Most of the time when you think
of a greatest hits record, it’s for one of two scenarios – either
the lifespan band is coming to an end (or has already)
or their contract at their label is up and this is
the final hurrah for that particular lifespan. Unless,
of course, that band is Spiderbait.
“I think it’s the third option,” confirms
drummer/vocalist Kram. “It’s a celebration
of a really top career and we’re really happy
to still be around, so that’s why we’re
doing it!” he says with a cackle.
The last six to twelve months have
been an incredible time for the three-piece from
Finley Lake – they’ve
undergone a renaissance thanks to a cover song. With
the success of Tonight Alright,
Kram admits that there was some initial trepidation
in releasing “Black Betty” as the first
single. “I was 100 percent behind that if we
were going to do this song we had to release it first
and do it large, do it loud, and it all worked out
really well.”
It’s certainly meant a new lease on life for
the band: whereas before they weren’t playing
to as big a crowds and they weren’t as ‘big’ as
what they used to be, that’s pretty normal – there’s
lots of groups out there like that. “Our label
was really supportive and everyone was really into
it before it all went off,” Kram explains,
in that they band believed that it could happen again
for them. “Now that it has I think it can happen
for any band as long as you stick to your guns. No-one
expects a group that’s been around for 15 years
to top the charts, let alone the band themselves.”
Of course, this greatest hits compilation
brings together the old and the new – including fab
new single “On My Way”, complete with
its Queen tribute video – to a whole new audience. “To
newer fans it’s all about this new band who
did “Black Betty”. We’re really
flattered by that. It’s nice to be appreciated
for what you’ve done, but it’s also nice
to be appreciated for what you’re doing.”
Mostly though, Kram says, “We just thought
it was a catchy tune, and we wanted to have a single
to go out with it that was a way of saying, in regards
to what you were saying before and I do agree with
you, whenever you see a compilation record you think ‘oh,
what’s going on, are they breaking up or did
they have to do this?’ and there’s always
the intent that the band doesn’t like it, or
they were forced to do it, or there was some big
problem. We thought if we did a new single then it
might be something that would be a nice way of saying
that we still write good songs. But we have been
around for 15 years, and particularly with the success
of the last record we really wanted to get new fans
to check out our older material, so that’s
what we did.
Part of the key to Tonight Alright is
the remarkable brevity of it – it makes a marked
difference compared to previous Spiderbait records,
which always tended to be elaborate, explorative
releases with the band trying different things and
experimenting constantly.
“I honestly think that’s how we’ll
make our records from now on,” he affirms. “That
was one of the big revelations of the whole project – let’s
not try and do too much, let’s just try and
do what we do and keep it rocking, and really get
the energy on the record that we get live, which
we’ve had trouble doing. Our records are our
records and live is live and never the twain shall
meet, but on this record it really worked and it
seemed to be so much easier to make – it was
easy to write, easy to record, and it was the fastest
record that we’ve ever made apart from the
really, really early days, so it was a revelation – ‘ah,
this is how we’re supposed to do it!’.
Tonight Alright is more how we want to be, so it
will be more of a similar vein next time around.”
Of course, the next trick for the
band is to maintain the momentum created by Tonight
Alright,
and get a new album out there.
“I think it’s going to be next year.
We have to wait and see. I’d like to get into
it maybe half way through next year if we can, but
hopefully earlier if we can. We’ll see.”
Having worked with noted hard rock producer Sylvia
Massy Shivvy on that record, would the band to tempted
to recapture that same sort of magic again?
“It’s hard to say,” he muses. “I
really enjoyed working with her and Rich as well,
but I don’t really know if I’d want to
go to Weed [Studios] again – it’s five
hours from San Francisco and it does drive you a
bit batty. I think if we were going to go and make
a record in the States again we’d do it in
L.A., because I like being around the city. We really
enjoyed working with Andy Baldwin on this single,
and Sing Sing Studios in Prahran was really great.
The little one is great for tracking, and the song
was done in two days. I only took about two days
to write it as well, so it came together really quickly.
For me, I’ll either get the thing finished
in really quick time or I’ll labour over it
for years and come up with a bridge ten years later.
The former is a lot better.
Is there much pressure on the band as a result of
the success of the last album?
“All the pressure is gone for us,” Kram
explains. “We’ve managed to achieve everything
we’ve ever dreamed of doing and more, especially
achieving a number one single at a time when no-one
expected us to do it, so we’ve confounded all
of our critics and surprised ourselves and pleased
ourselves, so whatever we do from now on is a complete
bonus.”
Spiderbait’s Greatest
Hits is
out now, with the band to announce a tour to celebrate
fifteen glorious years of rock in the soon-to-near
future.