Wolfmother And Family Kept The Band Apart

19 December 2014 | 12:12 pm | Mitch Knox

"We just needed a bit of a break."

Ten years ago, Resin Dogs were at the height of their game. With two acclaimed albums – 2000’s Grand Theft Audio and 2003’s Hi Fidelity Dirt – behind them and international tours all but being thrown at their feet, central members DJ Katch and Dave Atkins could’ve been excused for thinking the good times would never end.

Still, to hear Katch speak of the state of things in the lead-up to their year-end appearance at The Big Chill mini-fest in West End, it seems those days feel much further away than they should.

“Dave and myself haven’t actually played together in the band for four years,” Katch explains. “He’s had commitments with family, with bringing up a young son, and he’s had an opportunity to drum with Wolfmother and stuff, so he did that. So this is basically like the first time we’ve been able to play in the band together since the More tour in 2008.”

Although The Big Chill gig marks the first time they’ll have played together in six years, the veteran DJ is optimistic for the future and, importantly, thankful for the past.

Don't miss a beat with our FREE daily newsletter

“We’ve recorded enough material for probably an album and a few EPs and stuff like that. I think after being on the road for 17 years, we just wanted to do some different things and stuff. Family situations, people having kids and stuff like that… yeah, we just needed a bit of a break. [Dave] was into different sorts of sounds, and so was I, so we got that off our chests, and even though we’d recorded records and stuff like that, the vibe and the timing seems to be a lot more better now.

“So it’s not like we’re going, ‘aw, it’s a thing we can rely on’ or anything like that. We know that we’ve gotta start again if we were really gonna get into it, but if we’re gonna do it, we’d like to take it back to where we, you know, give it a good go.”

And, hey – what better time and place to re-sow some old-school seeds than Katch’s local stomping ground, at the dawn of a brand new year?

“It’s a good venue,” Katch says of The Motor Room, hosting The Big Chill this year. “I’ve spent a lot of time there on Friday and Saturday nights checking out bands and stuff, being a local at West End myself. It’s a really good thing. And it’s family-oriented, as well, so you can see a band, you can bring your kids… I’ve never seen any aggro or stuff like that.

“The fact that it’s a new thing, also, maybe away from the Valley and city sort of vibe that everyone’s accustomed to... I’m pretty excited about it, not having that thing of being dumped in that zone where it’s just chaotic. You know, you’d see it on a Friday and Saturday night, or after festivals… multiply that on a New Year’s, man, and it’s gonna be super crazy.”