Post Motor City

Detroit is former Radio Birdman/New Race/Visitors guitarist Deniz Tek's first solo album in more than ten years though, of course, he's been far from inactive, having written, recorded, produced or contributed to records or projects by Radio Birdman, with whom he was inducted into the ARIA Hall of Fame in 2007, his wife Angie Pepper, The Soul Movers and The Glass Insects among others.

While it's no concept album and there are plenty of songs about girls and what goes right or wrong when you hang around with them, there are also several tracks that address the decline and fall of the eponymous city and the music its ethos generated in its heyday, justifying Detroit as the album's title, as Tek, who was born and raised in nearby Ann Arbor, explains. “It wasn't initially conceived that way but it just sort of evolved that way as I was putting the thing together. You know, I don't really write albums to order, but when I get inspired or get an idea, if I'm in a good headspace to do that I'll write, and then I'll save things up, and if there is a good time or good opportunity for an album I'll see what I've got in my notebook and in my tapes and files, and start pulling things together. That'll at least give me a few starting songs and then I'll start to write towards that.

“And that's what happened with this. After Birdman broke up in 2007, I was looking for a new outlet and also going through a difficult time in my life, and that can aid the creative process a little bit, and I had been back to Detroit and visited and started writing, and those were the songs that came out over about a two-year period.”

The thing about Detroit was that, until the late-'70s, it had been pretty much the heart of America's automobile industry, which then crashed, creating all manner of social disruption from which the city is still recovering. “It was a total shock,” Tek continues. “Of course I knew it was bad, but I had no idea that it was that devastated. The decline had probably already set in to a small degree when all that great music was happening. Detroit, I would say, was a very big centre for music, from the late-'40s up until about maybe the early or mid-'70s. You had a lot of blues and jazz coming out of there, and then of course Motown and the high-energy rock and roll music. I think all of that fired off what Detroit had been but was already starting to fade, and the music peaked a little bit later than the city did.”

It's that “high-energy rock and roll”, exemplified by The MC5 and The Stooges, that has informed Tek's music throughout his career and into this new album, which he'll be performing in its entirety for the first time during his Australian tour, joined by regular offsider, bass player Andy Newman, who features on some of Detroit; drummer Gerard Presland, who was in fellow Birdman Chris Masuak's band Klondike 40; and, for some of the shows, Birdman keyboards player Pip Hoyle. Having lived back in the States since New Race fell apart towards the end of 1982, Tek has both a moveable Australian and an American group of players he can call on when he tours each country, and spent much of last year touring with rhythm section twin brothers Art and Steve Godoy, with whom he recorded as The Golden Breed in the '90s, as The Deniz Tek Group.

Deniz Tek will be playing the following dates:

Friday 1 March - The Square, Sydney NSW
Saturday 2 March - Great Northern, Newcastle NSW
Thursday 7 March - Plantation, Coffs Harbour NSW
Friday 8 March - Bowling Club, Lismore NSW
Saturday 9 March - Beetle Bar, Brisbane QLD
Friday 15 March - The Tote, Melbourne VIC
Saturday 16 March - The Bridge, Castlemaine VIC