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We Caught up with Chris Cheney front man of The Living End ahead of their show in Cairns At The Tanks Arts Centre in August talking about solo records, making art and how the I Only Trust Rock N Roll tour has been going

NDK
So it's been a big couple of years for you and the band, but f- for you personally, you did, uh, your solo album, which I thought was great. Uh, then, uh, I Only Trust in Rock 'n' Roll, you've just been inducted into the ARIA Hall of Fame. This isa lot going on in the past two and a half years.

CC
Yeah. Yeah, I guess, there was a period there before we went into the studio, , to do I Only Trust in Rock 'n' Roll where, I'd finished up the solo thing. And, , there was a period there where, where we were kind of sitting around a lot, and I was getting very frustrated. I remember saying to our manager and the other guys at one point, you know, like-... I just, I'm gonna go absolutely stir crazy if I wait around much longer because we had the record in the can, but we were trying to figure out release dates and stuff like that, and I kept actually writing songs.

and it was like, okay, well, the first single will come out in, , you know, three or four months from now. And I was like, "What the hell am I gonna do in three or four months?" You know, I wanted it all to sort of happen.

But here we are talking today and yes, it feels like we've been very busy.  Like actually once it all kicked in, you know, we were sort of off and running.

But, yeah,  I get a bit frustrated at times 'cause it's such a long lead thing between when you finish a record and then, you know, it's like then you do the artwork, then it's gotta be mixed, and then you gotta figure out the singles, and then... You know, I would just rather be playing every single weekend. But, I think whatever we've done, we've done it the right way, and the band is in a good spot andwith all that stuff going on that you mentioned, it's a really good time actually for the band.
So I'm kind of happy that we've got those people going, "No, no, we've gotta do it the right order. Let's not rush it. Let's get it right and, uh, roll it out the correct way."

NDK
I think it, that, that must be quite frustrating for musicians because, you spend this time writing and then recording and I'm sensing you might be a bit like me, where you're like, "Let's get it out there." But then your manager's like, "Hey, we wanna do a vinyl release."

CC
Yeah.

NDK
That's gonna take six months to get that pressed, and it's all gotta be coordinated.

CC
That's right. Well, what ended up happening was I did exactly what I sort of threatened them with and I said, "Well, I'll just go and keep writing more songs," you know? "Be prepared. If we're not gonna put this record out, like, tomorrow, I'm gonna write more songs."

They said "Sure, go for it." And that, that's what I did, and I ended up writing Alfie, which became the first single. So we ended up back in the studio- ... recording again. And also,  I started redoing some guitars and things on I Only Trust in Rock 'n' Roll andredoing vocals and just basically going back and fixing up bits I didn't like.

We ended up with a much better, stronger record because of it, which then delayed it even further. So it kind of backfired a little bit for me.  But God, it feels like ancient history now. It feels like it came out a long time ago, and the reception and everything that it got was, it was just worth it, you know, 'cause I, I just worked my arse off trying to write as many songs and, and really pushed myself to, to come up with something that I thought was the right album for the, for this band at this time, and, and I, and I think I kinda got it right, you know? You don't always, so it's pretty cool.

NDK
And I thought it was the right album for the right time with what was going on in the world at the time as well when it was released, you know?

CC
Sure. Yeah. Well, one thing that I think we haven't steered away from deliberately, but something that's probably been pushed a little further back is the band sort of felt like it had something to say a bit more on this record, which we probably touched on that night at the bowls club.

But I had a few people say that to me.  They were like, "Fuck yeah, sounds like you guys are kind of pissed off again. It sounds like you have something to say." And that wasn't  a deliberate thing, you know. We've had records that have been more personal based or songs about just, you know, fictional characters, whatever. This one it felt like, yeah, there was, there was direct sort of world events and things, but that's what all artists do, you know? It's whether what you're saying resonates with people.

But I think it was a case of that the band sounded rejuvenated and also lyrically as far as the message goes, that it all came together the right way, which was kind of cool.

NDK
Yeah. Is it hard, you know, like you've just written your solo album, released that, so you would've been writing songs for that, and I actually saw you play at Mary's Underground when you ... I, I don't think you really toured that album, but I came down to Sydney to see that show, which was awesome.  Is it hard when you're writing your solo stuff to go, "Ooh, I might keep that one for The Living End," or, you know, how did, how did the writing of-

CC
Well-

NDK
'Cause they were pretty close together.

CC
They were pretty close together, yeah. It's funny that you should mention that because the phrase, "I only trust rock and roll," and I'd forgotten about this, was actually in one of the songs that I had recorded in Nashville for my solo record.

The song was called, um, Don't Fear The Devil, and it had this line in it, "I don't, I don't trust religion. I, I just trust rock and roll," you know, that kept recurring over and, and I had forgotten, and that song didn't make the solo record. 

And then I found it, I found the version that I recorded in Nashville of this extra song off my solo record, and I was like, "Holy shit, it's got that exact line in there," but it was like three years earlier or something... Or even more. When did I record that? Like 2017 or something. Anyway, I found this song with actually quite a few lines in there, and I'd just forgotten that when I was writing the version of I Only Trust Rock and Roll that The Living End had ended up using, I had kind of reused those lyrics that from this other completely different song altogether.

So I guess they kind of do mesh together in a way, but I always tend to know these days which ones The Living End probably shouldn't touch. In the, in the past we used to kind of have a stab at everything, but now I've got a lot of songs and I kind of have different categories. Um, I'm working on one right now actually and I just know these days what, what I'll keep for myself And what I'll submit to the band. But yeah, there's always a ton of material, so it gets confusing.

