The Living End's Chris Cheney On Longevity, ARIA Hall Of Fame & Regional Tours: 'It's What We Live For'

Steve Bell

Ahead of a massive regional tour, Chris Cheney recounts The Living End’s long and winding road from punk covers band to the ARIA Hall Of Fame.

The Living End(Credit: Jacob McCann)

The Living End

Melbourne-bred punk rockers The Living End returned to the recorded fray last year with their hard-rocking ninth long-player I Only Trust Rock n Roll - their first new record in seven years - then, as the time-tested album cycle dictates, followed that with a tour of massive capital city venues befitting the trio’s iconic status.

Now they’re venturing a bit further off the beaten track with a run of regional shows stretching down the east coast from Cairns to Hobart, and frontman Chris Cheney couldn’t be happier.

“I’m really looking forward to it,” he enthuses. “We did the capital city run at the end of last year, in November-December, and they were huge shows at like the Opera House and the Botanic Gardens in Melbourne and other cool rooms, and it all sold out, and the reaction was just awesome surrounding both the shows and the new record.

“So now to be getting out to all these other places, we're really excited. It's what we kind of live for, and we haven't been doing enough of it over the last few years - you’ve got to sort of pick and choose a little with the kind of shows you do - so we're just eager to get out there and play.”

The Living End are certainly veterans at leaving the big smoke to ply their trade, having been hitting the road to find new crowds to play for since their very earliest incarnation.

“Back when we were a cover band, when we were in high school,” Cheney chuckles, “we would get hired out to go and play a hall in Bendigo or Ballarat - or play someone’s country wedding or 21st - because we could do three or four hours of sort of covers, I guess. So we were playing regional shows even then.

“And then, obviously, since we transitioned to becoming an originals band in sort of ’94/’95, we've always gone out to these areas. And we've done van tours and stuff where we've gone out for six or seven weeks; we just haven't done it over the past sort of six or seven years. It’s probably pre-COVID, since we’ve done something like this.

“I feel like it just works for us. It’s nice to play the bigger shows and do Red Hot Summer tours and all that, but our sort of home ground is like the smaller kinda sweaty, packed venues, and that's what this is going to be.”

There’s often a different vibe at these regional shows, where punters don’t get to catch bands of The Living End’s calibre as regularly as their city counterparts.

“We came from that real inner-city kind of Melbourne scene, which was great because you had to be able to cut it to get anywhere, but people there are so spoiled,” Cheney laughs. "They’re so spoiled for music - because it’s on every night of the week in 100 different pubs.

“Whereas you go out to these other areas, and they're just, like, ‘Thanks so much for coming!’ And they just get loose because they're so freaking excited that the band is there - it's just like everyone's in party mode.

“So that's the thing that always struck me initially when we first got popular, and we'd go to these places, the room would just sort of explode, which completely works for us.

“And it's just nice to be able to still go and play those areas now. We have this whole sort of catalogue of music now, and people feel like they've kind of grown up with the band, which can be a double-edged sword - I mean, none of us want to get any older.

“But at the same time, I'm kind of glad that we're still here and that we came up when we did. And now when we go to these places, some people have had us as the soundtrack to their whole lives almost - it's good to have a lot of songs that people know and a lot of albums, that’s one of the blessings of probably having been around for a long time now.”

One potential downside of having such a large catalogue is that choosing a setlist gets mathematically more challenging with each new album, but Cheney explains that they’ve got this down to a fine art.

“It depends on the gig, really,” he tells. “If it's just like a 50-minute kind of set and you're on a festival, then you kind of just rip out the hits. But with this tour, we can kind of tailor it a bit more because there's some people who haven't seen us for quite a few years, perhaps, so they want to hear some more of the deeper cuts and stuff as well. So I really like the idea of mixing it up.

“One thing about this current record, though, is that it's been a bit of a full circle moment. We kind of rediscovered that just the three of us playing three-chord, simple, balls-to-the-wall rock’n’roll is enough. We don't need to prove anything else to ourselves.

