Australia’s the Living End does more than just play 12-bar blues songs at 100 miles an hour

ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED ON DEC. 13, 2006

 By Steve Newton

When the Living End’s Chris Cheney and Scott Owen met in Mel­bourne in the early’90s, Cheney was a singer-guitarist with a Stray Cats obsession and Owen was a piano player in need of a gig. But a keyboardist wasn’t what Cheney needed for his Down Under version of the pompadoured retrobilly sensations.

“When we first started out we were discovering all the Sun Records stuff and the ’50s rockabilly,” recalls Cheney, on the line from a snowbound St. Louis, “so it was like, ‘Right, unless you’re gonna play like Jerry Lee [Lewis], you’ve gotta get rid of the piano and get a double bass.’ So the next day he just went and bought one, and taught himself to play.”

Once Owen was proficient on the upright bass, the Living End members wasted no time setting up possible breaks for themselves. They scored their first big one in ’96 by securing the support slot on the Australian leg of Green Day’s Insomniac tour.

“We heard that they were coming out,” says Cheney, “and we sent them a tape and a T-shirt and a bio, just asking if we could get on the bill. We were pretty naive in thinkin’ that’s how you did things, but lo and behold, they actually got the tape, and we got a call saying that we got the tour.”

That jaunt around Australia with Billie Joe and Co. gave the Living End a huge boost early on. At the time of its 1998 release, the trio’s self-titled CD was the highest-selling debut rock album in Australian music history.

Fastforward to today and the group—which now includes drummer Andy Strachan—has five full-length CDs under its belt, the latest, State of Emergency, released on Joe’s Adeline Records.

“We spent a long time crafting the songs as opposed to just tryin’ to nail the energy,” says Cheney of the new disc. “We’ve proven that there’s more to this band than just 12-bar blues songs played at a hundred miles an hour.”

With multiple platinum albums, the Living End has become so popular in Australia that it’s taken to playing certain gigs under a fake name, but word has been getting out on that mysterious combo known as the Longnecks.

“It started out as us just wanting to get in front of a few people at a pub,” says Cheney, “to jam anonymously on some new ideas. And then they’d become these secret kinda gigs where the room is packed.”

As well as being heavily influenced by the Stray Cats’ Brian Setzer, Cheney’s also a big fan of Australia’s all-time favourite picker, Angus Young. Since Cheney was chosen as best male performer at the 2006 Jack Awards—which honour live music in Australia—it makes you wonder if Young might have been the runner-up.

“Aw no, Angus wasn’t nominated this year,” quips Cheney, whose band plays Richard’s on Richard on Sunday (December 17). “He would wipe the floor with me any day.”