Tim RogersThere aren't a whole lot of albums with a clearly defined narrative thread. There are plenty with a distinct protagonist - Ziggy played guitar and Pink never got his pudding, Tommy played a mean pinball and Yoshimi battled pink robots - but even the most ambitious concept albums usually leave the brunt of the storytelling in the liner notes.
What Rhymes With Cars & Girls doesn't have any of those things. It's lyrically rich and emotionally raw, considered by many to be an Australian classic, but when it came out in '99 it would've seemed a stretch to say Tim Rogers' debut solo album concealed a play about a couple of star-crossed lovers - especially to Rogers.
"It wasn't my idea," shares the iconic singer-songwriter. "Aidan Fennessy said he wrote a play around the LP and would I be interested in talking to him about it and I said, 'Nah, it's ridiculous.'"
Despite his initial reticence, Fennessy convinced Rogers to let him spot the You Am I frontman a couple drinks at the restaurant where Fennessey was working with Rogers' partner. "I said, 'Yeah, that's fine I'm going to be there anyway.' So I met him and he was very charming and very interesting and talked about the script, and I ascertained that it was nothing to do with me. There was no character association with me, and then I thought, 'Well ok, now I'm interested.'
Instead of some forced biopic (bioplay?), Fennessy had turned What Rhymes With Cars & Girls into a love story in the vein of West Side Story - albeit with less murder and more feel-good vibes. It's simple at heart, but affecting. Despite their differences, disaffected pizza boy Johnno (Johnny Carr) and effervescent singer Tash (Sophie Ross) are brought together across the class divide by unlikely circumstances, which are relayed through Rogers' songs.
Fennessy's script had Rogers hooked, but the line and sinker wouldn't come until he started working with Melbourne Theatre Company, met the director and got involved in the casting process. "The whole while, I think, there was always a doggie door out for me," laughs Rogers. "I didn't commit to anything until I'd met everyone involved and the director, Claire Watson. Because I wanted to avoid being on a roundtable talking about theatre, 'cause I can't stand that. But I really liked the people. They were very seductive in a very non-oily way, and sort of wanted to get down to work. And then it took on the feeling, 'Oh right, I'm part of a team here.' And I like being part of a team, as long as I can get away from them when the work bell goes off."
As the Musical Director, Rogers performs the tracks with Ben Franz and Xani Kolac on stage alongside the actors ("dream team"). While he wouldn't call it cathartic - "anything cathartic that needed to happen with the record happened long ago" - he says it's given him a kind of outsider's appreciation of the album.
"I couldn't see a narrative in it at all. At all," he asserts. "That's why the idea of doing a play just seemed preposterous to me. But, Aiden's found a way of doing it. And I couldn't really see the album objectively for decades and he's offered me a chance to look at it objectively. So the songs, I find them a lot more enjoyable now. I love playing them. I mean I played them hundreds of times in the last couple of years because of the theatre show. I enjoy not singing them, and listening to these characters sing them. It's an odd experience, but one that's enjoyable. This thing that was very, very close to you and very emotional and you can step back and feel - you're still getting hit with this emotional range, because it's a very beautiful story and very well presented - but it's nothing to do with me, which is great. 'Cause I'm fuckin' sick of myself [laughs]."
Funnily enough, What Rhymes With Cars & Girls might not be the last of Rogers' albums to tread the boards. His latest LP, An Actor Repairs, was written with the stage in mind, tracking an ageing thespian's withdrawal from theatre. "We're talking about that at the moment, talking with a playwright about it. Because, again, the narrative I leave quite loose. There are other records even that You Am I's done that started out as pieces with a narrative thread - but I didn't wanna talk about it because you're drawing to much attention upon it - and hoping that someone, whether it's Aiden Fennessey or another writer, would pick up on it somehow. But I just don't think anyone really listens [laughs] to what I do anymore as far as music goes. I have to do other silly things like write books."
