DieselJust one spin of Diesel's new album, Let It Fly, shows a man with no intention of stopping. After a couple of minutes chatting to him, his passion demonstrates much the same. “I'm now older than Tupperware,” he laughs, acknowledging 25 years since his self-titled debut under the Johnny Diesel & The Injectors moniker. Since then, he's experienced every single high the Australian music industry can offer – 1992 alone, on the back of the pivotal Hepfidelity album, saw him snare Best Album and Best Male Artist at the ARIA Awards – but now he seems to revel in continuing to just make music and tour relentlessly for the legions of loyal fans that still roll up to show after show.
Let It Fly is Diesel doing what he does best – fusing bluesy guitar riffs with accessible lyrics and hooky melodies – and doing it with the same gusto and style in which he executed back catalogue gems like Tip Of My Tongue, Cry In Shame, Never Miss Your Water and Come To Me all those years ago.
“I guess when I'm not [making music], I'm not exactly miserable but I'm definitely uncomfortable,” he explains. “That's a question that gets answered properly when I get back to playing it. When I'm not doing it, I'm kind of floundering around wondering what it is I do, so I guess that's what gets me up in the morning. I find holidays excruciating as it's not the done thing to eye your guitar off sitting there in the corner.”
Diesel calls new effort Let It Fly a “disjointed record” but is ultimately happy with the results. The project encompassed some time – on and off – over the last couple of years, a sporadic nature that is atypical of the way he normally works.
“I think pulling it together was things like the guest musicians and that last minute focus; I was freaking for a bit. I was a bit disjointed – 'Was it an album or was it just a bunch of songs?' – so I went to work trying to make it feel cohesive and then all of a sudden it just took shape and it felt like really good work. Normally I'd do it in a more concentrated time period but there were times – six to eight months at a time – where I'd touch nothing on the project. But when I'd go and pull a track up after that time, it'd already be more finished than I'd remembered it.”
Aside from getting older, Diesel admits the mission statement doesn't really change. He's amongst the top guitarists and songwriters in the country but admits openly that he's still learning.
“All the time,” he says, swinging his head low. “Every time I have to play something, every time I hit the studio and every time I hit the stage. There's nothing more humbling than playing music – one day you have it, the next day you don't. Everyone who plays will agree with that.”
