Newly Independent Cold Chisel To Re-Activate In 2014

In the public's eye, it has seemed been a relatively quiet year for Cold Chisel, but behind the scenes things are certainly ticking over. The band now have their own record label to ensure ultimate control over their catalogue and the first new issued through it – a live album recorded at Sydney's Hordern Pavilion last year – is to be released this Friday.

Speaking of the new label, guitarist Ian Moss says it feels like a natural progression that started way back with their first record deal in the midlate1970s.

“You get your first record deal, as we did back in '77 or '78; it was your typical pretty crap deal, but we were just overjoyed to get a deal,” he recalls. “It was kinda like 95-5 or 96-4 [percent] in favour of the record company.

“We were lucky in that we did a three album deal instead of some horrendous ten album deal or something like that and at the end of the three album deal, the third album was East, which went through the roof.

“When it came for renegotiation time, the odds were stacked in our favour and that's how it continued on; we kept upping our margin, up and up and up until a couple of years ago when we virtually reversed those figures so it was 95-5 in our favour.

“So from there it was the obvious step to take it the whole way and claim the whole thing ourselves and do it ourselves. And it looks so much better when it's in your name.”

As for musical activity within the Chisel camp, Moss says the band are determined to be far more prominent in 2014. New material is being written and a trip back to the live stage sounds all but inevitable.

“We did some [writing] back in June at Jim's place for a few days,” he tells. “It went really well but it was just marred by the fact that we would have loved to have had Charley Drayton involved there, but for obvious reasons it was definitely not a good time for him at all. Pretty much since then, a bit over six months ago, we haven't had a chance to get back together.

“But that was quite promising, it was one of the first times in years where we've walked in with a riff and started writing from scratch. Usually with Cold Chisel the kind of modus operandi is that everyone prepares songs and has stuff written and you bring the demos in and go from there; generally with Don Walker leading the way with ten times more songs than anyone else.”

The band will hopefully be back together in the early parts of next year, hatching plans for another release and another run of live shows.

“I just can't wait for the planets to align and for us to give that a second run, and we'd just really love to have Charley involved, he has a fantastic musical ear. We're just waiting for him to be ready, so hopefully January and February we'll give the writing another crack and also start talking about what we're gonna do and when we're gonna do it next. Where we're gonna play live, when we're gonna play live, how we're gonna play live.”

As tends to happen ever so frequently in day-to-day life, a quote from Cold Chisel's own Don Walker sums things up succinctly.

“No solid dates, but definitely solid plans for doing more, that's for sure,” Moss assures. “No plans… what a line that was!”

The Live Tapes - Vol 1 - Live at the Hordern is out through Cold Chisel Music/Universal on Friday 22 November.