"Like A Rotten Possum In The Roof", The 'Gurge Aren't Going Away Any Time Soon

The mighty 'Gurge have had a ridiculously busy year and that is set to continue all the way through to the very end of 2017. Frontman Quan Yeomans joins us from Melbourne, where he is working on the music for a kids' TV show, to chat about what they've got going on, and to understate things just a little. "Yeah, we've got a little bit on," he laughs.

In mid-late September the band pay tribute to The Velvet Underground's classic debut album The Velvet Underground And Nico on its 50th anniversary as part of Brisbane Festival. They have done this show before, and Yeomans is very much looking forward to performing it again. "We've done it in a couple of shows previously," he states, "it's just a really amazing record, and we decided to do it because it was an exhibition at the gallery in Melbourne here with Warhol and Ai Wei Wei. It was an exhibition that was looking for a musical thing to bring it all together and our bass player Ben [Ely] came up with the idea to do that Velvet Underground record in particular." 

Of course, the 'Gurge being who they are, they put their own quirky slant on the album. "We wanted to bring in a Chinese element, we decided to use a guzheng player — it's kind of a Chinese harp. It all worked so well we wanted to keep doing it."

It may be the 50-year anniversary of the release of The Velvet Underground's classic debut, but it is also 20 years since Regurgitator's own breakthrough release Unit, and the band are celebrating this milestone with a very special show at the EB Games Expo on The Gold Coast.

"Yeah that one should be fun," Yeomans says. "The whole visual set-up is supposed to be insane, so I'm looking forward to that. We've got holographic screens, a really great guy on the job, Ken Weston — he's done a lot of stuff for quite a few bands — we're really looking forward to seeing his visuals. We're also playing with a great band called Art Vs Science, one of my favourite Australian bands, so that'll be fun.

"So we're just going to play the shit out of those songs and hope they don't fall apart!" he laughs again.

On top of all that, they are playing a New Year's Eve show at NYE On The Hill in Gippsland, Victoria, alongside the likes of Ball Park Music, Japanese Wallpaper and Gold Class. "We haven't played a new year's eve show for a couple of years I think," he muses, "so that should be fun. I like working when everyone else is playing, it's my secret thrill."

And that's about all the band have on the cards, just for the moment, although Yeomans does hint at other activities in the works in the not too distant future. "That's about it for now. Aside from that, we're just waiting in the shadows for the right moment to strike."

Unlike several of their contemporaries, Regurgitator have never gone away, never split up, never disbanded only to get back together a few years later. They have certainly had their quieter patches, especially in more recent times, but they have basically stuck fast, releasing records and touring, since their formation way back in 1993.

"I know, we're like a bad smell, right?" he jokes. "Unidentified, like a rotten possum in the roof, or a dead rat under the floorboards. We've never split up, as far as I know.

"I took a few years light, so I could enjoy my son, my first child. So it was on the low for a little while because of that. He's a bit older now, and we've just had another baby, so we can't really enjoy it too much. But it's still fun playing, we still do it pretty well. People still seem to enjoy it, we still have a lot of energy still."

Yeomans is philosophical and typically humorous when questioned about the amount of time that has passed since their formation, and since the classic Unit album was released. "The funniest thing about talking to people about the way that time changes is when people start talking about the '90s as an era!" he laughs. "It's really weird, it's like talking about the '60s or the '70s, enough time has passed for that to happen.

"I have a really short memory, so I live basically like a goldfish. Whatever I do today is basically what I focus on, so I don't really notice the time pass in that regard. My body's still holding together reasonably well. I think if your body holds together you don't notice the passage of time quite as badly.

"It's still fun to play these songs, so I can't complain."