Following
the release of their first studio album in 20 years, and on the eve of their
tour, rock legends Baby Animals are young once more, and as ANDY HAZEL finds
out singer SUZE DEMARCHI is full of fire, even if she’s not a tech head and
calls the music industry "a fucking nightmare".
"Oh it
is," says Suze DeMarchi, looking quite possibly the same as she did when caught
in the glare of the spotlight in the early 1990s. "The music industry is a
fucking nightmare. Last night we played a show at this pop up venue for Rolling
Stone in Sydney," she says, keenly expanding on the point. "Afterwards we did a Q&A and
this young girl from a band asked me this question –
she was so upset, so angry - 'can you
tell me how do you make it in this industry? It’s a joke this industry. It’s a
fucking joke.’ I told her ‘first of all you have to really love music. Second, you have got to have a great team around you. Without my first manager John
Woodruff we would never have got anywhere, because we were young and just
wanted to play. I felt bad for her. Now for kids…it’s difficult. We were
lucky."
Luck may
not play as big a part in DeMarchi’s career as she claims. Leaving school at
15, quitting a nowhere job at 16 and living on the road with her band at 17 shows
a confidence and a willingness to fast-track experience that seems rarer now. "Sometimes
we’d do three shows a day," she says of her beginnings in Perth rockers
Photoplay. "We’d do a university lunchtime show, then a pub gig, which would be
three sets, then we’d do a nightclub gig, three sets again; three different 40
minute sets." She says laughing. "That’s where we learned how to play. I did
that for two years. I got my work ethic from thinking it’s no big deal to drive
[from Perth] to Geraldton to do a set or three. Now I wouldn’t want to - I have
enough trouble getting through a one hour 40 minute set!"
Despite
the lifestyle change from platinum-selling, world-touring rock star to being a
mother and wife (of guitar icon Nuno Bettencourt), DeMarchi claims that her new
life in Sydney and reinvention of the Baby Animals doesn’t feel like a job. "When
I’m on stage it doesn’t, the other stuff does," she laughs. "I hate the music
business. I really, really loathe it. I hate the way it’s structured. I mean,
it’s changing but…" she trails off shaking her head. "We’ve gone independent now
because I was so tired of signing deals with labels that just fuck you over. The
worst thing about it is that they have control over you forever - they own your
copyrights forever. This way we own
it, we can share the load, you can do
things that you want to do. You’re not going to reach as many people as you
would if you were on a massive label, but we’ve got the Internet now."
With
the release of new album This is Not the
End, DeMarchi has eased into the role of a youthful rock legend, dispensing
wisdom and dividing her time between parenting, performing and writing. While
there are many album highlights, for DeMarchi two songs stand out. "We recorded
Stitch on [previous acoustic album] Il Grande Silencio, but I didn’t think
we did it properly; I always wanted to give that song the right treatment. I
wrote You Still Need Me with Andrew
Farriss when I was talking to him about all the INXS stuff [DeMarchi was in
discussion about becoming the singer for INXS before they went the reality show
route], I love that song."
While
there is a buzz about the new album and its single Email, September 2013 marks the 22nd anniversary for the
band’s eponymous debut album; the most successful in Australian music history
until the landing of Jet. "It doesn’t feel like 20 years," she muses. "And
I think that’s a testament to that album; those songs and [producer] Mike
Chapman. He very rigidly made us pull things back and just concentrate on the
essence of the song rather than being fancy. Mike was really anti-‘ooh, look
what I can play! I can play this in 7/12 timing or whatever’. I always fucking
hated that stuff. Everyone got a bit too fancy on the second album [Shaved and Dangerous]," she pauses
before returning to the debut. "Mike was the taskmaster – ‘Let me hear the
hooks’. Like Early Warning - that tag
at the beginning ‘too young to know too
old to listen’ - Mike said ‘I’m going to take that part of the chorus,
let’s put that at the front; that’s the hook."
Recently
making the 100 Best Australian Albums of All Time list, Baby Animals was a primal beast of its time, yet still forms the
backbone of the band’s powerful live shows. Though the newer songs don’t elicit
the same reaction, DeMarchi is happy to celebrate the older material. "It
doesn’t bother me," she says breezily. "I’m really proud of all that stuff and
it was a really good time. We did a lot of great things; we travelled
everywhere and we were really lucky. We had a fledgling label that had a lot of
money – they were like ‘take it!’" she laughs, pushing an invisible pile of
money. "Just to keep us on the road with Van Halen for six months cost a
million dollars in tour support; we couldn’t have done what we did without
it…it’s a lot of money," she says slightly in awe of her own adventures. "It
always comes back to having a good team around you, I think that’s 70% of being
successful."
Seeing
the band live, it’s easy to imagine why a label would feel comfortable in
spending that much on a foursome of Perth rockers, and it’s live the band still
shines. Despite a long break from the stage, DeMarchi is comfortable back in
the spotlight. "Sometimes it’s
difficult, but there’s no better way to make a connection. There are people
there, and they wouldn’t be there if they didn’t want to be, so you’re starting
already ahead of the game. All you want to do is your best for them and to
enjoy yourself," she says instructively. "I remember the first time I went on
stage and people clapped," she laughs. "I was like ‘they fucking liked it? This is great! I can make
money doing this? Not much, but I can make money?’’ She laughs. "I never was good at any other job, and I’m not
crazy about the industry – it’s a shit industry, but it’s really a very, very
good job."
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