Welcome Strangers

While The Blackeyed Susans are undoubtedly one of Australia's most majestic outfits it's been a while since they unleashed new material onto the landscape – the ARIA-nominated 2003 album Shangri-La their most recent release. On the verge of coming north with keyboardist Kiernan Box [also of Augie March] in their stripped-back The Blackeyed Susans Duo format, frontman Rob Snarski unveils that the full version of the iconic act have been busy working up a new album.

“We've all been writing, there's a collection of songs to focus on,” he reveals. “It has been quite a while. We released a best-of retrospective [2009's Reveal Yourself 1989-2009] which we kind of toured on the strength of for pretty much a year, that was really great. Then we got involved in The Triffids tribute shows which took us overseas – we managed to play a few shows in Europe and play in London for the first time, which was just fantastic. There were a few people there, both expats and locals, who were stoked to see The Blackeyed Susans play. It was nice to play to a London crowd and then head over to Belgium and to Greece and to play to Triffids fans, which was amazing.”

While playing The Triffids tribute shows wasn't much of a stretch given that the late, great David McComb was also a founding member of The Blackeyed Susans whilst on a break from The Triffids back in Perth in 1989, it was still tough for all involved. “Sometimes it was really heavy and difficult to get through, other times you try not to focus on it too much – even though it's difficult not to,” Snarski recalls. “I'd say the first run in Sydney was the hardest for me – by the end of it I was just emotionally drained. So much history and so many people – it was the first time we'd done it and I didn't really know what to expect. Also, given the nature of some of the songs we were performing, it was hard to deliver some of those lines and not think of Dave directly – the emotion certainly welled up, that's for sure.”

McComb isn't the only famous Aussie musician to have graduated through the ranks of The Blackeyed Susans – their list of alumni reads like a 'who's who' of Aussie rock'n'roll. “I know, we feel like a launching pad for everyone else's carer: 'Yeah, I played in the Susans – now I'll leave and become successful!'” Snarski laughs. “No, it's been an amazing experience, and when you think back over the times and the people that I've been involved with in a musical sense it's quite phenomenal. You look at people from The Cruel Sea and Dirty Three, and Dan [Luscombe]'s in The Drones, and then all of The Triffids guys of course earlier on – it's been a healthy and a wealthy musical experience, that's for sure.”

And for the Up Late session this weekend at GOMA – providing musical accompaniment for the Portrait Of Spain: Masterpieces From The Prado exhibition – Snarski promises a mixed bag of musical treats.

“Obviously we'll go through the Susans' back catalogue and play songs that we think will suit the venue and us as a duo,” he tells. “I'll probably slip in songs by [former outfit] Chad's Tree and [side-project] Snarski & Luscombe; we'll try and vary it as much as possible. I'm really looking forward to both the gig and checking out the exhibition – my brother lives in Madrid so I've been to the Prado on a couple of occasions, so it will be interesting to check out the collection they're showing up there in Brisbane.