Tim RogersBy now the concept of a Tim Rogers release being relegated to mere 'You Am I side-project' status is surely a relic from a bygone age, for over the last 13 years he's carved a body of work away from his beloved brethren that would be the envy of most other bands, both in magnitude and quality. Kicking off with his 1999 album with The Twin Set and including efforts with his outfit The Temperance Union and the T'N'T collaboration with Tex Perkins, Rogers has now released six albums away from the comfort zone of his day job, remarkable given that You Am I have pumped out five studio albums and a handful of compilations in that same timeframe.
His latest solo long-player, Rogers Sings Rogerstein, is an unusual conceit for an album – professed to be a creative collaboration with an elusive American cohort, Shel Rogerstein – but irrespective of its genesis it's one of the best batch of songs that Rogers has collated outside the construct of his band, possibly the best since the aforementioned Twin Set debut What Rhymes With Cars And Girls. It's an eclectic batch of songs from a musical standpoint and a powerful batch lyrically, exactly as you'd expect from one of our country's best and most enduring songwriters.
“These were a group of songs that just kept coming back to me,” Rogers shrugs of his latest effort. “Most of them I started to write quite a while ago for other projects – a cabaret show and couple of film and theatre projects – and I kept finding myself coming back to the ideas of the songs. I spoke to my friend Shel who lives in Cleveland – I hadn't spoken to him for a while – and I sort of drew some ideas out of him, and he came back with some ideas… I dunno, I was kind of gearing up to make a new You Am I record, but then I got offered a lot of work that I couldn't really say no to – because it's work – but these songs kept coming back to me, more than the other songs I was writing at the time. I thought, 'Look, I'm just going to record them', and then I dunno, put them on a cassette and play one or two shows for people who want to come along and hear them.
“So I started recording with [producer] Shane [O'Mara] – grabbing an hour here, two hours there in his studio – and we just started getting more involved in it, and we really, really wanted to complete it. Then the ABC heard that I was recording and said, 'Look, we really want to back you up on this', so we finished the fucker and wanted to make something really good of it.
“It's pretty basic stuff – initially it started off as a little boogie, three-chord rhythm'n'blues thing, with a drum machine and two electric guitars but then I started looking at too much tango and some other composers who were doing different stuff, then in the end I thought, 'Well rather than just make it one kind of record, why don't I make ten types of record and put it all on one?' Shane then of course gave me that ominous look – 'Are you really sure you want to do this?' – but fuck it man, if I'm going to be ten different people in a day, then let's do something that's representative of that. I just don't want to ponder over records and make them linear conceptually, so I just came up with this sort of jumble sale of things which suits my attention span.”
Tim Rogers recently featured as guest vocalist on The Bamboos' - I Got Burned.
As much of a musical potpourri as the album is, but it all hangs together robustly due to Rogers' inimitable character shining throughout.
“Quite possibly, as much as I carry on about how sclerotic my attention is and my muse,” Rogers laughs, “there's a pretty common thread of me just being a 'dilettante mixed with a country dandy' thing going on, so anything with a bit of toughness to it I'll break it up with a bit of foppishness, and anything that's too foppy I'll inject with a little bit of brute, and maybe posthumously they'll find that character popular somewhere.”
Character traits aside, projects such as Rogers Sings Rogerstein are an invaluable chance to see another side to Rogers, one equally adept in doling out the quiet as well as the loud.
“It's funny, within You Am I even our love is making a glorious fucking racket, but what we discuss as a group and what we're into individually is a lot more eclectic,” he tells. “For example Rusty [Hopkinson – drums] and I collect Noel Coward letters and memorabilia, and Andy [Kent – bass] is my manager and we talk about the film and theatre projects that I'm getting involved with and we'll cross-reference those all day, and Davey [Lane – guitar] and I are different again, I'll just follow whatever he's listening to and bask in his freakish musicianship. So it's all there as well – they're intelligent guys, so well-read and rounded and I get so much from them – so it doesn't feel that far removed from You Am I. But then looking back to the record we made it clearly is [different], with You Am I there's power there even when we're trying to be delicate.”
With Rogers having expanded his work portfolio recently to include extra-curricular activities such as film and theatre projects, does he feel the need to justify spending time outside the normal rock'n'roll parameters?
“I just think that there's rightly a bit of cynicism out there for someone like me going down a different path, like, 'Oh, so rock'n'roll's not good enough for you then?'” he concedes. “Well rock'n'roll absolutely is [good enough] – it's my first love and I want to die doing it – but I've got to work man, and if someone offers you work, I've got to take work. And as it turns out I get more from it: I have less time but it's truly inspiring, there's so much wonderful music and theatre and art out there, and I just want to suck it all up, I want to sleep with it and fuck it. I'm just lucky, I put myself out there and I've been getting a lot of work, and because I've got this face and this body but not necessarily the skill, I'll put the work in. I love turning up to work and working hard – it keeps me out of the bar until late, there's nothing bad in it. I may make some mistakes along the way, but I figure that that's a better way to go out than thinking, 'I'm the guy who wrote Hourly Daily, so I'm going to write that way for the rest of my life'. I'd rather punch myself in the dick all day than do that.”
Tim Rogers will be playing the following shows:
Thursday 6 September - Darwin Railway Sports & Social Club, Parap NT
Thursday 13 September - Spirit Bar & Lounge, Traralgon VIC
Friday 14 September - Regal Ballroom, Melbourne VIC
Saturday 29 September - Wave Rock Weekender, Hyden WA
Friday 5 October - Bended Elbow, Geelong VIC
Saturday 6 October - Theatre Royal, Castlemaine VIC
Thursday 11 October - Clancy's Fish Pub, Dunsborough WA
Friday 12 October - Fly By Night, Fremantly WA
Saturday 13 October - Rosemount Hotel, Perth WA
Saturday 8 December - Homebake Festival 2012, Sydney NSW
Sunday 23 December - Old Museum, Brisbane QLD
