INTERVIEW: You Am I

YOU AM I are a band we hold dear to our hearts here at Purple Sneakers. Not only did they give our site its name (thanks to their incredible single 'Purple Sneakers' off their 1995 sophomore album Hi Fi Way), they've proven to be one of Australia's most treasured bands; which is undeniable when looking through their 11-album back catalogue.

As their debut record Sound As Ever was released exactly 20 years ago, the guys will be re-releasing that album and its following two records - Hi Fi Way and Hourly, Daily. With these reissues to be released with a bunch of extra features, as well as a tour held in a series of theatres and a Splendour In The Grass festival appearance, we thought it might be a great time to interview the band's youngest member Davey Lane.

He took some time out of recording his solo single in Alexandria's 301 Studios [Sydney] to have a chat with us.

Davey joined You Am I in 1999 and first recorded with the band on their 2001 album Dress Me Slowly. Just how did he become a full time You Am I member?

"A friend of mine, Danny Yau, he was running their website. And he needed someone to figure out the guitar tablature for his website. Being an efficient arto of the band and those records, I found myself on school holidays with nothing to do so I thought I'd set myself a task of at least tabbing out one You Am I record every few days. So I did that, and a few months later You Am I were playing two shows at the Enmore just after #4 Record came out. I ended up just going along to those gigs and hanging out with the band through helping out with the website; and yeah through doing that I got to play a song on stage with them. That was probably about three or four weeks after that back in Melbourne. There really wasn't any kind of audition, You Am I after that went on tour for three months or so.

At the start of the next year I was two days into a uni course that I fucking hated, and I got home and Tim [Rogers]' called me up, asked me if I wanted to play some music with them and yeah, that kind of made my mind up as to what I was going to do with University. I didn't make any rash decisions, but yeah, we played some music together after Tim put out his own record that year and played together in a more acoustic guitar based configuration. After that I guess I spoke to Rusty [Hopkinson] and Tim and.. There wasn't really much spoken, it was kind of well would I like to join the band, I don't think I was even asked that because I don't think there was any question but yeah. I mean all I remember was getting an email and phone call saying “We're rehearsing in Prahran next Wednesday” so you know, each event kind of just flowed from the previous if that makes any sense."

So it naturally fell into place?

"I mean it didn't naturally fall into place ; I was a bag of nerves for my first You Am I show. After my first or second gig, I was seriously considering telling Tim, Andy [Kent] and Rust “well thanks so much for the opportunity but I love this band too much and I don't want to see it ruined by a fat, pimply 18 year old kid who can't really play guitar.” But lucky for me I kept my mouth shut and just kept working on my guitar playing."

Considering all of that, it must have been quite surreal for Davey to become a part of the band after being a huge fan for years before this inclusion.

“Yeah well of course it was a real thrill to be playing with those guys and playing those songs. It took a little while before I felt like – at least 18 months or two years – for a little while there I was thinking you know, I was just a little nerdy kid who copped a lucky break. It did take a little while before I felt like I was contributing anything of real worth to the band."

Now celebrating their 20th year as a band, what's been the highlight of Davey's You Am I career?

"I guess you could say getting to play with a band that you grew up in love with, and in my time with the band we have done all these kind of things; like we played with the [Rolling] Stones and The Who.. But for me I find that it's the creatively rewarding things to be the highlight. Making our last record in my opinion to speak objectively as someone who grew up outside the band with the first four records and then I played on the last five or six or whatever it is, I reckon the band's last record was really some of the best songs that Tim's written, and for us as a band, we had so much fun making it and I think that really comes across. For me it's those kind of things that are the highlights."

Who is Davey's favourite Australian artist at the moment?

"Ahhhh, my favourite Australian artist.. I don't know, let me think about who I've been listening to lately.. For me, I'd have to say Link Meanie, obviously from The Meanies who has made some of my favourite records of recent years. He had a band called The Bakelite Age and now has a band called Sun God Replica. If I could write a song as good as he can, I'll die a happy man. At the moment anyway, he would have to be my favourite."

After naming our site and first club after one of You Am I's songs, we're obviously huge fans. Although he wasn't a part of the band when this song was written, I asked Davey what 'Purple Sneakers' off Hi Fi Way means for him personally. I guess he just loves the entire album as a whole too much based on his answer!

"I guess when it came out I was 14 and wasn't really at the age where I could go out and see a gig, so I hadn't really gone out to watch bands play live; apart from the ones that your mum and dad would take you to. I guess Hi Fi Way was a revelation to me. The music I was listening to at that time was you know, some current modern music as well but a lot of it, you know, I was listening to The Kinks and The Who and all those kind of bands of that ilk, and when I heard Hi Fi Way it was a revelation in, oh my God it's a band who are playing right now who are making records as vital as ones that I've grown up listening to. I guess everyone wears influences on their sleeve to a certain extent but it wasn't like You Am I songs were past pieces of other songs; all the qualities I loved about the music that I grew up with were in this band in this particular record, so that's something that I kinda hold dearest."

