What has Tim Freedman of The Whitlams been up to Lately? OR From Indie Icons to Orchestral Maneuvers to A Little Bit Country!!
Jun 14, 2024Season 4Episode 13
That Radio Chick - Cheryl Lee
Join Cheryl Lee - That Radio Chick on STILL ROCKIN' IT for news, reviews, music and interviews with some of our favourite Australian musicians.
What happens when a band named after a former Prime Minister becomes a cornerstone of Australian indie music? Join us as we chat with Tim Freedman from the Whitlams about the band's storied journey from its quirky beginnings to its influential Symphony Orchestra Tours. Tim delves into his rich musical heritage, sharing how his broadcaster father and a family steeped in music inspired him to follow his passion over a potential legal career. We also explore Tim's personal musical tastes, which range from American folk to jazz, and get a sneak peek into his future orchestral ambitions.
Our conversation takes a fascinating turn as we discuss the making of the Whitlams Black Stump's latest album, "Kookaburra," and its country flair. Inspired by rural radio and solo tours, Tim teamed up with producer Matt Fell to craft an album that captures the essence of the Australian outback in a Sydney studio. We touch on the balancing act of recording and touring, and how the band's live performances are evolving, including their forays into country music festivals.
Reflecting on past triumphs and looking ahead to future festival appearances, Tim also shares the support they've received from Triple J over the years.
What has Tim Freedman been up to lately? Let's find out!!
Get out when you can, support local music and I'll see you down the front!!
Join Cheryl Lee - That Radio Chick on STILL ROCKIN' IT for news, reviews, music and interviews with some of our favourite Australian musicians.
What happens when a band named after a former Prime Minister becomes a cornerstone of Australian indie music? Join us as we chat with Tim Freedman from the Whitlams about the band's storied journey from its quirky beginnings to its influential Symphony Orchestra Tours. Tim delves into his rich musical heritage, sharing how his broadcaster father and a family steeped in music inspired him to follow his passion over a potential legal career. We also explore Tim's personal musical tastes, which range from American folk to jazz, and get a sneak peek into his future orchestral ambitions.
Our conversation takes a fascinating turn as we discuss the making of the Whitlams Black Stump's latest album, "Kookaburra," and its country flair. Inspired by rural radio and solo tours, Tim teamed up with producer Matt Fell to craft an album that captures the essence of the Australian outback in a Sydney studio. We touch on the balancing act of recording and touring, and how the band's live performances are evolving, including their forays into country music festivals.
Reflecting on past triumphs and looking ahead to future festival appearances, Tim also shares the support they've received from Triple J over the years.
What has Tim Freedman been up to lately? Let's find out!!
Get out when you can, support local music and I'll see you down the front!!
Visit: ThatRadioChick.com.au
Cheryl Lee:
That Radio Chick Cheryl Lee here. Welcome to the Still Rockin" it podcast where we'll have music news, reviews and interviews with some of our favourite Australian musicians and artists. We caught up with lead singer of the Whitlands in between a very extensive tour promoting his new album, kookaburra, with the Whitlands's in between a very extensive tour promoting his new album, kookaburra, with the Whitlam's Black Stump. We caught up with him in the Zoom room and he wasn't very well, so thank you, jim, for having a quick chat with us even when you were feeling poorly. The Whitlam's Australian indie rock band formed in 1992 with Tim in the original line-up on keys and lead vocals. To catch up on podcasts from other favourite artists, simply go to thatradiochickcomau. I'd like to welcome into the Zoom room today Tim Friedman from the Whitlands, formed in 1992. Four studio albums in the top 20 ARIA albums charts Torch the Moon number one. Welcome, Tim.
Tim Freedman:
Thank you, Cheryl.
Cheryl Lee:
The Whitlams named after former Prime Minister Gough Whitlam. Where did that decision come from?
Tim Freedman:
It was just a very humorous decision back in 1991 to be upstarts and name yourself after a very famous and influential man when we were just three scrappy musicians at the local pub so people used to see the name written on the chalkboards and get a laugh and it worked very well for us because it's a big name and kind of earthy Australian name and that's sort of what the band, that's the band's aesthetic as it developed with the double bass and the acoustic instruments at the start.
Cheryl Lee:
So you got onto Whitlam's coattails.
Tim Freedman:
in other words, yes, I must say we did. They sent some people over to make sure we were being respectful, and so we formed quite a friendly relationship with the family over the years.
Cheryl Lee:
Really? Awesome. There's been a little bit of a reformation in 2022 with a country offshoot called the Whitlam's Black Stump. There's a new album out and some show dates coming up, which we'll talk about in a little minute, but if you don't mind, I just want to talk a little bit about Tim Freedman, for instance. When did you realise that music was your destiny, Tim? Was it in your DNA? Is your family musical? How did all that start?
