For a while in the '90s, Wollongong rockers Tumbleweed were one of the hottest bands in the country, dominating the airwaves with a stream of fuzz-laden singles, EPs and albums, and taking their powerhouse live show all around the globe both on their own and alongside a slew of high-profile bands such as Nirvana, Mudhoney and The Lemonheads. The original (essentially “classic”) Tumbleweed line-up split in 1995 and it wasn't until a 2009 offer from Homebake to reform that they played together in anger once more. That initial foray went well enough to prompt more ecstatically received shows and now the five-piece have taken matters to their logical next step with the release of new album Sounds From The Other Side, following a realisation that they needed some new tunes if they were going to be more than a mere nostalgia act. “That's exactly the catalyst for deciding to record again in the first place,” frontman Richie Lewis recalls. “A few years ago we thought, 'Well, what are we? Are we a nostalgia act or are we a band?' Bands write stuff and bands record stuff and bands are creatively vibrant and relevant, not only for the musical landscape out there but personally, you know, to challenge yourself creatively. That's what we wanted – we wanted that outlet in our personal lives.

“But at the same time, as far as the band goes and the legacy of whatever Tumbleweed is from our years of being together, we're not an RSL act, we're not a nostalgia act – we can't do that, it's not what we're about as people or as a band. We're totally against that sort of shit. We did it for a little while and it was fun – we didn't think that was going to happen – and when we realised that we still had chemistry as a band and as people we were left at that crossroads, and it was either, 'Okay, let's stop now because we're not going to do that anymore, or we write stuff'. It's very exciting to be at the tail-end of that decision and have the record in the can.”

Once they'd decided that new music was required to remain relevant, Tumbleweed roped some old colleagues back in and basically just waited to see what happened next. “Well one thing that we've always done is just try to be ourselves, and just try to be natural and organic and leave a certain amount of what comes out up to the spirits or the synchronicity of life, and I suppose just the synchronicity of the five members,” Lewis reflects. “With our previous releases there were things that we didn't like about them: we didn't like the cleanliness of [1992's self-titled debut], but we thought that Galactaphonic (1995) sounded pretty cool. There were some songwriting issues; what we wanted to do was write the record that we'd always wanted to make but we didn't feel that we'd made. We were always a little bit disappointed with our albums back in the day because we just didn't think that it sounded like what we thought we sounded like when we played live.

“We thought that the person that had gotten closest to that ever was [producer] Paul McKercher, so he was one of the definite things – we thought, 'Okay, if we're going to do this we're going to do it with Paul, because the sound that he got on Galactaphonic was the most definitive Tumbleweed sound'. Also we wanted to record it that same way, which was to two-inch tape, and to try and keep those elements the same as in the original days. We wanted to keep almost the blueprint for what we did back in '92, however bring [in] the musical knowledge we've acquired since then – just growing up and playing lots of different music with different people – and write better songs.”
The new album sounds defiantly Tumbleweed – they were often pigeonholed as 'stoner' or 'grunge' back in the day, but where does Lewis see them sitting in the overall scheme of things? “I've never seen ourselves as a stoner rock band,” he tells. “I do like stoner rock – I like the sound of it – but we don't write those sort of songs. And as far as grunge, well, not really – what is that anyway? I sorta think that we're just a rock'n'roll band – back in the day we were inspired by a lot of great rock'n'roll from The Stooges to local bands like The Celibate Rifles and The Stems and early Hoodoo Gurus, whatever. There was so much stuff that contributed to our sound, and before Nirvana came along we were making very similar music but it just didn't have a name – it was just Australian alternative music, or Australian independent music. Rock'n'roll.”