Riding The Wave

It's been a hell of a life for Russell Morris. He first hit it big in 1969 with The Real Thing, the psychedelic pop single written by Johnny Young and produced by Ian 'Molly' Meldrum, which was followed up with another four Australian Top Ten singles over the next three years, including the classics Wings Of An Eagle and Sweet, Sweet Love. In 2013 at the age of 64 and nearly 40 years after releasing the songs that thrust him to fame, he accomplished something even greater, his then new album, Sharkmouth, cracking the Top Ten in the ARIA Album Chart. It was certainly not something he'd expected. “We pressed 500 copies in cardboard thinking I'd never get a record deal because no one seemed interested – we run the songs to everybody and everyone passed,” Morris explains. “I was going to sell them at shows to make some money back that I'd spent on recording it, and then at the 11th hour a record company came along and said 'We'll take it,' and that's what they did. It sat stagnant for about two months and then it started to move (up the charts) as word of mouth spread. I was delighted when it got to 80 on the charts – I felt like I'd achieved everything I wanted. Then it just kept climbing and I thought 'Gee, if this keeps going I'll have to write another album.'”

His new record, Van Diemen's Land, picks up where Sharkmouth left off, this time covering more great Australian characters and stories including Breaker Morant, Sandakan, the Eureka Stockade and more. He's also joined on Van Diemen's Land by a host of special guest artists including Joe Camilleri, Rick Springfield, Rob Hirst (Midnight Oil), Scott Owen (The Living End) and others. Despite the assistance and the success of Sharkmouth, the second album wasn't any easier to create. “Climbing the second mountain is harder. Sometimes the problem is that when you start writing songs, you think it's the best song you've ever written and people hate it. There's no defining line of quality. I just had to write the songs and say to myself 'If they work, they work.' This album's an extension of Sharkmouth, which was a very basic album; the soundscapes of this new one are broader. They're bigger in their approach.”

Morris is set to tour the country for the next few months, premiering both Sharkmouth and Van Diemen's Land. “I definitely want to make a third album. I've got a year of touring now so I probably won't think about writing for a few weeks. I know where I want to go musically but it's about finding the right stories. If I can't find enough interesting ones, I'm not just going to do it for the sake of doing it, particularly due to the success of the last one. There needs to be something to follow. I'm just riding the wave and once you're on it, you need to ride it out.”