They're Gonna Sing

It's hard to talk much about a band which, at the time of our chat, had played one gig and released just one song, but The Hillbilly Killers have a bit more going for them by association, made up as they are of two of Australian country's most credible artists – Catherine Britt and Bill Chambers – and one of Australia's most iconic and well-loved rock'n'roll rapscallions, the incomparable Tim Rogers.

Both Britt and Rogers released solo albums about six months ago, but have since – after a lengthy stint on the road together – taken a step aside from their respective solo careers. What for? A love of Hank Williams, mainly.

“Originally it was a dream of Bill Chambers; he came to me maybe four years ago now and said he'd always wanted to start a Hank Williams tribute band,” Catherine Britt explains the genesis of The Hillbilly Killers. “He didn't really know what that meant, whether that meant doing Hank Williams covers or doing songs in a Hank Williams style or whatever, and he said 'I can't imagine doing this with anybody else other than you.' I'm completely Hank Williams obsessed.”

Britt and Chambers together would have made an impressive tribute to Hank Williams, no doubt, but Chambers knew there was a point of difference that could be added so as to inject a certain sense of rock'n'roll credibility.

“He suggested that we get someone quite out of the country world to make it a little bit cooler and a little bit different to a typical covers or whatever band. He suggested Tim Rogers, I'd never met Tim before, he texted him and asked if he liked Hank Williams and Tim said 'fuck yeah I do' and that was it.

“So it's been in development for years. We've been writing songs… we've all got really busy careers so it's been hard to get it together but we've been writing songs and throwing them at each other and every now and then getting together and doing demos. Now it's sort of happening, it's kind of my main focus at the moment.”

Main focus it may be, but it seems that the main goal from all three artists involved is to have a great deal of fun while the project lasts.

“It's a side project, it's supposed to be something that we do for a bit of fun and passion and the love of old-timey music, and the Tim element adds that rock sort of thing that we couldn't have brought to it.”

Indeed it's quite astonishing to believe that three musicians with so much on their plates (Bill Chambers regularly plays in bands for many touring country musicians, such as Britt and his daughter Kasey) could find any time at all to make this project something  of a priority, but Britt explains that there came a point recently where it just seemed like it was all going to fall into place.

“I guess timing,” she says of the decision to make the band an active concern for the first time right now. “Everybody just had some time to do it for the first time; I spent the second half of last year out on the road with Tim and that brought us closer, we did a lot of writing on the tour. A lot of planning and a lot of year-out working out times we can dedicate to it really. We're going to do some touring, release the record this year and just give it a go and make the most of it.”

The concept of writing together is something that is relatively alien to all three of these musicians.

“Tim doesn't co-write, I'm not a big co-writer and neither is Bill; so we're all doing something we're not all that comfortable with.”

But the three unique, strong and varied musical voices that make up the core trio of this outfit are easily distinguishable through all of their songs, Britt admits.

“Everyone's had their equal input, which makes it really dynamic; you can definitely see Tim in it, you can definitely see me in it and you can definitely see Bill in it; it's totally all three of us, which is great.”

While we've heard only the one song – They Call Us The Hillbilly Killers – so far, there is a full album that has been recorded and that ought to see the light of day before too long.

“We've made the record, it's done, and it's fricking awesome,” Britt beams. “We're talking to labels at the moment and trying to find the right venue for it to come out; we're just figuring out the nitty gritty of it before we release it.

“We produced it ourselves and we went into the studio and did it live, which is what the band needed. It's a string band essentially, so it just needed to be very organic and natural and not perfect and that's how it has come out – it sounds live and I love that sound, personally. I'm really proud of how it has turned out.”

As far as the material goes, that initial concept of paying tribute to one of the great country singers of all time remains, but not in quite as obvious a manner as may at first have been expected.

“We've written all the songs ourselves, so it's kind of like modern hillbilly music, it's really out there and not really like anything else; it's almost like Hank Williams meets Nick Cave,” Britt says.

As far as the future of the project goes, the main thing that matters at this point in time is the mere fact that there is one. Britt seems confident that both Rogers and Chambers share her feelings about this project having a certain potential for longevity, despite the fact that it most definitely remains – and will remain – a side-project for the three artists.

“I think we all see it as an ongoing thing that we do every now and again, we do the odd gig and perhaps do another album down the track – we certainly all got that vibe after Tamworth, that this really has legs and can be something and that we should embrace that. We're doing the best that we can with what we've got. I hope it's ongoing, I really believe in this band and this project and the music that we've made and I think that it can be something that's really special that lasts forever. Hopefully we can make that happen.”

The Hillbilly Killers will be playing the following dates:

Thursday 18 April - Sleep At The G, MCG, Melbourne VIC
Friday 19 April - Meeniyan Town Hall, Meeniyan VIC
Sunday 21 April - Northcote Social Club, Melbourne VIC
Wednesday 24 April - The Basement Circular Quay, Sydney NSW
Thursday 25 April - Milton Theatre, Milton NSW
Friday 26 April - Rooty Hill RSL, Rooty Hill NSW
Saturday 27 April - The Gum Ball, Belford NSW