Crowded House - Paul Hester - Interview

This interview with Paul Hester of Crowded House was the cover story of Edition 6 of InPress published on Wednesday August 17, 1988. Paul knew the magazine was just getting started at the time of the interview and started the interview with "Let's see if we can get some quotable quotes to move the new mag along, mate." That's the kind of guy he was. The interview coincided with the release of the second Crowded House album Temple of Low Men, which had the challenging job of emulating the success of their extraordinary debut...

Original Interview

With the release of their second album, Crowded House appear certain to replicate the success of their hugely successful self-titled debut. In many ways a more complex album, Temple ofLow Men sees the band painting themselves out of a corner, and into the land of longevity.

Back in Australia for a quick tour before jumping back on the international treadmill, Crowded House's ever-effervescent drummer Paul Hester, told Andrew Watt lots of "stuff" about the record, and the band's method of dealing with the big time.

When Paul Hester begins the interview by saying "Let's see if we can get some quotable quotes to move the new mag along mate," I could sense we were on a winner. As always, Hester proved to be the best of interviewees; open, articulate, and matter-of-fact. None of the tortured superstar mentality in evidence here.

Mind you, Hester, Nick Seymour, and Neil Finn have never been novices at the media game. Their unpredictability and "wild and crazy guy" personas have carried them a long way in the US where a touch of the eccentric is always viewed favourably.

Clown princes of pop, or arch media manipulators? Paul Hester openly admits it's a bit of both.

"When you are on the idiot box, if you are going to agree to do stuff, you may as well try to undermine the whole thing if you have to do it with some real airhead, and make it look like the load of bullshit that it is," he explains.

"Also, when you're watching telly, and you see pop star after pop star being hauled up and going through all the same questions about the latest tour and the latest album, it's a bit of a wank to to sit down there and complain about what a tough life it is.

"We try and take that edge to what we do so that at any second the whole thing could go anywhere. I mean, if you are going to look bored with it, you may as well not go on. when we do things, we try to make it worthwhile. No-one likes a miserable successful person. That's a real trap and I hate it."

But Hester and his cohorts don't make television appearances a hobby, whether they enjoy it or not. It's all about promotion; bums on seats, shifting product, hitting the ol' demographic. It's a process of record, promote, tour, write, record etc. and Hester admits that once you are on the treadmill, it's bloody hard to get off. You've just got to stay within reach of the controls.

"It's definitely like that", he says, "And unfortunately there's no way around it. Whether you like it or not, you are a character in Spinal Tap. There's certain cliches you end up falling into, and you think there's things you would never do and you unwittingly end up doing it.

"The fine line is when you've got to decide when it's getting too far out of control, and things are getting too stupid. There's always carrots being dangled in front of you, and in some ways when you have success on the first album it gets more bizarre. The carrots get bigger and more ridiculous."

Enough of this analysis—let's shift some units.

Temple of Low Men is an important record for Crowded House. As the dreaded second album, it had to grow in the shadow of its illustrious older relation, a record that had been made without the burden of expectation. It's no wonder that hit records tend to frequently be 'only children'.

The Crowded House album had been lauded for its simplicity and directness, and it is little wonder the first single from Temple of Low Men, Better Be Home Soon was the epitome of such a song. But that's only scratching the surface, in reality.

A closer examination of the record reveals more instruments, more styles, and more moods than the Crowded House album could have ever dreamed of having.

I think we spent a little longer on this record than the first one," comments Hester. "I like it. It's not that much of a departure from the first one in terms of songs. It's basically the same sort of thing, but perhaps there's a little more gone into the production. we got Bob Clearmountain to mix it, and that made a big difference to the sound. We probably laboured over the songs a little bit longer, and they became a bit deeper.

It's not as instant. but that's good for us. It's where we should be going at the moment. I don't think it would be an incredibly smart move for us to be churning out instant chocolate cream puff songs. I think we're moving towards the right thing considering we're still pretty young as a band."

In contrast to the bands free-spirited, fun-loving image, Neil Finn's songs tend to be a little on the melancholy side. Sure there are some bubbly melodies that fuel the operation, but intrinsically, the mood of the lyrics is rather sombre, at times bordering on bleak.

Hester put that down to a combination of factors.

"He was saying yesterday that he just can't write those really happy, up, bright sort of songs. I dunno if he can or he can't, but he just hasn't been lately. Life has been pretty full-on for the last three of four years, and Neil's pretty introspective when he writes. He never really writes in the third person, and that's probably why it comes across as pretty brooding. Also a lot of the reason for that is that Mitchell Froom (producer) is a pretty dark character. Consequently he'll go for a darker approach. He's a big influence in that regard, so he'd go for anything that Neil came up with that was dark and melancholy."