For Rob Hirst, the biggest difference between music today, compared with when he was drumming for Midnight Oil and touring the pub rock circuit in the 1980s, is “albums now are ads for gigs, not a source of cash”. But there has also been “an explosion of bands and a contraction of gigs”, he says.
In a new project, Hirst has combined forces with journalist, now lyricist and singer-songwriter Sean Sennett. The pair met at a songwriters workshop and committed to an album of crashed cars, crushed hearts, garages, pubs, melodic guitar and incendiary drumming.
Named Crashing The Same Car Twice, it was recorded over the course of a long, hot summer in Brisbane; an album of gritty rock and roll songs so taut, so tight they threaten to snap in your earphones.
Of their latest single Beautiful Girl (She Sleeps On Her Breath), Hirst says he loves “the crunch of the verses and lift of the choruses: the idea of breath as a bed”. Adds Sennett, “likewise, I enjoy the juxtaposition of the ‘garage rock’ verses and the lilting effect of Rob’s chorus”.
A laconic Hirst says of shooting the video, premiering on Guardian Australia, “The band played the song once. Then we went to the pub.”
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Crashing The Same Car Twice is out through Sony Music