“So that's been really nice to kind of get back to that, so I feel like at these gigs there'll be a certain amount of that represented as well as mixed songs from our repertoire. But I think that's been the best reaction, people have heard this new album and just go, ‘It sounds like The Living End!’ You know, some people have wanted us to sound like that for the past few records.”

Cheney puts I Only Trust Rock n Roll’s sonic return to the raucous vibe of their early forays in part due to a recent sea change.

“I’d just moved to Queensland in 2023,” he offers, “and I don't know whether it was just being near the beach or what it was, but I found that every day I'd kind of get up and go for a swim, come home, put a pair of shorts on - nothing else - sit in my garage, grab my Telecaster and I'd plug in to my GarageBand and start writing each day: I'd just try and write as much as I could.

“My garage didn't have any air conditioning, it was sweaty and uncomfortable, and I just found that I was just wanting to write these really aggressive, like right-hand downstroke kind of punk rock songs - not surf kind of stuff, actual punk.

“I don't know whether it was the environment or what it was, but I was, like, ‘That's the record I want to make!’ I just want to make something that's really sort of fast and aggressive and back to the roots of what the band was when we started.

“And I was writing a lot of different styles of music as well, but it just so happens that the songs that everyone decided were the best ten or 11 songs were these ones that were more anthemic and simple and aggressive.

“And, you know, that’s not always the case. You can write a lot of different material, and everyone has certain songs that they like that are sort of different styles, I suppose, but with this one, it definitely felt like the best ones were in that genre.

“So I kind of forced it, but at the same time, I think it just came back around again - I’d just learned to sort of simplify things. And like I was saying earlier, it just felt like the way that the three of us play together is enough - we didn't need to kind of try and add a whole lot of extra stuff and compensate for something.

“It was, like, ‘No, no, no, when the three of us plug in and play it sounds great, so let's just do that.”

While the three bandmates - The Living End’s line-up rounded out by double-bassist Scott Owen and drummer Andy Strachan - may be musically returning to the halcyon days of the ‘90s, Cheney’s lyrics on the recent record are definitely reflecting more modern world concerns.

“I feel like it really is the two worlds colliding, I suppose,” he reflects. “But I probably felt like I had more to say on this record than I have for the past few, and that’s one of the great things about when people heard this album initially - a few of our friends and stuff - they went, ’It sounds like you've got something to say again’.

“And I’d almost kind of forgotten that a lot of people perceive the band as having this sort of political edge. I don't necessarily love that, but they're right in the sense that songs like All Torn Down and Prisoner of Society really did have something to say that was relevant to their time - it sounds like someone on a soapbox.

“So I kind of probably hadn't thought about that until I started looking at the subject matter of these recent songs and went, ‘Oh yeah, maybe that pissed off 21-year-old is still in there somewhere!’ Particularly with the world just kind of going in the direction that it's gone in the last few years, it's a fine inspiration.

“But yeah, it was kind of cool that melodically it was coming together, but also lyrically it seemed really relevant. And songs that have both going for them, of course, are quite often the best ones.

“Back at the start, a lot of our favourite songs by our favourite bands - the Oils and The Clash and stuff like that - were really political, but they’re killer songs as well, and I feel like you've got to have both.”

In the long stretch between the two most recent The Living End albums, Cheney put out his debut solo effort - 2022’s The Storm Before The Calm - and he feels that even this more sophisticated diversion may have influenced the music upon his return to the band.

“I felt like I'd been waiting to get that out of my system for quite a while,” he admits. “I started working on that record in 2013, and I recorded basically a full album, and then I scrapped it, and then rewrote a whole other one and recorded that in Nashville in around 2017 or something and then it bloody didn't come out until a couple of years ago. I just kept chipping away at it forever.

“It was just a great experience to be in a studio in Nashville with like a pedal steel player and a piano player - these session guys that were just absolute guns.

“And while I don’t think that changed my perspective or anything on the band - I wasn't at any point thinking that the band had seen better days or anything - that album did have strings and all sorts of stuff on it, and maybe having gotten that out of my system, the new album was a reaction to that. Maybe I was, like, ‘Alright, now it's time to strip it all back again’.”

