I’ve been trying to get in contact with you for the past couple of days but you’ve had some troubles with the recent hailstorm I believe?
I had a bit of an issue yesterday. I had a bit of damage to my house. I had golf ball sized hail balls start raining on my house, they started to smash through the skylights, causing a whole heap of water to come in. It was quite dramatic.
You just played a show at the Gold Coast 600 with Grinspoon. How was it?
It was fun man; those motorsports fans seem to really dig us. It was on the beach at Surfers Paradise and we played with The Presets and The Stafford Brothers. It was really fun.
Through November and December you’ll be touring through NSW and Tasmania doing some solo shows. How do you find the acoustic shows in comparison to a rock show?
Ah well, I’m by myself for one [laughs]. It’s quieter and more intimate. There’s a world of difference. The main thing is, I don’t have anyone with me – no crew, no tour managers, no one getting me towels or drinks. I get a bit more freedom over what I get to play. When I’m playing in the band, everyone gets to put their two cents in regard to what songs to play. It’s a nice change.
Do you play a lot of Grinspoon songs when doing your solo shows, or do you mix and match with your own?
Yeah, I try not to play much Grinspoon with these solo shows. I give some of the Grinspoon songs a new life in some ways with just more of a different approach. If I play anything from Grinspoon when I do my solo stuff, I make it sound almost unrecognizable, I totally rearrange it.
Will we see a lot more solo shows in the near future?
At the moment, it’s really earlier on in the game with this solo stuff, it’s really sort of a social experiment. That’s what’s good about playing these really intimate venues, talking to people after shows, seeing what people liked and what they didn’t like, and just trying to get better at the craft of it.
It’s obviously different to the band setting in nearly every aspect, you don’t have anyone with you and you can’t hide behind a wall of sound. Do you get nervous?
Yeah, at first I was incredibly nervous. It was quite daunting. But I’ve done over twenty of these solo shows now so I’ve been able to deal with the nerves a little better.
Is there potential for a Phil Jamieson solo record?
No, not at the moment. Like I said, at the moment it’s just a bit of a social experiment, I’m not real sure if I’ll release anything at this point in time.
I’ve been following you on Instagram, I see you’re very passionate about your motorbike, but you’ve also been doing some bike rides for a good cause.
Yeah, I’ve been riding all year for Headspace, a mental health foundation. We’re trying to help kids aged 12-25 with mental issues and give them the tools early on to deal with it, which can range from things like bullying to eating and all kinds of stuff. I think I’ve visited about 14 Headspace centres this year. I’ve gone from Gold Coast to Adelaide and then Canberra and Wollongong, I did Mount Druitt last week, and it’s kept me incredibly busy. We did a big ride earlier in the year with Nathan Hindmarsh, Chris from Silverchair and Jake from Bluejuice. Also, what I love about these acoustic shows that I’m doing is the fact that it allows me to travel very light, I can just hop on my motorcycle and head off to a concert without having to rent a car or worry about amplification and everything I would need to take if I was in the band. I can just throw the guitar on the back of the bike and off I go. I get to ride my motorbike a lot, woo!
I take it you’d rather ride on two wheels than four?
Oh, yeah.
What about in hailstorms?
[Laughs] Well I’m not exactly sure that cars are much fun in hailstorms either to be completely honest. Any kind of extreme weather is crazy in or on any vehicle but I reckon I’ve ridden through it all. But I’ve got a real passion for two wheels and it’s been a really good year as far as that goes.
We’ll move onto Grinspoon, I know you guys released your latest record Black Rabbits last year, and the track ‘Passerby’ was getting a bit of airplay on commercial radio.
Yeah, the airplay has been overwhelming; we’ve had very positive feedback from radio and retail. We’ve been shifting to a more commercial, I guess, not so much our sound, but we’ve been getting more commercial airplay, which is a little weird for us, starting out as a Triple J played band. I really enjoy the record, it’s great to listen to for me, but I don’t listen to it that often to be perfectly honest with you. I thought it was pretty well received, the touring’s been really good, and I’ve been flat out.
The Warped Tour is back in the country this December, and Grinspoon got the chance to do the tour in the US back in the 90’s with two other Aussie bands. What can you tell me about your times on that tour?
Well… The Living End were doing very well in the states, we were doing ok. The Living End had a much nicer bus then us, but at least we both got buses. Frenzal Rhomb were in a converted freezer truck [laughs]. I don’t really remember much of those days, but I do remember it being a huge tour. But we also got the shit end of the stick in some way; we were on at like midday every day. But they were some really fun times and there was a lot of good camaraderie between us Aussie bands and the other bands on the tour, in particular, the guys from Blink 182, just before they blew up.
What’s on the agenda for Grinspoon at the moment?
We’ve got a couple of shows to see out the rest of the year, so we’ll just be playing them. I think we really need to put our feet up for a little while; we’ve been pretty hard at it. I’d like to take a bit of a break in January… oh wait; I’m doing more gigs then too! [Laughs] Well… I’d love to stop travelling ONE day! We’ve all been writing so we should have a bunch of new songs to throw at each other in the New Year!
Phil Jamieson performs at Lizotte’s, Kincumber on Sunday November 24; Clarendon Theatre, Katoomba on Friday November 29; Heritage Hotel, Bulli on Saturday November 30; Lizotte’s, Dee Why on Thursday December 5; Milton Theatre, Milton on Saturday December 21.