Rich Webb Band

Rich Webb
Overboard
All Killer/Independent


Although, like everybody, I try not to judge a book (or, in this case, a record) by its cover, this cover photo of Rich Webb, standing in some overgrown backyard next to a destitute, corrugated iron shed, dressed in a mismatched suit, scratching his head as if simultaneously worried and disinterested, screamed out for me to discover who the hell this guy was. And I'm glad I did: 'Overboard' is a gem of a record, even if it's one of those albums you'd never hear except on recommendation. But I tell you; once you've got it you'll never want to let go.

Webb fits somewhere around the Dave Graney mould of singer/songwriter, although his songs are less reliant on some kind of assumed personality, and more focussed on the way in which his real personality presents itself through the form of song. For example, Don't Feel So Sad, the opening track to this opus, is not all like Graney - it's a Triple J hit in the making (if only they'd play it), with a chorus to die for. In fact, I'd say this song is rivalled only by Michael Carpenter's Good Enough in the male singer/songwriter stakes for 2004.

But this record is also overflowing with his personality, and his less-than-orthodox way of producing pop music. Judy Garland has a Bluebottle Kiss style to it; the demented lament, Blue-Eyed Girl, is masterful; Move On Over, which you may have heard before, expertly adopts an electronic sound to make you bend to its groovy will; Firehole quietly rocks; and the climax, Miranda is a dirty pop song to make you sit up and take notice.

And the best part is, I don't even think as yet that I've discovered everything that I'm going to love about this album.

Ben Revi - DB Magazine

Overboard sees Rich Webb at it for the third time, producing slow brooding rock not unlike the Bad Seeds. reviews say there are influences including everyone from Bob Dylan and the Beatles, to the Byrds and Paul Kelly.
Ditching the acoustic guitar for a heavier soundscape, the result is a deeper, darker Rich Webb than we have seen before.
Tracks like 'Move on Over' and 'Burn in Hell' demonstrate Rich Webb's commanding presence. he definately has a Nick Cave vibe to him, his dusky voice resonating amongst a sea of howling guitars and deliberate, solid bass lines. - Rough Trade

The night the stars aligned for Rich Webb - Australian Music Online -December 2005

Who are your 3-5 favourite Australian artists?
There are a heap but the first ones I heard had the biggest impact. I was brought up in England and even before I got over here, I had Bon Scott and Chris Bailey down as all time fave singers – I had no idea they were Australian but that’s one of the great things about music, when it’s working it just doesn’t matter where you are from. Bon Scott has got to be the cheekiest singer I’ve ever heard and Chris Bailey just howls, particularly on the early Saints stuff.

When I got over I was straight into Paul Kelly and for a while Ron Peno and Died Pretty. Mad Nick Cave would be up there too and when you want to get deep down and dirty in a sticky carpet Melbourne boozer, you can’t beat a Saturday afternoon in the presence of The T-Bones.

What are your 3-5 most played Australian releases? Why?
Tender Prey – Nick Cave
I’m Stranded – The Saints
Lost – Died Pretty
Skeleton Jar – Youth Group
City Life - Tecoma

I heard Tender Prey for the first time at a Chris Bailey gig with Paul Hester, Nick Seymour and Chris Wilson with him. The gig was phenomenal and they played Tender Prey in the interval. It was the sound of an electric ballroom burning. I was out first thing next day to get a hold of it.

The Saints have been there for ages and have got me up and down the Hume Highway more times than I can remember.

Died Pretty’s Lost marked a great time although I don’t play it all that much these days while the last two are relative newcomers.

My most played album this year is definitely Youth Group’s Skeleton Jar – I reckon they are really onto something. There’s also one supreme track on Tecoma’s City Life called ‘This Constellation’ which came shining into my world a couple of months ago at the right time and I’ve been doing my best to wear it out. Top song – she’s a star.

Tim Rogers deserves a guernsey somewhere here but I’m out of room.

What do you think is the most influential Australian music release of all time and why?
Let there be rock – AC/DC. It defines how guitar rock should sound. I still haven’t heard anyone make guitars crunch that hard since. Friday on my Mind by The Easybeats is perfect though. There’s no need to call on this stuff, so let’s have two.

Which Australian performer (past or present) would you most like to work with?
Angus Young – I’ll sing two or three lines and let’s cut to the guitar solo eh.

Can you describe one of your most memorable Australian music moments to date:
A while back I played a show with a band I was with called The Stiff Kittens at Sydney’s Hopetoun and Don Walker, Ron Peno, Tony Mott and Roger Grierson were in there boozing and getting down to it. It was great to meet them and to kick into a few afterwards. I had only recently made it over and I thought all gigs must be like this here. Everyone out and about, checking into the new stuff. Ummm, I’ve since found out otherwise - the stars must have been aligned to once in a million that night.

What are your three favourite music websites?
I’m not much of a web surfer but I reckon the Popbitch newsletter can be pretty funny – www.popbitch.com. Everyone should check out this link before they do their next promo shots too - www.rockandrollconfidential.com/hall/index.php – it’s a hoot. But generally, I need to get out more webwise, any suggestions?

