Happy
Hate Me Nots #2
The following
article originally appeared in Noise For Heroes # 21 in the fall of 1991.
Fast forward 3
years, and now the Happy Hate Me Nots have passed their peak and are starting to wind down
as a force, but the end is not yet clear. I was in Sydney in the spring of 1991 and met
with Paul over lunch in a little cafe around the corner from the Waterfront Records shop.
The band had gone two years after releasing Out with no new recordings, but just a
couple months before had finally surfaced again with a new single. So my hopes were high
for a resurgence of the band...
I'm probably going to
be a one man crusader for the Happy Hate Me Nots as long as Noise For Heroes keeps going.
For my money they're one of the best bands in the world, and certainly among the top in
Australia (I'd rate only the Celibate Rifles and Exploding White Mice as equals). The
pairing of Tim McKay and Paul Berwick on guitar has resulted in some of the most powerful
melodic rock and roll anywhere over the past several years. To call their music power pop
would be a fair generalization, but it would be missing a lot of the point, too. The Happy
Hate Me Nots play a special brand of power pop that goes much deeper than the sort of
fun-time music that comes to mind when the term is used. Their music has an emotional edge
to it that's transmitted in every aspect of the music; in the words, in the guitars, in
the drums. It's a lasting kind of music.
For me the keys are
probably Berwick's voice and his guitar playing. The main reason for reaching this
conclusion is that the lp on Aberrant by his previous band, Positive Hatred, evokes much
of the same feeling. Positive Hatred existed in 1982 and 1983, and Berwick was the only
member who moved on to the Happy Hate Me Nots. Their sound was less sophisticated than the
Happy Hate Me Nots, and the production is rougher and liver, but the music evokes the same
feeling. "Think About Tomorrow", which for my tastes was the best track on the
Happy Hate Me Nots "Out" lp, was originally a Positive Hatred song that appeared
on the Aberrant compilation "Flowers From The Dustbin". It's slower there, but
the feel is similar. While in Sydney I got a chance to talk to Paul in a little cafe near
the Waterfront Records shop, and I told him how much I liked that track. "Oh,
yeah?", he replied, "That's a pretty old song for us, that's a Positive Hatred
song. At the time I wrote that I was right into the Clash and Generation X, and that sort
of staccato drumming like "Tommy Gun" or something like that. That sort of
melodic guitar playing, I've always been into that."
It certainly shows
through all the Positive Hatred material, and the feel continued with the formation of the
Happy Hate Me Nots in 1984. At the beginning it was Paul and Tim with Peter Lennon on bass
and former Positive Hatred drummer Neil Toddie. Toddie soon moved over to the Sydney band
Itchy Rat and was replaced by Mark Nicholson, who now drums for Toys Went Berserk. With
this lineup they recorded "The Build Up" and "When The Chips Are
Down", which appeared on the Aberrant compilation "Not So Humdrum".
"When The Chips Are Down" at least shows good potential, but it's a little odd
listening to these songs in retrospect, since with no other information, I'd have guessed
that these were done before any of the Positive Hatred material; the song writing feels
less mature and the playing is not as sharp as Positive Hatred. It turns out that there's
a reason for this; the songs actually WERE recorded before the Positive Hatred
album...that lp was recorded in 1985 during a brief reunion of the band.
In early 1985 the
Happy Hate Me Nots connected with Waterfront Records for their first single, which
featured three songs: "It Won't Do Any Good", "Silent Boys" and
"Aren't You Glad You Know". All three have the feel of later Hate Me Nots
material, but they suffer from a fairly flat production. "Silent Boys" is an
instrumental, an odd thing for a band whose lyrics and vocals are so important to their
overall sound. But it works pretty well anyway. A fourth song called "Hurt" was
recorded about this time, and appears on the 7" compilation "On The Waterfront
Volume 2", a gig giveaway record. This one has the same problem with flat production,
but it also strikes the same emotions as their later material.
