Falling Joys' interviews are usually slightly riotous affairs, with tow or three band members often reaching different conclusions to the same question, and all wanting to get their point across, albeit politely. But it's one of those days, and Joys bassist Pat Hayes as solo interview subject decides a beer is probably a better idea than the coffee the record company publicist suggested, with Suzi Higgie remaining in her Blue Mountains home arguing over being given notice from a house sold from under her two days after moving in, newish drummer Jason Morrisby is similarly engaged moving house, while Stuart G. Robertson has put the guitar down and actually gone missing while enrolling at Uni ("some sort of political science thing, I think," muses the left-holding-the-tape-recorder Hayes).
If you think you've seen a little less of the Joys over the past few months, you'd be right, but the release of the new Universal Mind EP will have them back in your face soonish. "Oh, yeah, we did pull back a bit - there are only so many times you can do the tour before you get tired - oh, and the crowds get tired of you," Pat explains
If you follow this music thing at all, you'd notice the Joys just seem to hold at the same level, probably the biggest indie band in the land, but never quite becoming the concert league attraction. Okay, Pat, why? "No, we can't quite explain it, either. People probably expected us to, what's the word?, 'cross over' way back when. After Lock It, three years ago, maybe.
"And it's true, there have been a heap of bands who've come flying up, and rightly," he qualifies, "but we really have no idea of what we should be doing - if we did, we'd be doing it."
"All we can do is keep putting out material we're really happy with, and hopefully that will win us over eventually, but it really does seem a bloody long time between recordings, and maybe that's part of it - you just have to be in people's faces all the time just to keep the name there - it's a balancing act."
And did you lost the balance at some point, did the Joys nearly fail? "Oh, yeah," Pat agrees, "it got a bit ragged, a bit dodgey, just over a year ago. Within a few weeks we lost both our manager - he decided to move to Queensland - and Pete (Velzen, The Joys' longtime drummer, who decided he wanted to spend time with his new offspring, twins, yet) and we did sit around deciding whether it was worth it or not."
So now we're managing ourselves, and that makes us feel like we've got some more control. But finding the drummer was getting a bit extreme, we actually had gigs booked within a couple of weeks and still hadn't found anybody. So, we put one ad in The Drum (naturally, the only place to advertise), got about ten answers, a couple of whom were, um, just not very nice people, and then Jason just rang, and I had a long yak to him, and he was just really easy to get on with. He had the job as far as I was concerned - thank whoever we worked out he is an incredible drummer as well."
And is it a bit funny to still play with Pete on Sunday nights?, I ask, as Velzen remains part of the near-legendary Shout Brothers, Sando weekend fixtures for now six years. "Yeah, it can be funny - but I'm really beginning to notice the difference in styles... No disrespect to Pete, who is a great drummer, too, but Jason really does hit harder, and bores right in. Pete's can slip in these jazzy things every now and again, and that keeps it interesting." Kinda like comparing Ringo to Charlie Watts?, I offer, "Yeah, yeah, that's exactly the right description - can I use that?" Sure, go right ahead...
"Oh, and we got the extra bonus with him, too - he's a graphic designer - so we even get the control what the cover of the records looks like now." Universal Mind features Mr Morrisby's style, raiding Suzi's photo album for shots of her diplomat parents touring Europe in a rather new early 1950's Austin. "And he works fast and cheap," Pat further plugs.
Listening to Universal Mind, while being identifiably Joys noise, through Stu's guitar and Pat's fluid bass, and while it is certainly Suzi Higgie's voice, she seems to be finding new voices and effects within it.
Pat: "Hmm, that could be a few things. Sure, she's stretching herself and looking for something new, and that's find. If you want to get technical a lot of it is to do with the little home studio Suzi's built herself. She keeps buying extra bits for that, and that gives her new sounds and effects to play with. And some of it is just a reflection of the frustration she, and we, were feeling a few months back, with most of the songs coming from that time.
"Suzi is amazing though, and writes songs all the time. She brings them in, and we can say 'no, don't think that's for us', and she doesn't get moody, she'll just file it away, and will often find the right project she wants to use that song with - I think she's trying to get something happening with (Nick Cave keyboardist) Conway Savage - and that'd be interesting."
So, what comes next for the Joys? "Release in Japan it looks like, this little guy - Yoshi - came out, has his own label and is just really amazed by our bands. He saw about two dozen in about eight days while he was here. And kept the enthusiasm. Looks like he'll release us and a couple of others. Then a tour. If we could get to the level of acceptance we have here in another market, we would be on a whole other plane. Unlike so many bands who have to break up 'coz they're in so much debt, we don't owe much, if anything, but just getting into one big market would make it even more comfortable.
"And then back, hopefully to record another album. Paul McKercher produced the EP, and he is amazing. Can work for 12, 14 hours, but is still focused, and still throwing in good ideas. He'd be frontrunner for the album now, but a lot of things could happen in the meantime.
"You said it was unusual for an Australian 'rock' band to have remixes done by dance producers. It might be, but we've got no problem with that. Having Boxcar do the remix of Amen, gave that song new life - and kept the record alive for six months - in that bad time we were having, that was really encouraging.
Dental note: Pat's straining a bit, with all this talking - he's currently sporting a recently installed mouthful of metal braces, like many of us suffered through a couple of years of. How you coping? "Ergh. Getting a bit bored with soup, I'll admit. But the problems aren't all mine - I had like a palette plate put in a while ago to stretch my mouth - then had to go straight to Queensland for shows. I'd really like to say sorry to those people standing down the front, some of them caught a bit of saliva shower... no, I am really sorry 'bout that."
Reproduced without permission