Ushering In A New Era With PAT DAVERN From GRINSPOON

Interview by Kris Peters
Grinspoon have flown the flag for Australian rock since bursting
onto the scene after winning the Triple J Unearthed contest with
the song Sickfest in 1995. They released their debut, self-titled
EP that same year which included that song plus More Than You Are
before unleashing their second EP Licker Bottle Cozy the following
year, featuring Champion.
In September 1997 Grinspoon released their debut album Guide To
Better Living which became the staple sonic diet for
disenfranchised youth everywhere with its punchy, aggressive
punk/rock hybrid that was catchy as fuck and even more
addictive.
The band went from strength to strength from there, releasing a
succession of successful albums such as Easy, New Detention and
Thrills Kills & Sunday Pills, but it was on the live circuit
that Grinspoon basked in glory. Their wild, unpredictable and
entertaining live shows helped Grinspoon become a regular on pretty
much every Australian music festival since 1995, with demand
continuing to this day despite the fact their last album called
Black Rabbits was released over a decade ago.
But 2024 is set to become the Year Of Grinspoon following the
release of their first new single in twelve years, Unknown
Pretenders. The song is a direct throw back to the band's earlier
stuff and has fans both old and new salivating at the prospect of
their new album Whatever, Whatever which is slated for an August 9
release.
But that's not all.
Grinspoon have also announced an extensive 45-date national tour
starting in September and finishing in December that will see the
band hit capital cities and regional venues, including more than 20
all-ages shows.
Guitarist Pat Davern joined HEAVY to talk about the exciting new
developments in the Grinspoon camp, starting with the reception for
Unknown Pretenders.
"I think it's been pretty good. Well, my Mum and Dad love it," he
joked. "To be honest with you, things seem to be going really well.
The tour went on sale and tickets are selling really fast, and in
this climate, with the amount of bands out there that are touring,
we're very happy about that. It was the first cab off the rank.
We've probably got a couple more singles to go before we release
the album, and I think it's been a great… return to form is a good
way to describe Unknown Pretenders."
Unknown Pretenders saw a relatively low-key release with little
advance promotion. It was a simple, yet effective way of releasing
the new single, but we question Davern as to why the band chose to
release the track without a massive social media campaign.
"You're right. We didn't do any social media or any big build up to
it," he agreed. "I think when we recorded the album, we weren't
sure how it was all gonna play out. We wanted to do something that
we're really proud of, and it had been twelve years since we
recorded an album, and we didn't want it to be shit. And if it was
shit, then we weren't gonna release it (laughs). So we thought it
would be best to keep it on the quiet until we were really happy
with the results. We got there, and we are really happy with the
results. The fanfare starts now, on HEAVY mag!"
Unknown Pretenders is definitely a return to form for Grinspoon,
more closely resembling their early material than anything that has
come since. We ask if that song was chosen as the first single to
make a statement of sorts.
"It definitely was," Davern nodded. "It was kind of… for us to put
out music after such a long time, we wanted it to be a statement.
We wanted our old fans, and, I guess, our new fans - because we're
almost a generational band now. A lot of people's kids are into it,
where their parents were into the band when we first started. We
wanted it to be something we could hang our hat on and say we're
back."
In the full interview, Pat discusses Unknown Pretenders in more
detail, how the single kicks off a new era for Grinspoon, the
upcoming album whatever, whatever and what to expect sonically, the
writing process and how the final tracks were selected and
more.

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