Then, after four LPs and a series of lineup alterations, Weed called it quits in 2003. However, the rock’n’roll fixation doesn’t simply evaporate and in 2009 the five original members brought Tumbleweed back to life.
“After not seeing each other for 15 years we went back into the same jam room,” recalls vocalist Richie Lewis. “We all had the same equipment, everybody plugged in and we played Sundial and it sounded exactly the same as what it used to sound like.”
Tumbleweed have triumphantly returned to the live circuit in the last few years, gratifying longtime Weed-heads and reaching out to younger audiences. All the while, the question loomed concerning whether the reformation would extend beyond the stage. Well, last year brought answers in the form of Tumbleweed’s fifth LP, Sounds from the Other Side.
“Rather than just continue with this nostalgia act, we decided to make a new record,” Lewis says. “We’d broken up with this lineup before things were really complete and we didn’t really feel that we’d made the record that we wanted to make. [We wanted] to try to right the wrongs of the past and to make that record that we always wanted to make. And I think we got pretty close.”
Tumbleweed aren’t the only band from Oz rock’s ‘90s purple patch still capable of commanding audiences. Something For Kate, Frenzal Rhomb and You Am I have never faded from view, while the likes of Jebediah, The Underground Lovers and Spiderbait all returned to relevance in recent years. No act’s guaranteed a multi-decade lifespan, but Lewis isn’t surprised to see so many of his ‘90s contemporaries still kicking.
“People that we were friends with back then were really passionate about making music and were doing it regardless of any popularity or any sort of commercial viability. They were doing it because they really loved it. When you make music your life, it tends to drive you and control you. You love it – it’s part of who you are.”
This inexorable drive is precisely the basis of Tumbleweed’s own pursuits. Tumbleweed have always been geographical outliers and, when the band started, cracking into the big time wasn’t a serious ambition.
“We began playing music in high school,” Lewis says, “and it was really [because] we loved music and loved a lot of stuff that you really couldn’t find – that not many of our peers in Wollongong liked. Making music was the logical next step from listening to it.
“There was a period where we got more professional about it and wanted to get really good. The success that came with that was timing. It was like riding the crest of a wave and we ended up being in the right place at the right time.”
Lewis’ modesty might be slightly exaggerated, but it underlines how Tumbleweed aren’t striving for stardom. Accordingly, Sounds from the Other Side was put together without any worries about commercial performance. The group’s artistic drive, on the other hand, hasn’t subsided.
“We didn’t want to put something out that was not going to stand up to stuff we’ve done in the past. We wanted it to be good and we wanted it to be creatively challenging and take on some musical territory.
“We’ve always liked being natural in the way we do things and we tried to keep that in the front of our minds,” Lewis adds. “We go along for the ride, we go with the flow. It’s always worked out for us and it comes together in the end.”
BY AUGUSTUS WELBY
Photo Ian Laidlaw