“I think one of the downfalls or one of the missteps in our career - I mean, it is what it is - but we’ve had a lot of songs that perhaps didn't fit the band and what the band's initial mission statement was, but I've wrestled with that and tried to pull them into what The Living End is.

“And that's been okay, I’m glad that we tried some stuff and that we've been experimental on our albums, and we didn't just release Prisoner Of Society 25 times. I'm glad that we've done some different things - it didn't always work, but that’s okay.

“And I think what I learned from the solo record is that if there’s anything that's slightly different and doesn't fit what The Living End does, that's okay - I'll save it for the next solo project, or I'll give it to another band or something. I've written songs for Vika and Linda and Jimmy Barnes - you know, songs that didn't fit what we do.

“But in the past, before the solo record came out, I would have these songs that have, say, acoustic guitar - really different stuff to what people identify as what The Living End does - and I would try and sort of mould that into what we did, and it just didn't always work. But anyway, that's okay. You've got to evolve.

“And I think probably half the reason we're here still is that if you're a fan of the band, you like some of those odd songs on the records, the ones that are a little bit different and unique, and appreciate that it's not just the same three-chord song again and again and again.”

The Living End have achieved a lot more than just longevity - they can also count two number one Australian albums and six ARIA Awards (from 27 nominations) among their many accolades, which is why they’re on the cusp of being inducted into the ARIA Hall Of Fame at the 2026 ARIA Awards.

“It is a wonderful feeling to have that acknowledgement,” Cheney marvels. “You start like we did when we were kids - we were like 14 or 15 or something when Scott and I first started playing music - and at that point, you kind of make a bit of a list. You go, ‘Well, let's learn how to play. Let's learn how to write a song. Let's get a gig. Let's try and get an audience’. You're not thinking about the Hall of Fame at that point - it’s not on the list.

“So I think what I'm proud of is that there's a lot of people that are worthy of this - you know, a lot of Australian artists who deserve to be in there - and the fact that someone thinks that we should be in there, that they recognise that our connection and our contribution is worthy, is amazing because we’re from a pretty left-field place.

“ARIA Awards? ARIA Awards were for John Farnham and Kate Ceberano and those sorts of people. And luckily, I guess, we came up in a time where all of a sudden you had You Am I, Spiderbait, Silverchair and so on - the alternative was starting to become the mainstream - so that kind of paved the way for us, I suppose, but it just seemed like that was another world that we didn't exist in.

“So to now get the Hall of Fame thing is like, ‘What the fuck?’” he laughs. “But it's lovely.”

And while there is an obvious dichotomy about a punk band being welcomed into such a mainstream institution - of all the fine Aussie acts to be inducted over the years, only The Saints, Rose Tattoo and Radio Birdman could be considered even vaguely punk or punk-adjacent - The Living End have never been bound by such genre concerns.

“We loved punk rock, but we never really bought into the punk rock rule book of, ‘Oh, we don't care whether we're popular or not’,” Cheney concedes. “We wanted to be popular. We wanted there to be an audience because we wanted to play music, hopefully for the rest of our lives, so it was important to have the appeal and to get people through the door at the venue.

“As much as we never wanted to compromise what we did - we always felt like what we were doing was valid - to get this kind of validation that our music's connected with a bunch of people is really cool.”

Obviously, a lot of hard work and elbow grease helped pave the way for the band’s success, even back when their prospects of breaking through seemed grim.

“Shit yeah, I mean, for every album that has 10 songs, I wrote 100 for the record, and that's just one part of it,” Cheney tells. “We toured a lot, we did a thousand gigs to no one when we started out, couldn't get anyone to come and see the band play, couldn’t get a record deal or any of that. I had made up my mind it was never gonna happen.

“We were together seven years before our first record came out! Which is crazy because The Beatles were only together for eight years!”

The Living End embark on a regional tour this July and August. Find the tour dates below and purchase tickets here.

Presented by Winterman and Goldstein, Cornershop Agency and Face To Face Touring