Life and Inspiration: Robert Forster
May 9, 2008Robert Forster co-founded The Go-Betweens with Grant McLennan, forever altering Australia’s music landscape. The critic and thinker’s latest is The Evangelist. By Ed. Nimmervoll
AUSTRALIAN MUSIC
“I still think the ‘60s and ‘70s, up to punk, are criminally unknown, which I think is tragic. To me, I’ve always had America in one ear and Europe in the other ear. Australia has always been able to take American and English music, not be swamped by either,
and make something of our own.”
THE GO-BETWEENS
“Brisbane didn’t have much infrastructure. Sydney and Melbourne were very strong and had systems in place, with major and independent labels. I don’t see us as running away from Australia – we were young and wanted to travel. There was no one in Australia offering to finance an album. Rough Trade in London did.”
THE LATE GRANT McLENNAN
“How would I sum him up?
A bohemian, with a very quick wit. Definitely with an incredible knowledge of books, film, music. He’s generous, funny and extremely talented. Someone with whom
I clicked. I always stray back to the early days, perhaps even before
we formed the band, around that time of great enthusiasm and dreams and a real drive to do something – we didn’t know what.”
HAVING YOUR TIME OVER AGAIN
“I think we’d do it very much the same. There are two things: songs and band charisma. If you’ve got great songs, it’s the same now as
it was in 1980, and in 1960. If people sense something they will come to you. A lot of people scuttle around with MySpace and networking.
I admit some of it is valuable, but
if you’ve got great songs, people
in the world hunt for it.”
STRIPED SUNLIGHT SOUND DVD
“It’s wonderful that it exists. It’s a great document. I’m very glad we did it and I have fond memories of doing both the show and the acoustic songs with Grant in that house.”
MUSIC SANS MCLENNAN
“I was always going to record again after Grant passed away (in 2006),
if only to record some of the songs he had. I thought it would take longer. The weeks and months after, I was shocked and stunned and gone. It was just a case of getting over the shock, letting time take
its way and slowly moving back into the music world. Every time I read the song titles to people they’d say The Evangelist is a good album title. Every songwriter is an evangelist in a way. You’re trying to say things; there’s a message.”
The Evangelist – featuring the last songs Forster and McLennan wrote together – is out now through EMI.
