As Phil Jamieson gears up for the HiFi Days event in a couple of weeks, I took some time to talk to him about what it’s like to play solo, his very impressive history of collaborations and the meaning behind some of the more cryptic Grinspoon songs.
For all of us terribly lazy Phil Jamieson fans, can you recount the better parts of the past two years since Grinspoon hit pause, including what it’s meant to play your music solo?
Look, it’s been interesting. I was doing some solo stuff while Grinspoon was still travelling around, but not as much as recently. There’s been some highlights and there’s been some lowlights! What I have found more than anything, is that I’m by myself all the time. You know I’m on tour with Grinspoon at the moment actually, and there’s eight of us, so there’s lots of things to do and people to talk to. But when you’re playing by yourself, you’re kind of, well, by yourself [Laughs]. The Spiegeltent (at the Brisbane Festival) was really good and I’ve done some really interesting corporate stuff as well.
HiFi Days is going to be a hoot down in Cronulla, playing with The Bamboos and UB40. I think the organisers of this festival have put a lot of time and effort in, so it should be good. I think I’m on relatively early in the afternoon. I’m also bringing with me a bass player and a drummer. Whilst I was touring solo recently, I found it was very difficult to get any kind of crescendo to a show. So this time I’ll bring some instruments on halfway through to get that upward trajectory for the set.
And your solo shows have been all Grinspoon material, right? No original stuff?
Well it’s all original… [Laughs]
Yeah, I meant non-Grinspoon original, I guess!
Yeah no, I play about 75% Grinspoon originals and then there’s some interesting covers I do.
So any scope for releasing some new solo material?
Yeah, I’ve been thinking about it. Releasing that music doesn’t really entice me that much. I like writing it, and I like recording it. Not sure about releasing it though [Laughs]. There’s a fair amount of circus that goes on around releasing music, unfortunately. But it’s something that’s on the cards. It’s maybe about putting a plan in place at this stage. At this this point in time, I finish my last booked solo show in January in Tasmania. Then I’m going to take a little bit of time off and probably go and take stock of where the material I have in front of me is at. It’s been an incredibly busy year, 2015, in many facets of life.
You’re currently on the road with Grinspoon to support Cold Chisel. Even at this decorated stage of your career, do you still get star struck around guys like Jimmy and Ian?
[Laughs] Ah yeah, kind of! It’s pretty funny. Jimmy came into the room the other night in Townsville and asked me to sing with them and I was like, ‘Wow, that’s a huge honour.’ We’re sound checking a song today that maybe I might sing with Chisel on tour, which is kind of cool. I’ve known Jimmy for a long, long, long, long time. Like almost 20 years, so I don’t know whether I get star struck around Jimmy because he’s just such a lovely, friendly guy. I don’t really see them as stars as such, but I know that their song writing is second to none and what they put out on stage is really impressive.
Before the Cold Chisel dates, you said that you didn’t ever think Grinspoon would play together again. So is the future focused on your solo work, or is there hope for some new Grinspoon material now?
Oh look, I’m not sure. It’s not that the solo stuff is necessarily my focus either, I’m wearing many hats at the moment. The focus is kind of all over the place! There’s the solo stuff, the proper job, Grinspoon, being a dad. The least I can say though is that we’re really enjoying each other’s company again, which is nice after so many years. We’re having lots of laughs and I think that camaraderie is really good and as far as new material goes, I don’t know at this point in time. I feel like we’re playing really well together at the moment. Better than we were when we finished up, or pressed pause as you said. Actually, I like that term, so that’s good.
Well, look, ‘I don’t know’ is better than ‘no’ for us Grinspoon fans, so we’ll run with that! Tell me about 2ManyPJs. We ever going to see him again?
Well I did DJ Groovin’ The Moo, that was pretty fun. Although, I’m not the traditional type of DJ. I just pretty much play songs. I’d probably consider myself the worst DJ out there because I know DJ-ing is now an art to itself. So I just probably press play, more than anything else. But more than anything it’s a bit of fun, I get to impose my questionable musical tastes onto tens of thousands of people.
I’ve noticed “DCX3” isn’t very often part of the solo shows, I guess because it doesn’t really lend itself to acoustic styling. But it remains my favourite Grinspoon song even after the lofty heights of “Chemical Heart”, “Hard Act To Follow” etc… So can you tell me once and for all, what the hell that song is actually about?
It’s just about a hex. So I was watching a film called Drug Store Cowboy and in that film, Matt Dillon believes a cowboy has a hex on him. Then I drove to rehearsal and I passed a dead cat on the side of the road and I was like, ‘Someone should pick up that cat, that’s pretty weird’. Then I realised I’d forgot my lyrics sheet so I had to turn around and I passed the cat a second time. Then I got my lyrics sheet, smoked some weed, got back in the car and passed the cat a third time. Then when I got to rehearsal late, Pat was playing that riff and the first thing that came out of my mouth was ‘Dead cat three times’. Kinda makes a whole lot of sense now, doesn’t it.
Now it does, yeah. Before it really didn’t, but that didn’t stop me loving it.
Yeah, I really enjoy that song. We’re not playing it on tour at the moment because we’re shuffling stuff around because, as you say, we started in kind of a more punky genre and then stuff matured, for want of a better word. Or we became more refined in our song writing and went different ways. We’re trying to get across to the Chisel fans what we’re all about. And we’ve only got a 45 minute set, so we have to cram 11 songs in.
If we can get nostalgic just for a moment… What was it like to be part of possibly the greatest ever assemblies of Australian rock talent with both The Wrights and The White Album tours?
[Laughs] The Wrights didn’t want me – I had to beg to get into The Wrights. I said to Nic Cester (Jet), ‘Look, you’re not getting Neil Finn to do this fucking song – I’m doing it.’ And I actually had a go at doing “Part II” but Bernard (Fanning) did a better job in the end, so I got to do “Part III”. That was a real buzz, we only got to play together live once, but it was a real buzz. As far as the White Album stuff goes, that was a whole lot of fun too. Tim(Rogers) and I have been really close for a number of years, as have Chris (Cheney) and I. I mean, Chris was at my wedding and we’re firm friends. I’m in awe watching all those guys. Josh (Pyke) doesn’t hit a bum note and neither does Chris. Tim’s just like this incredible charismatic soul onstage and doesn’t leave anything behind.
Well thanks so much for that chat Phil, and all the best with HiFi Days and the rest of the Grinspoon tour.
Cheers buddy.
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HiFi Days is happening on November 22nd in Cronulla. Visit their website for more details.
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