In late 1985 the
second single came out, "You're An Angel" and "What Did They Say". It
represented a quantum leap in the band's sound. Ex-Radio Birdman Chris Masuak produced
with Alan Thorne as engineer, and the sharp edged, powerful sound that was to become their
trademark was suddenly there. "Angel" is a dynamic song with slow quiet bits
that burst into loud, powerful rocking passages. It was also the first song of the bands
to appear on an overseas record...on the Stiff compilation "Countdownunder - Party At
Hanging Rock". The flip is even better than the A side...the same use of dynamics but
it has the kind of speed under control that their best material has. This one also made a
compilation; the "Sounds Of Sydney Volume 3" record released in Australia.
After this single the
band went through a few changes. Peter Lennon left and was replaced by Christian
Houllemare, a fellow who had moved to Australia from France a few years earlier. Christian
had played in the French band Bad Brains (not the US hardcore thrashers) who had put out a
mini-lp on Closer at one time. Then Mark left to join Toys Went Berserk, who were a better
match for the sort of style he was looking to play. Finding a new drummer was a tall
order, since Mark was a good one and strong drumming was pretty important to the Happy
Hate Me Nots sound. But after a few weeks of auditions, in walks Mick Searson, who is
probably Mark's equal and better suited to the Hate Me Nots style.
Now it was time for a
more ambitious recording project, the mini-lp "Scrap". This time they went to
Trafalgar studios and produced themselves with Alan Thorne as engineer. The resulting
record is a tour de force...brilliant energetic power pop that's as powerful as any punk
band and with the sort of depth that makes it sound as fresh to me listening to it right
now as it did four years ago when I first heard it. Songs like "When I Die",
"Go Away", "Blue Afternoon" or "Nothing Short Of Paradise"
will last forever; they're played and sung with power and emotion that can't help but make
you feel involved. For my money the French release of this on Closer is the one to get
since it adds their next single, "Salt Sour and Brighton" plus
"Inside". These songs were recorded in the same session and logically fit with
the others, and they make the record close to a full lp in length. The record has a
production that's incredibly sharp and clear...it wouldn't work for some bands, but it's
just what's wanted here.
Also recorded in
these sessions is one of my favorite songs they've ever done, which sadly is only
available on a compilation that was given away to people attending a Waterfront showcase
night in Sydney on a night that I just happened to be on vacation there. This song is
called "Everyday", and to go with its dynamic tune it's got the sort of lyric
that makes Happy Hate Me Nots songs grab: "I had to show some courage/I had to show
conviction/I've wasted all my time/Everyday a little more/Everday a valve gets rusted
up".
In early 1988 the
band released their masterpiece, the lp "Out". This is the record that
Waterfront's Chris Dunn reckons is one of the two or three best the label has ever
released. From the opening crash intro to "Things Wearing Thin" through to the
very end, this is a record that fairly crackles with vitality. Produced by Rob Younger
with Alan Thorne again as engineer, it's packed with huge, ringing guitar bits and
contains some of the most mind boggling precision hitting drumwork I've ever heard. With
this record the band began to make some headway on an international scale; there was a US
release on the large independent Rough Trade that included a CD version. No European
release happened, but the record was a big success in Australia and things were looking up
for sure.
But between
"Out" and today there's been very little from the band; a couple singles of
tracks taken from the lp ("Don't Move Too Far" with a non lp cover of Bob
Marley's "Lively Up Yourself" as the flip and "Soul Rejection" with
another cover called "Resistance") but then nothing until this winter, when
suddenly there was another great single, "Something". So most of my conversation
with Paul had to do with what happened to "Out" and where the band had been
since then.
Asked about how he
felt "Out" was received, Paul replied: "Well, it was pretty good. It was
the highest selling independent album for 1988 in Australia, so I guess you can't ask for
much more than that, can you? It really sort of solidified us as a name. It got us on the
map in a big way.
NFH: I had the
impression that they did a really shitty job of promoting it.
Paul: Well,
that's pretty disappointing. Why bother putting the thing out if you're not going to put
it out properly. Well, another thing that happened was that the guy that worked at Rough
Trade that had a lot to do with that deal coming about...they had a big purge at that
company and he was one of the people that went, so now it's sort of bad luck because our
one and only contact is gone.
NFH: You're
not really a Rough Trade type of band anyway.
