Tomahawk: Country Music.

Tomahawk play the Arena on February 9.

Love you Queensland. Thanks for putting the kybosh on daylight savings. It’s the little things, like interviews coming through two hours early, that make split East Coast timezone all the more fun. And it’s because of this I was almost totally unprepared to talk to Tomahawk guitarist Duane Dennison. Shit.

The group, as you may know, features not only former Jesus Lizard main man Denison in the musical driving seat, but ropes in a couple of pals like vocalist Mike Patton (Mr Bungle, Fantomas, Faith No More), bassist Kevin Rutmans (The Melvins, The Cows) and drummer John Stainer (Helmet, The Mark Of Cain). Sounds exciting, yes? Too bloody right it does. And now we’ve got the opportunity to catch them live before they’ve even done a show in Dennison’s hometown. Nashville Tennessee. Where on any given night you can walk into a club and chances are you’ll catch both kinds of music. Country and Western.

“It’s a different environment,” he muses. “I moved here for work more than anything. I actually met Mike at a show when Mr Bungle was playing in Nashville. It all happened by accident. There’s other stuff happening here, but not enough other stuff. People try to have little scenes here, indie stuff, bands like Lambchop. The commercial country thing dominates this town. If you get some good bands down your way send ‘em over here.”

“It just makes me mad sometimes. It makes me want to blow them all up in the country music scene. There is some cool stuff to offset the country stuff. My ties aren’t that strong here; I’m not part of the scene. Tomahawk has never even played here live.”

In fact before the release of the Tomahawk record, the band hadn’t played anywhere before.

“It came together really well live,” Duane explained. “As the tour went on and the album was out longer the crowds got to know the songs more and more. Just like every album I’ve ever done there’s a couple of songs people like more that the others. That’s just kinda how it goes, so we mixed it up, did songs from the album, new stuff, a bit of free improv stuff and did some covers once in a while. Mott The Hoople, Roxy Music, Frank Sinatra. A bit of glam, a bit or noir.”

Do Tomahawk fans know that material?

“I think a lot of times they’re too young to know the songs, but they know they’re not ours. Maybe one out of ten people knows the Roxy Music song in our crowd. Things are different now though, because as soon as you play a show there’s going to be reviews on the internet, and people read those and by the time they get to the next town people know what to expect.”

Are you much of a fan of what the internet can do for music?

“I do get on the net, but not as much as I think a lot of people do. I got a laptop a couple of years ago, and when I first got it I couldn’t leave it alone. After a while the novelty wore off and I pretty much just email now, and occasionally there’ll be a bit of info I’m looking for. It’s hand that way. I don’t sit and cruise and look at every little think There’s such a thing as too much information.”

“It’s funny. A friend of mine, this guy who owed me some money, so to do me a favour he put up a website for me, www.duanedenison.com, and it’s got all this stuff like tour dates. I just don’t like it, and I don’t think it’s necessary. Do you remember Richie Blackmore from Deep Purple? Go look at his sometime. It’s funny, and kind of sad. He’s still in that medieval metal guy kind of mode,” he laughs. “But hey, life is short, so who cares.”

Tomahawk initially came together via some tape trading between main songwriter Denison and Mike Patton. Denison at the time was working as lead guitarist for country performer Hank Williams III post Jesus Lizard and was looking to putting his own band together again.

“I was working with Hank, and it was fine and interesting and challenging and I had some fun. But when you’re a sideman you don’t write the material, you don’t pick the set, you don’t have much of a say in anything. All the while I’d been writing stuff and kind of saving them up, and by the time I met up with Mike I had about half an album’s worth of ideas started. I’d also wanted to play with John Stainer for a while. The stuff I write is kind of sparse and basic, and I didn’t want a band that just sounded like the Jesus Lizard but a few years later.”