Speaker 1: From The Australian. This is the weekend edition of The
Speaker 1: front I'm Claire Harvey. In this week's episode, we take
Speaker 1: a deep dive into The Cruel Sea. Music writer Andrew
Speaker 1: McMillan sits down.
Speaker 2: For a sandwich.
Speaker 1: With frontman Text Perkins.
Speaker 2: You don't want me to be angry, and then.
Speaker 1: I chat with Andrew and get his thoughts on the
Speaker 1: band's new album. There's something refreshing about a candid rock star,
Speaker 1: and they don't come much more candid than The Cruel
Speaker 1: Sea's frontman Text Perkins, sitting down with a review before
Speaker 1: the last show of a recent tour opening up for
Speaker 1: Aussie rock icon's Cold Chisel, Text said, let's just do.
Speaker 3: Our g do well and get the fuck out of
Speaker 3: the way.
Speaker 1: When he was asked about the band's approach.
Speaker 3: To the tour, nobody's truly there to see us, but
Speaker 3: I figured if we can win ten percent of these
Speaker 3: fifteen thousand people will fill all the venues that we
Speaker 3: plan to play on our album tour.
Speaker 1: From John Lennon to Johnny Rotten, rock stars are irreverent.
Speaker 1: It's part of the gig. But when asked about the
Speaker 1: experience of touring with Cold Chisel, Tex Perkins came over
Speaker 1: all sincere.
Speaker 3: There's a lot of love in the crew and the
Speaker 3: bands and in the audience, and it's impossible not to
Speaker 3: get a little emotional and a little bit teary when
Speaker 3: you see that many people united in their joy and
Speaker 3: love and what that band means to people.
Speaker 2: They are truly Australia's band.
Speaker 1: If Cold Chisel is a Australia's band, maybe the Cruel
Speaker 1: Sea is Chisel's younger brother, a bit quieter, a bit
Speaker 1: more mysterious. The band started off as an instrumental group
Speaker 1: in the eighties.
Speaker 4: While texts I was in bands like Thug and Toilet Duck,
Speaker 4: but it was all just you know, making stupid noises
Speaker 4: and screaming and experimenting backwards vocals, just all just avant
Speaker 4: guard silliness.
Speaker 1: It was Texas collaborator in Thug, Peter Reid, whom text
Speaker 1: describes as a sound genius who introduced him to the
Speaker 1: band that would change his life and the sound of
Speaker 1: Australian rock.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 3: I visited him one afternoon and he said I've got
Speaker 3: to go. I've got to go and mix a band
Speaker 3: at the Hall Park Hotel.
Speaker 2: And I said, oh, come with you, and he.
Speaker 3: Said, na, na, you wouldn't like it, but I came
Speaker 3: along anyway, and yes, he was doing this sound and
Speaker 3: there was an empty four channel lighting board with on
Speaker 3: off and maybe a couple of faders.
Speaker 2: And that's how.
Speaker 3: I became the band's lighting tech nition.
Speaker 1: Text would eventually graduate from lighting tech to front man.
Speaker 3: You can only be satisfied with making fart noises as
Speaker 3: a career for so long.
Speaker 1: But when it comes to the songwriting process, the cruel
Speaker 1: Sy still functions as an instrumental band plus one led
Speaker 1: by guitarist Danny Rumer.
Speaker 2: Danny's very generous.
Speaker 3: I can change any instrumental that are envisage, you know,
Speaker 3: I think this could become a song.
Speaker 2: It's already giving me some.
Speaker 3: Kind of emotional guidance of what the lyrics could be.
Speaker 3: Or sometimes I just hear them and go, well, that's
Speaker 3: great as it is. I love instrumental music myself. That's
Speaker 3: what attracted me to the band in the first place.
Speaker 3: Hip hop can do without the rapping as far as sumptins.
Speaker 2: The instrumental four. So that's a very early song.
Speaker 3: It's on the second album, but I think that was
Speaker 3: one of the first tracks that we started to get
Speaker 3: played on the radio. To tell you the truth, I
Speaker 3: think I'd probably put off just as many people as
Speaker 3: I attract. I was listening to a tune which I
Speaker 3: by then was quite familiar with. It's an instrumental that
Speaker 3: the cruel Sy had called King Tide, and it had
Speaker 3: this wonderful guitar or if they went down, down down,
Speaker 3: and then my subconsciousness kept in that sounds like down
Speaker 3: really low down below in you and down below.
Speaker 2: My entry into the cruel Sy.
Speaker 3: I wanted to be as instrumental as possible. I mean literally,
Speaker 3: just making words out of what the guitar sounds like
Speaker 3: it's already saying was my approach, and I think that
Speaker 3: was the polite thing to do.
