Going For The One

An Englishman in Byron Bay, Steve James produced everyone from The Jam to The Rutles, Toyah Wilcox to The Sex Pistols, Cold Chisel's The Last Wave Of Summer to Skunkhour's The Go. So the fact that he's produced not only their last EP, Retribution, but also their forthcoming debut album, the first single from which, Mr Number 1, Greenthief are currently touring, speaks volumes. “Steve works with a real good friend's band,” Greenthief singer, songwriter and guitarist Julian Schweitzer explains how he came to work with them, “and produced a record with them and it's a fantastic record, and they kind of raved about Steve. So we did some rehearsals with him and, yeah, it just clicked and worked really well.”

The thing about Greenthief is their passion for '70s UK rock, something James knows plenty about. “That was the big attraction to us,” Schweitzer admits, “working with someone like that. He brought a lot to the recording. The one obvious thing he brought was, like, an outsider's opinion. We'd been playing the songs a while and he's definitely into trimming the fat into songs, so he's got more, I guess, of that pop mentality when it comes to producing in terms of the song structures and trying to get things happening quicker. Sometimes, as a band we can get caught in the trap of writing longer songs, so he's really good in that regard.

“So Mr Number 1 is I guess a bit more the softer side of the band, though it's not exactly a ballad. It's more about chords and stuff like that. That's not just something supporting lyrics, which is something that's a real big influence on the band. Like, we are into soft, not all heavy music and stuff like that, so I always feel the first half is Radiohead and the second half of the song is Tool, in terms of the influences and sounds coming through. The thing that our drummer Steve [Tyssen] brings to the band – which is really awesome – he definitely brings simplicity and a really big fat simple groove, so his drumming is more Bonham-inspired; more the Zeppelin thing. And the song's about, pretty much, karma and sort of about someone who thinks about themselves and eventually gets caught out in the end.

“It's definitely different to what we've put out in the past. The album's more diverse again, so there are a few more songs softer than that and there's even an acoustic one.”

The past three months have seen Greenthief given the opportunity to road test their newer songs to a bigger audience than ever before, courtesy of their guest spot opening for The Butterfly Effect on their national tour. “That was a total blast, touring with them, and an eye-opening experience,” says Schweitzer.

“You know, playing the bigger stages. It taught us a lot of things. We haven't really done a major support before, so we'd never played for a crowd that doesn't know you, which is often the case when we tour anyway, but this is on a much larger scale. So we had to kind of really go out there and impress, to be on our A-game every night.

“All the new songs were pretty much done, so the way we planned it out in terms of the recording was, 'Oh cool, we've got 23 dates now, let's play these album songs live and just toughen them up so then, after the last Butterfly Effect show, go straight into the studio tight.' So that was the strategy behind the timing of it all.”

Greenthief will be playing the following shows:

Wednesday 5 September - Cambridge Hotel, Newcastle NSW
Thursday 6 September - Yours & Owls, Wollongong NSW
Friday 7 September - Lansdowne Hotel, Sydney NSW
Saturday 8 September - Bald Faced Stag, Sydney NSW
Friday 21 September - Ed Castle, Adelaide SA
Saturday 22 September - Pony Bar, Melbourne VIC
Friday 28 September - Tempo Hotel, Brisbane QLD
Saturday 29 September - Irish Club, Toowomba QLD
Friday 26 October - The Rocketroom, Perth WA
Saturday 27 October - Prince Of Wales, Bunbury WA
Sunday 28 October - The Newport, Fremantle WA