By Benjamin Millar
Australian musical icons Tex Perkins and Charlie Owen will bring their ragged brand of rock to Yarraville this Saturday night.
Perkins told the Star Weekly his musical relationship with Owen stretches back to the early ’90s when they joined forces with Cold Chisel pianist and songwriter Don Walker as Tex, Don & Charlie.
“Charlie and I have been playing for a good 24 years and we have done all sorts of things in that time,” he said.
“We have shared a lot of stages and we will be pulling together a collection of that material in a more bare, stripped back and dynamic way.”
Perkins’ career has spanned from noisy mid-80s experimenters Thug and hard-edged pub rockers Beasts of Bourbon through the swampy blues swagger of The Cruel Sea to the dark, lilting country of his recent material with The Dark Horses and current outfit The Ape.
Reflecting on his 30 years playing a key role in Australian music, Perkins said he retains the same passion that drove his first foray into a band.
“I guess there is always a core personality running through them all. Certainly an ironic sense of humour is always there in my songwriting, no matter what bands I have ended up with. Stylistically, I’ve been prepared to do absolutely anything; an opportunity can present itself from anywhere and I have always taken it. My tendency is to say yes to things and jump in and see what happens.”
That includes an upcoming performance with Nicky Bomba’s 26-piece Melbourne Ska Orchestra.
Three decades of fronting bands and riding the music business rollercoaster has given Perkins a taste of many of the industry’s highs and lows. He never set out with the intention of a lifelong career in music but has nevertheless navigated his way through to a point where he can reflect with some satisfaction.
“When I started it was a way to have fun and get free beer, but I started having kids and somehow I have been feeding this enormous family,” he said. “I think I’ve got this far by retaining my wonder and sense of adventure about it and keeping it creative and fun.”
He concedes there were times when he was so disillusioned that if he could have done anything else he would have, but those days are long since passed.
Perhaps surprisingly, this feeling would hit him during the time of one of his greatest commercial successes, fronting The Cruel Sea.
“There were these periods where it felt like doing the same thing over and over again,” he said. But he regained his passion by taking on new projects and throwing himself in disparate directions.
Turning 50 this year and still doing what he loves, Perkins reflects on the trajectories of artists and bands built up one year only to crash and burn the next.“You can’t keep defining yourself by whether Triple J is playing you or not,” he says.
Tex Perkins and Charlie Owen perform at the Yarraville Club this Saturday night with support from former Magic Dirt frontwoman Adalita. Tickets $27-$62.
Bookings: www.yarravillelive.com
