American rock band Clutch has proved that every now and then a group of musicians will form a band that stays together for more than half a century.
Prepping for an Australian tour next year, Clutch – made up of Neil Fallon, Tim Sult, Dan Maines and Jean-Paul Gaster – are fresh from the release of their eleventh studio album, 'Psychic Warfare'. Success and recognition isn't new to Clutch, who have spent most of their career touring and showcasing their work to fans around the world.
Their longest break between albums was between 2009 and 2013, but since their inception in 1991, the band's sole focus has been continuously releasing music. “For us it's been about getting out there, building a fan base and making money,” guitarist Tim Sult says.
“There's not really a huge amount of money in CDs or radio play lately, especially in rock music, so we just put all our effort into touring.”
Since the uprising of easily accessible digital downloading, this is indeed the case, and many artists are now making more money performing shows than releasing music.
Tim says the band found their direction musically when they began touring. “I think that would have been the pivotal thing for us, actually going out and touring, staying on tour for years, and writing new music.”
'Psychic Warfare' received high praise, and a top spot on Billboard. Tim says production took around a year and a half. “We got together two or three times a week and just started throwing out ideas,” he says. “We took a long time between actually finishing the production of this album and releasing it.”
So how does a band with almost a quarter century of experience together (24 years) continue to make quality music without the members getting sick of each other? “Surprisingly we still manage to get along pretty well,” Tim laughs.
“We're all on the same page as far as songwriting goes, and honestly when people ask me 'how do you guys do it,' I have no idea how.”
Now in post-album release promotion mode, the band is raring up to return to Australian soil after headlining one of the countries greatest music festivals, 'Soundwave' multiple times over the course of their career.
They'll be landing here in March, a month after the famously hot Australian summer has passed.
“We haven't really done any cool touristy stuff when we've been there, most because of the brutal, brutal sun,” Tim says. “It seems like we're usually always there around summer.”
Thanks to the band's tight schedule, Tim says there won't be much free time.
“Usually we can go to the beach or do some kind of sunburn-related activity, but I don't think thats gonna happen this time,” he says. “We're just mostly looking forward to getting down there and doing some shows.”
“It's amazing that we can go a 14-hour plane ride away and people know our songs, that's amazing to us.”
Clutch 'Psychic Warfare' 2016 Album Tour Dates
Thu 3 Mar - The Triffid (Brisbane)Fri 4 Mar - The Metro (Sydney)
Sat 5 Mar - The Forum (Melbourne)
