The clock is ticking on the Brisbane 2032 Olympic Games, though don’t bank on homegrown rock heroes Powderfinger reuniting for the occasion. Not yet, anyway.
The ‘Finger was one of the most successful bands of their era, earning the distinction of five successive #1 albums and 18 total ARIA Awards. The band went out on a high with 2009’s Golden Rule, the last of those leaders, and a major farewell tour the following year, which sold more than 200,000 tickets.
Dousing the rumours with cold water, founding guitarist Ian Haug insists: “No, we haven’t said we are playing at the Olympics”.
The veteran Brisbane guitarist is a busy man. There’s his Airlock Studios, his axe work with ARIA Hall of Fame-inducted rock royalty The Church and indie act The Predators, and now the new project Town Ghost, a collaboration with Cameron McKenzie.
Haug and McKenzie have been buddies since age 14. They shared the same guitar teacher, Rick Purdie, in high school. In years gone by, Haug has supported McKenzie on his C.C.McKenzie and Ranger, and they often catch up.
“Cam and I have always sat around playing guitar and making music together,” Haug tells Tone Deaf. “It’s very natural. We have similar taste in music after all these years. And where there are musical differences, the meeting place is usually somewhere pretty exciting for both of us”.
Over the years, Haug and McKenzie’s recorded material piled up. Much of it near completion. “It was just time to get a third party involved to do a mix”, he explains. So, Steve Kempnich (King Stingray, Concrete Surfers, Birds of Tokyo) got involved.
The first cab from the rank is “Lift Your Feet Up”, recorded at Airlock without rehearsals. Kempnich mixed the cut, which is distributed by GYROstream. “We just channeled the universe, and this is the result,” says Haug. It’s quite “an exciting ball of energy”.
The new tune also features John “Bong” Edwards (The Toxic Garden Gnomes) on drums and Ant Aggs (Affrodizziact, Resin Dogs, Xavier Rudd) on synth and keys.
There’s more from that content cave, from ambient, to slow and brooding, to uplifting singer-songwriter, to electro. All the recordings were improvised, as were the vocal and lyrics, and additional musicians’ contributions.
Several tracks will drop in the upcoming months, after which Town Ghost will switch gears for a show and, in time, release an album. “We just need to get the material out so that people are familiar with it. And we need to decide on our costumes”, quips Haug.
As for Powderfinger, there are no plans at this point. The famous five reunited, briefly, at Support Act’s Music in the House event last August, where they collected the excellence in community award. And, in 2020, they raised a small fortune for good causes with the One Night Lonely virtual concert, benefiting Support Act and mental wellbeing support service Beyond Blue.
“We are all still friends and talk regularly. They all seem to like Town Ghost”, Haug reckons.
The Church, on the other hand, are making hay. Steve Kilbey and Co. are “nearly finished a new album”, says Haug. The followup to 2024’s Eros Zeta and the Perfumed Guitars will be Haug’s fifth with a band that’s closing in on 30 career studio albums.
A mid-year tour of the United States beckons, explains Haug, followed by Australia concerts “later in the year, most likely.”