Paul: No? I
don't know much about Rough Trade America...is it similar to the stuff that's put out on
Rough Trade in England? Because I know the Smiths were on Rough Trade, weren't they?
NFH: Yeah; I
think Stiff Little Fingers were their first band, and they had the Raincoats and the Swell
Maps. I thought feedtime were a more logical choice for them.
Paul: Well, we
just thought it would be a good thing you know. If they were interested enough to pay
money and release it there, and we weren't getting offers from anybody else.
NFH: Well,
definitely if it's your only offer it's better than not having a deal at all. It's been a
long time since that came out and you haven't put out very much since then. What's been
going on?
Paul: I'll try
and keep this short and not too much bullshit. Basically after "Out" came we
thought...because it did so well here; we were getting noticed and some of the tracks were
getting played on mainstream radio and we thought great, and the next thing would be that
we'd get the chance to get off Waterfront and get into a major label. That's what we
wanted, you know, after years of being on an independent label. So we started sending out
tapes and doing all the sort of PR work that goes with all that, and we just never got
anywhere. That's basically what happened in a nutshell. And that went on for about 18
months. We were doing demos, and in the meantime we were losing so much ground, because
we'd put out that record and we had a pretty good live reputation as well. In a poll thing
we got voted the best live band in Sydney, and there was all that sort of stuff happening.
It was great. But since then we've waited so long in the interim and spent all this time
chasing up something. And nothing came to fruition. It's just ridiculous. It's a bit of a
sour grapes sort of story. I mean, it is; we were pretty pissed off about it. It sort of
came to the point where, well, we were doing gigs, but we weren't playing as much as when
"Out" came out, and crowds were dropping off. But we were still rehearsing and
writing songs, and it got to a point where we said "well, are we going to stop, or
are we going to keep on doing it?" So we went to Waterfront, and they knew the sort
of situation we were in. And they said, well come back, and they've got that distribution
thing with Festival. So we signed with Waterfront and we've been trying to get the
distribution deal with Festival, and that's going to happen for us now. To do that, we
basically had to get a couple of singles out and start playing around a bit more again to
get our name up and get the profile up again...get our name in good stead once again.
We've just put the
last single out, I don't know if you've heard that, "Something"? We recorded
five tracks. Two of them are going to be single A sides, and apart from those five tracks
we did some acoustic stuff in another studio to put on the B sides. Those two singles will
be on Waterfront just with Waterfront distribution and then the whole five tracks will
come out as a mini album through Festival. We've done a video for it and all that sort of
stuff. And the first single has come out and has done what we've wanted it to do. We just
pressed up a thousand copies of it and they're gone. The next single is about to come out
in about six weeks time. And when that comes out we'll just leave here for a couple
weeks...Melbourne, Brisbane and all that sort of stuff. Tour around as much as we can for
it and then stop.
With "Out"
we just played and played and played and never stopped playing, and we just realized, what
a ridiculous thing to do. I mean, we did it because we loved playing, but you can't just
hang around all the time. It's not really an event, it doesn't become an exclusive sort of
thing. And that's how I want to try and keep it. I don't want to just be there all the
time. I think we've paid our dues in this town.
NFH: Yeah, I'd
say. With Positive Hatred isn't that back to like 1984 or something?
Paul: Earlier
than that; it's 82 or 83. That's a long time to be hanging around and not get much out of
it. I mean I really started to think that maybe I should be doing something else. I mean,
I know that's where my talent lies, but geeze, you know.
NFH: It's the
same story for one good band after another.
Paul: Well, I
know nothing's going to come easy for us. I mean, how can I say it? I don't want to sound
big headed or anything like that, but bands like the Kinks, you know, they were a great
band and stuff, but I always got the feeling that they were never a really hugely
successful band in some way. Or Big Star maybe? I'm not trying to say we're as good as Big
Star or whatever, I'm just trying to draw a comparison. But Big Star is a band that put
out three great albums, and where are they? One guy's dead or whatever, and the other guy,
I don't know what Alex Chilton's doing, you know.
I know it's not easy.