What, where and when was the first local gig you attended?
As I said, I was brought up in England, so my first local gig was a few days after I got off the plane and it was Paul Kelly on New Year’s Eve on St Kilda beach – it pissed it down too. Very messy.

Can you tell AMO a story behind your latest release?
I struck a deal with the devil around the Cape of Good Hope. I reckon it was a decent one. He said dump the acoustics, we dumped them. He said turn the electrics to 11, we did that. Then he said get Paul McKercher to mix it, and we did that too. In return, he said it would be the slowest building album since the pyramids but it would get there eventually. I said OK, I can wait.

He’s been right on the build so far – the album’s over a year old and it is only now that stuff is starting to come through on it. He reckoned the crossroads were in Silverton though, so maybe I was had.

Lastly, what do you think is the most important issue facing Australian music today?
Getting more Australian music overseas – we need to work better together to get packages of bands going over there instead of each trying to go it alone. There is a brilliant music scene here but we need to work more effectively to lift the exposure. It’s fine and dandy to play locally and that should be the core of what we are all doing but ultimately, unless you are a top 10 act or something, you’ve got to make it work somewhere overseas as well to get the numbers happening.

Plus, can you think of a better way of spending your time than - Australian Music Online

"If you can't smell the sharp coffee sting or taste the sweet steaming night, then you're not hearing the bluesy groove of Rich Webb and his rich web of murmuring colours.

Through an earthy honesty he delivers smouldering soliloquies, charged with a mildly abrasive edge which gnaws at the soul. As a whole, the album 'Overboard' is a brooding train ride which rolls with glowing guitar, riveting rhythms and lingering bass, moving over dynamic waves of musical landscape.

As a deeply philosophical lyrical conundrum, Webb explains "It's essentially about what happens when everything gets thrown away." With an obvious mastery over metal, rock, groove, blues and folk, Webb teases the subconscious with a sneaking sinister style, working his tenor voice across glib guitar glissando on '3 Days Missing' and through the punching tempo of 'Judy Garland'.

In the narrative styles of Nick Cave and Al Stewart, Webb filters his beckoning Don Henley raspiness and intonation through a sandy Tex Perkins grunge, with the beckoning huskiness of Peter Gabriel thrown in. All aboard for Overboard! Rich Webb, keep weaving."

Renee N. Abbott - Forte Magazine

"Classy Package from olde M-Town"

Even if "Don't Feel So Sad" opens like a Matthew Sweet outtake, Rich Webb's heart isn't in upbeat sophisticated pop. The ex-Stiff Kittens frontman is very Melbourne - in the pre-Jet sense - working in a space somewhere between the dark roots swamp of Kim Salmon and the cleanly produced adult pop that comes from Joe Camilleri's Woodstock Studios.

He likes dark atmospheres, but the Nick Cave/Hugo Race schtick is one that's hard to replicate. Webb comes across as a produced version, lacking ill groove, as he echoes Peter Gabriel on "Burn in Hell" or whispers like Dylan's death-rattle on Time out of Mind across "Cry Like a Whale".

It's the latter, more intimate stuff that works best, as lovers swap friends on "3 Days Missing", or the sound is stripped back to horns - breathy and near-still - on the outro to "Take it All".
Simon Wooldridge, editor. - Rolling Stone

For those folk outside the country who may be unfamiliar with your music, can you tell us a little bit about yourself or your band? How would you choose to describe your sound?
I’m a Melbourne-based singer songwriter. I arrived in Australia a decade or so ago after time in Glasgow, Scunthorpe, Sheffield and London and my sound is kind of wired alternative rock with plenty of melody and variation.

My stuff has been described as being in the vein of Nick Cave, Matthew Sweet, Dylan and Paul Kelly but I reckon it’s more of a mash up than any of those specifically. I can hear more Marc Bolan, Tom Waits and Bon Scott floating around in there but maybe that’s what I’m looking for.

When did you decide that you wanted to be a musician? How did you start going about it?
Ages ago. I was brought up in a steel town in the north of England called Scunthorpe and on the way to school I always walked passed the musical instrument shop. I was listening to music like mad already. Every morning I’d see this really cool yellowy-orange no-name semi acoustic guitar at the side of the shop window. I loved it.

Then on holiday one summer I scored big time on a three fruits slot machine - I got the cherries in a row Iike seven times in succession by pulling the handle in a wonky way. I emptied the thing and the first day after we got back home I bagged that guitar. I soon found out why it was there so long. It had an action higher than even the huge blisters that came up on my fingers but it sounded like a dream. Six months and Hey Mr Tambourine Man later, I traded it in for a black Italian Les Paul copy. It’s a long way to the top.

