Sentimental Journey

Throughout Pere Ubu frontman David Thomas' long and brilliant career, there's always existed a marked similarity between his work and that of the pioneering cinema maverick Orson Welles. Putting aside for a second the physical resemblance, Welles' oeuvre presents as something like a guide book to the cinema's now accepted aesthetics and practices, while the Cleveland Ohio rockers – self proclaimed purveyors of avant-garage – have achieved the same textbook status as far as independence, integrity, landmark artistic feats and the not inconsiderable ability to dance, sometimes wildly, to their own unique drumbeat. It's perhaps no surprise then that Thomas chose to title his band's new album The Lady From Shanghai after one of Welles' best-known films.

At I'll Be Your Mirror, Pere Ubu will be performing their debut album, The Modern Dance, in its entirety, something they did on a European tour in 2011. Thomas finds it a more than worthwhile pursuit, while acknowledging that, while it's not sentimental recollection, he doesn't feel that things are too different from the time he made it. “It's interesting,” he says. “Most bands don't get to this point of being able to play something 35 or 38 years after they first made it. Playing these songs again, of course you end up thinking about why you did you do this stuff? And why did you do them a certain way? You listen to little transitions in the songs and things like that and just kind of think, 'How the hell did we do that?'… If we did it over again today, of course it would be a completely different record, but the principals we were operating by have remained consistent, and that's an interesting thing to know. It's not nostalgia or anything. You're basically asking yourself, 'Why did we do that?'”

On the question of the relevance of the album three-and-a-half decades after it was first released, Thomas shares, “Well, I did mention the nostalgia thing, but you didn't pick it up and run with it… I think it still holds up pretty well. I think that at the time we made it, we didn't have much in common with anyone else, and we still don't have much in common with anyone else, so that gives you kind of a unique temporal window to look at it through, or something like that.”

Thomas has spoken of The Lady From Shanghai as a culmination of Pere Ubu's decades-long approach to making music. For the recording, Thomas had each of the musicians play their parts in isolation, with him directing or overseeing. Despite their longevity, and proven ability to continue creating, Thomas sees the future as far from set in stone. “Even though when you make a record it's a matter of the chemistry of the people involved, a band is an idea. It's not the people. Everyone is replaceable, including me. My theory is that I'm on a long-term project to replace myself. That's not the next project, mind you, the next project is another album, I'm afraid, but I do hope it will happen eventually. It's a bit like The Rolling Stones replacing everyone in the band and then replacing Mick Jagger. Would they still be The Rolling Stones? I don't know, but I couldn't imagine anyone else pulling it off. I'm going to do it though. I'm going to fire myself.”

Pere Ubu will be playing the folloiwng dates:

Saturday 16 - Sunday 17 February - ATP I'll Be Your Mirror, Altona VIC