Tell us how The Waifs formed back in 1992.
Initially the two sisters Vikki and Donna Simpson were travelling up the west coast in a camper van. They left their home town on an adventure to see Australia and play a bit of music as well. I bumped into them in a place called Broom in 1992. I was playing in a rock’n’roll cover band. I had just finished high school and was taking a year off before going to college.
I walked into a bar one night and saw these two girls armed with acoustic guitars, a harmonica and great vocal harmonies and I was blown away. I realised that I wanted to play that kind of music as opposed to the electric-guitar rock’n’roll. I met them and we had a jam and there was an instant chemistry. Donna asked me almost immediately, “Do you want to join the band?” and 13 years later here we are.
Tell us about the early days of the band.
In the beginning we were not even playing our own songs. We were playing a lot of Sixties/Seventies stuff, anything from The Beatles to Bob Dylan to Simon and Garfunkel. It was really about just backpacking and using music to make a bit of money. It was our fans that encouraged us to write our own songs. They said, “Make a record.” We wrote the songs for it and then realised that songwriting was a really wonderful thing, and then sold enough records to make another album.
How would you describe The Waifs’ sound?
When we first started writing songs we were stuck in between: too folky to be cool but when we played the folk festivals we were considered to be more at the contemporary end. So we were stuck between being accessible to the mainstream, but too folky for the mainstream.
Roots is probably the most appropriate description for our music. When we first went to the States they described us as a country band. I love country music but I wouldn’t say that country was an apt description of what we were doing. The response was always really good, though.
You guys have toured with Bob Dylan at his request. How was that experience?
We did three separate tours with Bob Dylan. Initially we played with him in Australia. He saw the band and asked us if we wanted to go and play America with him, and we ended up doing that, it was a real thrill. We were all huge fans and we had played a lot of Dylan songs, so for us it was amazing. Coming from Australia I didn’t think I’d ever get to see him play, never mind play with him.
You have a tour of the United States coming up after a long layoff while your band mates were having children.
Now that there are families involved, things are going to change. Before, we used to go out for 10 months at a time; it was a real go-out-there-and-get-them attitude, but I am really looking forward to the upcoming tour of the States. It’s only a month long and then we have plans to record and do a run of shows in Australia over summer. We wanted to have a new record before we toured Australia.
Your last release was a double live album. Talk us through the reasoning behind that release.
It is something we have been threatening to do for a while now. We think of ourselves as a live band more than a studio band. A lot of fans, while they enjoyed our records, when they saw us live they were saying, “Make a record live, we want to take that kind of atmosphere home.” We recorded shows over about seven years. It was a huge process, we all sat through hours and hours of material picking out what versions of what songs we were going to use.
The Waifs have a reputation as a fiercely independent band, releasing all your albums on your own Jarrah Records label.
We were always pretty fiercely independent. When it came time to make an album we had the money to do it because we had been responsible with the money we had made through our shows. We didn’t have to approach a record label to help us do it; we could do it ourselves.
We recorded our first album with some people who had been in bands and had experience with record companies, and they encouraged us to keep doing it independently if we could. Once we realised we could do this, it became a bit of a cause for the band and something we became known for.
You went from a cult folk band to a mainstream Australian success almost overnight?
It was kind of surreal because it happened when we were touring overseas a lot and one of the songs, London Still, started getting played a lot on the radio, and all of a sudden The Waifs went from a band with a small cult following to being exposed to the mainstream. But we were out of the country and it was almost like it wasn’t happening. It was hard to imagine and believe, and only when we got home could we see first-hand the impact of that song. The album did very well and we got nominated for a few Aria awards and we even won some.
How important is the radio station Triple J to up-and-coming Australian musicians?
I think it is hugely important. That station came into existence with the aim of playing and supporting local talent. I have picked up here in South Africa that radio is a little bit more closed off and they play what is on the charts in America and local acts don’t have avenues for getting their music out there.
Triple J is great because it is national and you can get some great exposure. That is where London Still was picked up at first, which was great for us. They have an annual competition called Unearthed where every state has heats and then the winner gets a lot of exposure. Missy Higgins actually won, that’s how she got exposure and a lot of bands have gone on to be successful through winning that.
You were the first Australian band to play the infamous Newport Folk festival?
Yeah, the Newport, we were aware of that being Dylan fans. That’s where he made quite a bit of history with his electric thing. That was a huge buzz for us and we actually played there three times in a row. It was kind of like a cricketer walking out at Lords, it’s like hallowed ground. You walk out there and you get a sense of all the great acts that have played there and the history that has been made on that stage. You treat it with a fair degree of reverence, an experience like that.
I read that you credit Michael J Fox’s guitar performance in Back to the Future as your first inspiration for wanting to play guitar.
I guess it was thing about being a teenager and wanting to play electric guitar. When I saw him play Johnny B Good, it was really cool and I was like, that’s what I want to do. When people ask me who my influences are, I say Michael J Fox, because I guess I am forever indebted to him.
What has your first experience in South Africa been like and can we expect a Waifs tour some time in the future?
What struck me the most has been how friendly everyone is; we are used to people in America being really friendly but you guys have taken it to another level. I will certainly be lobbying for a Waifs South African tour; I know there has already been talk about it. I will be painting a very rosy picture to the others.
Read our interview with Missy Higgins