interesting process. [Laughs] Even in the old days, every album we made was a different process. You’d learn something or try something new. This one was different again, and it was good: we all got together, and once again the majority of the songs were written by Don Walker, who just happens to be one of my favourite songwriters in the country – one of the best writers this country’s ever produced – but in saying that, those songs aren’t the same unless Cold Chisel are playing them. It’s great to have Cold Chisel as a vehicle for your songs, or his songs, or Ian’s songs, or whatever.

“We came along at a time when we really connected with an Australian audience: they got what we were doing, we got what they wanted, we were the same as them, we felt like them.”

The process was really fast this time. We recorded with a guy called Kevin Shirley, who’s a great rock engineer, and it was really great for us. One of the things we’ve tried to do over the years is get in and then get out of the studio quickly. We don’t like labouring over things. Kevin was a guy who captured the performance very fast, and we think captured the essence of the band at this point in time. As much as it was a strange experience recording a lot of it without Steve, it was a great experience working with someone who got what we did and managed to capture it fast.

You’re involved in a lot of recording projects – you’ve done four of your own albums in the last six years – but will Cold Chisel always be home for you, do you think?
Oh, yeah. It’s very much a comfort zone. [Laughs] In saying that, it’s also one of those things where you get in there and it plays with your head. You’ve really got to think about what you’re doing. It’s such a unique band, and then you get in there and you start to relax and suddenly it takes a twist and you think, “Oh shit. What am I doing here?” One of Don’s melodies will come up and you’ll think, “I don’t sing like that. How do I sing like that?” and you have to rethink what you’re doing. So as comfortable as it is to play in the band, it constantly keeps you on your toes, which I think is the essence of a good rock’n’roll band.

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‘The Best of Cold Chisel: All For You’ is out now through Warner Music. Tour dates here.