This was published 6 years ago
Bernard Fanning, happy in paradise, on his two-part album success and tour
The former Powderfinger frontman has found himself in a very good place indeed.
By Michael Dwyer
La Cueva is the recording studio dreams are made of. Perched on a hill north of Byron Bay with panoramic views of the Pacific, a swimming pool out back and a lazy set of golf clubs in the dunny, it feels like a millionaire's retreat.
The open-plan bungalow lined with abstract art is the playground of Bernard Fanning and producer Nick DiDia, an American expat and ally since the third Powderfinger album in 1998. Brewing coffee in the sunny kitchenette, the engineer for Pearl Jam, Rage Against the Machine and Bruce Springsteen recalls the time the E Street Band spent a day riding motorcycles around the surrounding hills.
Bernard Fanning longs for an ''alternative universe in which people had 80 minutes to actually sit and listen to two records''.
"Don't tell anyone about where you live," the Boss advised him. "This place is paradise."
All of which perhaps explains the eager work ethic that last week spawned the pair's second hit album in just nine months.
Brutal Dawn followed Civil Dusk to No.2 on the ARIA charts this week, as dates for Fanning's spring tour sold hot across the country. Clearly, consumer fatigue has not soured their ambitious twin-album plan.
"The idea was basically to make two albums of 10 songs each that were of equal value and quality and we think that we did that," Fanning says.
In fact, he says, "we think we made a better second record than the first record. I guess Civil Dusk is probably a little bit more toe-tappingly accessible but I think the guts and substance of Brutal Dawn surpasses it."
Book-ended by songs written from the point of view of a long-term prisoner preparing for release and a wartime sniper with blood on his conscience, there does seem a darker hue to this episode.
"I just wish that there was some alternative universe available in which people had 80 minutes to actually sit and listen to two records without having to do something else or check their phone or watch TV at the same time," he says.
This quaint suggestion seems to hail from a different era, but then so does much of what makes these albums tick. With Civil Dusk, Fanning confessed to an obsession with Jackson Browne's Late for the Sky. This time he had another mid-'70s folk-rock landmark on rotation.
"If you listen to Desire, the Dylan record, a lot of it sounds like the band are hearing the songs for the first or second time. They're just playing along – especially the drumming," he says.
That "asymmetrical" approach was something he and DiDia sought to replicate. The prominence of Sallianna Campbell's Hurricane-styled fiddle improvisations are the clearest giveaway for fans of classic Americana.
"With making records like this, I reckon you have to do it without hesitation," Fanning says. "This is the kind of record we're making. If that [part] sounds a little bit like a Bob Dylan record, well that's actually f---in' great. What better thing to aspire to?"
Looking at the big picture, what's most notable on the Dusk/Dawn project is the ease of the songwriter's dynamic with his producer. The internal pressures of Powderfinger are ancient history and the gift of DiDia's undivided attention amounts to a very comfortable creative environment – ocean views and all.
"Black car on a dirt road picking up kids with stars in their eyes/ Good thing I don't need a ride," Fanning sings in America (Glamour and Prestige), one of his most recent compositions. It's not hard to see his old band's oft-remarked lack of US success in that rearview mirror.
"It was [about] Powderfinger's experience in America," he acknowledges with a chuckle. "It's about going there and being incredibly underwhelmed – and overwhelmed … Some things totally lived up to expectations; others were just so disappointing and so cliched. Especially dealing with people in the music business."
Regrets? Well, it's hard to see any from this kitchenette window.
"I'm happy with where my life is now," he says. "If things had been different, then my life would be really different now. F---, look at Chris Cornell. There's a guy that was basically my age and obviously had an enormous amount of success but it goes to show that nobody can outrun their demons."
Fanning's next priority is to take his game up a notch in Aussie pubs. His band, the Black Fins, "just started to get really good" by the end of the Civil Dusk tour. The goal in October is twice as many shows in smaller rooms. "Financially, probably the stupidest decision I've ever made, but I don't care," he says.
"When I saw Springsteen play a few years ago, I thought it was just so awesome what the band could do, and how entertaining it was that they could basically play anything from his catalogue.
"The idea that the Black Fins would be in that situation … where you can play three-hour shows if you really wanted to … that would be a dream."
Brutal Dawn is out now. The Black Fins play The Croxton, Melbourne, October 26-27 and The Factory, Sydney, October 26-29.