Interview by Kris Peters
When Grinspoon burst onto the Australian music scene with the sensational debut album Guide To Better Living in the late 1990s the whole rock/punk landscape in this country changed forever.
Here was a brash, outspoken, talented as fuck group of individuals who showed no respect for the conventional laws of music and were more than happy to break the rules whenever it suited them - which was often.
That album was followed by Easy in 1999 and then New Detention in 2002, both of which were more accessible than the band's debut offering, but still with enough angst and attitude to captivate a youthful generation.
Last year saw the 20th anniversary of New Detention so Grinspoon have decided to revisit both of those albums by releasing them for the first time on vinyl on September 8. It is testament to the enduring quality and legacy of both of those albums and what would a release be without a tour to promote it?
Never ones to shy away from time on the road, Grinspoon have announced their Easy Detention National Tour which kicks off at the Miami Marketta on October 29.
Joining them for the tour will be Private Function and Cupid & The Stupids, both young bands who obviously remind Grinspoon of themselves back when they first started.
Guitarist Pat Davern sat down with HEAVY to chat about the tour and the vinyl releases, starting with just how much the band are looking forward to celebrating on the road.
"Yeah definitely," he smiled. "We did the Spring Loaded tour last year, which was a three year tour - it was 12 dates in between COVID and everything else that happened. As far as club shows go or our own dates it's been a long time. I think the Chemical Heart Tour - which was the end of 2021 I think - so, yeah, it has been quite a long time. Once again we're kind of doing a retrospective of Easy, which was our second album, much loved by fans but not so much by critics, and then New Detention which was obviously our biggest selling record and our crossover into more commercial radio after coming from the Triple J scene of the 90s."
The tour is also celebrating the release of both albums on vinyl, which Davern admits was not as simple as you might think.
"It's amazing that it takes 20 years to get a record out on vinyl," he laughed. "Who would have thought? It's funny. Easy was recorded a bit of an old fashion way with two inch tape, straight from the desk and it actually transpired onto vinyl very well - like it was made for it. We really set that album up to have an A side and a B side and on vinyl sounds amazing. With New Detention, which was the first ever record that we recorded with pro tools, took a bit of work getting there but it's sounding great. Me and Phil had a bit of a listening session in a hotel in Sydney a couple of weeks ago and had a real deep dive into the sound and we're really happy. All the secret tracks turned up - not in the same places as they were. On Easy the secret track was six minutes and sixty seconds after the last track - geniuses we were back then (laughs) - but it comes straight in now. So, yeah, you get a bit of extra stuff on the vinyl as well and obviously the gatefolds are really great. The artwork is the original artwork from New Detention and the Easy one's great. I think there's a giant used ashtray as the centrefold, just to get everyone into that 90s feel (laughs)."
In the full interview Pat reveals what the setlist could look like, goes through both albums in more detail, picks his favourite, extra pressure after the success of Guide To Better Living, how tempting it was to rehash that album for the follow up, why Grinspoon didn't go as hard on those two albums as the first, the band's enduring popularity, possible new music and more.
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