Medicinal Compounds

Tim Rogers, known by most as the wild and charismatic front man of Australian rocker group You Am I, is about to embark on the Rock'n'Soul Medicine Show Tour with Lance Ferguson, fellow frontman and founder of soul band The Bamboos. Both staples of the Australian tapestry, Rogers is firstly thankful the term “the industry” wasn't implemented, as he's admitted being utterly in denial about his long-standing membership with the said institution, while Ferguson chimes in with reasons why The Bamboos are an integral part of the Australian sound. “I feel like with The Bamboos that's just because the band has never broken up. I refuse to, and I think notoriety is more born out of persistence and reluctance to ever end the band. I'm going to keep making records forever, as long as I feel enthusiastic about it, which I can't really see that I won't,” he says proudly.

But, Ferguson continues, “It's an interesting issue because the music we started out making was so derivative in some ways, or in every way really, of American music from the late '60s… Over time I just really wanted to improve my songwriting, and if you're writing one-chord songs in the style of James Brown it's very restrictive… Once I realised that The Bamboos was actually my band and my only real and visible outlet for people to hear my music, I wanted people to hear those other colours and chord progressions that I heard in my head. I hope my songwriting has got better because I've thrown out some of those limitations and we're at a place now where, hopefully, it can just be a Bamboos album – not a soul-funk album, which is what I persistently try to fight against. It's very hard with this kind of music to not be pigeonholed… I really aspire to have people say, 'That sounds like a Bamboos album'.”

Rogers affirms this may have been the case for some time already, singing The Bamboos praises on behalf of his own rock outfit. “There was this period with You Am I in the late-'90s where we tried in vain to become a band that played similar music to what The Bamboos did, that has its roots in blues and soul but its own hooks so you're not just doing R&B and soul 101… And we just didn't do it. But we loved it so much.”

Strangely enough then, and despite an enormous amount of obvious mutual respect and admiration, it wasn't until The Bamboos' widely acclaimed seventh album, last year's Medicine Man, and its high rotation single, I Got Burned, that Rogers and Ferguson finally joined forces. “When I sent him the I Got Burned track, I had written it really quickly; at that stage it was just a simple ditty, and he was free to change anything he wanted, melodically, lyrically or with the rhythm,” says Ferguson. “But when Tim came back and said, 'No, this is cool… the lyrics are speaking to me right now, and everything's cool,' it was immensely validating to me, as someone who's always trying to write better songs. And to come from one of Australia's great songwriters, it was extremely validating.”

Rogers was aware of Ferguson for a long while. “When Lance was playing in Megan Washington's band, I sat behind his amp every show,” he says. “He turned around one night and said would you be interested in doing something together – a recording – and I said absolutely. And after that it was half an hour recording, and about three hours drinking beer… I wish it could always be that way,” he laments.

Ferguson interjects, perhaps in his own way lamenting the absence of beer (as he's undertaking FebFast), saying, “But it feels good that it did happen. It was probably bound to happen sooner or later, and I'm certainly glad it did.”

Continuing the beer talk, Rogers says he has reconsidered in-depth his party-boy approach to the collaborative tour, particularly, he says, because he is a guest in someone else's band. “I've thought about it with these shows, and you can't just walk around and think 'hey I'm Tim Rogers, yeah, fuck you!' You've got to find a way to make it work and I want to be myself… but it's really interesting playing to someone else's crowd.”

So what should be expected of the Rock'n'Soul Medicine Show, which begins with the Perth Festival, makes six intervening stops then wraps up with WOMADelaide? “We've got some new songs, as well as some You Am I songs that we're rearranging, and thankfully a stack of old Bamboos songs, and when we talked about doing covers, Lance sent through about fifteen suggestions, and they happened to be fifteen of my favourite twenty songs ever… it was berserk. We didn't even talk about it.” This treasured list includes the likes of Dr John, Delaney & Bonnie and Soft Cell, if prospective ticket buyers want a taste of what's to come.

Over the years The Bamboos have developed a reputation for suave and immaculate attire and, as regular suit wearers, one reasonably wonders whether a dress code has been set for the tour? “The problem is, when you've got a bunch of musicians who own really terrible suits, and only wear them on your gig, they tend to go out and buy an $80 suit from High Point or something,” says Ferguson. “They're the worst! So there have been some terrible, terrible suits worn by the members of the band.”

Alternately, self-proclaimed prima donna Rogers says it will be a case of stake-raising between he and singer Kylie Auldist. “I feel like I've got to prove my worth and earn her respect; so if she comes with a flower in her hair, I've got to come with two flowers in my hair. By the end of the tour I'm going to look like Carmen Miranda!”

Beyond the tour, even though both musicians are individually profound multi-taskers, with Rogers involved in several cinematic projects and Ferguson pursuing an album release with his other band, The South Seas, and dishing out the occasional DJ set, a collaborative album may still happen. “We're really planning on a record together, it's been on the cards for a while really,” says Ferguson. “Since we recorded I Got Burned, I was thinking about it… You know, it sounded great. I don't know how we'd spin it, or what it'll be called, but I think either way the music will be cool.”

Tim Rogers & The Bamboos will be playing the following dates:

Thursday 7 March – The Hi-Fi, Sydney
Sunday 10 March – WOMADelaide, Adelaide