Tim Freedman:
for you. Oh gee, my dad was a broadcastercaster so he used to do what you do. He did it for the ABC. He had a big music show that went out nationally, so there were always new records arriving on the front doorstep because the record companies would send him their albums in the hope that he'd play them. And my mum's grandfather owned music stores in Western Australia after he emigrated to Australia from Wales. So there is music in my DNA and so I was always had a piano teacher from the age of five, and it was always just my hobby. And I got really serious about it when I was about 23, when I sort of was finding law school boring and I thought I'd follow my dreams.
Cheryl Lee:
And the rest is history.
Tim Freedman:
Thank, you it is, so I've never regretted it. Put it that way.
Cheryl Lee:
So you never really had a plan B to fall back on.
Tim Freedman:
No, a bit of a lifer.
Cheryl Lee:
Clearly yeah, your lifetime passion could have always gone back to law, I suppose, but being a rock star is a lot more fun.
Tim Freedman:
Well, it's nice to be your own boss let's put it that way.
Cheryl Lee:
There's a massive history of the band, but one thing that caught my eye was when you guys did the 2017 Symphony Orchestra Tour. That would have been an amazing experience. You did it in each capital city with a 50-piece symphony orchestra behind you.
Tim Freedman:
That was a project that developed over quite a few years. We we first did a big orchestral show with West Australian Symphony in 2004, and then we did it with all the state orchestras in 2009. So we've generally done it every six or seven years and because the show's developed over 20 years, lots of different composers have written arrangements people from the esteemed Peter Scullthorpe to some younger cats. It's a good show. I've actually got a secret ambition to do it again in the next year or two, because it's a bit of a blast and I'm always trying to give the audience something different every few years.
Cheryl Lee:
Excellent, you heard that first here. Folks, you got the scoop. Well, you guys must have been one of the very first to do that. Like recently I've seen Russell Morris and the Angels, but you were trendsetters, I reckon.
Tim Freedman:
We were actually the first ones to do it nationally. I think you know Elton John had done something similar, but we were the first sort of Australian indie band to step up and be that ambitious.
Cheryl Lee:
It certainly does add another dimension when a band plays with the symphony orchestra From Truth, Beauty and a Picture of you from 2008. The Whitlams Keep the Light On live with the Sydney Symphony Orchestra. And back to speak some more to Tim in a sec.
Cheryl Lee:
Can I ask you when you get a bit of time to yourself, Tim, and you can have the opportunity what do you like to listen to?
Tim Freedman:
Well, these days we're so lucky as consumers you can just go down little byways and highways through your algorithm. And I'm tending to listen to sort of American folk and Americana stuff. That's helping educate me with this new project, the Whitlams Black Stump, and I like the Cinder Williams and I like Iron and Wine, so generally sort of yeah, sort of folky stuff. I also listen to a bit of jazz. I'm not against listening to a bit of Debussy late at night. You know, like a lot of musicians I have pretty broad tastes.
Cheryl Lee:
Very nice. Do you have a non-negotiable on your rider when you're on tours? Is there something that you just have to have in that green room?
Tim Freedman:
We've actually been getting far more moderate as our career has moved on. So it's really just, you know, a bottle of red and 12 beers and some water. We don't like to run around and throw our weight around and make the poor theatre owners of Gunnedah run around looking for brown smarties or anything.
Cheryl Lee:
You're pretty easily pleased then.
Tim Freedman:
Well, yeah, we just we like to keep it simple on the road these days.
Cheryl Lee:
Let's get to it then. Kookaburra, the new album. It is a little bit country. We all do like a little bit of country music. How did all of that come about? This sort of the change, I guess in genre.
Tim Freedman:
I started listening to country radio when I was touring solo because I was told they were playing the Whitlams and so the idea just festered in my mind and I was playing country towns a lot, just solo in between the lockdowns in 20 and 21. And I happen to know Matt Fell who's produced lots of golden guitars, so he put a band together for me in the studio and we all got on and the same lineup still just finished our third national tour.
Cheryl Lee:
And just in the middle of another one.
Tim Freedman:
Yeah, we've sort of finished the five-piece band shows, but Ollie and I we play the in the duo configuration a lot in smaller towns. We're doing Echuca, for example, which is probably the closest we get to you, I'm afraid but hopefully we can start and do a regional South Australia sometime in the future.
Cheryl Lee:
I was going to ask you about the Adelaide date because from later this month you're going everywhere, man, all over New South Wales, all over Queensland, Victoria, fingers crossed. We'll sit with weighted breath awaiting an Adelaide or South Australian date. That'll be awesome.
