Things Of Stone & Wood: Hot Damn.

Things Of Stone & Wood play the Beach Hotel, Byron Bay on Thursday and The Zoo on Saturday 

“We’ve had a great summer, really,” Mick Thomas enthuses. “I’ve been really happy. We’ve sort of played every year, but we hadn’t been out and toured for about five years, so it’s been pretty nerve wracking stuff. I’ve been wrapped with how well it’s been going.” 

We, to fill in the blanks, are Things Of Stone & Wood. For a long time one of Australia’s favourite acoustic acts, their departure from the live scene leaving a void in our musical landscape. The quartet are once again out on the road, with a new single, Ship Of The Damned already out in stores, an album featuring tracks from their past as well as seven new recordings about to hit stores, and soon to be followed by the release of second single Goodbye Cruel Girl to coincide with the current tour.

“We got to perform Ship Of The Damned on Good Morning Australia, which was a bit of a surprise. It was great. The new stuff is going really well. Goodbye Cruel Girl is a different trip as well. It’s been good for me playing with the band again. It’s brings out a certain thing in my songs the second they start playing. Things just start sounding like Things Of Stone & Wood songs, and I love it.” 

“Because the other guys in the band had the same musical experience over the last thirteen years, when we went in and started recording we were at the same level. I just get this whole energy that has really been there since day one when we start playing together. Over a long period it’s really nice for me to see that when we get together after a while when we haven’t played much that all that stuff is still there."

So what are the defining elements of playing with Things Of Stone & Wood for you? 

“There’s something quite specific about the feeling of being in Things Of Stone & Wood. It’s the people, it’s the history of the band. All these anecdotes you all know and make when you’re talking about something. I guess to me it’s also defined by the fundamentals that defined the band when we started. Just organic music. It was really a response to the technical eighties. It’s an organic band from that Australian live playing experience.” 

Mick has been out on the road in the last few years with his other act, Mick Thomas’s Tricycle. The band however has been put on hold as Things Of Stone & Wood rebuilds it’s touring reputation.  

“For me, both bands run from the same starting point, which is my songwriting, and I don’t want to get into the situation where I’m going ‘you guys get this song, you guys get that song’. It’s a ticket to everybody hating me,” he laughs. “It’s not going to help at all unless I want to get all eccentric and travel in my own little one person car.”