Early in 2006, AIR – the Association of Independent Record Labels – will launch their eighth compilation, featuring five discs of diverse Oz artists. This CD travels to festivals such as MIDEM and Popkomm, as well as being distributed nationally and abroad. How does it feel to be included on the CD, and why were you keen to be involved?
Very cool. I liked the last AIR release and I reckon they are doing big things for independent music here. I think it’s a top way to promote and spread a heap of great new Australian music in one tasty pocket-friendly takeaway morsel. Chew slowly, don’t bolt it.

Can you share some of your own musical tastes with us: who are three of your fave local artists, and what do you love about them?
Youth Group – their latest album Skeleton Jar is tres cool.

Tim Rogers – the You Am I front man always does the business whatever line up he’s kicking around in.

Machine Gun Fellatio – don’t know what’s happened to them lately but there is no finer exponent of crutch rock with extra sexual overtones. Great fun.

What do you think are – if any – the biggest challenges faced by Australian musicians in terms of building a viable music career, in comparison with similar artists in other regions?
Maybe distance but who’s grumbling when you can get some quality time in at the back of the van. Actually, I think band riders are too small but that’s more of a global issue.

With recent mergers and sales (such as SONYBMG, FMR-Warner) and the ever-changing role of multi-nationals, what are some of benefits you think local artists gain from working with independent labels here in Oz?
Independent labels are where it is at. If you are not a top 20 global mainstream act, want some control over what you do and how you are presented, you would be mad not to go independent.

But I also don’t believe in the ‘all majors bad, all independents good’ rote either – dickheads can run indie labels and there are some exceptionally fine music purveyors in the bigger camp. You are always better off working with someone who understands what you are doing. So get the suit cut to fit the figure.

What’s the most crucial advice you could give a local artist seeking to release their music via an independent label?
Make sure whatever you are delivering kicks arse in whatever style you are working in and that you are totally committed to what you’ve completed. Then find someone who understands what you want to do.

What do the next few months hold for you? Any touring or new releases you can share with us?
I’ve just had a single released in Holland and Belgium and I’ll be heading over there for shows in March/April. I’ll hit the UK after that. I’m due to be back here by the middle of the year to start recording a new album. Sounds like one big ball to me already.

Lastly, what do you think is the most important issue facing the Australian music scene today?
I think we need to work together to get more Australian music out there and this AIR compilation is that kind of happening. Maybe we need a bit more of it. There is a great camaraderie in Australian music. I know when Elliott Smith came out here he brought his mates Quasi with him as support – I thought there was a lot of class in that. It was a hell of a show. www.amo.org.au - Australian Music Online

"Overboard sees singer-songwriter Rich Webb at it for a 3rd time, producing brooding slow rock not unlike the Bad Seeds. Reviews say there are influences including everyone from Bob Dylan and The Beatles, to The Byrds, and Paul Kelly - big wraps there.

Ditching the acoustic guitar for a heavier sound scape, the result is a deeper, darker Rich Webb than we’ve seen before. Tracks like 'Move on Over' and 'Burn in Hell' demonstrate Rich Webb’s commanding presence. He definitely has a sort of Nick Cave vibe to him, his husky dry voice resonating amongst a sea of howling guitars and deliberate, solid, bass lines.

If you’re into darker alternative rock that has depth and sophistication to it in a dark sort a way, look no further. Unfortunately, for those radio affixed among us, you may just get lost in the murky waters that follow radio friendly opener 'Don’t Feel so Sad'. But bear with it radio heads, because if you can make it through, it’s well worth waiting to see the 'Light'.
Whitey. - Australian Music Community

"Melbourne singer-songwriter Rich Webb teams up with sound supremo Paul McKercher to deliver 11 blistering tracks of wired alternative rock. It’s an alarmingly inspired concoction, bound together by Webb’s voice, which howls and shimmies through the record like a dust storm from the Mallee desert. Don’t Feel So Sad, Firehole and Move On Over are the radio favourites, while 3 Days Missing is one of the sweetest fingers to an ex girlfriend we’ve heard in a long while. You’ll reach for this after a big night out and find it still doing the business come the morning. Essential listening."
Fruition, Melbourne. - Fruition Music

"Overboard sees singer-songwriter Rich Webb at it for a 3rd time, producing brooding slow rock not unlike the Bad Seeds. Reviews say there are influences including everyone from Bob Dylan and The Beatles, to The Byrds, and Paul Kelly - big wraps there.

Ditching the acoustic guitar for a heavier sound scape, the result is a deeper, darker Rich Webb than we’ve seen before. Tracks like 'Move on Over' and 'Burn in Hell' demonstrate Rich Webb’s commanding presence. He definitely has a sort of Nick Cave vibe to him, his husky dry voice resonating amongst a sea of howling guitars and deliberate, solid, bass lines.

If you’re into darker alternative rock that has depth and sophistication to it in a dark sort a way, look no further. Unfortunately, for those radio affixed among us, you may just get lost in the murky waters that follow radio friendly opener 'Don’t Feel so Sad'. But bear with it radio heads, because if you can make it through, it’s well worth waiting to see the 'Light'.
Whitey. - Australian Music Community