July, 2017 RollingStoneAus.com | Rolling Stone | 2315-20minutesaway,sawadeadcatonthe
side of the road, was pretty bummed that
noone’dpickeditupbutgo,‘Fuck,I’mlate.’
I drove past, [then realised] I’d forgotten
my lyrics book and went, ‘Fuck!’ I turned
theKombiaround,drovepastthedeadcat
asecondtimeandwaslike,thisisfucking
withme,someonegetthatcatofftheroad
cosifIhavetopassitathirdtimeI’mgoing
tobereallyupset!Gotmylyricbook...ob-
viouslydeadcatthreetimes.Igottothe
studio,Pat’sgoing[singsriff],anditjust
wroteitself.Whileitseemsalittlefrivo-
lous, I fucking really like it.
Pat:We had a $15,000 budget forGuide
To B e t t e r Li v i n g,andwestayedin
Rocking Horse [Studios]. We were
alllivinginthe[studio’s]house,and
instead of recording in the studio
we decided to run multicore cable
intothehouse,soourbedroomshad
amps in them.Just AceGuidetoBetterLiving
1997
Pat: I was listening to a lot of Front
End Loader at the time, and they
were all about major melodies. And
I was like,well,wedon’treallydo
anything with major melodies, so
I was thinking about Front End
Loader when I [wrote the guitar
hook]. They’llprobablyhatethat!
Phil: It’s alovesongwrittentoagirlthatI
wasn’t very nice to that I wanted to make
amends [with].Ithasalovelysentiment.Ready 1Easy 1999
Phil: “Ready 1” was written in San Cle-
mente, Southern California. AfterGuide
being so successful, I was desperate for a
new song tobefinished.Iwantedasongto
be ready. Itwasacrazysession.[Produc-
er] Jonathan Burnside would come into
the studioat3intheafternoonandthen
work until4am.Itwasn’tworkingforme.
Pat: The mixing session was a little weird
cos he wouldn’t start until 6 at night, and
he was [using] Pro Tools. I was like, what
the fuck’s he doing, we recorded all this
stuff to tape.Why’shemakingitdigital
when we’ve done all this analog work?
Phil: I still love listening toEasythough.
The guitar sounds are fucking monsters.Secrets Easy 1999
Pat: We’d gotten back from the States, and
I was living in a share house in Byron Bay,
I’d been kicked out by my ex-girlfriend.
And I wasinthisshittybedroomandIhadthis huge amp in the corner with my gui-
tar.Iremembercominghomereally,really
drunk, walking in and going, how low can
thisguitargo?[Singsriff]Fuckyeah!We
don’t play it much anymore, but the crew
used to do this great stage production for
it.Theyhadtheseflamelights,andthey
used to rise up from behind the stage when
the opening riff came in.Chemical HeartNew Detention 2002
Pat:Everyonewasalittleapprehensive
aboutreleasingitasthefirstsingle[offNew
Detention], but our manager was entirely
confident that that was the way to go.Pat:It was the first song [written] for New
Detention.PhilhadthisriffandIwas like,
fuck, this is happening! When we demoed
it I was like, every song has to be as good
as this moving forward.
Phil:ThenBeatmagazine reviewed it and
they tore that song to shreds. [Laughs]1000 MilesNew Detention 2002
Phil:It’sjustfuntoplay.Iwasbeing a
characterinthesong,I’mplayinga char-
acter, this heathen redneck. I liked the idea
of the opening line being [sings], “Well I
gotdrunkandIgotstoned!”Ithought it
was something that Lemmy might sing. It
soundedbadass.Itstillgets played
to this day and the crowd love it.Better Off AloneThrills, Kills
&SundayPills 2004
Pat:We hired a house on the Cen-
tral Coast. Joe [Hansen, bass] had
just found out that his wife was
pregnant with their first child and
we were writing that song.
Phil:It’s about a relationship I
went through that was quite de-
structive,andwewerebetter off
not being together. That’s sad to
say, but sometimes it’s for the best.
I had a lot of trouble with the mid-
dleeightlyrically,soIco-wrote
it with [Unwritten Law vocalist] Scott
RussowhileIwasinLA,justfinishing off.HardActToFollowThrills, Kills &
Sunday Pills 2004
Phil:IthinkIwaslivinginMelbourne
atthetime.AndtheMelbournescene is
different to Sydney, and there are a lot of
fancypants,soIhadtobringmyA-game
ifIwasgoingtobeoutinMelbourne. And
it’s about that.
Pat:We looked at a lot of engineers in
the States [to record with]. We got on the
phone to a few people.
Phil:[Producer] Howard Benson said,
“I really like ‘Hard Act to Follow’, I think
we should base the album around that
as being the key single.” I’ve never been
pushed harder on a record. He’d make
medo20,maybe40vocaltakes.He real-
lykindofdestroyedmyloveofrecording.
But the vocals on that record are great, he
diddoareallygoodjob.Ihadnoidea how
muchhecost,andthenIaskedabout three
years ago and was like, we spentthat much
moneyon a fucking record?! It was ob-
scene, I think it was close to a quarter of a
million dollars.“I thought ‘Chemical Heart’ was a lovely song maybe to close the
album,” says Jamieson. “It didn’t sound like something that wasgoingtobecomeourcareer-defi ning song.”
Phil: I thought it was a lovely song maybe
to close the album; it didn’t sound like
something that was going to become our
career-defi ning song, but that’s what it be-
came. [On playing it at the Big Day Out in
2002 as a tribute to Grinspoon fan Jes-
sica Michalik, who died at the previous
year’s festival] Ken [West, BDO co-found-
er] wanted to do something really special,
so her parents came, and I sung “Chemical
Heart” for her, and [it took] on a life of its
own, especially for a lot of the behind-the-
scenes people.
Pat: The last photo of her that was taken
at the festival, she was wearing a ‘where
the fuck are Grinspoon?’ T-shirt, cos we
weren’t playing that year.Anyday Anyhow New Detention 2002
Phil: I think I was 22, 23 when I wrote it,
and I was having that kind of, “What am I?
I know I’m in this band and it’s great, but
how do I challenge myself, how do I make
myself better as a songwriter?” A lot of self
refl ecting and self worth things are going
on. I really love the song, and it was a really
pivotal moment for me as a writer because
GETTY IMAGES I grew a lot within that song.
HARD ACT TO FOLLOW
Jamieson and Davern at
the 2013 Big Day Out in
Melbourne.