Reluctant Rockstar

"Australia, it was illuminating I guess,” Cass McCombs talks from a snow-covered New Jersey about his first visit in 2012. “[There were] a lot of things I didn't know about – a lot of bad things, a lot of good things. I didn't realise how racist Australia was. I also didn't realise how beautiful it was so the good with the bad I suppose.”

Through long pauses and a deadpan voice, the notoriously reluctant interviewee who first became known with the release of his Not The Way EP in 2002 shares his opinion on creating music. “There's conscious decisions that are made… like song order – it's kind of like a setlist, like when you make a setlist for a show. You're just pullin' songs out of the air – there's somewhat of a random order that happens. The clock is ticking, you know you have to make a decision and you just make one; there's no thought. Just any decision is the same as the next, and any artist who says any different is a liar. Decisions are completely random,” he declares. “…Decisions in music are like pencil; there's like an eraser on the other side – you can always change it. You have to try on the clothes to see if they fit… Often it doesn't fit right, that's why I take so long to do anything.”

Though he sees it as a drawn-out process, McCombs has been quite prolific over the past decade. Big Wheel And Others is a double record, his seventh longplayer released in October, which is steeped in the mythology of The West and filled with an eclectic range of folk, blues, jazz, jams, rock and that charming poetic lyricism. He doesn't know why he decided on the lengthy format. “I don't remember, you know. I really mean this, there's no logic in this – there really is no logic. There's no reason and there's no thought behind anything that anyone does, much less a record. We were just recording for years… and as soon as we knew it we turned around and there was a bunch of songs. The record company and the band and myself all threw out what we wanted to do with it and poof, there it was in the world…”

McCombs' unwillingness to play the rockstar is strangely alluring. He isn't even very interested in showcasing Big Wheel And Others on his Australian tour. “I don't really put a lot of thought into the album. We're a touring band; maybe other bands place an emphasis on the record because they want to show the commodity but that's not really ever been our bag. We're just a team, you know – album comes, album goes; it's not anything to put a lot of anxiety into... I release the record, some people I respect said they liked the record. Well then they've always had respect, that's why we're friends! To me, nothing has changed – it's all good, it's all suffering, all the time. Nothing ever changes – it's the same.”