A star among Nick Cave’s formidably bearded retinue, Conway Savage first joined the Bad Seeds on organ and piano duties for the Good Son tour of 1990, going on to contribute the signature horror-organs of Stagger Lee and even taking vocals on noted B-side ‘The Willow Garden’. Savage has also knocked out six solo releases in his native Australia over the years, and takes his piano on the road this August with an Irish tour. In low ominous tones living up to his name (and sounding like he’s slowly melting into a sofa), Savage considers life as a ‘Weird Old Uncle’ of rock.
Do you find people come to your music mainly through your work with the Bad Seeds?
I’d say I have an open door policy.
What’s it like going from playing in a band to going it alone? Do you prefer the control afforded by solo work to the collaborative process?
I’m lucky enough to have the best of both worlds, between playing in the Bad Seeds with Nick and… god knows how many other musicians, and then getting to go away from that, having my own solo career as a singer songwriter too.
Is it hard to get your voice heard in such a big band?
Well, that might just be a good thing, from listening to some of my backing vocals. We all get along fine on the festival circuit. We listen to each other; each person has a quality to contribute.
Do you feel like you can rest assured that, having done so much for so long, the Bad Seeds have assured your place in history? How do you keep up being so prolific?
Onward and upwards. I hate to age myself, but its been twenty years playing with the Bad Seeds. It’s just what we do, at this stage. Its what we love to do and we’re not too bad at doing it. I don’t like too much downtime, I tend to start up again the minute the ringing starts to go out of my ears from the last festival. Nick is an inspiration himself, I mean he’s only just finished writing a novel. He doesn’t stop writing, even just sitting on the bus. He’s an incredibly inspirational person, and the work I’ve done with the Bad Seeds inspires me in itself, to create more solo work. I think we’ve done great things; I certainly wouldn’t want to sully our good name..
The Bad Seeds have come to be seen as a standard for ‘proper’ rock bands to measure up to…
I think it’s a way for us to be adopted into the musical establishment. Which shouldn’t really be the case; we never set out to please anyone, though I guess if they’re welcoming us in with open arms, then we’re not about to refuse it. But we never went looking to win over mass opinion… I’m getting used to being labelled as one of the ‘weird old uncles of rock’, but we never went looking for it.
Do you find writing lyrics and vocal parts for your solo work that you’re out of your comfort zone?
I can write songs, but I tend to write in music rather than words, which probably explains quite a few of the instrumentals in my work. From the very start, though, I decided I wanted to go the whole hog. I was a little bit shy about it, but I wanted to write lyrics too. I’m a fairly humble songwriter, I just find writing songs very satisfying, so I keep doing it. With the lyrics, I’d love to be a more verbose songwriter, but it doesn’t happen.
You’ve spoken previously about using Irish writers James Joyce for inspiration in your lyrics.
That was just this one day I was reading these poems, and a couple of the poems stuck in my head. I couldn’t lose them. So I decided to mix them in to my music. I should perhaps have applied for permission from their estate, though those songs didn’t sell particularly well… the estates haven’t got in touch. Not yet anyway.
I like how you called your label Beheaded Communications. Do have a taste for the gothic and theatrical?
Well, you have to have gimmick.
Your Myspace says you’re a Psychobilly.
(laughs) I really need to remove that! Don’t know who in the hell wrote that there. I just pity all the little psychobillies out there, going ‘what the fuck?’. Though some lazy journalists do use it, too, so it can be a test.
Do you live in fear of a psychobilly stampede, then?
I ain’t afraid of no psychobillies! Actually, when I first started out playing in Melbourne, we had a band called The Feral Dinosaurs, along with the Dirty Three (the instrumental band featuring Bad Seed Warren Ellis, along with Mick Turner and Jim White), we used to do versions of psychobilly songs.
Up until recently your music wasn’t distributed in Ireland. Why have you chosen to tour here?
I got this sweetheart deal with a friend of mine, a guy called Mark Corcoran. I’ve known him long enough, and he helped me get my stuff sold here as well as in Australia.
Live music, in particular live traditional music, plays a big part in Irish culture. What have Irish audience reactions been like?
Well we’ve not been laughed off the stage yet… It’s always been a good reaction. I’ve done quite a few tours; we’ve only ever received a warm reaction from Irish audiences. With each album I do, I get a little but further away from the piano player country music sound I started with. I mean, no-one wants to label themselves, but I’d describe my sound now as something like early Tom Waits. There could be a connection that Irish people identify with, people who emigrated to Australia years ago, though I think that’s whole other story..
Do you feel you have to fight for the organ’s rock and roll credentials?
No I don’t think so at all, the organ has huge rock and roll credentials!
It’s not particularly accessible as an instrument, how did you first learn to play it?
I started playing piano, I’d been laying for years at the hotel my parents owned. There was this piano there, and I just learned to play a few tunes, and after that I just kept on playing. If you can play the piano, you can play the organ. Maybe not especially well but you can still play. After a while it all just fell into line, I kept looking for more songs to learn to play, and here I am still doing it.
Any bands around right now with organs in them that you’re into?
What is this fascination you have with organ music? I suggest you listen to more black music, then get back to me.
Conway Savage plays Crawdaddy August 8th, 8.00pm
