Grinspoon: Easy Living.

Grinspoon

Grinspoon play the Nambour RSL on Thursday, Aussie’s Tavern, Beenleigh on Friday and the Troccadero, Surfers Paradise on Saturday.

Grinspoon are back, baby. Not just back with a new record, for that they are, but quite literally back for some good old fashioned live ear bashing. After their Splendour In The Grass engagements over the last weekend, the northern New South Wales natives are hitting the traps for a series of regional gigs around sunny Vegas. City folk’ll have to wait a little longer for a massive helping of ‘Spoon, but that’s a story to be told a little further down the track.

Considering the trials and tribulations that hindered the production of the band’s newest record, it’s almost surprising New Detention made it to its final form at all. What’s more impressive is that with New Detention the band has put together what is unquestionably the finest album of their careers. No small feat when you back it up against the frantic Guide To Better Living or the brooding Easy.

“Cheers for that,” says Chris, the band’s drummer. “We actually wrote about sixty songs for it, and we came up with the eleven best from that.”

Did you know straight away when you had the tracks down and sequenced that you we’re happy with the record.

“Pretty much. We wrote it in about six stages of lots of about ten, and we weren’t really prepared to do anything until we knew we had the album, which is not really what we did with Easy or Guide To Better Living. We just relieved a few of the time pressures on it, and we didn’t want to put it all together until we were 100% happy.”

“There were a few little hiccups in the middle of recording. I cut all the tendons in my hand, so it didn’t look like I was going to be able to ever play again. That was a bit of a hiccup,” he chuckles. “It wasn’t looking the best for a while there. Thanks Christ, a bit of microsurgery and a bit of relaxing and just hanging around kind of got it better.”

What did you do to yourself?

“I slipped through a plate glass window,” he explains. “It was pretty ugly, but it’s all healed up now and I’m rockin’ it again. That was just another hurdle. I think it was just meant to come out, we’re very lucky.”

Does it make the finished album more satisfying to you knowing that you had all these obstacles to overcome putting it together?

“I know I think we’re more deserving of it, that’s for sure… It makes the parties a lot better. We worked fucking hard on this one, and to see it come out and do well is really satisfying.”

We’re you really looking to showcase a different side of the band this time around? The first single, Chemical Heart was a bit out of left field for the band.

“The last two album we’ve just released a standard Grinspoon rocker, because it was the easy way to go. We really wanted to change it up this time. We did Lost Control after that, so I think we’ve covered what the album is about. I didn’t want to bullshit anyone into thinking it was an album full of Chemical Heart’s or anything like that.”

How far into touring for the album are you?

“This is the fifth week of a nine week tour; it’s going strong. All the shows have been sold out, everyone’s playing well.”

How many shows into the tour did it take for the crowds to know the words to the new tracks?

“Not that many really, which is cool. The album had only been out for a week when we started this tour, so it’s only been out for six weeks now. It’s amazing. The shows in Melbourne and Adelaide – the whole crowd knew the words to the new songs like Damn Straight, which aren’t singles. It’s pretty encouraging. Everyone seems to be getting into it.”

What are your favourite live tracks from the album?

“I think the last two, Damn Straight and Hate. Damn Straight is my favourite rockers, and Hate is just a totally different song for us to play, which is bloody awesome. To change it up live is really good instead of just slamming out rock songs the whole time. We’ve got enough of those; this is just something cool and different. We’ve got to make things interesting for us, otherwise it won’t be interesting for anyone else.”