Brisbane legend DAVID MCCORMACK is doing a double homecoming – a one-off CUSTARD reunion and a Boxing Day solo gig. DENIS SEMCHENKO speaks to the man prior to these historic events.

Dave’s back, people! Not only has the husky-toned gentleman responsible for Girls Like That, Caboolture Speed Lab, Anatomically Correct and (I Feel Like) Ringo re-convened ‘90s indie icons Custard for the Q150 Proclamation Day concert, he also has a spanking new album out. To any discerning Brisbane music fan, the above should amount to history in the making and requisite dust-shaking from their copies of Loverama and Wahooti Fandango. This bright morning, the Sydney-residing Mr McCormack shares his thoughts about the double whammy of a comeback.

“My last album [2004’s The Truth About Love] came out about five years ago and I thought ‘Oh, I’ll do another album’ a year after that,” he offers. “I recorded and burned a bunch of CD copies to give out to friends of mine, and they said “Oh, this sounds nice, David!” and then I thought “I’ll do some more recording.” This went on and on for four years and I had around fifty-sixty songs recorded, but I wasn’t releasing anything – I was just burning CDs and giving them out to friends and people that I knew, and then in the middle of last year I went “OK, right – I want to put out an album that was in the shops so that people who aren’t just my friends could hear it”, did a bunch of new recordings and picked my favourite ones from all the other recording that I’ve done, and that’s why it’s quite long, twenty songs and sixty minutes.”

Recent Rave Album Of The Week and a classic record by any means, Little Murders has already been bestowed with a glittering five-star review in Rolling Stone. No matter how flattered, the eloquent David is all modesty when it comes to discussing the response to his masterwork.

“I’m very happy about that as it’s the first time I got a five-star review anywhere, but I don’t expect people to like all of it – hopefully there’s something in there that people will like in this age of iTunes and filesharing … they can just pick the songs they like on their iPods,” he muses. “I’ve sequenced it like an old double vinyl album with four sides of songs, so you can listen to it as an entire album – it’s supposed to be a bit of a journey, an evening in, where you can sit down before dinner with a glass of wine and hopefully in will be entertaining. I apologise in advance if there are too many songs on it, but you can always hit ‘Skip’ and maybe you’ll find something else later in the album that you’ll like a bit more.”

A remarkably filler-free record, Little Murders brims with vintage McCormack nuggets like AVO, Under Your Thumb and lead single The Good Times (Keep Following Me Around) – all wry, rollicking odes to existential highs and pitfalls.

“Last October, I went into the studio with my regular band The Polaroids plus a few extra people and they haven’t heard the songs before, so I quickly showed them and we recorded them,” David recalls. “What I did was I book a recording date and I thought “I’ll write some songs I’m not going to show to the band – they can just feel their way through them,” and that’s what’s happened. They had a certain different energy than songs that I worked on more by myself or the band may have rehearsed a bit more, but it’s interesting that you’ve mentioned those three, because they were all hammered out in one very fun evening at Blip Studios in Sydney. The way I write songs, I like to set myself a deadline and go ‘OK, I’m going to the studio in a month, so I better write some songs’ – otherwise, it’s just too easy to get distracted with other things.”

“We’re just going to go up and do our thing and everyone in the audience can put their mind in the headspace from 1991 to 1999. Everyone’s changed so much since then – Brisbane’s changed, the music’s changed – but Powderfinger are still rocking on.”

As far as the album’s sound is concerned, it has “vintage” written all over it – the warm natural overdrive, panning tremolo, twanging baritone guitar and juicy Hammond organ embellishments, all lovingly tweaked to create a timeless feel.

“It wouldn’t do you any harm if you listen to it on headphones – you’ll find a lot of studio flourishes there,” David reckons. “Most of the songs were recorded live, but the great thing about the recording studio is that you can just put these little ideas that make the icing on the cake, little sweet bits that cut through and little strange bits that you might be interested in … I love doing that. My backing band The Polaroids, I’ll throw a lot of ideas into a song and they’ll go ‘Oh, don’t do that; do that’ – they keep it pure and simple.”

Now to Custard’s inexplicable reunion, ten years after the band’s dissolution. In a manner he patented while fronting the cult Brisbane collective, David espouses self-deprecating

humour when asked about the forthcoming grand occasion. 

“I’m looking forward to this gig – basically, it’s us playing to a whole lot of Powderfinger fans,” he laughs. “Maybe some of them will have their parents there who remember who Custard were, because we did break up ten years ago … I’m not sure they’ll be familiar with what our music sounds like, but we’ve had a couple of rehearsals, and I’ll tell you – it’s sounding good! It’s a certain magic when we get together.”

Is David going to resist the urge to confront Bernard Fanning and settle the dispute about who has led the greatest Queensland band of all time, once and for all?  

“I think Powderfinger have got that one tied up,” he erupts. “We were in no way the greatest band ever … they’re going to wipe us off the stage! We’re just going to go up and do our thing and everyone in the audience can put their mind in the headspace from 1991 to 1999. Everyone’s changed so much since then – Brisbane’s changed, the music’s changed – but Powderfinger are still rocking on. When they asked us to do it, I thought it was such a great thing to do; it’s cool to be celebrating Queensland’s 150th anniversary and it’s cool to be playing the Riverstage.”

Last (silly) question: does David still think music is crap?

“Haha, no – Glenn Thompson, the drummer, wrote that one,” he shoots back. “I think some music is great and some is crap, but definitely not all of it.”

CUSTARD play the Q150 Proclamation Day concert with Powderfinger, The Middle East, Yves Klein Blue and The Cairos at The Riverstage on Thursday Dec 10. DAVID MCCORMACK & THE POLAROIDS play The Hi-Fi on Saturday Dec 26, supported by Gentle Ben & His Sensitive Side and Seja. LITTLE MURDERS is out now on dasKONG/MGM.

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