INTERVIEW: FRANCES GIBSON WITH NICK COPPACK FOR ~ TIME OFF ~ BRISBANE ~ May 2003
NC. Depending on who you talk to The Cannanes are either one of the country's / world's finest pop bands or a band whose name suggests they're a bunch of dog lovers with questionable spelling. Does it bother you there's not much in between? There's a lot of people who aren't familiar with your work.
FJ. Well...I think you've very cleverly nailed the issue actually in that a) there are people who are familiar with our work and think we're pretty good and b) there are people who haven't a clue about us and have no valid opinions. It is not a bad position to be in really, as with a bit of general education we can only assume that the masses would be won over. There is of course the odd individual who knows what we are up to and can't stand it but hey...variety is the spice of life.
NC. So how do you guys feel towards the Australian music industry? How's it treated you?
FJ. The music industry and the Cannanes have in the past operated in what can only be described as different time and space continuums which seems to have worked out pretty well for us and pretty well for them but lately ....I don't know-I guess getting airplay on Triple J and the video played a lot on Rage had a bit of an impact. We've never had a manager, or an agent, or signed a recording contract or any other contract. Pleased as I am about this it does confuse industry people. A lot of what we have done has been overseas too so even though they say it is a global market - in many ways it is not at all. Most well known bands in Australia are completely unknown overseas just as well known bands in New York can be completely unknown here... Most of our recordings have been released in the USA. Anyway I've got no particular beef with the music industry - it's a profit making business like many others. The Cannanes were never going to be part of that industry. I think where people get upset is making the mistake that it has anything to do with good music or (dare I say it..art) which of course it hasn't.
NC. I notice Kurt Cobain's diary mentions you guys in it as one of his favourite bands. Did you know about that before the book was published? What was your reaction?
FJ. Stephens reaction was "Well why didn't he get us to play with Nirvana when they came out then" I was sort of very impressed but trying to pretend I wasn't and most people we know didn't and still don't believe it. One person claimed we wrote that into our copy of the book!!. We didn't know about it before the book was published. On reflection I like Kurt Cobain's music and I am pleased he liked ours and I would have liked to have a drink with him... I am not at all sure he would have wanted those diaries published which makes the whole thing a little bit creepy.
NC. It's been a while since you've been to Brisbane. What kind of memories of the place do you have from past visits?
FJ. Well I went to boarding school in Southport but was so rarely allowed out I don't remember much. I remember it was hot. Mostly I remember the Surfers Paradise Beer Garden which is where we would escape to on the 2 or 3 occasions we made a run for it. I realise however this is not Brisbane. The Cannanes have only been to Brisbane once and it was a glorious time from my memory and I can't think why it has taken so long to get back - I think it is partly 'cause we've always had really bad cars that take days to get that far. I would actually quite like to move to Brisbane - it seems to have everything going for it but others do not agree.
NC. The band goes through a fair few band members. How settled does the current lineup feel?
FJ. You better ask them - I would like it if they all stayed around for ever but as we know only too well life has its ways of making sure this doesn't happen. People have babies, move overseas, get jobs that keep them too busy etc so really if you are around as a band for any length of time unless there are huge amounts of money and it is your living it is likely there will be changes. And even rich bands break up all the time too. Touring too much can make you hate people temporarily. There are some aspects to this lineup that may make it last for a while as I think all of them see music as something they do - not just a phase they are going through so you never know....
NC. Trouble Seemed So Far Away - what do you like best about this record?
FJ. It just sounds good - the production is superb. It was produced by a bloke called Explosion Robinson who has a studio in Manhattan. Explosion put in lots of weird noises which work really well - he made everything sound really fabulous - even my voice sounds ok - its odd how much he understood what we like, even though I guess in some ways his musical interests are in very different genres from the kind of music we are generally linked too. I don't think he is a fan of the indie pop wimpy world. Like when our first EP many years ago was played to LL Cool J and he allegedly just looked disgusted and said "Weak!" and walked away. I sort of know what he meant but I think we are different now.
NC. Are you always on the look out for new sounds and new ways to record? What direction will you head in next?
FJ. No I don't think we are - stuff just happens and people just turn up and make the music sound different. Collaborating with other people obviously is a great source of new ideas so we hope to do more work with Greg Wadley and Explosion and Stewart Anderson from 555 records and James Dutton from Melbourne. Hopefully everyone in the band will write songs too - we do like to operate as a collective rather than a dictatorship like most bands. Dictatorships are probably effective in getting things done but as in governments I suspect they don't produce the best quality output.
NC. What should fans expect from your live shows this time around?
FJ. Fans should expect 6 consummately experienced and trained professionals and semi-professionals happily going about their musical business with humour and humility or something like that - Ex Brisbanite Greg Wadley will be playing keyboards with us which will be a treat. If we are lucky no one will be too drunk.
NC. Hopes/ambitions in 2003?
FJ. to get Stephen Hairy O'Neils computer to work more for more than a week at a time so we can finish the new EP and CD, tentatively entitled "Nobody Loves An Albatross", to get a new pair of speakers as we blew the last lot up last weekend, to go and play in Osaka and Nagoya as well as Tokyo in September, and to write lots more really good songs.