Chris, Scott and Andy from The Living End came in the studio to take us through their 6th album.
It's called
The Ending Is Just The Beginning Repeating - Long title huh. It was also the first single from the album AND is even the last track on the album, you don't really see that much these days.
Anyway, if you're wondering what new Living End sounds like, well, it sounds just like any other Living End album, well, maybe this one is a little bit darker but there's no way these songs won't fit in to the set like a glove.
Check out the video of Chris talking about mixing the new stuff with the CLASSIC Living End stuff.
Another thing that always surprises me is when songs are actually really quite deep.
One of the tracks that is uber deep is called 'Resist' and I knew it was gonna mean something because of this quote that Chris wrote in his track-by-tack synopsis (see below)
“Wherever our fate lies, it couldn’t be worse than this” - I asked him about what this meant and it's to do with the current situation in Australia with the detainees. Watch Chris explain the song here.
Here's when you can hear the boys taking us on the journey through
The Ending Is Just The Beginning Repeating
Friday 22/07: 3PM/9PM
Saturday 23/07: 11AM/7PM
Sunday 24/07: 12PM, 11PM
Monday 25/07: 11AM, 7PM
Tuesday 26/07: 3PM, 9PM
Wednesday 27/07: 12PM/11PM
Thursday 28/07: 9AM, 6PM
(AWST - for y'all in Perth)
Friday 22/07: 1pM/7PM
Saturday 23/07: 9AM/5PM
Sunday 24/07: 10AM, 9PM
Monday 25/07: 9AM, 5PM
Tuesday 26/07: 1PM, 7PM
Wednesday 27/07: 10AM/9PM
Thursday 28/07: 7AM, 4PM
Chris Cheney has also given us a track-by-track synopsis of the album. Pretty interesting stuff to read while listening to the songs.
IN THE MORNING
This is the beginning of the album’s journey, where an opportunity to get out presents itself but it’s quickly evident that it’s nothing more than a superficial idea as the harsh reality sets in.
You can remove yourself from a situation physically; escaping from it mentally is the hard part.
No matter how hard you try and leave something/someone behind there is a part of it you carry forever, particularly things from our childhood.
A suburban snapshot of the rot that lies beneath the glossy domestic façade.
“We’re never gonna leave this suburban town”
HEATWAVE
There’s two main points of reference within this song.
Some of my earliest memories are of feeling the intense heat of the Australian sun and the ground being too hot to walk on.
I wanted to paint some imagery of what its like to live in a typically sweltering Australian summer.
The other half of the lyric is inspired by the horrific events that occurred on Black Saturday.
I’d been fooling around with the main guitar part for the song for a couple of years but I needed to find the right topic to match the pace of the riff!
When recording the song we weren’t satisfied we had the take until we had expended every last drop of energy.
MACHINE GUN
This is our reggae/metal/gangster song.
We threw Bob Marley, INXS and Rage Against the Machine into a blender for this one.
The cool thing about this tune is that initially the song felt a bit foreign stylistically for us to play but the riff was so stupidly massive sounding that it had to be on the record.
When writing this record it was important that we didn’t censor our playing, we kept creative by throwing as many ideas at the wall as we could to see what stuck.
It’s about a really ruthless character who gets what they want through brute force and aggression but underneath the exterior lies a very weak, insecure person whose downfall is imminent.
FOR ANOTHER DAY
This song came together from a jam and was immediately a contender for the album.
I had the chorus melody but it wasn’t sitting right so we slowed it down and Scott gave it the Phil Spector-ish beat. After this it came together real quick.
It’s the most simple song TLE has ever had and the focus when recording it was to make sure it built steadily from the sparse intro to the epic last note.
“Every moment here, is a moment to be seized”, is the key line of this song. Nothing is as important as right now.
We all have a tendency to be more concerned with what has happened or what might happen instead of what IS happening.
SONG FOR THE LONELY
Musically the main aim for this was to make it as disco as possible but rock at the same time, and it still had to sound like TLE.
Easier said than done but it turned out great and it has a feel to it that we’ve not really done before.
It was important for this song to have a very tribal rythmic power to it to support the subject matter.
Mankind has a tendency to make the same mistakes over and over again and historically in times of crisis and unrest people rally together.
There is a belief that in times of war and conflict, for some people/governing bodies it becomes more about the glory of winning the war than the actual cause itself.
“We always knew that we would win the war, but we never knew what we were fighting for”.
RIDE THE WAVE BOY
The idea for this song really took shape after a collision with an early 1980’s chorus pedal.
We built this song up to be as epic and grand sounding as possible without sounding bloated.
The story concerns a young man searching for a way out.
Desperate to escape the monotony of everyday life anyway possible even if it leads down a path of self-destruction.
Make a decision...sink or swim.
RESIST
“Wherever our fate lies, it couldn’t be worse than this”
How desperate must someone be for freedom that they are willing to die for it?
I’m fortunate enough to have been born here in the so-called lucky country and will hopefully never have to face such adversity but I strongly empathise with the plight of the detainees.
This was one of those rare moments where the music basically just wrote itself, it had a sound and more importantly, a mood that really sat alongside the lyrical content.
AWAY FROM THE CITY
The approach with this song is that it had to sound violent!
The verses had to hit like a sledgehammer.
The saying “It’s a jungle out there” has never felt so accurate in describing the escalating violence that we see far too often after hours in our city.
Its about stepping out the front door on a Friday night for a few quiet drinks but armed with the knowledge that anything could happen.
UNITED
Written in New York on a laptop computer.
Started out as a disco tune and thankfully evolved into more of a heavy groove. One of the easiest songs to write on the record.
Lyrically its about not shifting your responsibilities and blame onto other people.
UNIVERSE
It’s about pushing yourself beyond the daily routine and thinking outside the square, if we take the easy road nothing is achieved.
Taking risks is the only way forward and self-belief is integral.
We started jamming on the verse pattern of this while in Europe on tour in 2009 and finished it January 2010.
THE ENDING IS JUST THE BEGINNING REPEATING
Life cycle. Inevitable.
This song is about-facing the realisation that we all have a beginning and an end and how we choose to spend our time in between is what defines us.
Office worker, politician, soldier, refugee etc, we’re all connected.
For me the concept of change is not always welcome but I appreciate that its necessary and without it life would not be.
This song contains the key line of the record for me, “We are the start of something much better, we’re the end of what came before”.
Lyrics co-written with Craig Finn from the Hold Steady in Brooklyn NY, March 2010.