Things start on an inauspicious note – G.’s first word was a loud, “Ow,” but he’s no wuss and the rest of the interview crackles with mirth and good yarns. Let’s start with this one – it’s kinda’ timely given that Fat Tuesday is around the corner and talk of Dr John’s almost inevitable when you’re thinking of music and New Orleans. G., the lucky bastard, got to play with him on his third studio album.
“I’ve been such a huge fan of Dr John since I was a kid,” G. recollects. “My mum had a small record collection… One of the records was Dr John’s famous record, In the Right Place. That record had a big impact on my whole vocal delivery, especially the stuff that Dr John would sing about. It was street – he used a lot of slang in his lyrics and street talk, which I really related to as a kid. So, when I started writing songs, I had a lot of that same kind of flavour in my songwriting.”
Naturally, playing with Dr John was pretty damn exciting. “He came in for a day – it was funny, because we were recording so many tunes and in the end we got him to play on 11 songs that day. We might have cut two or three live and we had him overdub on nine other tunes,” he says. “His wife or his girlfriend was with him and she was getting so pissed off, because we were paying him ‘x’ amount of dollars and he was having a good time with it and he was ready to play on anything, but his wife was like, ‘Goddamnit,’ and when I’d leave the room, she’d tell the engineer, ‘Tell that skinny mother fucker I know what he’s doing. We’re getting the fuck out of here.’ Mac [Malcolm John “Mac” Rebennack, better known as Dr John] didn’t know and I’d be like, ‘Mac, you wanna do one more?’ and he’d be like, ‘Let’s do another one’.”
Of Prescott’s prodigal son’s return, G.’s stoked – we’re also quite tickled with his analogy between relationships and the band: “We had hit a wall creatively and socially five or six years ago,” he admits. “We needed to take a little break, which we did, but when we went in to make the record we decided to give Jim a call. He came into the studio and he was so great – his energy was great, the mix was great and we had a great time.
“You could really see that chemistry; it’s something that bands have, just like people have in their romantic relationships. There’s always a reason that you chose someone in particular to marry – you might have had a different girlfriend who was hotter, or richer, but you choose the other one to marry because you have ‘something’ together. [It’s the] same thing with musicians. You could get a different player, say a sharper dressed player, but maybe you have a certain thing with these other people – Jim, Jeff [Clemens, on drums] and I have that. It’s hard to put a finger on it, but the minute Jeff came back in the studio it was like, ‘Oh, there we go’.”
Going back to the ’93 start, G.’s a little blown away that time’s elapsed so quickly: “Looking back, it does seem like quite a long time ago, but at the same time, it went by so quick,” he reflects. “If you break it down, so much has happened in that time and we’ve had so many different chapters of our career and our journeys, even if you break it down by your romantic relationships, it starts to feel like a pretty long time. I always feel like time, especially with music, seems to drift by, but then you blink your eyes and it’s 20 years later. Music – well, it’s like anything, if you do what you love, you feel like a kid forever.” Best career advice we’ve ever heard.
G.’s looking forward to heading back for Bluesfest. “There’s always those moments there where you are like, ‘Holy shit, look who I’m hangin’ with back stage,” he chortles. As for the specifics of his plans, he’s already figured it out: “I know I’m gonna’ surf and I know I’m gonna’ play music, so I know I’m gonna’ have a damn good time,” he notes. “I love Australia. I love everything from the beer, the food, the coastal living, the surfing and I love the fact that Australian people have really embraced our type of music – roots music – more so than anywhere else in the world. The women are beautiful, the land is beautiful and Road Warrior [Mad Max II] is one of my favourite movies. You know how you daydream about random stuff? I was thinking about that last night; how the hell did they film all that shit?”
BY MEG CRAWFORD
