“We worked together at Shock later on, but I remember Kim from the Excelsior Hotel, when he and Ian Rilen were playing as a duo in the front bar,” McCann recalls. “That’s when I used to catch the Firefly bus up to Sydney for $50 and stay up there for a week,” Volkman adds. “People didn’t know whether I lived in Sydney or Melbourne.” McCann smiles at the memories of those halcyon days. “You were there every Sunday,” McCann recalls. “Yeah, those were the days!” Volkman laughs.
In addition to his tenure with Ian Rilen and the Love Addicts, Volkman had played with a local St Kilda band, Balaclava Joe in the late ‘90s, and a country band by the name of the Merry Hillbillies a few years later. “I was also doing a lot of busking in St Kilda around the time as well – but that’s so long ago I was probably in about six bands, but their names escape me,” Volkman laughs.
After Ian Rilen’s death in 2006, Volkman was drafted in by Steve Lucas to take over Rilen’s bass duties in the reconstituted X (Volkman has subsequently performed occasionally with various recalibrated lineups of X, including a brief tour of the US a couple of years ago, with former Cosmic Psychos drummer Bill Walsh on drums).
By the time Volkman had formed the two-piece The Patron Saints with former Johnnys drummer Billy Pommer, and his three-piece outfit Kim Volkman and the Whiskey Priests, McCann had moved down to Melbourne, gathering together a succession of supporting outfits, including the Dirty Skirt Band, James McCann’s Other Band and, more recently, the New Vindictives. The New Vindictives also features Volkman on bass, Tim Deane on guitar – who also plays with the Whiskey Priests – and Helen Buckley on drums.
“We went through a couple of lineup changes before we settled on this lineup,” McCann explains. “Tim was playing keys initially, and Matt Bailey was on bass and Dan McKay on drums. But then Matt was busy doing his own recording, so I gave Kim a call. It just evolved really – I don’t think I even had a name early on.” When Aaron Cupples was in town, McCann took the opportunity to drag the New Vindictives lineup into the studio to record his latest album. “It was three weeks old, with two rehearsals!” McCann laughs.
A couple of years before joining the New Vindictives, Volkman had entered Michelle Dilevski’s Staticattack studio with the Whiskey Priests to record his new album, Setting Sun. After an extended period of gestation, the album has now been released. “I had it recorded, mastered, and had the art work done, but for some reason I stall on the duplicating process – usually because I’ve got no money to do it,” Volkman laughs.
While Setting Sun again features Brad Walsh on drums, Volkman continues to play live with an array of different drummers, depending on who’s available for his commitments. Variety, they say, is the spice of life. “It does change the dynamic,” Volkman says. “Usually every drummer is different, and I never find that they detract from anything.”
“Good drummers are hard to find,” adds McCann, “which is why you’ve got to be nice to them!”
McCann’s latest record with the New Vindictives is released on French label Beast Records, the Brittany label that has long supported Australian musicians. For McCann, releasing a record on an overseas label has both commercial and artistic benefits. “I guess there are a few musicians in Australia, who’re in my situation, creating music here, and selling it overseas,” McCann comments. “But the creative process is interesting in the sense that it gives you the freedom to write music that that you think people will like overseas, while having the space here to write it.”
McCann has already recorded another new album – with a different supporting band to the New Vindictives – that he hopes to release overseas again in the near future. This weekend Volkman and McCann will launch their new albums at the St Kilda Bowling Club. “Kim’s put this night together,” McCann says. “I wasn’t sure what I was going to do, especially with the record being out overseas.” The show will also function as a further fundraiser for Pure Pop Records, the record store-cum-local venue on a quest to raise enough money to meet Port Phillip Council’s sound proofing requirements. “I believe Dave Stevens is getting there, so hopefully this will help out as well.”
BY PATRICK EMERY