Speaker 1: Coming up what keeps these old guys rocking? Andrew McMillan
Speaker 1: is the Australian's music writer. Andrew, you were with Tex
Speaker 1: Perkins before their last Cold chise All show.
Speaker 5: It's funny to think of what The cruel Sy might
Speaker 5: have become if they had never invited Texts to join
Speaker 5: them on vocals. My suspicions they would have remained a
Speaker 5: small pub gig kind of band, playing to small audiences
Speaker 5: around Sydney and maybe Interstate, but when Text joins, they
Speaker 5: got his charisma and his songwriting smarts and his ability
Speaker 5: to connect with audiences. They regrouped in late twenty twenty
Speaker 5: three after a long time between gigs. One of their
Speaker 5: most loved members, James Crookshank, had died in twenty fifteen
Speaker 5: from bowel cancer, so they hadn't played any gigs between
Speaker 5: then and twenty twenty three until their record label approached
Speaker 5: them and said, Hey, the thirtieth anniversary of your biggest
Speaker 5: record is coming up. We're going to reissue it on vinyl,
Speaker 5: or actually issue it on vinyl for the first time.
Speaker 5: Would you consider getting together to do some shows in
Speaker 5: support of that, and they decided to do that. They
Speaker 5: asked a new guitarist to join the fold, a guy
Speaker 5: named Matt Walker, and it was a really well received tour.
Speaker 5: They saw that theaters around the country, and I think
Speaker 5: shortly thereafter, the Cruel Sy became a viable option for
Speaker 5: col Chisel to ask them to be national support for
Speaker 5: colch Chissel's fiftieth anniversary tour. So they weren't headlining, but
Speaker 5: they were a very well known support band to many
Speaker 5: of colch Chistl's listeners already and it was a pretty
Speaker 5: good opportunity to get in front of about two hundred
Speaker 5: and twenty five thousand people across twenty three shows nationally.
Speaker 1: How did you see the fans of the crowds receiving
Speaker 1: the cruel sea? What was the vibe like?
Speaker 5: They were just in fantastic form. They had the runs
Speaker 5: on the board, not just the decades of history, but
Speaker 5: the weeks of following Col Chissel around the country and
Speaker 5: playing to big crowds where they can walk on stage
Speaker 5: without a sound check even and deliver, which is what
Speaker 5: they've been doing to audiences small and large for thirty
Speaker 5: seven years.
Speaker 1: By that point, it seems like it might be a
Speaker 1: young man's game rock and roll. But are they proving
Speaker 1: that you don't have to be twenty two to rock?
Speaker 5: That's part of it for sure. I think tex Perkins
Speaker 5: just turned sixty recently within the last few months. But
Speaker 5: the rigors of touring, they become demanding on the body
Speaker 5: as it ages naturally, like even touring on buses, vans, planes,
Speaker 5: It all takes us toll on the body, let alone
Speaker 5: the late nights early mornings. Add in potential drug and
Speaker 5: alcohol use. Maybe not so much now, but earlier in
Speaker 5: these guys' careers for sure, which they've all spoken about previously.
Speaker 5: It's a demanding job, but I think having lost their
Speaker 5: friend and bandmate James Crookshank to bowel cancer, and I
Speaker 5: think more than ever, all of them appreciate how lucky
Speaker 5: they are to continue doing this thing they love called
Speaker 5: playing music to their many fans around the country. And
Speaker 5: I think the new album is a fine statement of
Speaker 5: not just their intent and their ability as artists, but
Speaker 5: almost like a survivor's statement. We're still here, We've still
Speaker 5: got the chemistry, charisma and ability, and here's our best
Speaker 5: attempt at offering up something that can match it with
Speaker 5: the best of our catalog. And I think it.
Speaker 1: Does down to the last few bites of that fish sandwich.
Speaker 1: Reflecting on almost forty years together with the band, tex
Speaker 1: Perkins cast his mind back to that day when his
Speaker 1: mate Peter Reid suggested he not come along to see
Speaker 1: the band in nineteen eighty seven.
Speaker 2: It's a total sliding doors moment.
Speaker 3: If I'd have gone, okay, I'll go ahead, and then
Speaker 3: I might have joined it completely different. Maybe life would
Speaker 3: have been much better had I not gone to the
Speaker 3: Harrol Pag Hotels.
Speaker 1: Andrew McMillan is the Australian's music writer and you've been
Speaker 1: listening to music by the Cruel Sea throughout this episode.
Speaker 1: This is the title track to their album called Straight
Speaker 1: Into the Sun, which comes out on March seven. Thanks
Speaker 1: for joining us on the front. Our team is Kristin Amiot, Leat, Samaglue,
Speaker 1: Tiffany Dimak, Joshua Burton, Stephanie Coombs, Jasper Leek, who produced
Speaker 1: and edited this episode, and me Claire Harvey.
Speaker 4: Stay gear and don't see