The Cannanes: ‘The Sound Comes Back’

Jangle-pop institutions The Cannanes hit their 30th anniversary next year. Their new album is a homecoming for various members, also reasserting the band’s droll, shambolic sound. DOUG WALLEN interviews mainstay Frances Gibson.

[Historical image is withheld pending rights review.] I’d say welcome back, but The Cannanes never went away. Their marathon discography has just kept on plugging away for three decades now, maintaining the random splay of releases (tapes, vinyl, comps, splits) that defined 1990s DIY and spanning classic indie micro-labels like Yo-Yo, Harriet, 555, Slabco and Blackbean & Placenta.

That said, Howling at All Hours is the band’s first album since 2002 – and, thus, kind of a big deal. It’s also a loose sequel to 1989’s A Love Affair with Nature, re-recruiting several departed members and recapturing the loose and witty spirit that always set them apart. It jostles with offhand jokes, geography, spoken word and the odd (in both senses of the word) Teletubbies reference. There are lead vocals from no less than five different people: mainstays Frances Gibson and Stephen O’Neil, M+N scribe David Nichols, James Dutton and Francesca Bussey.

Recorded in Bendigo in regional Victoria, where Gibson and O’Neil now live after years spent in Sydney, the album is not in the least a slick studio affair but rather a bumpy, bouncy round-robin between old friends making merry.

It’s been a while, as they say, between drinks. How did this record come together?
Well, I guess it looks like it’s been a long time between albums, but we’ve been doing a lot of stuff. We’ve done a lot of traveling overseas and we’ve done a lot of recording, so there’s actually quite a few projects in the pipeline. This one was, in a way, a bit of nostalgia because we did this record called A Love Affair with Nature a billion years ago [Laughs]. We just thought it’d be fun to get some of those people together again and do a really quick project of recording over a weekend. Just have fun with each other and then get it out really quickly.

Of course, none of that actually happened. I mean, some of it happened: we did have a very good, fun weekend. We did do some quick recording. But then it took a really long time to actually turn into an album. But it was good to do something with the old gang.

What are some of those other projects you mentioned?
We recorded a whole album, actually, with our trumpet player, Penny McBride, and [drummer] Richard ‘Bon’ King. That just really needs mixing and sorting out. And there’s a guy called Stewart Anderson [from Boyracer, Steward, etc.] who we’ve done stuff with over the years. We did an album with him, Communicating at an Unknown Rate, a few years ago. So it was another 30 or so songs we did with him, which hasn’t been finished yet. We just recorded a single with him in the US [in June], which is about to come out as a three-song EP. And there’s another few projects.

“It all gets incredibly confusing. And probably quite irritating.”

Because we’ve been working with these different people – like some people in Australia and Explosion Robinson/Steve Hermann [from Sukpatch] in the US, who did the Small Batch EP, and then this other gang – it all gets incredibly confusing. And probably quite irritating for anyone who’s trying to keep track of what’s going on. [Laughs] But I guess it means there’s a lot of things going on. It may appear like we’ve done nothing much for 10 years, but that’s actually not the case. We did move out of Sydney [to Bendigo, in regional Victoria], and that made it harder for the band to operate as a functioning unit.

I like how the new record opens with “Well here we go again.”
[Laughs] Yeah, I thought that was appropriate.

Was that line already in that song?
I guess when I wrote that, I knew … no one else has mentioned it, of course; you’re the first person to mention it. That was the first song we started working on, I think. It seemed appropriate to put it at the beginning of the album. Partly because it was going to be our first album for a while, and because we were working with David Nichols and Francesca [Bussey] and those people [again]. You remember all of the good times – and some of the bad times. [Laughs] But luckily we’ve come through it all.

Yeah, it’s a nice record.
We did wonder, because it’s a bit weird. The way it was done, with all the different people writing and singing.

It was a bit confusing when I was trying to figure out who sang what.
Exactly. We realised later that it’s not written on the liner notes or anything, which of course it should have been. I think we were in one of those states of mind where you know something so well that it doesn’t seem worthwhile writing down because it seems obvious. But it’s not obvious at all. [Laughs]

“[The setting] was Australia ... just down the street opposite the shops. In a way, we all did that.”

I like the role of geography in the record. King Street is mentioned, and the whole countryside thing.
To give David his due … I can’t think of any specific examples, but I learned that from him. He has always, from his early songs with The Cannanes, placed them in a familiar place that he knew. It was Australia and it was just down the street opposite the shops. In a way, we all did that thing. I guess it was very local. Looking back, lots of [songs from] our first few records were about Chippendale or something like that. I think it’s always fun to write about something that’s really familiar to you. It’s interesting when you hear other people’s songs about places that they know about or live in too.

