Back in land of the living

Chris Cheney (centre) and The Living End play Soundwave later this month.
Source: Supplied

ONCE upon a time seeing Chris Cheney from The Living End face first on the floor would have required serious alcohol.

Cheney, now based in LA, has swapped heavy drinking for perfecting his down-facing dog.
“Doing yoga daily keeps me sane, keeps me away from the bottle, keeps my head clear and keeps me balanced,” Cheney says. “It really is a lifeline for me, If I stopped doing it I’d end up in all kinds of trouble.”
Cheney is taking a similarly namaste approach to The Living End, the rock trio who celebrate their 20th anniversary this year and have outlasted Silverchair, Powderfinger and Grinspoon.
After a retrospective tour in 2012 they’re on a recording hiatus while Cheney makes a solo album, but still play sporadic live shows.
The next is joining the Soundwave festival, after Stone Temple Pilots cancelled.
“They called and we jumped,” Cheney says.
Cheney flew home for rehearsals with band mates Scott Owen and Andy Strachan, which didn’t last long.
“We put a set together, ran through it, then we were off to the pub,” he says. “It’s just good to catch up with each other. There’s no politics in this band any more. We’ve been there and done all that. Now we’re three old friends who just talk about anything other than music.
“I’m glad we’ve made it. We didn’t combust. With any band who’s toured as much as we have, it could have happened at any moment. And kinda did happen, back in the day, but now there’s a zen about The Living End that wasn’t there 10 years ago. ”
Inspired by the retrospective tour, where they played their six albums in full, they’ve added Roll On’s Killing the Right and Modern Artillery’s Hold Up to their Soundwave setlist.
“Hold Up is a blistering metal-influenced tune we wouldn’t normally play but if we’re going to be in hard-rock, punk-rock land we’ve got to step into the ring,” Cheney says.
“We’re obviously going to play the usual songs as well but it’s about getting out of the comfort zone. We’ve never backed ourselves, it was always ‘if we play track five from an album, only a few hundred people will know it’. That doesn’t matter if it’s a good song. It’s a danger to get stuck in a rut. No one wants that.”
While there’s a zen around the band off stage, they remain majorly un-zen on stage.
“It’s full throttle,” Cheney says. “We did Queenscliff Music Festival a few months ago and it was one of the best shows we’ve ever done. Because we’re not playing every weekend there’s this hunger. There’s a different kind of nerves, it feels a bit foreign, a few days before a show I’m like ‘How does this song start again?’ It makes for such a better gig when you feel a bit unsure of how it goes.”
Cheney will release his solo album later this year; one track features an orchestra.
“It doesn’t sound like The Living End,” Cheney says. “I spend every day churning out songs, experimenting, figuring out what I want it to be. I’m feeling really inspired.”


bina fink, binafink.com, bina fink kohl, bina kohl fink,Bina Kohl Bina Fink Kohl public relations