Busy Blokes

Mike Noga's been juggling his solo career with his day job as drummer for The Drones for a few years now, but rarely with the intensity that he's been displaying of late. In between jetting around the country in solo mode supporting Tex Perkins and The Dark Horses' album tour, he's been slaving to complete the long-awaited new Drones record, all the while working on a new solo album to boot.

“We had Burke Reid, who mixed the last Drones album, flying in from Canada on a set date to mix the new one,” Noga tells, “and it was two weeks out and we were nowhere near finished, so I've been spending the last two weeks getting in to the airport from on tour and driving straight up to the studio at Nagambie, which is about an hour-and-a-half north, and then working every day until about 3am and then going straight back to the airport and continuing the tour. Then as soon as that all finished I went straight into the studio and started recording some of my own new stuff for my own new album – I've been in the studio with Paul Dempsey who's going to produce it for me, which is kind of cool. But I'm sick to fucking death of recording, that's for sure.”

For a bit of respite Noga's about to hit the road with old sparring-partner Ben Salter – frontman for Brisbane outfits Giants Of Science and The Gin Club and now proud owner of a solo career as well.

“It will mainly be Ben and I yabbering away on stage, it's gonna be great fun,” Noga enthuses. “He's been so bloody flat out as well that we've had no time to rehearse. The idea for the tour is for us to sit on stage the whole time and play each other's songs, but we haven't even had the chance for one rehearsal yet. But we know each other's stuff and we're utter professionals, by the time the gigs come around it'll be like going to see Les Miserables. It's going to be great fun. My only worry is that Ben's a much better singer than me, and I don't know if I'll be able to keep up. I should go into training and start doing those really annoying vocal warm-ups before gigs just to shit him.”

2011's acclaimed The Balladeer Hunter was Noga's second solo foray, and he reckons that album number three will be something of a departure. “It's totally different actually,” he muses. “It's great having Dempsey onboard, he's like a mathematician when it comes to music – in a good way, he's so great with arrangements and harmonies. I was getting a bit sick of the stripped-back, folky thing – I've done that on the last two records – and I know it's a real cliché to go, 'the next album's going to have layers of production and strings', but that's kind of what we're doing. The songs lend themselves to bigger production, and there's almost a pop song on there, I'm afraid to say!”

And some sneaky info on The Drones' impending long-player? “It's a fucking cracker, we're really excited about it,” Noga gushes. “It's different – it's a little more succinct, and probably about as accessible as The Drones will ever get, but at the same time it's also weirder. Put it this way – there's two obvious singles on there, and having an obvious single isn't something that happens often with The Drones. It just feels like a bit of the fat's been trimmed off, it's weird and really cool – we all really like it. I reckon it's my favourite Drones album by far already.”

Mike Noga and Ben Salter play the following shows:

Thursday 6 December – Spotted Cow, Toowoomba
Friday 7 December – Beetle Bar, Brisbane
Saturday 8 December – Petersham Bowls Club, Sydney
Sunday 9 December – Front Gallery, Canberra
Thursday 13 December – Karova Lounge, Ballarat
Friday 14 December – Old Bar, Melbourne
Saturday 15 December – The Grand Poobah, Hobart