From The Daily Telegraph, Surry Hills, N.S.W.: Apr 28, 2005. pg. T.14
Written by Stephen Downie
Grant McLennan eyes off his meal suspiciously as the roaring Bondi surf whips the beach.
Oceans Apart is out now
"I'm not a survivor. I'm a maverick. I'm a pioneer," he quips stoney-faced between mouthfuls, without the slightest hint of ego.
"Survivors are people who have gone through some horrific accident. That hasn't happened to me."
Indeed, in the 27 years since McLennan and then fellow Queensland University student Robert Forster, pictured together right, founded the Go-Betweens, life for the pair has been pretty sweet.
There's been a string of well-known Australian tunes such as Cattle And Cane and Streets Of Our Town, an international fanbase and, lately, a homage in hit US drama 24, by way of a building called McLennan-Forster. They also have a new album out called Oceans Apart, recorded over four weeks in London with a producer who has worked with the likes of U2.
Despite being international darlings, both McLennan and Forster live in the city in which they started the band - Brisbane.
Asked what that's like, McLennan recalls a taxi ride home after a trip to New York, whereby he found the city empty.
"It's still a country town," he says. "But you trade that sophistication for a really mellow and fantastic way of living.
"There are trees everywhere, the river's beautiful and people are a lot more peaceful. At least until they get a bit of Bundy rum into them and then it goes a bit crazy."
Amazingly, given their longevity, the band has never quite managed to scale the dizzy heights of fame. Forster pragmatically says success would have given the band "a much-needed financial boost".
"Bands need money to exist. A hit record looks like a pot of gold," he says. "That would have helped us. It would help now."
But maybe in a bizarre way, he adds, the band was better served without the trappings which come with stardom.
"A hit record ties you to a time. It pegs you to a year," he says.
What the Go-Betweens have always had is an ardent following both in the press and with fans.
The first phase of the Go-Betweens ended in 1988, after six albums. McLennan and Forster embarked on solo careers and then 12 years ago were reunited through a GoBetweens greatest hits tour.
"I always thought we would work again, so it came as no surprise to me," says Forster. "Things can have second acts. You go can go back into a marriage."
McLennan sees their career as a movie, with the'90s being a "very long intermission". Both treat the new album as another chapter in the ever-evolving story of the Go-Betweens.
"Really, there is no difference now to when Robert and I first started playing together and he was teaching me very rudimentary notes on guitar and dreaming about New York in the mid'70s.
"We still like writing pop songs, for want of a better description, and songs which have good lyrics.
"What we bring now is we're not tired. We're not whacked out or in Betty Ford clinics. We're not casualties."
Damn straight. The new album, the follow-up to 2003's, Bright Yellow Bright Orange shows a band - which also includes Adele Pickvance and drummer Glenn Thompson, formerly of Custard - brimming with the same passion and penchant for lavish pop they had when they started.
Already, Oceans Apart has received five-star reviews by notoriously fastidious English music journals. It was produced by Mark Wallis, who recorded the band's earlier album, 16 Lovers Lane, regarded by some as their masterpiece.
Forster calls it "a big city album".
"It's a more urban record than we've done ... and we thought what better place to make it than a city of 123 million people," he says.
So, do they think they can add to their legion of devout fans with this album?
"I think we can," says Forster. "We're not stuck with the audience we had in 1984 and that comes from just doing the best work we can and a bit of luck.
"We're still pushing. We've gone over to London to record and that sends out a subtle message that we're still hungry."