Tex Perkins and the Fat Rubber Band have bounced back from the COVID slump with a slick new album that exudes the confident swagger we've come to know from Perkins' long-time music career.
Released last month, 'Other World' is the second album from Perkins' latest project with co-writer and conspirator guitarist Matt Walker, as well as bassist Steve Hadley, drummer Roger Berdogaz and percussionist Evan Richards.Their self-titled debut was released at the end of 2021, when touring and promoting an album was still uncertain.
"That [debut album] was all mainly recorded back in 2018 and 2019, we finished mixing it in January 2020 and we thought we'd release it in a few months," Perkins explains.
"Then COVID happened and we thought, 'okay, let's just leave it'. . . but then it just kept going so we thought, 'okay, let's just f...in' put it out!'"
After an extended break from touring and each other during lockdowns and state border closures, Tex says the band wanted to record together again as soon as was physically possible, although getting everyone together proved difficult at first.
"I tried to get the ball rolling with Matt middle to late '21, and couldn't move it – the ball would not move," Perkins laughs. "It wasn't until everything opened up and the first thing that we had to do in 2022 was a tour of Tasmania."
The tour sparked the drive to jump back into the studio with the three tracks they could work with: 'Pretty Damn Close', 'Brand New Man', and a track Perkins had heard opening act Lucie Thorne performing on the Tasmanian tour.
"During her set I noticed this song that I was unfamiliar with – because I knew her music pretty well – and I asked her about it and she said, 'Oh yeah, this new one. . . I'm actually still writing it', and I didn't pressure her any more than that," Tex laughs.
"But then after the tour ended, she knew we were going into the studio and she sent me a message saying, 'Do you want to have a go at that song?' And I said, 'Sh.t yeah!'"
The band attempted to "Fat Rubber Band" Lucie's track, 'Around The World', but Perkins says it wasn't working. "I said, 'Maybe it needs more space. . . maybe we have to go small with this one', and then Matt puts down his guitar, and literally hanging on the wall behind his head there was a very, very small guitar – it looked like a ukulele to me, but it's actually the smallest guitar you can get before it becomes a ukulele – and he said, 'Well, how small do you want to go?'" Perkins recalls.
"Then we were looking at the playback and I just whim-fully said, 'Wouldn't it be great to have a saw on this?' – that was me, just 'Oh, just imagine if we could have that'; I could've said 'wouldn't it be great with a French horn', but I said the saw."
Proving the alchemical energy behind the creation of this album, although Perkins suggested one of the most random musical instruments, the band was able to make it happen.
"Steve Hadley was lying on the couch, and I don't think he even opened his eyes and he said, 'I know a girl that plays the saw, I can give her a call'," Perkins laughs.
"Then two hours later the wonderful Charlie Barker arrives and plays the most magnificent, ethereal, earthly yet other worldly sound. That to me felt magic, it was like rubbing a genie's bottle and everything I wanted sort of appeared and it was f...in' beautiful."
Perkins explains the band was literally put together during the process of recording their debut record, with Perkins and Walker considering themselves a duo, thinking the band could possibly be a fluid entity around them.
Coming back together, Tex says each member slipped into their groove like a well-oiled machine. "Even though we had an incredible amount of time off, we had become familiar with our roles and how we fit together, and what our tastes are, and had a shared vision of what a song or the music we're creating can be," he says.
"Everybody's instincts were good; even if we were going up the wrong path we could quickly change directions and fix the situation. So I don't know, everything flowed beautifully and it was a joy – an absolute pleasure – to make that record."
Fans of Beasts Of Bourbon or The Cruel Sea will hear a hint of those acts in the swampy riffs and non-traditional blues of Tex Perkins and the Fat Rubber Band.
"Oh, we're definitely from the swamp, oh sh.t yeah," Perkins laughs. "Tony Joe White, Link Wray and Creedence Clearwater Revival – they're all deep within my DNA, in anything I do."
Tex says his attitude towards his musical projects is somewhat laissez-faire – so he could one day end up fronting a funk band, if the opportunity presents itself. "I'm very interested in all sorts of music; and then it's a matter of circumstance and opportunity," he explains.
"So I could end up in a funk and – I love funk, and I could certainly express myself in that medium. . . it's less about me going, 'this is what I want to do next: I want to do a reggae band', it's more of a fact that suddenly I'll bump into one and we'll get along, then someone will say, 'Hey, what do you think of this song? Would you like to sing on it?' And then I go, 'Well actually, I do!'"
The versatility of Perkins' musicianship could, then, explain what fans can expect at a Fat Rubber Band show, which can range from heavy, distorted "super blues" to acoustic country, stripped-back blues – even a cappella.
"We do a song with no instruments at all – we're like a barbershop quintet," Perkins laughs. "Maybe more a work gang; a prison work gang, shovelling hot bitumen. We want you to dance, and we want you to cry, too.
"We will move your feet and we will move your heart. . . Should've put that on the poster."
Tex Perkins And The Fat Rubber Band 2023 Tour Dates
Thu 23 Mar - Brunswick Ballroom (Melbourne)Fri 24 Mar - Anglesea Memorial Hall (VIC)* sold out
Sat 25 Mar - The Gov (Adelaide)
Fri 31 Mar - Gerringong Town Hall (Illawarra)* Tex Perkins & Matt Walker only
Sat 1 Apr - Bowral Bowling Club (NSW)* Tex Perkins & Matt Walker only
Fri 21 Apr - Live at the Bundy (Gippsland)* sold out
Sat 22 Apr - Theatre Royal (Castlemaine)
Sun 23 Apr - Palais Theatre (Geelong)
