PAUL KELLY - SOUTHERN MAN

Paul Kelly has been busy. He's just finished co-producing blues singer Renee Geyer's next album. He put together a 'greatest hits' set called 'Songs From The South' and he's working with his band on an album due out later in the year. CHRISTIE ELIEZER catches up.

Q: A track on your new single 'It Started With A Kiss' was written by Errol Brown of the '70s band Hot Chocolate. Dig you meet him on his May tour?
A: "No. Just because I like someone's record doesn't mean I want to meet them. I'm a big Hot Chocolate fan, though. I'd like to have but I wasn't busting to, know what I mean? (Radio presenter) Francis Leach played him our version on Triple J. Errol said 'Interesting, I didn't think it could be covered by someone else'. Of course, that's exactly what I would have said if I'd been put on the spot like that!"

Q: Not a lot of rock writers would readily admit to liking Hot Chocolate or, indeed, someone as unhip as Herb Alpert & The Tijuana Brass. Yet you obviously got over dividing music that way. Has that been important to you as a songwriter?
A: "Music was always in our household, opera, classical music, my sisters brought home Normie Rowe ('60s Australian rock singer) records, it was my mum who brought home the Herb Alpert record which I fell for. I've always had a wide taste in music and I like most styles... except for heavy metal although I really like early AC/DC. My son who's 16 is right into techno and house. Members of my band are voracious listeners to new things. I love finding new things. I put together tapes of different things and send them off to people as presents, and they do it for me. Obviously having a wide ear for music can only benefit you as a songwriter."

Q: There's a tremendous body of work on this hits album. What was going through your mind when you picked up a finished version of the CD?
A: Mundane stuff like hoping they got the artwork right. I get more excited about new albums than greatest hits sets. I guess calling some of these hits was stretching it a bit. But even if they weren't radio hits, they were hits in that people are always calling out for them at shows. Besides, a good song is a hit regardless! When the music hits and you feel no pain... (laughs). 'Bradman' and 'From Little Things Big Things Grow' weren't hits on radio but someone's always calling out for them."

Q: Presumably you wouldn't want to be looking down one day and see Sir Donald himself yelling out for 'Bradman'!
A: "He doesn't get out a lot these days. I sent him a copy of the record and a video, and he responded promptly with a very nice letter which I've still got on file. He gets loads of mail and every morning he sits down and answers them. In my letter I'd asked if he remembered my late father. He said he did, and with great fondness. I'm not sure how they knew each other. They might've boarded together. My father was a lawyer and a stockbroker, and Adelaide is a small town."

Q: Do you write mostly on acoustic guitar?
A: "Mostly, although I write on a piano too, or on the spur of the moment at rehearsals. Over the last year the band has been jamming a lot, and some songs have come out of that. Half the songs on the next album will come from there. I might write the melodies and words, but the starting point comes from the others."

Q: Is there a special room or time of the day where you're more creative?
A: "No, I can't pick a pattern there."

Q: When you've a song idea circulating in your head, are your friends aware of it from the glazed look in your eyes that you're not really part of the conversation?
A: "I tend to be like that a lot of the time, even when there's nothing in my head, so I guess they'd think that a lot!"

Q: When the Rolling Stones are recording, they tend to try each song with a different style or instrument. "Start Me Up" began as a reggae track.
A: "We were talking about that very thing the other night in the studio. They tried 64 takes of the reggae version before they nailed it with the version we know. Because we've been trying different things in the studio that haven't worked, and someone would say 'Remember 'Start Me Up'!, or 'Would You Be My Friend' and 'Little King', we'd try a different arrangement or a different bass and drum pattern.

Q: I understand "Before Too Long" was originally a waltz.
A: "No, the original version was how it was recorded. But when I later performed the song solo, I turned it into a waltz."

Q: What sort of gear do you use when you're putting down a first demo?
A: "A little tape recorder and a guitar. I don't usually make demos. I just sing it into the tape recorder so I don't forget it, and then I take it to the band and we record it. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. Those that don't work we calla demo!"

