Project Description
Interview with
TRISH YOUNG
from
THE CLOUDS
by Jarrod Henry
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Indie rock band The Clouds were one of the shining lights of the Australian music scene during the late 80’s and early 90’s. Fronted by guitarist/vocalist Jodie Phillis and bassist/vocalist Trish Young the quartet found success through a series of early EP’s (Cloud Factory, Loot) and a debut album – Penny Century – that went on to be certified gold.
Signed to Red Eye Records alongside such luminaries as The Cruel Sea, The Beasts Of Bourbon and The Scientists, The Clouds spearheaded a new era of women in rock in the Australian music scene.
Having reformed back in 2011 and recently seen on tour supporting Cindi Lauper and Blondie, and having earlier this year released their EP Zaffre – their first new music in over 20 years – The Clouds are now heading out on their first national tour to celebrate the release of their new single Beautiful Nothingness, and bringing along former long time touring mates The Falling Joys as well.
I spoke to Trish Young recently about reforming the band, the changes in the Australian music industry over the past two decades, the logistics of long distance songwriting, a mutual love of vinyl and much more.
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So you guys were last out here supporting Cindi Lauper and Blondie but this is the first headline tour you’ve done in a while. Is it safe to say you’re all looking forward to it?
Oh absolutely! We sure are.
Clouds have officially been back together now for a few years, yet it’s taken a little while to release some new songs hasn’t it. Any real reason?
We were invited to do the shows back in 2011 and we thought that it would be a great idea, and then we contacted each other again after a few months and said “well do you want to do some more?” but there’s never been a point – and there still isn’t now – where any of us say that The Clouds are actually back together, it’s a case of we all live in four different cities in three different states and so doing anything is a huge logistical exercise, it’s expensive for us all to be standing in the same room together, and also we don’t have a record deal or a publishing deal or any of that. And so every time we do something now it could end up being the last time. We hope it isn’t, but there’s no ongoing thing of us saying that we’re doing it. Right now we just hope that we’ll be able to keep writing new stuff and keep recording and keep touring. But everyone has commitments too: Dave (Easton – guitars) has a full time job and it’s quite difficult for him, I’ve got a part time job as well, Raph (Wittingham – drums) works in theatre doing lighting for events and the like and so the days that The Clouds need are his work days.
And so right now you guys are doing this pretty much under your own steam?
Oh absolutely. We had a team of managers before, and one of them is helping us out with some admin stuff like booking flights and sorting out cars and stuff, and his help is invaluable right now because it’s very time consuming. But he’s in Brisbane so that’s a fifth city and a fourth state added into the mix.
And it’s all a different format for releasing music now too. I remember going into my local record store and buying Cloud Factory and Loot and yet now music is pretty much all digital. Are you going to be doing any physical releases?
Well we did a USB release for the Zaffre EP, I don’t know if you managed to get your hands on one but they were fantastic, but we didn’t make that many of them because we really didn’t know how they would go. And even then they weren’t distributed like you would do in a record shop. So that was a physical release but obviously it’s on CD Baby and iTunes as well. Which is really weird because there’s nothing you can hold in your hand, no physical cover or liner notes or anything.
And I really miss that aspect of it. Record stores are dwindling as it is. But I still like going into a music store and picking out a CD or a record and having that tangible experience of holding new music in your hands. And going on to Spotify or iTunes doesn’t have the same feel does it?
No it doesn’t. And we’ve talked for a little while about doing something on vinyl and that may happen. We’d all love to do that, and an album as well. And a little cover on a screen somewhere just doesn’t compare to that of a 12” album!
And even seeing a re release of some of your back catalogue as well would be fantastic to see on vinyl.
That’s complicated, because years ago when iTunes was first floating around we realised that none of us had a copy of our contract. And when we got a hold of it we found that we had inadvertently signed away some of our music in perpetuity. So we can’t actually re issue anything at all, it’s just not up to us. It’s up to Universal who ended up owning our stuff. I think some of it has now reverted back to us but Dave – having a law degree – is the better person to talk to about that as he got a copy of the contract and probably understands that side of things better than the rest of us. To be honest we’ve really just been trying to concentrate on new material. So yes it would be great to reissue some stuff on vinyl but we’d need to know the status of who owns what before that can happen.