In terms of sound, what is Davey's favourite You Am I record?

"There's a record that we did in 2006 or something like that [it was in fact 2005] called Convicts, and I dunno, I just think that there's really something kinda scrappy and gritty about that record. I listen much to Hüsker Dü and Black Flag as it is to any of the obvious references, but for me I love the sound of that record. The songs are short and sharp. There's a song on there called 'Secrets' which is one of the slower songs on the record that's in my top three or four Rogers songs. So yeah, I reckon I'd have to say Convicts."

You Am I are about to re-release their first three albums which are to include some rarities; never before released live performances, B-sides, historical information and much more. Which features of these reissues are they most excited to share with their fans and why?

"It's funny, right at the moment I'm in the studio in Sydney called 301. I'm just kinda mixing and recording my first solo single and it's funny, I got to the studio upstairs, and just by coincidence was the guitar that I did all of the guitars for the first You Am I record that I played on so I thought, wow that's a nice little coincidence. I went downstairs and found out that the mastering studio was in the same building. Went in and the engineer is doing that as we speak; he's remastering the three records, so that was a happy little bit of serendipity right there.

Going through the extra stuff, it's going to be good value for money; we're fitting as much as we can onto two discs. There's going to be a lot of live stuff, and in the case of the Hourly, Daily record there's one song in particular that fans of the band will have never heard before. And it was a complete surprise for me when I heard it because I had never even heard about this song and didn't even know it existed. I reckon that's something for folks to get excited about.

We're going to put as much as we can onto those reissues. There's a lot of great stuff out there, and we've just kinda raided – not that I really had much of that stuff cause I wasn't in the band at the time obviously but, the other guys have just raided their closets to find old tapes and we've picked the best out of that and yeah, there's going to be exciting bits and pieces that fans won't have heard before."

The band's upcoming Australian tour will be held in a series of theatres. Which venue is Davey most excited to be playing and why?

"For me it's always Melbourne and Sydney; the Enmore and the Forum. Playing in theatres is not an experience you take for granted, they're just amazing stages and sound amazing in those venues, and I've loved going to see bands there for many years so it's kinda an honour to be on those stages. But yeah, definitely the Enmore and the Forum are the two that are sticking out in my mind when I'm looking forward to the tour."

A really special, celebratory tour, what can fans of You Am I expect at these upcoming shows?

"Well it's kinda on the poster, I think fans know what they're in for. We're obviously going to have as much fun with it as we can and we've got a few extra musicians along to embellish – especially the Hourly, Daily record. So yeah, it's going to be a pretty good show I reckon."

What can we expect from You Am I in the future?

"If this tour hadn't come up we probably would have been working on our new record right now. I think probably looking towards the end of the year we'll have a new record in the bag anyway. This time around, we're doing a bit more writing within all of us. Tim and I are throwing some ideas at each other and Rusty and Andy are coming up with some great ideas so yeah, I'm really looking forward to this next record. It's going to be quite a collaborative effort. But you know, we'll cross that bridge when we get to it. We're going to hopefully start working on that in the next few months."

You Am I's first three reissued albums - Sound As Ever, Hi Fi Way and Hourly, Daily will be released on 7th June through Sony Music. They'll be playing Hi Fi Way and Hourly, Daily in their entirety on their upcoming Hi Fi Daily Double Tour and Splendour In The Grass! Check out dates below.

YOU AM I'S HI FI DAILY DOUBLE TOUR

Wednesday, 26th June

The Tivoli, Brisbane

Tickets available at TICKETEK

Thursday, 27th June

The Tivoli, Brisbane

Tickets available at TICKETEK

Wednesday, 3rd July

Forum Theatre, Melbourne

Tickets available at TICKETMASTER

Thursday, 4th July

Forum Theatre, Melbourne

SOLD OUT

Saturday, 6th July

Forum Theatre, Melbourne

SOLD OUT

Sunday, 7th July

Forum Theatre, Melbourne

Tickets available at TICKETMASTER

Friday, 12th July

Thebarton Theatre, Adelaide

Tickets available at VENUE TIX

Saturday, 13th July

Astor Theatre, Perth

SOLD OUT

Sunday, 14th July

Astor Theatre, Perth

Tickets available at SHOW TICKETING

Friday, 19th July

Enmore Theatre, Sydney

SOLD OUT

Saturday, 20th July

UC Refectory, Canberra

Tickets available at OZTIX

Thursday, 1st August

Enmore Theatre, Sydney

Tickets available at TICKETEK

Friday, 2nd August

Newcastle Panthers, Newcastle

Tickets available at MOSHTIX

Saturday, 3rd August

Waves, Wollongong

Tickets available at MOSHTIX

Friday, 9th August

The Amphitheatre, George's Green

TICKETS

Words by Hannah Galvin.

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FLASHBACK: YOU AM I