The Living End

So Chris, what are you looking forward to most at Bluesfest 2021?

I’m just looking forward to playing it! We’d never done it before, and I’ve never been. It’s a festival

I’ve always wanted to go to, but I just haven’t gotten around to it. We’ve always been playing, or out of the country for whatever reason. And we’ve never been invited before. So I’m like, “Okay, it’s only taken 25 years or so, but finally, we have an invite!” I’m really looking forward to it. I know it’s not quintessentially a blues festival, but I think a lot of the bands on there definitely stem from roots music. And I feel like we’re a perfect fit for that, because we also came from a very rootsdriven sort of background.

A few people have asked whether we’ll change our set around for that kind of gig – and we could, y’know? My response was, “Well, we could probably get up and just do a whole set of ‘50s rockabilly songs, back from when we first started.” But we’re not being employed as that. We’re being employed as The Living End, so we’ll just get up there and we’ll do our thing. But yes, it will be a huge celebration. It’ll be great just to be back on a stage, to be around other musos and to be in a festival environment – and I’ve heard nothing but good things about Bluesfest.

For those out there who might be going more strictly for the blues and roots acts, but want to check out something a bit different – like a rockabilly-punk fusion – what can they expect from The Living End’s set?

We’ve had a little bit of criticism for our sound – early on we did, at least. Because we were very ingrained in that whole Melbourne rockabilly scene, where it was 80 percent covers and it was a very stylised kind of thing. And we decided early on that we didn’t want to just be another one of those bands. We took influences from a pretty broad range of music, and we wanted to see whether we could throw those other influences into the mix as well.

What I will say is that I think we’ve retained the energy and the essence of what that early incarnation of The Living End was. And that’s pretty high energy. There’s a lot of notes in the solos – it’s pretty flashy music, I suppose. So I think we’ve been able to retain that, even though we’ve had a few radio hits. I think we’ve managed to bridge the gap between that raw, energetic kind of rock ’n’ roll music and those pop sensibilities. But when we get onstage, it’s pretty ballsy and it’s pretty aggressive. We definitely don’t leave any fuel in the tank.

That just comes from that scene we came from, where it was just ballstothewall kind of energy.

And the AC/DC influence, being into bands like them and The Who, and all that sort of stuff. People that come to our shows tend to use them as an excuse to really let out their frustrations. And that’s a great thing! That’s what music’s for. So I think I’m expecting it to be pretty loose, in the best possible way.

What does your live rig look like at the moment?

I have one of those ground control switches, which I initially got when we did this tour where we played nine records in full. We did this retrospective thing where we played multiple nights in different venues, and I had to play a different record each night. It was a bit of a mindf*** to begin with, to learn all those songs, but I really wanted to be able to recreate all the sounds from all the records. So I bought this switch and loaded it up with all the patches, so for example I could press loop #1 and engage a delay and an overdrive, and then patch #2 would be a shorter delay.

I still use that, because it’s easier for me to be singing and not trying to hit multiple pedals at the same time. Ampwise, I’m still using the Wizards – which I got way back in 2000 when we supported AC/DC – normally with an AC30.

Are you still all about that Gretsch life?

I am, yeah. I mean, I’m not very good when I get on a Les Paul or a Strat. I just can’t… Well, firstly, it doesn’t sound the same. But also, my hands are just too big. It’s a perspective thing – I’m so used to that big hollowbody sound and feel, anything else just sort of feels weird to me. Same with the amp, really. I’ve never really strayed too far from getting that kind of crunch from the Wizard and the power of that 100watt, driven sound. I’m running it clean these days, but just fully cranked. And I get that chimey sparkle from the AC30.

I’ve always tried to blend those two influences of AC/DC and the Stray Cats. To me, that’s the ultimate guitar tone. If you get them in, you can run anything else on top of that, pedalwise. I’ve never really heard it out the front, obviously – but from all reports, it’s a pretty mammoth sound.

Oh, absolutely. I remember when I saw

The Living End for the first time, I was just gobsmacked at how much tone was being produced by the one guitar.

It’s definitely something I’ve worked on since back in ’96, ’97. I used to run a couple of the Fender Twins, and they were great. They did the job. But it’s definitely something that I’ve searched for, and will continue to search for – y’know, ‘thetone’. But I’ve always tried to get that perfect combination the amps and the popping of the strings. I love the whole Stevie Ray Vaughan kind of twang and bite, but I also love that big, saturated, dirty rhythm sound as well. I don’t think you can have it all – you’ve gotta find some middle ground.