My brother-in-law comes and sees us play sometimes and he's much older than I am, and I
sort of trust his judgment in music. So he comes and sees us, and I was getting despondent
at this stage, and he says, "Look, you shouldn't really worry because I can tell from
being an outsider to come to the shows that the people are there more so to hear the
music. They're not really there because this band's hip or there's a certain style going
and everybody’s into that style. People come and see your band and they like it for
what it is. The people that come and see you aren't really in a rut. A stylish hip band is
not going to really last any longer than the thing is going to last, and after that it's
only got a limited lifespan. But if you guys keep it up it could be more rewarding."
NFH: Yeah,
there's something to be said for in 5 or 10 years that even if you don't make it and make
a lot of money, to just be able to sit back and say I did these three albums, and these
are three great albums, and nobody can take that away from you.
Paul: Yeah; I
mean I'd like to get something out of it, too, you know. And I have got things out of it;
I shouldn't say I haven't gotten anything out of it. There's been a lot of enjoyment. And
the fact that we're still here says a lot you know. There's been times when we've had
money and there's been times when we haven't had money...it's just the fortunes of it. I'm
sure every band goes through that anyway. We've been successful enough, but this time
around, with the thing with Festival, it's sort of comfortable in a way where we're signed
to a contract where we're going to do three albums so the next three years are sort of
laid out there. It's not like this vague thing like the last 18 months. That was just
about a fucking nightmare, that was. So we're in a position where we're going to be able
to record now and a lot of people are going to get the chance to either buy the record or
hear it.
One good thing we've
got here is a national radio station, Triple J. And they do play "Something"
heaps; it got a real lot of airplay. That's good, and the next single, we'll see how they
approach it. I think the mini album has got a couple of stronger songs on it that they
might get into playing. I hope they do.
NFH: Chris was
saying that you might do a tour of the US and Europe when you get the album out?
Paul: I don't
know about the United States at all, but I'm pretty sure we're going to go to Europe in
September, probably. That's been such a long time coming. And that's another thing we want
to do. Some of the bands that we started out with, and even some of the bands that started
out after us, they're doing things like that now. I'm not saying it's like the be all and
end all to go overseas and play, but it's something you aspire to to get overseas and
play. It's a great thing.
NFH: It's kind
of a big step when you do that, because that's the point where you've gotta say "OK,
finally the music is going to be the main thing in my life, and my job is going to have to
go away".
Paul: Well
that's how I approach it at the moment. The job's just secondary. I mean, I'm a van driver
in the city, and that's nothing to hang onto. I could quite easily walk away from that and
it wouldn't hurt me at all. It would hurt my wallet, but that's about all.
The next single, I'm
really proud of it, the one that's going to be the A side of the next single. I find it a
bit strange that it's a single, because when I think in terms of a
single..."Something" was a great A side, but this one's a bit unsettling. It's a
bit strange, it's sort of like ideas from musical sounds came into it. I like the Beach
Boys a lot, and I think that Brian Wilson just must have heard things in his head all the
time. Just an idea like that is sort of apparent on this record. There's stranger things
on it, like guitars through a Leslie organ. I don't know if you know what a Leslie speaker
is, but it's like the guitar sound on the solo for "Let It Be" by the Beatles,
sort of a strange, chorus-ey effect that's like the guitar played through this speaker
that spins around. When you play keyboards through these speakers the speakers spin
around; they go faster or slower. It's a classic instrument. Like Small Faces had a big
Hammond Organ through a Leslie speaker sound.
Anyway, to get back
to it, we're into doing things like that. The next single is not a straightforward sort of
rocking thing like "Something" is. It's a little bit different. That's why I'm
really proud of it. And lyric wise too, it's got some really good lyrics on it. They're
sort of brief and they just say it. To the point. It's not cryptic or anything like that.
NFH: I know
what you mean about the distinction between a song that's a great song but not necessarily
a single.
Paul: I don't
know, I wouldn't pride myself on being able to pick singles. I've got no idea. Like the
Yardbirds put out some weird singles, I think. I mean, they're great records, but things
like "Shapes Of Things", that's quite strange, if you just take it out of its
nostalgia thing. You listen to old records now and you think it's great because of that
sound from so long ago, but if you just take it and listen to it you'd think "gee,
this is crazy, how would people ever think of that as a great single?". I find that a
bit weird sometimes.
