Living for the moment

Australian punks The Living End are over here on tour. Photo / Supplied

Chris Cheney of the Living End is a family man these days - and with latest album White Noise, the band have come up with their best and most mature album to date.

But do you think the self-proclaimed bratty punk is about to grow up? Not likely. Instead of talking about growing more mature as a band, he'd rather use the term "evolution".

"I just think we've evolved more than anything. We're not the kind of band who want to be too grown up. There's still a brattiness that prevails," he says.

"When you have kids it immediately shifts you into that next phase of growing up. But it's dangerous, I think, to become a mature artist. I never want to be that sort of thing. You don't want to start writing songs about the complexities of changing a nappy."

So when they play on the Legal Tender Tour with Shihad, Luger Boa and Airbourne, which starts today in Dunedin and hits Auckland's Logan Campbell Centre on October 7, expect a typically bratty rock-a-billy punk performance.

After 15 or so years as a band, where is the Living End at because with White Noise you've just had your biggest and most successful year to date?
I don't think you get many years like this. We had one when the first record came out, touring constantly, and there was a lot of hype, and it was exciting times. And all the other albums have done well but this latest album has been monumental. It was our most critically acclaimed record and we've never really had that. We've always had good reviews, but we've never had people saying, 'This is the best album you've ever done'. The good thing is [White Noise] sounds like I've always wanted the band to sound. I knew we had that record in us but we just had to make it ... that was the hard part.

What has changed to get you to that point in your songwriting?
There is a certain amount of restraint involved in being a songwriter and I think I finally realised that on the last record. Rather than trying to impress everyone with hooks and stuff, it's definitely the stuff you leave out that's the most important part.

On the Legal Tender Tour there has to be a bit of Transtasman rivalry going down, especially with Shihad playing?
We actually saw the Shihad guys the other day, because we rehearse in the same building, and so we're often there and yeah there wasn't a lot of discussion but we were checking out who had been in rehearsal and who was match-fit and who wasn't. There was a little bit of small talk but I suspect there will be a bit of rivalry because they are a great live band.

That Jon Toogood is always match-fit isn't he?
He is yeah. He's sort of like a ferret or something, and I love Jon and I mean it in the nicest possible way, but there's not a lot of fat on the guy, and he's one hell of a performer. I can't wait to do the tour because we haven't really toured together before. Or maybe there was one show. But we've known each other for so long, and we collaborated together.

So when was that?
They were around for our second record [Roll On, from 2000] and they were in the studio too, or something, and we needed a gang of people, to sound like a football crowd, so who better to do it than the New Zealand band next door? And we struck up a friendship then.

Why do you think you've got a pretty rabid fan base here?
Because let's face it, we're not too keen to support Aussie rock bands over our own.
I always make a point of saying we got a gold record in New Zealand for our first record, which is the only place outside Australia where that's happened. I have a soft spot for New Zealand. But look, I guess we've been there a lot and have been since our first record. So there's an awareness of the band and we always pride ourselves on our live show and that has been the thing from the beginning with us and it will be over everything else. So I think a great live band is appreciated and understood over there. And we have an aggressiveness and edge to us that strikes a chord with the audience over there. And you have to cut it live to gain respect.

Lastly, do you help Scott [Owen] carry his double bass?
Not any more. I spent many many years at high school carrying that damn thing up and down the streets where we lived. He'd be on one end, I'd be on the other, and we'd be the two freaky kids listening to 50s rockabilly, carrying a double bass, while everybody else was listening to Nirvana.