Aussie new-wavers Real Life lucked out getting producer Steve Hillage to helm new Heartland LP

ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED ON FEB. 24, 1984

By Steve Newton

“That was the first thing we ever recorded,” says Real Life guitarist/vocalist David Sterry of his group’s current hit, “Send Me an Angel”. Over the phone from Melbourne, Australia, Sterry outlined how the band’s first tune also became its first single.

“A radio programmer from L.A. was doing a programming job over in Sydney, and he fell in love with the record. So he took it back to L.A., where it became a cult hit.

“We weren’t going to release anything so early this year, but we had to so that they [the L.A. programmers] wouldn’t steal too much of our thunder.”

Considering the infectiousness of the song on a whole–its rocking backbone, stylish vocal, nifty lead break, and clever synthesizer bits–one wouldn’t expect its thunder to drain out too quickly.

And another song off the band’s debut album, Heartland, sounds like killer radio material. The possibility of releasing the E.L.O.-ish “Catch Me I’m Falling” as the follow-up single was put to Sterry.

“Strange you should mention that,” replied the former guitar teacher and paste-up artist. “We did some extended dance mixes of about four songs, and when we played the extended version of ‘Catch Me I’m Falling’ to the DJs here they got really excited about it.

“So we re-edited the long version and that is now a single here–it’s number 15 in Melbourne this week. It’s going to be the second single for the States too–we’re doing a film clip for it in the next couple of weeks.”

If–as appears to be happening for Real Life–radio programmers jump on a band’s first few singles, they can forget about clubs and start thinking of the big time. With a North American tour about to begin as openers for either Big Country or Eurythmics, that would appear to be the case for Sterry and his bandmates–keyboardist/electric violinist Richard Zatorski, bassist/synthesist Allan Johnson, and drummer/electronic percussionist Danny Simcic.

And according to Sterry, the way the Australian club scene is functioning, the move couldn’t have come at a better time.

“It’s bad as far as the work goes,” he explains. “Melbourne used to have a very great number of small hotels where you could play–that’s the way we started anyway–but the world recession has certainly hit here as well. People can’t afford to get out as much now, therefore a lot of the hotels have closed down to bands. I think there were about 20 hotels that stopped having bands in Melbourne alone–which is quite a chunk of the work scene.

“But apart from that the competition has never been great,” adds Sterry. “Melbourne–as opposed to Sydney–is the happening place for music at the moment, and there’s a lot of good exciting new bands around that aren’t traditional rock and roll. And they’re having hits in Australia now, groups like the Kids in the Kitchen, Pseudo Echo, and the Adventure.”

There may be a lot of acts moving up Down Under, but Sterry feels that the number of exceptional producers to help those bands is minimal. Real Life were lucky to find what they were looking for in British producer Steve Hillage, who has worked on various Simple Minds albums, and also developed a small, cultish following through his own psychedelic/eclectic guitar-based albums.

“When we were getting ready to record we had an outrageous list of British people we’d like to use–people like Trevor Horn, Steve Lillywhite, and Steve Hillage. Because there’s no really hot producers in Australia. We’ve got the studios and we’ve got the bands, but there’s a lack of really imaginative producers. So we got in touch with Steve–who’s sort of the house producer for Virgin Records–and he hopped a plane and came out.”

Hillage’s production work on Heartland is top notch, and doubtless had a lot to do with bringing out Real Life’s winning sound. And while his name appears on the album’s credits, those of the players themselves do not. So what’s the story? Are Real Life trying to remain anonymous?

“Because they went with the single we had an American deadline for release. We had to get the album out in a hurry and we just forgot to put our names on it!”

Sterry added that later pressings should give Real Life some of the credit for Heartland.