I don’t know if it happens that much anymore, but certainly for a long time bands were writing without those sort of references. The Triffids and The Go-Betweens, of course, did write about here, but other bands [of that era] were always referring to being sort of amorphous or referring to things in the US, which is kind of irritating. Well, y’know, not if you’re from the US of course [Laughs]. But if you’re from here…

When I interviewed The Sugargliders, we talked about their song ‘Ahprahan’ being about Prahran in Melbourne.
Yeah. You can obviously enjoy lots of songs without knowing what it’s all about or knowing something about it. [But] if you live in a place, you recognise what it’s about.

The same could go for Hargreaves Mall [setting of ‘I Woke Up in Hargreaves Mall’].
Yeah, I was just thinking that. A local person said to me they’d played that and didn’t know if they should laugh or cry. [Laughs] It can apply to a lot of things, but it was just such a big drama in Bendigo about Hargreaves Mall [opening up]. They didn’t make that big a change, but it was just such a big local controversy about people not wanting change and wanting to keep everything the same. Having a mall when you should be able to park right outside the shop. That song has got more meaning here, I think, but hopefully it’s universal.

Well, the whole thing about an Irish bar in a mall – that’s very universal.
That’s right. I guess they’re not romantic, but we’ve all been there.

What do you guys have planned for the Melbourne launch? Like guests and…
We’re actually doing two sets. At the moment we almost have two bands; our normal band is gonna play some stuff off Small Batch and other stuff from previous albums, and then we’re gonna – well, we’re having our first practice tomorrow, actually – but the idea is to attempt to play the whole album from beginning to end [with the people who sing on it].

But it might not actually be possible. Because it was done in such a disjointed way, whether it can actually be played live in any coherent fashion is still to be determined. But we’ll find that out tomorrow, I suppose. They’re all coming up here and spending the weekend and we’ll try and nut that out.

“We were [playing] in a room with a television, with most people watching the Grand Final.”

The Melbourne launch is on Grand Final Day…
[Laughs] I know! I can’t believe it. Of course, I am completely oblivious so I just didn’t notice when the dates were set up. Maybe Guy [Blackman from Chapter] is too, or he just doesn’t think it matters. It’s just very funny because last year on Grand Final Day we played at the Sound Summit festival in Newcastle. We were playing an afternoon show, while it was actually on, and it was apparently quite an exciting thing. We were in a room with a television, with most people watching the Grand Final. A bit dispiriting, but amazing that some people were watching us at all.

But also, I think the year before was the World Cup final for soccer, and were playing in Newcastle in England at the exact same time that was on. So it’s almost tradition now.

There’s no TVs there [at The Toff].
And it’s over [by that time of night]. But I know Grand Final Day is a big deal in Melbourne.

It’ll be interesting. The revelry might spill over.
Well, there’s that possibility or just no one will come at all. [Laughs] Because they’re doing much more interesting things.

I’m sure there’s a crossover between Cannanes fans and footy fans.
Well, in Melbourne everybody’s a football fan. Apart from The Anti-Football League, which I belong to actually. [Laughs] But I hope people can carry the revelry over. That would be perfect. We like drunk football fans at our shows. They’ll have a good time, hopefully, if it goes the way they want it to go.

“It’s like a never-ending nightmare project.”

Are there plans to reissue more of the older records?
Yeah, there’s a plan. There’s a record label in [the US] called De Stijl. They’re gonna put out the first two albums on various formats, but the process at the moment is just trying to get the tapes, which are on some sort of prehistoric format, turned into something that can be [translated]. So that process is happening. I think the hope is that we just put all the albums out in succession and do a Best Of, because it’s the 30th anniversary [of the band’s founding] next year.

So it’s like a never-ending nightmare project. I don’t know who on earth will want any of those records, but I think they’re gonna happen. [Laughs]

It’s funny because, listening to the new record, it dovetails with the sound of a lot of young bands.
Yeah, certainly when I’ve seen those bands, it’s a familiar sound. And I like them, not just because of that. [Laughs] I like Dick Diver and the Twerps, and I really love The Ocean Party. They’re great. Not that they’re so much like us. None of those bands are like us. In fact, they’re much more professional I think. Even now, we seem less together than they all are already. They’re a bit more focussed.

But it’s funny – I guess if you wait long enough, it becomes fashionable again. Or not fashionable, but the sound comes back. If it’s good music it’s good music. It doesn’t matter when it came out, does it?

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‘Howling at All Hours’ is out now through Chapter Music. Read Steph Kretowicz’s review. Launch dates below.

Fri, Sept 20 – Newmarket Hotel, Bendigo, VIC [$10]
Sun, Sept 22 – Metropolitan Hotel, Adelaide, SA [$10, w/Summer Flake]
Sat, Sept 28 – Toff in Town, Melbourne, VIC [$11 + bf via Moshtix, two sets, w/The Stevens]
Fri, Oct 4 – GoodGod Small Club, Sydney, NSW [$11.70 + bf via Moshtix, w/Beef Jerk + Destiny 3000]
Sun, Oct 6 – Polish Club, Canberra, ACT [3pm, $15, w/Day Ravies, Waterford + Bacon Cakes]