JASON WHALLEY is the singer from FRENZAL RHOMB, also known as the one who isn’t The Doctor. It turns out he hates festivals even more than JODY MACGREGOR does.

Jason Whalley, or Jay as he is known to friends and radio listeners, is relaxing at home. "A friend of mine calls it the Bohemian Batcave," he says of his new place. "My partner and I just moved into a new – well, it’s actually quite old – but it’s a warehouse in Sydney. It’s just one massive room with a concrete floor and a roller door and now it’s got all our stuff in it, it sort of looks a little bit like our house." It sounds like the kind of place a band could rehearse in. "I don’t really like anyone in my band, so I wouldn’t invite them over, but a band could play in here I think."

Maybe he’s not joking about disliking the rest of the band. Could you spend weeks at a time trapped in a bus with The Doctor without resorting to violence? Not if he’s anything like his radio persona, you couldn’t. Their Boys Are Back In Brown tour earlier this year brought back all the old feelings between the band members apparently, both good and bad.

"It was awful," says Whalley, "but it was lucky that other people turned up to the concerts and that diluted the feeling within the band, which was very hostile. Although by the end of the tour we were getting on quite well, I thought. Every tour we do and every record we do we consider that will be the last one that we will ever do and then every time we do it, it’s really fun and people come and have fun for the most part and we sell heaps and heaps of t-shirts and we think, ‘The only way we can keep selling t-shirts really is by doing another tour or doing another album.’ So we’ve been talking about doing another album."

"At Sounds Of Spring you don’t have to [queue] ... Apparently they’ve got a no-queue policy where it’s more like India … you just run for whatever you want – head down, elbows out."

Before the possibility of a new album though, comes the festival season. Frenzal Rhomb are signed up for Sounds Of Spring as part of a line-up that Whalley looks over and sums up by suggesting that it will be just like travelling back in time to 1996. "I fuckin’ hate festivals, I absolutely fuckin’ hate them," says Whalley. "I love the Sounds Of Spring," he quickly adds. "Sounds Of Spring is the only festival that I actually enjoy and the only one I endorse. Because at most festivals you have to queue the majority of the time that you’re there. You queue to get in; you queue to get your beer; you queue to see your band and who wants to do that? At Sounds Of Spring you don’t have to do that. Apparently they’ve got a no-queue policy where it’s more like India or somewhere where you just run for whatever you want – head down, elbows out. If you’ve got a stick you can use that." He ends with a responsible and friendly bit of safety advice for festival-goers. "I advise people to wear a helmet."

FRENZAL RHOMB join Quan, The Living End, Shonen Knife, Tex Perkins, Tim Rogers, Kram, Shihad and a fair few acts who weren’t actually big in the 1990s for SOUNDS OF SPRING at the RNA Showgrounds on Saturday Sep 26.

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