You Am I

Ahead of their performance at the Barwon Club, we sat down to chat with You Am I about their new album and how things in the biz have changed.
Hey Rusty, great to speak to you again, where are you right now?
Cheers!! I’m at home in Marrickville sitting on the lounge next to a giant sheepdog called Mable.
Exciting times with ‘Porridge and Hot Sauce’ coming out and a national tour coming up, how, after so long, does it feel approaching your 10th studio album?
It’s always exciting putting out a new record and jumping in a tour van with your mates!
How was the process for this album and how does it differ to the first few (other nine)? Are you guys all at different spots in life or is it all still smooth sailing putting together an album?
In some ways it was quite similar to how we recorded hi-fi-way, a week or so in a little studio in New York with some quality bar-hopping time mixed in. It was a tremendous amount of fun.
How would you describe the new album, is it a dramatically different piece to previous works?
It’s a You Am I LP, if you like our work chances are you’ll like this…it’s very much a bunch of friends in a room playing music together. Tim has written some cracking songs, as he always does, and Davey’s chipped in with a couple of belters too!
You are without doubt one of Australia’s most influential bands, with ARIAs, successful albums and tours with some of the biggest bands in the world, how has the music industry changed in the last five years, is the game the same as it was or is the landscape totally altered?
I have no idea and don’t really care too much. I do think that in this day and age it’s quite easy for us as a band to connect with people who like our music and that’s definitely a positive. But give me a pile of records over a streaming playlist any day!!
Lets talk this tour, you are coming through Forte’s heartland, are you excited to be coming back to The Barwon Club? The Barwon Club is a quintessential Pub and it will bring you a quintessential rock crowd, is it a pub you look forward to playing?
I have played many times at the Barwon Club!! Going right back to the early ’80s in hardcore punk bands. I have seen some brilliant gigs there, I think the last show that the original line up of Bored! did at the BC in about ’88 was one of the greatest rock’n’roll shows I’ve ever seen.
When & Where: Barwon Club, Geelong – October 29