LoudNLocal Talks To The Hoodoo Gurus
By Chris Mitchell
It’s been a big day for Brad Shepherd, guitarist, backup vocalist, and all round good guy of ARIA Hall Of Famers, the Hoodoo Gurus. The staff at the Guru’s Adelaide hotel have clearly worn thin both their patience and the extension number to Brad’s room. Judging from their sighs, there’s been a steady stream of calls going through. But there is light at the end of the tunnel.
“I’m in Adelaide now, and we’ll be here tomorrow night, and the rain is abating. I went for a run along the river, and I might even go see Harry Potter tonight. I’ve been drawn into it by my 8 year old,” laughs the 49 year old.
But Shepherd is very aware that the drawing power of the Boy Who Lived comes close to matching that of the Guru’s themselves.
“Maybe I’m living in a fools paradise, thinking I can just rock up to a cinema tonight. I’m going to get into trouble from my daughter when I’m back in Sydney. She’ll be like, ‘What? You went and saw it without me?’”
It’s also been a big year for Shepherd and the rest of the Hoodoo Guru’s. Dave Faulkner, Mark Kingsmill, Richard Grossman and Shepherd released Purity Of Essence, their 9th studio album, which landed in the ARIA Top 20, and have been visiting fans and playing shows around the world. Beginning the previous night in regional Victoria, the Guru’s are embarking on yet another Australian tour. Shepherd is showing no signs of burnout.
“Mildura was surprisingly good last night,” he says.
“Our last show prior to last night was three and a half weeks ago, in Los Angeles, and as much as we’re road hardened and we’ve been out all year, three and a half weeks is a bit of a layover, we might be a little bit soft. Then again it felt like we just played last weekend. I thought we did one of the best shows of the entire tour last night.”
Lucky Mildura. Surely the first band to ever follow a gig in L.A with a show in Mildura, it is a sign of both the work ethic of the band and extensive reach of their music that they committed to doing just that.
Listening to him thoughtfully chatting away, it is apparent that Shepherd is still very much loving what he is doing. In fact, he is so happy with Purity Of Essence that he believes it’s the bands best album to date. It isn’t arrogance either. The Guru’s seem to be very proud with what they have created in the past year or so.
“We did wonderful work with the album. I honestly think it’s the best record we’ve ever made. Maybe it doesn’t capture the vibe of the times like Stoneage Romeos or Mars Needs Guitars did, but it’s the best work of our entire careers, song for song,” Shepherd beams.
But Shepherd doesn’t believe Purity Of Essence is simply a culmination of the eight previous records.
“I don’t think of it in those terms,” he explains.
“You always try and do your very best work. Artists often feel like their more recent work is their best work, but there is other stuff that happened with this record that was almost mystical, for want of a better word. There was kind of a creative alignment of the planets with what we were doing, and we recognized very early on, even in the rehearsal stage, that we had something very special. It was almost unspoken. We didn’t want to jinx it.”
He also notes that there are a few points of difference on the latest effort.
“Songs like ‘What’s In It For Me?, which is very rock n roll, probably the most rock n roll song we’ve done, like New York Dolls, that 50s rock influence. Little Richard kind of stuff. Then there was other stuff that was really satisfying for us, from a creative, artistic point of view”.
He is also thankful for having the support of a major label. A 30-year career has given Brad and the band a keen sense of perspective.
“We’re very fortunate that we’ve had a massive record company like Sony to get behind us with their resources. Their staff they had at this particular point in time were with us and they got really excited. It doesn’t always happen, we’ve been in that place before. The market hasn’t changed that much, its can be more about the staff at the record company changing. We’ve been on the receiving end of that.”
The band has noticed the faces at the gigs going through some changes of their own. With a career spanning three decades, the Guru’s have watched their fan base experience some generational changes.
“It has always surprised me, because it seems in music generations change much quicker than they do in the real world,” says Shepherd.
“Its like a 7 year cycle or something, generationaly, in music fans. We have somehow always found that the new generation will come along and see us. I remember being surprised in the early 90s that a whole bunch of these new kids were coming along to see the Hoodoo Gurus. It’s really come to the point where the kids of parents who used to come and see us in the 80s come along and see us now.”
“It must be like Dad going, well, he’s heard them playing the Kings of Leon, or whoever is out there at the moment, I don’t even know, but Dads going, ‘well if you like that stuff you oughta go and see the bloody Hoodoo Gurus. They’re going to blow your mind.’ So they turn up their looking like Short Stack or something in the front row, going, OK, I get it.”
Short Stack look-alikes or not, Shepherd is very much looking forward to the Australian tour. And whichever generation turns up, they are in for a treat right from the beginning, with support for many of the gigs coming from The Break, the 3 parts Midnight Oil, 1 part Violet Femmes surf rock band. Shepherd says the two bands are firm friends.
“We actually did a limited amount of touring with them earlier in the year. We’ve come to know them quite well over the years, we bump into them in guitar stores and things like that. I was never a massive Midnight Oil fan, I was just in my own world a lot through the 80s, with what we were doing with the Gurus, but I love what they’re doing in The Break. I love surf music, anything remotely like surf music.”
When it’s the Guru’s turn to hit the stage, even Shepherd isn’t sure what to expect.
“We change the set every night, in theory and practice, and even the set we are anticipating playing tonight, we will change because people like to scream out for songs, and we will do them. Even if its just one person who wants to hear some outrageous obscurity of ours we will attempt it properly, much to the annoyance of everybody else in the room.”
But when you have produced as many iconic tracks as this band has, there are some songs that simply demand to be played.
“If we avoided all of our big singles, if we went up there and didn’t play ‘Tojo’, and ‘I Want You Back’, and ‘What’s My Scene’, and ‘The Right Time’, and ‘Waking Up Tired’, if we didn’t play any of those songs in the course of the night, well, there would be a public lynching. We’ll try and get some of those songs in the set. But for us to try and play some of the lesser-known album tracks, as well as some of the songs that are exciting us off the new album, we’d be there for 12 hours. And Kingsy aint gonna play that long. He can’t put out for 12 hours!” Shepherd laughs.
Shepherd thinks that he personally is in the best shape of his life. After going through not one, but two cancer scares in the pat few years, it will warm the heart of every Guru’s fan to know he is fighting fit and loving being on the road.
“I’m actually at the top of my game,” he confirms.
They put me through a CAT scan the other day just to double check that there wasn’t anything nasty lurking around and I came up all clear. So I’m feeling like I’ll be alive for at least the next 12 months. Which is good. And because I had that scare with the melanoma, and I had some withering of muscles associated with the recovery, I’ve had to throw myself into a physical fitness regime to counteract that. And I was enjoying the results, so I’ve continued to do that.”
“I’m in the best shape of my life.”
And that is good news for everybody.
Purity Of Essence is out now.
Check out the LNL gig guide for all dates and enter the competition to win tickets!
