After a six year ‘sabbatical’ from playing, Indie rock fashionista’s Augie March burst back onto the scene last year with one of their finest studio albums ‘Havens Dumb’ and a string of shows throughout Australia. They’re now touring Australia and are about to hit Adelaide this Friday, followed by a half dozen more around the country thereafter. Drummer Dave Williams and Dazz Hassan from Glam Adelaide shot the breeze last week and chatted about the band, what they’ve been up to, and what’s next for them.
“For the past 6 years we were doing other things with our life, playing with other musicians, doing the civilian life thing,” says Williams. “Glenn (Richards) had been writing songs and called us and said I think it’d be great if we recorded together, so if everyone’s in for it let’s get started. We all said sure, we were all ready and went for it.”
They also recommenced touring last year and have made their schedule a gradual one, playing one gig a month to start with to regain their momentum. The shows have been well received, and their Sydney Opera House show was a highlight for Williams. Adelaide marks the start of the next run of shows though, which will run until May when they conclude at Caboolture’s Urban Country Music Festival. The release of Havens Dumb was also a double blessing for Augie March, and showcases their amazing songwriting skills and musical ability in a musical hybrid of Radiohead and Oscar Wilde. It’s poetic, lyrical, and classic Augie March. Richards’ lyrics are deep and thoughtful, yet somehow cryptic at times making their ‘mystery factor’ an even more intriguing proposition.
Williams says of this “He’s the songwriter, and he’s never really explicit as to what the song is about- he leaves it up to people’s interpretation even for us within the band. There are a lot of layers to his songs though, the use of metaphors, I’m learning it just as much as everyone as well. That’s his domain and he lets his words do their thing.” Havens Dumb is a consistently good release, and will hopefully spurn a new generation of fans. “It’s been a really positive reception so far, the second single’s gone well in particular (A Dog Starved). It’s always a slow burn though, but we’re out there flogging our wares on the road and getting back into it.”
The past 6 years though have matured the band as individuals, and Williams in particular realizes that this is an extremely long time to take a musical pause. “It was really confronting getting back together again, and the energy of the band on stage was always a heavy thing. It was sometimes great, sometimes intense performing in the earlier days but people have learned to harness it better, and are enjoying themselves a lot more up there- that’s a big thing for us.”
The band were also known to refuse requests to play crowd favourites such as Asleep In Perfection, with singer Richards seeing it as being too predictable and boring. But have things changed? “It’s still what we feel comfortable doing but we learnt a lot of songs for our first shows back, and are giving them new life. We’ll always go with it and see how we feel.”
Hopefully Augie March will enjoy their new lease on life, complete with a newer fan base. They’re playing this Friday at Her Majesty’s Theatre in Adelaide so let’s see how well they’ve fared on their comeback.
By Darren Hassan
Twitter:DazzHassan
Dates
Fri 27 March 2015 HER MAJESTY’S THEATRE Adelaide TICKETS
Sat 28 March 2015 ASTOR THEATRE Perth TICKETS
Thu 2 April 2015 BLUESFEST Byron Bay TICKETS
Thu 16 April 2015 ULUMBARRA THEATRE Bendigo TICKETS
Fri 17 April 2015 MELBOURNE RECITAL CENTRE Melbourne + Fraser A. Gorman TICKETS
Thu 30 April 2015 THE TRIFFID Brisbane TICKETS
Fri 1 May 2015 TANKS ARTS CENTRE Cairns TICKETS ph: 1300855835
Sat 2 May 2015 URBAN COUNTRY MUSIC FESTIVAL Caboolture TICKETS
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