By now you've probably heard Pilot are back together, playing a Saturday show at the Festival de Musica and with a possible tour in store. But with such vague plans, so much remains unanswered. Q decided it was time to get some answers from this ragtag bunch of Aussies who seem to have retired and returned more times than Michael Jordan.
Q are invited to join Pilot at their rehearsal studio in Clint Walkingshaw's residence on the outskirts of Melbourne. We arrive on a cold, miserable, wet July afternoon. The mood in the studio is a stark constrast to the weather outside. The reported tension and frustration of their rehearsals a month ago are gone. As Q enters the band are rehearsing their cover of The White Stripes 'The Hardest Button To Button'. Smiles adorn the boys' faces and there's an occassional giggle from the guitarists.
Will that be getting a run on the comeback tour?
Clint Walkingshaw: Maybe. We're just playing it today coz I was watching Getaway (an Australian travel program) last night for some holiday ideas and it was playing on that. I was like, we play that, let's get on that tomorrow. There'll be plenty of surprise songs on the tour though. We wanna have some fun and give plenty of different songs a workout. At Festival de Musica it'll be mainly the hits though. That gigs gonna be all about us going "Hey, remember us? Maybe you've heard these before?" to those who may have forgotten about us.
The good mood keeps up as rehearsals continue for about a further 3 hours. Afterwards we move into Clint's "manroom," which he explains is a male-only sanctuary that every man should have. There's a pool table, dart board, massive LCD TV, sound system, and a bar. The walls are adorned with posters of some of Clint's favourite bands, including Oasis, Kasabian, The Mars Volta and Muse.
CW: I was going to put up posters of us but I thought that's probably a bit up myself.
Are those bands still your influences now?
CW: Those bands will always be my influences. For Nick and Stephen too. Our music tastes are much more varied now though. We want to be everyone. I listen to Punching In A Dream by The Naked & Famous and think, 'I want to have written that,' and it pisses me off and excites me all at the same time. Our influences cover indie, pop rock, techno, punk, dubstep, electro, fucking all sorts mate.
Do you think that's a plus or a minus in your songwriting these days?
CW: Hmmm, that's an interesting thought. Maybe our music was more cohesive back when we were just trying to be Oasis and Kasabian. I don't know if that made it better necessarily, I think a band's early work is usually better responded to if it's good. When you're young and you're naive and you're full of energy that's usually when you make the music people respond to the best. But if we'd just kept writing the same songs over and over I don't think we'd have had the longevity.
Have you stopped trying to be considered the best band in the world then?
Stephen Holland: Absolutely. It was tiring and fucking heartbreaking all those years being one-upped by Thunderwolf.
CW: It's stupid too. How can you have everything we have and be upset that you don't have more? It's stupid. As long as we enjoy making music people enjoy listening to then we're happy.
Are there any ill feelings that Ryan Ross Hernandez is going on after you at Festival de Musica? You (Stephen) and he kind of had some heated words there one time.
SH: No mate. That's all in the past. It wasn't a big deal at the time anyway. It was just that he was doing an interview where he was trying to make us feel sorry for him, then going on about all the supermodels that he bangs. I've never spoken to him in person I don't think so, my opinion of him can't be a real one can it?
What plans do Pilot have following the Festival de Musica?
Nick Edmondson: Very fucking loose ones (laughs). We want to do a tour. I don't know when we'll organise that, it almost feels like we're waiting to see if the Festival show is a monumental fuck up or not. We're also planning to just release individual songs on the net.
CW: Yeah, we figure there's always pressure to do an album, to put ten songs together as if they belong together. Fuck it. Albums only came about because that's how many songs fit on a record. In this age it's just force of habit, tradition that can be broken with. We'll release songs individually on the net and the fans can group them however they see fit
So Pilot won't ever release an 'album', in the traditional sense, again?
SH: Well, we've never promised anything have we? We change our mind abour as often as our underwear so who knows what the future holds.
