“We’ve been going over the back catalogue and pulling out some songs that for some reason or another kind of fell by the wayside”, enthused Screaming Jets frontman Dave Gleeson, talking about the bands upcoming Dirty Thirty tour to celebrate three decades of rock. “I guess it’s a blessing and a curse when… we must have recorded 100 songs by now, and there’s songs that you love doing and you’re doing a set list and you might have a new album so you take something out of the list one night and put something else in its place and then 20 years later you go ‘oh, we haven’t played that song for 20 years’ (laughs). It’s been really good fun to look back through the catalogue and obviously, there’s heaps of hits as well as misses over the years but we try to come up with a nice balance of songs that are fan favourites”.
Despite recycling old hits and memories, Gleeson admits that he still has to practice his own songs or risk getting them wrong.
“Oh yeah, we’ve gotta rehearse them”, he laughed. “Sometimes you go nah, nah I’m fine with that song and you sing the first verse and chorus then the next verse and chorus and the next bit it’s like okay, I have no idea how this song goes so it’s always good to get in there and have a bit of a refresher. There’s songs that came up – and one that constantly gets mentioned so I must have a listen to it – is the B side to the ‘Better’ single which is ‘Rocket Man’ – all I can remember of that is it goes R O C K E T rocket man and I’m sure there’s more to the song (laughs) but it’s one of those things. As Homer Simpson says ‘as soon as I learn something new something else I know gets pushed out of my brain (laughs)”.
In the full interview Dave goes into detail about the Screaming Jets thirty year history including his personal favourite Jets songs, favourite album, the most influential Australian rock artists, their controversial moments and if he regrets any of them, some highlights, the impact the Screaming Jets have had on the Australian music scene, the upcoming tour and what they have in store for fans plus more.
