Dan Luscombe needed little convincing when Gareth Liddiard tossed up the idea of reforming The Drones for the band's first national tour in a decade.
Two sold-out shows in Melbourne's Croxton Park Hotel last year whetted the appetite for the critically acclaimed rock band.
"It gave us a pretty firm reminder that we really enjoy each other's company still and enjoy playing the music," Luscombe says from Nelson in New Zealand, where he's touring in Marlon Williams' band.
"It doesn't feel too strange because we're all still friends, you know? We all see each other socially."
Only last week Luscombe returned from a holiday in Japan with Liddiard.
In the 10 years since The Drones went on hiatus following their sixth album Feelin' Kinda Free, Liddiard (vocals, guitar) and his partner Fiona Kitschin (bass) have continued to push sonic boundaries across four albums with their psych-rock band Tropical F--k Storm (TFS).
Luscombe, meanwhile, has become a renowned producer, overseeing albums like Amyl & The Sniffers' Comfort To Me and Bad//Dreems' Hoo Ha! and Ultra Dundee.
But despite TFS' success, which included a sold-out gig at Hamilton Station Hotel last November, fans have been clamouring for The Drones to return.
The Drones built a cultish fan base through their acclaimed records Wait Long by the River and the Bodies of Your Enemies Will Float By (2005), Gala Mill (2006), and Havilah (2008), with the former winning the inaugural Australian Music Prize.
Their track Shark Fin Blues is also widely considered an Australian classic.
The music was visceral and frightening, blending punk, blues and folk. Liddiard's unhinged vocal delivery and poetic lyrics about violent Australian history, political tensions and emotional turmoil capped off the sonic blast.
Luscombe, a highly regarded guitarist in his own right with The Blackeyed Susans and Dan Kelly & The Alpha Band, was invited to become a full-time Drones member to replace Rui Pereira for the album Havilah.
He'd previously played slide guitar on Gala Mill.
"I met Gaz [Liddiard] actually for the first time over in Perth when he was a lighting guy," he says.
"When he moved to Melbourne, I was pretty quick to go and see The Drones play shows, because I knew they'd be great.
"We were mates, and then I think it was around the time I was asked to join the band; Gaz and Fi [Kitschin] and I were living together in a house in Northcote together.
"They just simply had to go and knock on my door to get a replacement guitar player."
Havilah tracks I Am A Supercargo and Luck In Odd Numbers are among his favourite Drones songs, which he hopes to play on the reunion tour, but he says his fondest album is the experimental Feelin' Kinda Free.
"All the other records we would have set up the recording space, rehearse, play shows, whatever, and pretty much just play live and capture that, and that would be the record," he says.
Both Gaz and I spend a lot of time in the studio, so we'd be silly not to spend some time together in there.
"For that last one we did, we had a lot of time. We really used the studio and had a lot of fun with that.
"It's a very different-sounding record as a result and set the template a bit more for what Gaz and Fi went on to do with TFS."
In news that will further excite Drones fans, Luscombe expects the reunion tour will lead to a second phase of the band and new material.
"Well, it'd be pretty silly not to, I think," he says on recording new material. "Both Gaz and I spend a lot of time in the studio, so we'd be silly not to spend some time together in there."
Luscombe's more immediate focus will be regaining the stage fitness required to produce the intensity expected of a Drones show.
"I'm not in terrible shape, but playing those shows last year reminded me just how physically visceral the whole thing is," he says.
"Gaz is a very hard person to not react with when you're playing on stage with him. He's always throwing everything into his performances, and I found I moved around a lot more with The Drones than any other band. Just throwing the arm into the instrument repeatedly sucks a large amount of energy out of you.
"For that reason, I'm going to the gym in preparation. I'm doubling my gym load in preparation for this tour because it is a very physical thing."
