Only A Matter Of Time

Spencer P Jones has always been one to look forward rather than sit on past glories. He has been involved in a plethora of musical pursuits that have proven to be vital to the make-up of the Australian rock music consciousness. Even when he is responsible for kickstarting a genre (see: the cowpunk shenanigans of The Johnnys), Jones has stated that rehashing those glory days isn't rewarding anymore. So it comes as no surprise that his new project, Spencer P Jones & The Nothing Butts (comprised of Jones, ex-Scientists/Hoodoo Gurus drummer James Baker on drums, and The Drones' Gareth Liddiard and Fiona Kitschin rounding out the band), stemmed from a period where Jones was searching for new outlets to let out the creative muse. That said, the end result came from rather inauspicious beginnings.

“I've been recording in rural Victoria working on a truly solo record, where I do all the instrumentation and overdubs myself,” Jones begins. “I found myself travelling back up there to Nagambie [home of producer Andrew McGee's Empty Room Studios] often because I wouldn't be happy with the results. And on other trips up there, there were other people hanging around doing recording also… so I ended up with some of these people playing on songs, but they weren't a band – they were sections, piano parts and such that were somewhat beyond my ability. It was getting to the point that it wasn't a solo record anymore. Around that time James Baker [who lives in Perth] was in Melbourne with his band The Painkillers, so I asked him if he wanted to come up for a week and record something with me. Unbeknown to us Andrew had invited Gareth and Fiona along because they basically lived next door; I didn't know they had moved up there, but have known The Drones pretty much since they started out. We wrote and recorded something almost straight away. It was an accident, it was a very happy accident, and it became clear on that day that this was no longer part of my solo project; this was something else entirely.”

The recordings happened over the course of a few days, and Jones is adamant after hearing the results that this had to become a fully-fledged project. “We ended up with six tracks being recorded initially, and decided to fly James back over to do some more,” he explains. “Some of the tracks weren't new – Duplicity and Only A Matter Of Time I had on the boiler for a couple of years. I am always writing down lyrics, so I brought my lyric book along, but some things just turned up. I heard Gaz noodling on the guitar at one point and I said, 'What's that?' and he said, 'Nothing'. I said, 'It is now' – I could hear a chord shape, a progression, so I went outside, lit up a cigarette, wrote three or four verses up, then went in and recorded When He Finds Out. That was on the first day, and it was instant. It was apparent straight away that something was going on.

“It was really great working with James again; we hadn't seen each other in a while. He is a great character, a very charismatic guy. He is a no frills drummer, but when he's there things really lock in together. He had a bit of a health scare at one stage and we had heard he was dying. It turned out false, that he only had to quit drinking. Still, when we caught up we had our musical rapport going; when you work with someone so much, even though we hadn't seen each other for such a long time, musically it was like getting back on to the bicycle. You don't forget that.”

It's clear that there is a great level of mutual appreciation between Jones and Liddiard, a relationship that has gone on for some years. “I've known Gaz and The Drones for years – they covered a track of mine a few years back, I did some artwork for Gala Mill. The first time he came to Melbourne he was in the Gutterville Splendour Six, who fronted for my band at the Espy – so that was pre-Drones. He's an amazing guitar player, and I think now he has really hit his stride. I remember years and years ago talking about Rowland S Howard's guitar playing, and I think you can hear that on the Nothing Butts record.”

Above all else, Spencer P Jones & The Nothing Butts sounds like a band enjoying themselves, revelling in each other's company and the chemistry of the music. “It was recorded in a stress-free environment; there were no distractions or interruptions, no one was on your shoulder whispering to do this or that, and I think that freed everyone up,” Jones espouses. “We only had ourselves to entertain. It was a lot of fun, more fun than I'm used to actually. A lot of good came from it.”

Everyone is known for different “voices” which leant a different shape to the Nothing Butts that Jones hadn't encountered before. The end result is incredibly polished for what was essentially an impromptu jam. “It wasn't difficult coming up with songs so much as songs that fit the four personalities within the band,” Jones admits. “It was about connecting with people's styles rather than the people themselves. I told James at the beginning to bring along any songs that he might have, and he brought these lyrics to a song called Freak Out. It focuses on the hallucinations that he had when he gave up drinking. It's incredibly interesting stuff; James' lyrics with my music.”

This one-off, lightning-in-a-bottle moment that spawned the album looks set to continue, with talks of more recording sessions in the wind, while the quartet gear up for a brace of shows up and down the East Coast. Jones is never one to sit idle, however. “It's funny; I was doing all these gigs with the Escape Committee, whom I'm also about to start doing a new album with, and I was doing solo shows, and all I wanted is a record of those solo shows, those efforts. I still have about 17 songs in the can from that period, but I'm in no rush to put them out. This came along and inspired me instead. I'm also doing an album with Kim Salmon which is about two-thirds of the way through. I'm a creative person; that's why I don't want to do The Johnnys anymore. We play songs that I was sick of playing back in 1985. They are happy resting on their laurels; I'm certainly not. I want to keep moving forward, doing new stuff.”