Q: What comes first, a feel, a riff or the lyrics?
A: "Usually a feeling, even if it's just me strumming on a guitar. If I'm lucky, the lyrics come after."

Q: Paul Kelly fans tend to become so affectionate about characters in your songs they think of them as real. Are at least some of these characters real to you?
A: "They're made up, but they do feel real. A number of people have said to me the guy in 'To Her Door' returned in 'Gravy', he tried to go straight but screwed up and ended up in prison. I mean, that's not what inspires the songs, it's me trying to fit words around the melody. Usually I'm aware of it when someone points it out, after the fact. When I'm singing them, I'm usually imagining they're me, I guess."

Q: Are you a guitar aficionado or do you just go for the sound?
A: "I don't have many guitars, because I tend to make all guitars sound the same anyway. I have a Martin 1938 which is my prize possession, I found it in the Recycler in Los Angeles five years ago. I don't take it out on tour. I've got a workhorse acoustic, a Taylor from the States, and a Les Paul Gibson electric."

Q: What guitar/amp set up do you use in the studio?
A: "My Les Paul Signature and a Vox amp. It's just a sound I'm comfortable with and which I found only in the last few years. In the studio, I don't have a favourite microphone because I come out sounding the same anyway, so I let the engineer sort it out. I'm not an equipment junkie. I've only had two amps in my life. If I went to see a band, I couldn't tell you if the guitarist played a Strat or a Gibson. I'd watch the singer first, and if he's boring, then look at the others. Drummers are always good to watch because of the way they physically get stuck into a groove. Peter Luscombe from my band. So is Mark Kennedy who's on Renee's record."

Q: There's no such thing as a perfect song, but Paul Kelly fans would say 'Deeper Water' was in that list.
A: "I have no opinion on that."

Q: What's a tip you'd pass on to a young songwriter?
A: "Trust your instincts. Write and write. The only way to get better is to keep doing it, just like when you sing or play football."

Q: How do you learn to edit yourself so you cut out the crap?
A: "Write with someone else, they'll soon tell you if something's rubbish. Or in my case, perform it live. That gives an indication of what's working and what's not.

Q: What's a song you'd have killed to have written?
A: "'It Started With A Kiss'? (laughs). 'Sexual Healing' (by Marvin Gaye), the lyrics and melody fall into one superb package. 'Waterloo Sunset' (by the Kinks). All the songs on 'Dusty In Memphis' (by Dusty Springfield). I could go on for days."

Q: Paul Simon said his one fear of dying was on that night, TV shows would announce the news with orchestral versions of 'Bridge Over Troubled Waters'.
A: "What's wrong with that? I'm waiting to hear my songs in elevators. Then I'd die and go to heaven."

Q: You've done films, musicals, theatres, any unfulfilled goals?
A: "I'll never be opening batsman for Australia. I'll never be 21 again, and I'm too old for the Olympics unless I take up shooting. I'd like to become a sports writer, that'd be great. But if you're asking about achievable goals, I'd say that although I've written a lot of songs, I'm still at the beginning. There are a lot of different styles of songs I'd like to nail. I haven't investigated the potential of CD-ROM. I have a problem with video clips: my songs are highly visual and I don't like a clip telling people what to see. However I do like the idea of singing and dancing together, like old Motown acts like the Temptations and Four Tops. I'm aware I lack that."

Q: Should Mark Taylor be allowed to stay as captain in England?
A: "He shouldn't captain the one day matches. If he doesn't get runs in the lead up County games, I wouldn't pick him for the Test. If he gets several - and he's always batted well in England - I'd pick him for the first Test. I'd give him one more chance. Just one more. He deserves more rope because he's a great captain."

Q: Would you be as ruthless with a musician in a band who's not firing?
A: "It doesn't work like that. For one thing, my musicians are the ones who keep leaving me!"