The Australian musical landscape has changed considerably in the intervening years since the band split, and yet it seems that now interest in the band is once more at a peak. Was this a surprise to you?
It was really. We started up a Facebook page a while ago now and then promptly did nothing with it. And now we’ve got someone who’s managing the page and she’s really proactive with it. And there’s just such a lot of response to it. There are people whose names I don’t even recall massaging us and turning up to shows and tagging their mates and we’re just going “wow!”. And so Facebook and social media in general have really changed the landscape of it a lot and we’ve found a huge response to anything we do on social media talking about shows or new material or even just posting daggy old pictures of us.
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And you’ve recently done a stint on Double J and Rage as well haven’t you?
Yeah Jodi and I were invited to be artists in residence for July, which is a show that happens every Sunday, and July just happened to have five Sundays in it so we got to do an extra show. And it was so much fun! We had to pick a theme and then play two hours of music related to that theme, so yeah that and Rage were great.
This tour is pretty special seeing as you’ve got The Falling Joys supporting you. Both bands have a long track record of playing together back in the day, are you looking forward to it?
Oh for sure. And that were always really exciting live as well. You’d go along and see them and know every song, and I used to love that.
And how did it come about that the two of you are touring again?
The guy whose come on board helping us out is still in the music business and still has lots of relationships with agents who book tours, but back in the day he was the Falling Joys manager as well and that was the reason we used to do so many shows together. And we used to just fit perfectly together in so many ways. So he suggested them and we said “well are they still playing? Would they be into it?” And then there was the question of would people want to see two bands like that from the 90’s to which he replied “what do you reckon?”. So we’re really excited about it.
It’s become a pretty popular thing now for bands to go out and play an entire album on tour. Could we be seeing a Penny Century album tour at some stage down the track?
It has been mentioned, but to be honest we’re really focused to new material right now. I mean we’re playing a lot of those songs anyway, a lot of the older songs are in the set. And then there’s the question of whether Stu (Eadie – Penny Century guitarist) is available and all the logistical aspects of doing it as well.
You released the new EP earlier this year, along with the Mabel’s Bookshop single and now you’re about to drop the new song Beautiful Nothingness in a couple of weeks. Is it safe to say that there’s an album on the horizon?
We want to but we need to sit down and talk about how that is going to work out because the long distance thing isn’t very time efficient. You send files around and you look at your screen and you play your bit and you think “maybe I’ll just tidy that up a bit” and then you go “maybe I’ll just watch a movie on Netflix”. And then it’s the next day and you redo your bit and then you go “oh shit I’ve got to go up the road” or “oh I’d better do my laundry”. So in the old days you’d be locked in a studio and you couldn’t come out until it was done. And it had to be finished on the dot because the studio would be booked for somebody else and so would the producer. So Jodie and I have been talking about us all getting together and recording and seeing if we can make it work next time around.
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Follow THE CLOUDS
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Select Music Presents
The Clouds
with very special guests Falling Joys
Friday 3rd November 2017
UC Refectory, Canberra ACT
Tickets: http://tickets.oztix.com.au/?Event=78824
1300 762 545 | All Oztix Outlets
Saturday 4th November 2017 SOLD OUT
The Factory Theatre, Sydney NSW
Sunday 5th November 2017
The Factory Theatre, Sydney NSW
Tickets: https://www.oztix.com.au/eventguide/?q=CLOUDS
(02) 9550 3666 | All Oztix Outlets
Friday 10th November 2017
Metropolis, Fremantle WA
Tickets: http://tickets.oztix.com.au/?Event=78827
1300 762 545 | All Oztix Outlets
Friday 17th November 2017
The Croxton Bandroom, Melbourne VIC
Tickets: http://tickets.oztix.com.au/?Event=78828
1300 762 545 | All Oztix Outlets
Saturday 18th November 2017
The Gov, Adelaide SA
Ticket: http://tickets.oztix.com.au/?Event=78838
1300 762 545 | All Oztix Outlets
Friday 24th November 2017
The Triffid, Brisbane QLD
Tickets: http://tickets.oztix.com.au/?Event=78834
1300 762 545 | All Oztix Outlets
Saturday 25th November 2017
Sol Bar, Maroochydore QLD
Tickets: http://tickets.oztix.com.au/?Event=78835
1300 762 545 | All Oztix Outlets
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