About your hiatus. Why did you just disappear without a press release or a message on your website or anything?
NE: Because we didn't know what it was exactly I don't think. We just stopped doing band things and didn't start again for a long time. We couldn't say anythin because we might have started again tomorrow, you know?
CW: We've dont that a few times. Maybe we've got communication issues or something, I dunno. You put labels on things and you create false hope and you crush people and you make a deal out of something that's just yours. We can't put it into words in our heads.
SH: We were still hanging out during the hiatus. We're still mates. We were hanging out drinking and playing Playstation and going to the cricket and stuff like that. Some people would want to get back into rehearsals, some people wouldn't. Everyone kept changing their minds, but now it's real and it feels good I guess.
Where do you see the band in five years?
CW: Wow, I don't know. We've kind of been farting along, resting on our laurels for a while haven't we. We'll see how our plans go, how well we stick to them. It doesn't sound like us to stick to a plan for very long though does it.
NE: I think we'll still not be the biggest band in the world, but we'll be ok I reckon.
Soon someone decides to head to a club in Melbourne. Clint calls a friend who gets them in the VIP list and within twenty minutes we're sitting in a VIP section. The guys aren't too dressed up, they just look like a group of guys of about 30 who don't quite belong in the VIP section. Some people stare, wondering out loud, 'is that Pilot?'.
CW: We don't dress like rockstars any more. We never did really. We dressed like guys trying to dress like rock stars, but it never sat comfortably with us. Now we just wear whatever makes us comfortable. why draw attention to yourselves?
But you are in the VIP section...?
SH: That's only so you can talk to us ya ungrateful prick. I'd rather be on the D floor where the ladies are.
In an interview shortly after Andrew joined the band, it was said the Pilot would be Pilot as long as Nick, Clint and Stephen are in it. Has that view changed after Murray and Andrew have been a part of the band for so long?
CW: I don't know that we've really considered either of them leaving the band. But then I guess Liam leaving caught us off guard(Liam left following The Leed Balloon tour to live in the US with his wife after her father had a traumatic brain injury).
SH: Maybe I'm just being a prick, but I think the situation is still the same. Don't get me wrong, Murray and Andrew have added more to the group than any of our other members, they've been more involved and more positive influences, but Pilot is a big thing, I don't know that I could give that up for either of them.
Andrew Blackwell: That does make you sound like a prick. I know where you're coming from though.
Murray Catalano: I still feel like the new guy. I've done, what, 7 odd albums with them. I'm still the new guy. Well Andrew's the new guy, but me too. You come into something amazing that other people have built from the ground up, of course you're gonna be the new guy.
The boys head out to the dancefloor and I'm left talking with Andrew.
How does everyone get on after all these years?
AB: Honestly there's some tension that wasn't there so much in the past. Between us it's all good, there's tension to do with our partners. Nick's dating an 18 year old for Christ sakes, so it's difficult, it's hard for her to fit in I guess. Clint's wife, Hayley, is really trying to control him. There's a feeling that she tries to keep him away from us. It's more than a feeling actually, she described Nick as, 'a toxic person.' I think the guys are a bit uncomfortable around my missus because she works a lot and isn't around us that much. But we're still mates, when we ignore all that and are just in our own world it's all good still.
There seemed to be some tension in the rehearsals early on?
AB: Yeah, it's easy for shit to go down when you're all rusty and frustrated. Some people yell and scream and get pissed off, then it's all good the next day. Now everything's starting to flow and it's all good. We haven't talked much game but I feel like we're ready to go blow everyone's minds at the Festival. I can't wait to get out there and play some tunes and just fucking have it man.
My evening with Pilot draws to an end and I feel like it's raised more questions than answers. But then, I guess Pilot are just like that. Just a bunch of mates that accidentally fell into being rockstars and just want to do it their way and not be forced into a life they're uncomfortable with. But willing or not, they were rockstars once, and may yet surprise us again.
