The '90s really were the golden years for alternative rock. It was the era which cemented names like Nirvana and Mudhoney into rock & roll history. Australia also had its own share of psychedelic grunge rockers, but Wollongong's Tumbleweed are perhaps the most revered.
You see, not only has the band recorded a slew of internationally released records, but they've also toured with both of the aforementioned acts — the Nirvana gigs being the only ones they ever played down under. Tumbleweed then went on indefinite hiatus during the early '00s, and they would have stayed on hiatus if not for a few twists of fate.
“The original catalyst was Joe [Segreto],” frontman Richie Lewis explains. “He was our manager for years and he started up Homebake with one of his bands. It was our 15th anniversary and he wanted to have us on. He rang us all up individually and asked if we'd be into it. It wasn't really a positive response and we sort of said we'd just see how things went.”
By coincidence, an article was published about the band weeks after the initial talks of reuniting. Then, again purely by chance, Richie met with guitarist Paul Hausmeister.
“There was an article in the Mercury Sun which was basically a retrospective, or a 'where are they now' kind of thing,” Richie explains. “It alluded to the fact that I was the one holding out on the reformation. I accidentally ran into Paul later that week at a restaurant. I said to him, 'hey, it's not me holding out; maybe we should talk about this'. A few bottles of wine later and we were talking about it, and we decided to get back together to see what we sounded like in the jam room.”
Tumbleweed then played Homebake as thousands of exhilarated fans savoured the moment, knowing it could have been their last chance to see the quintet. But Tumbleweed continued; they toured; they played festivals. Then a dilemma struck.
“We got to a point where we were like, 'what are we gonna do? We can't just keep playing this nostalgic stuff for the rest of our lives because we're a creative band and we make records'. And that's what we decided to do.”
The band then went on to record their latest album, 'Sounds From The Other Side' — an LP which is not only the first Tumbleweed's classic line-up has written together in 15 years, but also the first produced by Paul McKercher since '95s 'Galactaphonic'.
“We just work really well with Paul,” Richie says. “We knew it would be a nice, easy collaboration, and we knew that he was the only person who came close to capturing that sound we hadn't heard on records. It was really important to have Paul because he's dynamic as a human being. We relate to each other, and when we work together, it's just really natural and fun.”
It seems Tumbleweed revisited the vault of lost tracks and outtakes when writing 'Sounds From The Other Side'.
“There were [songs] like 'Wildfire' that existed on cassette tape and there were others which might have just had a riff or something like that. We grabbed ideas from old songs and moulded them into new songs ... It wasn't like the songs were finished and we just re-recorded them.”
Tumbleweed placed the greatest importance on capturing their barnstorming yet loose live sound on their latest record — something which eluded them in the past.
“One of the things where I think we always fell short or we weren't happy with the records we did for major labels was that they were really clean and precise. They had a fair bit of soul, but they lacked the vitality of what we're like at a live gig.
“A real big part of us is our strength as a live band. It's not always precise and it flows in and out — it's got a human element to it. We were really conscious about that, but at the same time we didn't want it to sound shit.”
'Sounds From The Other Side' is out now. Tumbleweed play The Tempo Hotel Thursday December 5.