Tim Freedman:
It might have to be next year, I'm afraid, because we played Noarlunga and the Gov just about a month ago.
Cheryl Lee:
So it won't happen again overnight, but it will happen Exactly. The 1988 ARIA Awards winning song of the year got a makeover.
Tim Freedman:
Indeed, it's a bit of a campfire classic now, with a lovely banjo motif. It was a ballad, but it's got even more space now.
Cheryl Lee:
Here it is now No Aphrodisiac. The important song that originally came out in 1997 and turned the band into a going concern overnight. As I said, Aria song of the year, Number one in Triple J's Hottest 100 in 1998. Here it is in 2023. It gets the Whitlams Black Stump treatment. Back to talk to Tim again soon.
Cheryl Lee:
How did you record the album? Because these days it's not like you all have to get into the studio and play the instruments at the same time anymore. What was the process that you went through to record Kookaburra?
Tim Freedman:
We actually do it that way. We like to do it the old-fashioned way, old school All six of us were in a big studio in Sydney and we get the rhythm tracks down for about 11 songs and then I'll chip away at some top levels or some exotic sounds with the producer one-on-one. But in the first instance we like to sort of develop the songs as a group chat and discuss and take about three hours a song, which is quite efficient. But they're all pretty. You know experienced session players, they know what they're doing. Once we've decided on the feel, it's not a long process, although then it takes me two years to chip away at it and finish the lyrics and write the harmonies and all that stuff. I do get very picky in the second half of the process.
Cheryl Lee:
It may change with each album, I'm not sure, but with regards to Kookaburra, what comes first? Do you play the songs live and see what goes over well and then plan the album, or you plan the album and then you play it to a live audience?
Tim Freedman:
K ookaburra was the latter. We sort of recorded the album and then we developed the live show around the album. But the next album which I'm starting to write now and which will have more original songs, I'm not sure how that will go. I suspect it'd be nice to be able to throw a few songs in into the live show, but I'm not entirely sure how it's going to work with the recording schedule and the touring schedule.
Cheryl Lee:
There's no sort of real hard and fast plan that you follow each time. Each one is sort of a little bit organic.
Tim Freedman:
Indeed.
Cheryl Lee:
Also in 1998, that song that we were talking about. That's got its makeover. Congratulations, best independent release for that album Eternal Nightcap and best group that year as well. Big year, yeah, congratulations. And I've counted them. Correct me if I'm wrong 11 songs featured in Triple J's Top 100.
Tim Freedman:
Ah yeah, they were always very kind to us in the 90s, sort of were responsible for our career in a lot of ways, because us getting a lot of airplay Triple J corresponded with them going national, so it allowed us to get out of New South Wales.
Cheryl Lee:
I did have one more question. You think it's just gone out of my brain. Oh, you know what? I rush home in my lunch hour, do the interview and then rush back to work, so that's why I sometimes seem slightly frazzled. Oh, that's right, I reckon, and it would be at least 10 years ago. The last time I saw you, I think, was at a Day on the Green. Would we see you guys at any more of those?
Tim Freedman:
sorts of festivals as the Whitlams Black Stump. We are starting to play some festivals. We're playing the Gimpy Music Festival in August, we're playing Savannah in the Round in October, and then it's really just about getting the right offers. One of the reasons I'm doing the Whitlams Black Stump is to play to new audiences and that's worked so far because, you know, the Whitlams four piece would never have played the Gimpy Muster. So it's working and, yeah, we get the right offers, we'll be there in a heartbeat.
Cheryl Lee:
I would imagine we'll be seeing you at Tamworth.
Tim Freedman:
We've done Tamworth twice. We're giving it a miss this year, so the year after yeah.
Cheryl Lee:
Well, I know that you're a very, very busy man and I'm sure my 10 minutes is up. Thank you for spending a little bit of time with us in the Zoom Room today. I know you're not feeling 100%, so I appreciate you having the chat with us. All the best for the album, all the best for the tour. If you can get a South Australian Day, I shall see you down the front.
Tim Freedman:
Thank you, Cheryl Bye, for now. Thank you, ta-da, Quick edit to this podcast, he's see a very secretive man, good boy, he didn't tell - no sooner will - Love this City 25 years - they will play the entire album. Starts in October, Melbourne Sydney Hobart s aturday 7 December at The Gov in Adelaide.
Cheryl Lee:
So one of the songs that I would have heard the Whit play at a Day on the Green I know because it's from the A Day on the Green Celebrating 10 Years album Blow Up the Pokies. Thank you so much for joining me on the Still Rockin' it podcast. Hope to catch you again next time. Get out when you can support Aussie music and I'll see you down the front.
