Iva Davies - Icehouse
Questions: Rob Lyon
Starting out as a pub rock band called Flowers, Icehouse have had a career spanning over thirty years, eight studio albums and were inducted into the ARIA Hall of Fame on 16th August 2006.
The band has made a huge resurgence in 2011, with the re-release of 1980's Icehouse (originally released when known as Flowers) and now the greatest hit package White Heat, which has now gone gold. Heading to South Australia for the first time in eighteen years, the band is headlining the Gorgeous Festival in beautiful McLaren Vale on the 26th November. Caught in the Mosh spoke with legendary front man Iva Davies, who says it's good times ahead for the band.
Have you been quietly chuffed with the resurgence in Icehouse?
"It has been incredibly surprising I must say. I've been working with Keith Walsh, co-founder and bass player, who has been driving a lot of the initiatives and has been behind the new recording deal we have, new publishing deal, new publicist and Facebook page. All that happened this year and I think he had some expectation for White Heat where as I had very little. Within nine days I got a call from him with the head guys from Universal saying they had something to tell me. I was think it would be some disastrous comment but in fact after nine days it has gone gold. So, I was absolutely shell shocked I must say."
With the momentum on your side do you feel inclined to record a new album?
"There's been a lot of background work going on and we have plans to re-release all the albums in the expanded form like we did with the Flowers (Icehouse) album, which was a remastered version of the Icehouse album and its never sounded so good. Steve Smart the mastering engineer did a fantastic job but we also put together an extensive live album from about seven or eight different shows in that period. Some were from America plus a whole heap of footage I never had released before including footage from a big outdoors event in New Zealand in 1981. What we are planning to do is to go in to the archives where there is a lot of material including live stuff and film and add that to those releases from that period."
Did you get all nostalgic looking back at some of this old footage?
"It's more of a case of remembering it because the fact of the matter is that we worked so hard for so long and so quickly. I had to go back and create a diary because I was making remarkable discoveries even finding my passport right back from the beginning. In 1981 right at the beginning on the first album on occasions we were in three different European countries on the same day and the amount of work was extraordinary. The fact is I haven't seen a lot of this stuff and if I did it was so long ago I would have completely forgotten about most of it."
The re-released Icehouse CD is an awesome package. What did you think when you got your copy?
"There's an incredible amount of work in it and I know why people don't often get the opportunity to dig that deep and put together things in such a substantial way. The work that went in to putting together the live album, we had to restore twelve different concerts from tapes that were thirty years old. Twelve different concerts gave us twelve different versions of just about everything. Keith and I had to laboriously go through and create spreadsheets to listen to these things again and again and again to eliminate, cross consultant until we go to the final selections on the live album. That was only one CD of the whole process but the amount of work that goes in makes it rewarding in the end especially when it comes out like looking like the final package."
Has illegal downloading had much impact or are people opting to buy this really well put together package?
"It is an interesting comment you make about buying a CD or CD package as opposed to downloading it. We have recognised that people aren't interested in buying CD's and would rather download it, which is why Icehouse and White Heat are available as downloads. It seems to me that the vast majority by a long shot will want to get a hold of this package as a physical item."
Is the buzz still the same playing shows especially some of the bigger festivals recently?
"The interesting thing about this period has been that over the years we have done a few shows, maybe two a year or less which were closed events. Leading up to those we didn't have any rehearsal at all as I've been working with some of these guys for twenty five years and they're very good so we didn't bother rehearsing. Everyone went away and did their homework, then we arrived and played. But before this we had a few periods of intense rehearsals and it was interesting that our keyboard/sax player actually turned around and said it really feels like a band now. It was a lot different than trying to get up and play one night and so it is quite a different vibe in the band now. We're very old friends and we've been playing songs for a very long time but working quite closely together now."
What have the crowds been like?
"What is interesting is the cross section of people. We played a charity event in Melbourne on a Friday night and then we had the brain wave to do an unannounced show at the Esplanade Hotel, which is an iconic and very small pub in Melbourne the next night. Apart from the fact that people were lined up for blocks and it was in the middle of winter, the extraordinary thing for me was the people down the front were definitely people in their twenties but they started singing with the very first lines of the first song and didn't stop singing the whole night. They knew every word of every song and I found that extraordinary."
Is a theatre/club tour planned for the future?
"Nothing is planned as we've been very selective about the actual show that we're doing. That is to precisely avoid the circuit that a lot of bands that were successful in the eighties are reduced to playing these days. We'd rather do less and keep the events more special than do a circuit tour. Those sorts of environments don't allow us to stage things on the scale that we prefer in terms of lighting and presentation."
How challenging is it pulling together a set list to keep the most die hard of fans happy?
"It is tricky but less trickly than you would imagine because there are quite a few songs we know we'll always play like Great Southern Land. On the other hand it is interesting to watch Facebook because it is very clear and you can log by numbers what people are asking for. Then the other consideration is what's good for the band to play live because, oddly enough, some of the big singles are quite difficult to perform live. We've been a bit indulgent in picking what people want to hear and what's fun to play live."
The Gorgeous Festival will be held at McLaren Vale on the Fleurieu Peninsula on 26th November, 2011 featuring the following acts: Icehouse, Josh Pyke, Emma Louise, Busby Marou, Junior, Snowy Belfast. Visit the Gorgeous Festival website for further information.
Icehouse will also be performing at the following shows:
Homebake - Sydney, NSW 3rd December 2011 Tickets
Meredith Music Festival - Meredith, VIC 10th December 2011
A Day On The Green w/ Hall & Oates - Napier, New Zealand 28th January 2012 Tickets
A Day On The Green w/ Hall & Oates - Auckland, New Zealand 29th January 2012 Tickets
The Plenary, MCEC w/ Hall & Oates - Melbourne, Vic 2nd February 2012 Tickets
A Day On The Green w/ Hall & Oates - Bowral, NSW 4th February 2012 Tickets
Sydney Entertainment Centre w/ Hall & Oates - Sydney, NSW8th February 2012 Tickets
A Day On The Green w/ Hall & Oates - Barossa Valley, SA 11th February 2012 Tickets
A Day On The Green w/ Hall & Oates - Yarra Valley, VIC 12th February 2012 Tickets
A Day On The Green w/ Washington, Josh Pyke & Clare Bowditch - Kings Park, WA 18th February2012 Tickets
Breath Of Life Festival - Launceston, TAS 10th March 2012 Tickets