STACK #199 May 2021

MUSIC FEATURE

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Top: Laughing Clowns; bottom: The Aints!

things have changed a lot, some for the better and some for the worse... but, to be honest, I still don’t think about it unless I have to. Reflecting on when The Saints started out, you said, “I didn’t like contemporary music.” Is any new music exciting you in 2021? All in good time, please. I’m just starting to get a handle on contemporary music from the 1970s. It’s the 30th anniversary of your highest-charting album, Honey Steel’s Gold . Any plans for an anniversary edition? Hopefully, yes. A

ED KUEPPER Forty-five years after his first single – the pioneering punk classic (I’m) Stranded with The Saints – Ed Kuepper remains one of our most idiosyncratic and enigmatic rock stars. He’s won two ARIA Awards and was inducted into the ARIA Hall of Fame with The Saints in 2001, but he works outside of the industry, relentlessly prolific and with a wry sense of humour. As he hits the road with Dirty Three drummer JimWhite, Ed talks about his three new retrospective releases: Singles ’86 – ’96, Laughing Clowns' Golden Days: When Giants Walked The Earth , and The Aints!' Live At The Bowlo . Read the full Q&A at stack.com.au. Words Jeff Jenkins

Ed Kuepper 's

trio of retrospective releases are out May 28 via Prince Melon Records/ Fatal Records.

remastered vinyl release is something I’m in favour of doing. Honey Steel’s Gold came out at that turning point between vinyl and CD, so it straddles the formats with majestic pride. The Aints! is one of the great band names, and Prince Melon Records goes back to the Laughing Clowns days.What are the origins of that name? With The Aints!, it was basically because iit rhymed with some other band that I’d been involved with. Prince Melon was a nickname that the Laughing Clowns used to refer to their manager at the time. He didn’t really like it, so I shifted it over to the label out of respect. Where do you keep your ARIAs? Cash Converters. No, I’m quite proud of them, and they are on a shelf in the spare room.

response to your question: I listen to music. Format is secondary, in a way.

In ClintonWalker’s Stranded (republished this year), you said, “I never really thought about being a rock star. I did like the idea of being famous.” Did the reality match the idea? I don’t remember saying that. I think I would prefer to be rich than famous.

I don't seem to retain much prior knowledge, for better or for worse

Do you still get a thrill writing and recording new music? Yeah, in a way it’s like

starting from scratch every time I do something. I don’t seem to retain much prior knowledge, for better or for worse.

The retrospectives are being released on coloured vinyl. Are you a big vinyl fan? How does Ed Kuepper listen to music? I grew up listening to records so, yeah, in a lot of ways it tends to be my default listening format. I’ve got a fairly good collection of what I guess you’d call vintage vinyl. Through in the ’90s, of course, CDs took over, and I tend to listen to music from that era on that format. But in direct

You also told Clinton: “I really hated everything about the industry.These days, I don’t care about it.Why f-cking bother? It will never change.” Obviously, the music industry has changed quite a bit since the ’90s. How do you feel about the industry today? I think a lot of the things I was referring to haven’t changed that much, but a lot of other

Continue to read the full Q&A online at stack.com.au

70 MAY 2021

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