After a long hiatus following 2003’s spectacular Hits From the Brittle Building, former Snout frontman Ross McLennan is back with a new album and a new take on the world. Wireless Bollinger asked him about the New World, recording at home and the fall of John Howard…

It’s been almost 4 years since Hits From the Brittle Building – that’s a pretty long break so aside from the obvious recording of the new album what have you been up to?

I’ve been working as an integration aide at a secondary school for interesting children, which is a lot of fun and also a pain in the neck. I’ve also been delaying the release of my album until after our daughter’s birth, hanging out with the family, trying to loosen myself from the grip of rock music. Thinking.

The new album is called Sympathy for the New World. What is the significance of the title? What is the New World as you see it?

That’s a hard one to answer. My poor little brain makes a lot of connections that have no place in the world of logic. The title sounds important. That’s good marketing, right?

It’s a pun on Dvorjak’s ‘Symphony: From The New World’ and The Stones’ ‘Sympathy For The Devil’. It’s kind of about our dilemma as international citizens. Poor old humanity. Old world seeds, new world deeds. Traditionally, the New World means America, and “America” represents the best and worst aspects of modern planet earth. It’s an unwieldy beast…

From the moment it starts, Brittle Building was unashamedly a pop record, but Sympathy seems to be less so. There’s a pop bent at times but it’s certainly got some stranger, sometimes even slightly menacing elements at times. Was this something you set out to achieve or did it just happen that way?

Well, I don’t like doing the same twice - at least not consciously - so I contrived to make something quite different. After Hits From The Brittle Building, I’d been thinking a lot about the place of an older person in pop, too. I remember reading an article about how the album was a dead medium so I thought I should make a concept album to really seal my fate…

When I was young I played in various types of outfits including an 80 piece concert band and occasionally we would play pieces of what they would call “serious music”. When I sat in amongst it all for the first time I was knocked for six. Then one day many years later I started scratching my chin with a faraway look in my eyes.
 
Lyrically, the new album seems darker too, almost like you’re angrier or sadder about the world now than then…

I think it’s the natural consequence of continuing to write as you get older. You start to notice the same stuff happening. Having children now has certainly complicated my thoughts.

‘Now, About Siev X’ (named after the Indonesian fishing boat that sank in 2001, killing more than 350 asylum seekers) is probably the album highlight after the first few listens. How do you start trying to convey an event or issue like that in a song - how do you try to deal with the weight of something like that?

First off you are moved to outrage. Then you realise you can’t do people’s stories justice, so I tried not to write about the disaster itself. I wanted to talk about political life. Death of the soul. These people who could sacrifice people’s lives, lie about it and sleep soundly. It sort of ended up being three separate stories in the end - impersonal, personal, and confused. I debated at length about the title…

I’m guessing this is a question you’ll get a fair bit of in interviews this time around but I’ll ask it anyway - one of the talking points from Brittle Building was the song ‘John Howard the Actor’. How did the election result make you feel and how do you think it will affect this country? What do you think Howard’s (not the actor) legacy will be?

The election result made me feel happy and hopeful. I didn’t vote Labor but I think we have the best possible leader in Rudd. However, political culture itself needs to change and that’s partly down to the people on the street. Have you looked at them lately? They’re an odd looking bunch…

As for Howard, I’ll always speak about him in negative terms to anyone who’ll listen.
That should cast the mean spirited little fucker in a bad light.

Once again, the album was recorded in your house. When you’re so intimate with the surroundings, how do you think this affects the recording process and the outcomes? Is it always a positive to be so comfortable and relaxed?

It’s the best possible scenario given that I’m not in a band as such. The finished works evolve from the first germs of the song rather than exist as a separate entity. It means I can follow my nose a bit more.  

You’ve been playing a few shows about the place and have more planned - how has the new material been received?

Really well. The bulk of the tracks are still unknown quantities for most punters. Once the record’s out there it will change peoples expectations I suppose, the arrangements being so layered and all.

You played pretty much everything instrument-wise on your last album, a couple of guest spots and drum tracks aside - is that the case again this time round?

Yep.

Is that a control thing for you, or is it simply a case of you being able to do it all, so why not?

I’m relentless in the pursuit of my final objective. I can’t think about organising other players unless I have to (though it is nice to get friends in to play and sing sometimes - it stops me getting so lonely).

Is it then strange hearing your bandmates play your parts live? Do they bring new things to the material and are you ever surprised, pleasantly or otherwise, about where they take your songs?

It’s more novel than strange. I’ve been enjoying playing shows with my friend Ian Kitney. He’s doing guitar while playing stomp box and tambourine with his feet. It’s funny considering how big sounding the album is but it really works.

Your last album was received exceptionally well from a critical point of view - how does it feel knowing that you’ve released something that is almost universally regarded as brilliant and yet it doesn’t find a huge audience in the way that it probably deserves?

It feels pretty good right about now. “Deserves” is not a word I like to use very often - it only makes a person unhappy. Even when they get what they “deserve”…

There was a time when artists would put out an album a year (sometimes even two or three). Nowadays that’s rare, and many artists take several years between albums. Why do you think this is? And what effect do you think it has on the music?

The marketplace has changed a lot. Pop acts appear and disappear with more frequency and that’s bound to affect the stats. And of course the album is dead. It’s the province of old folks with kids. I think it’s a good thing in some ways. Most people can’t make much money from music so they’re saying “stuff it” and just doing it in their own sweet time.

What have you been listening to of late and what albums are you looking forward to in 2008?

I tend to listen to most things that pass my way. In the recent past it has been Smog, The Beatles, Bachellorette and the Sufjan Stevens Christmas CD.

What’s next in both music and life?

Enjoying playing live. Loving my family. Recording a double album. I wouldn’t mind doing some soundtrack work. Working at Sydney Road Community School.