Tim Man
Sydney Morning Herald
Friday March 12, 1999
What is Tim Rogers driving at with his new solo record? JOHN ENCARNACAO finds the funk.
Downtime. How Tim Rogers hates downtime. Unfortunately, even with the demand there is for You Am I in Australia and the regular forays into foreign markets, there is still downtime. After a tour, the days seem to stretch forever with nothing to fill them. "It's probably because I don't have much else going on in my life," he muses. "Well, I do at the moment, personally. I'm just really hyperactive - What the f - - - do I do? It's either go to the pub or do something with the band."
Last year, in one of these funks, Tim packed his car and drove to Melbourne. He didn't come back. That journey is the subject of The Songs They Played As I Drove Away, the emotional closing shot of Rogers' s new solo record What Rhymes With Cars And Girls. It's a fine example of what songwriting does for him - enables him to work through his feelings.
"Writing songs is just a way of romanticising a dull or a bad situation so you can swallow it, you know. Hmm, jeez, I don't know why we couldn't really get on ... I know, I'll write a song about it! It's a bit of a gutless thing, but that song sums up your relationship with that person so it's like [clicks fingers] it's not that complicated, it's all in D."
Cars And Girls has enough connections with one particular relationship, that Tim mentioned negotiating a royalty split with his ex-girlfriend. The heart-tugging, beer-stained terrain of Rogers's songwriting comes as no surprise, though it's not just a weep-fest. Twenty Eight stares down the barrel of being a thirtysomething with some sympathy, and maybe even a little empathy, for those reproducing and paying off mortgages. In contrast, Hi, We're The Support Band is a light-hearted look at You Am I failing to set Europe alight.
Musically it's a gentle set of tunes with accordion, pedal steel and various strings and winds giving off a folk flavour. There's a casual feel to the disc attributable to its brief gestation. Rogers understands that what he describes as his "ah look, it's nuthin' " image is often an exercise in damage control. "Maybe it is just a fear of working so hard and being really full of it and proclaiming it to be great and then being disappointed," he admits. "I've got the kind of ego that if someone says to me, 'Your record's crap' it does affect me."
What Rhymes With Cars And Girls is out through BMG.
© 1999 Sydney Morning Herald