NFH: I think
of songs that are great singles as being songs where you just have to hear it once and you
go "yeah, I like that", whereas there are a lot of songs where you hear them and
it takes a while. Like Died Pretty's "Mirror Blues", when I first heard that I
hated it, and then after I played it more I got to love it.
Paul: Actually,
that's one of the only songs that I really, really like of that band. I think
"Stoneage Cinderella" is my favorite record of theirs, I guess. And
"Everybody Moves" is a great song.
NFH: Something
I really like about the Happy Hate Me Nots is the hard edge that's also super melodic.
People think about bands like All as being a melodic punk band, but they're not really
close to that.
Paul: I saw
All here, but unfortunately the gig was in a hole and it was just horrible sound. But I
went up front and those guys were so energetic that I felt tired watching them. They've
got a great drummer, just amazing. But that's the thing, though, they get a bit too caught
up in these fiddly changes. It's like Frank Zappa stuff, so much going on that you just
get lost. And then the next song they might play is like "Clean Sheets". What a
great track. I thought they were pretty melodic, but I just couldn't hear it. There was
too much going on to let some natural sort of melody come out of it. I really like them
'cos they were energetic though; a great live band. I haven't got any of their albums,
though. But I've got a couple of Descendants albums. Like "Pep Talk", that's a
great one.
NFH: So you've
finished all the stuff for the mini album?
Paul: Yeah,
that's done. We did it with Rob and Alan Thorne at Trafalgar Studios. On this thing, and
you might be able to tell from "Something", the sound's a little bit clearer, I
guess. We really talked a bit about the drums 'cos I was really keen on getting a more
live drum sound, 'cos Mick's a pretty good drummer; he's pretty quick and he's accurate as
well and he tries things all the time so that no take is exactly the same. I think with
that sort of drummer you can't get this sort of separated, huge sort of sound like
"Something" is trying to go for. That's one thing we tried to get at on these
tracks. I think we sort of got it, you know. I'm pretty pleased with it.
NFH: What do
Rob and Alan really add in the studio when you're working with them as opposed to somebody
else?
Paul: Well,
with Rob and Alan at Trafalgar, you'll come out with something pretty good. I'm not saying
it doesn't matter who you are; you've got to be able to play pretty well. I think Rob sort
of lets the band, if they've got their stuff together, just lets them go in playing and
just keeps an eye on what's going on. Alan knows that studio so well, he'll pull a great
sound for you. People ask me this all the time and I never know quite how to answer it,
mainly because I think about it quite a lot myself and I don't actually do it. With Rob,
as long as the stuff's got a character, he sort of draws it out of each person's
performance. He was really hard on me on the singing on that record. I was really tired
when I got to do the lyrics. It was at the end of a 12 hour session, and then the last
three hours I had to start singing. We were cut for time. But working with Rob and Alan is
pretty good for us because we know them and they know what the band's about, so it's a
pretty good atmosphere to work in. I really enjoy working with them.
I don't know what's
going to happen next time around. We haven't really got to talk about what we're going to
do for the album. I've got lots of ideas. The sort of records I've been listening too
lately (general laughter due to an earlier discussion we'd been having about Paul
listening to Aerosmith), well, Aerosmith. People might laugh, but that "Pump"
record is a good record. Actually Christian was the one, our bass player. He was the one
that got me into it. We were always laughing about heavy metal and stuff, and Christian
said, you think that's funny, well listen to this, and it was good, I like it. I like the
Replacements, and I like Bob Mould. I really like his latest stuff.
At this point the
batteries on my recorder went belly up so the conversation ends. But the heart of the
matter is that after a long period in which there was no apparent news from the Happy Hate
Me Nots camp for us overseas listeners, the silence is broken and now with a deal with
Festival under their belts the band will be starting to get records out fairly regularly
in the near future. Whether these records will get licensed for US or European releases
remains to be seen, but at least it will be possible to get them as imports, and music as
vital as the Happy Hate Me Nots is worth doing a little legwork for.