NDK
So, so does that mean there's another solo album in the wings there?

CC
Absolutely. Yeah, yeah. I've got, I've got more than enough songs already, but I'm just trying to keep tinkering away and it's about having the right ones, I suppose. I mean, there's enough, probably enough songs left over from that last record to, to put out another album.  But I'm just not one of those kind of artists, I suppose, and I think The Living End has been like that too a little bit.

We've written a lot of songs over the years and we've only ever put stuff out or done something if we really feel that it's up to scratch and whether it's worthwhile. And I know there's some people out there who  just write and put it out constantly, some of it hits and some of it doesn't, whereas we've always had a bit more quality control I think, which probably some of our fans would be, um, horrified to hear 'cause they probably want to hear it all.

NDK
Yeah.Maybe there's a big, uh, B-side and unreleased tracks album in that.

CC
Probably is.Yep

NDK
So you guys come up to North Queensland pretty regularly, you played the Red Hot Summer gigs, up here. You played Savannah in the Round, I think that was two or three years ago. But this time you're coming up to play Tanks Arts Centre. It's a pretty intimate venue. I think it's been seven years since you played there, something like that.  You know, what do you like about playing those more intimate shows? And what can we expect that, you know, you might not see when you do a festival set?

CC
Well, look, you'll see the whites of our eyes, yeah, and, and our white, white knuckles because It tends to be a bit more sort of ferocious, I reckon, in a club, you know, than what it does playing on the big outdoor kind of Red Hot Summer stages. And we've been doing a lot of them, and it's been unreal because you play to a different audience that wouldn't normally see you. You pick up a lot of fans, I find, on those things. 

So I would sort of urge anyone that's seen us on those that hasn't come to, like, a club show, it's a, it is a different sort of thing. It's a little bit more intense probably. It's a bit more like our home ground, you know, it's kind of where we  were bred out of that sort of scene of, like, sweaty, packed clubs. So I love it. And it's just a different thing altogether.

And I suppose the fact that it's our whole show, you know, we can, we can play more songs, we can mix it up, we can kind of play a few more of the rarities that we don't get time to do on festival shows. But I definitely feel like that's our kind of home base.

NDK
So you have started this tour how are the shows going

CC
Yeah. People are excited and really keen to hear some of these new songs, which is great, you know, because everyone's also keen for Prisoner of Society and All Torn Down and White Noise, you know, and it's great to have those songs that have become staples, but it's really exciting that people are keen to hear some of the new material live because it just slots in, I think, with all those types of tunes and it really felt like a sort of full circle moment putting this record out.  There seemed to be like a, it was almost a sigh of relief from the fans, you know, it was like, "Ah, thank God. That's what they do," you know? That's the album that people have wanted us to make for a while. It's just, it's just a lot more stripped down, simple rock and roll, I guess.

NDK
Hey, I wanted to talk to you about your art, if that's all right, just to wrap this up.So you've been painting, drawing.

CC
Yeah

NDK
...the, the, you know, I bought the presale album for your album, and you illustrated all of those personally

CC
I have

NDK
...which I thought was just so, uh, crazy good, but also must have been massively time-consuming.

CC
It was

NDK
...what are you doing with your art? What's the story there? 'cause I've seen it on Instagram and ...

CC
Yeah, I haven't been doing much of it lately, 'cause I've been in the middle of sort of moving house, so everything gets packed up and it becomes more difficultwithout that space to do it.

But the story really is that, you know, before I picked up the guitar as a kid, I sat there with a piece of paper and texters, and that's all I did, pre-music even. I'm talking like five, six-year-old kid, I just drew all the time. And I've always loved art and, and graphic design and so I think, when the band kind of took off, you know, Scott and I used to do a lot of the early artwork and even like ads and stuff for, for music magazines and our own T-shirt designs and things like that. I guess when the band took off, it kind of fell by the wayside a little bit.  I just stopped doing it ... I just didn't sit around anymore and sort of draw and I just rediscovered it during COVID, and I'd never painted before.

I'd only ever done kind of like drawings and things. I'd never really done, like, paint and brush and acrylics and things. I just kind of had a go at it, and I just found this whole new, like, avenue of creativity and it just seemed to sort of coincide with me getting the solo record together. And so yeah it was just a, a magical time for me,  part of that period in COVID where I just felt like, oh, okay. That I'd sort of forgotten that I was into the visual art and visual design and stuff. And a lot of people thought it was something that I'd just picked up, but you know, I've been doing it forever.

NDK
Yeah.I would encourage it

CC
It's fun too

NDK
I would encourage you to keep going with that.I thought some of the stuff you were making was just absolutely brilliant.So

CC
Oh, thank you.Yeah, I will. You've inspired me.I'll do it now.

NDK
You should, you should, you should-- I was gonna say you should have a pop-up exhibition while you're in Cairns, you know, because you're here for two days

CC
Well, I'd like to. I'd like to.  I've kinda got stuff spread out. I've got stuff at the David Bromley Gallery in Melbourne, um, because he had an exhibition and, and I kind of became friends with him, and he said, "Oh, bring some of your paintings down," which I did, and then I moved to Queensland, so I've still got a bunch of stuff down with him. And I've sold a few pieces here and there. So it's, it's just a matter of now assembling, you know, maybe 30 or 40 really good pieces and then doing a little show or an exhibition, like, so they're all under the one roof.

The Living End play Tanks Arts Centre on Wednesday 12th and Thursday 13th of August Tickets on sale through TICKETLINK