Over the last 20 years The Living End has dominated the Australian music scene. They’ve seen and heard it all before, but they’re still doing what they love; touring and making music. The band’s drummer, Andy Strachan, confirms they are still going from strength-to-strength.

I loved it when I first joined the band – we were spending so much time over in America on tour. If we weren’t in America, we were in Australia. We were just following the sun – we never saw winter for what seemed like years.

Those days were amazing but the White Noise time was pretty special. We’d played Hordern Pavilion on the State of Emergency tour, but then White Noise came around we started playing the Entertainment Centre, and it was just insane. With that record and that song we were really lucky to grab a whole new cross-section of people, while still retaining the fans who had been with us for years. But every time is special now – we live completely different lives, we’re all over the place, and whenever we do get together it’s really fun… and it’s our job to do something really awesome!

They’ve been through a lot over the years, and seen many changes in the Australian music industry. One particularly big change they’ve had to come to terms with is the insurgence of the internet and social media, which has changed the way bands operate. While Strachan admits it gives opportunities to many artists who wouldn’t have got a chance previously, it has also changed the way people listen to music, and effectively devalued it.

But like many of us dedicated music lovers, Strachan still feels the excitement of buying and opening new albums from his favourite bands. And in fact, a new Living End album is on the way in 2015. In the past their process for recording albums has been a lengthy one, with writing, rewriting, pre-production sessions, and whittling a possible 40-50 songs down to an album length 14 or so songs. However now that their time is somewhat limited due to living on different continents, they intend to capitalise on their experience and rapport to record the next album more quickly, and with less stress.

It can be a pretty stressful time going into an album, so we thought we’d just try something new on this one. Instead of doing months of pre-production, and to-ing and fro-ing, we’re just going to get in and do it. There’s no dramas coming up with the riffs – Chris has riffs coming out of his ears. So we’ll just get in there and jam, and as soon as we’ve got something good we’re going to know it, press record, and voila! That’s our philosophy on this record – let it all hang out. The beauty of rock’n’roll is that you kinda don’t know what’s going to happen.

They may not know ‘what’s going to happen’, but they certainly know what they’re doing, and we can all be confident that the upcoming tour will be true Living End style and calibre. Going by their successful club shows in Europe earlier this year the band are on top of their game, and enjoy playing as much as ever.

I don’t think there’s any reason to stop – as soon as we can’t play unreal rock’n’roll shows, and we start writing really boring songs, then maybe it’s time, but I reckon we’re playing better now than we ever have… and I can’t speak for the others, but I don’t want to go get a real job!

After many years of gaining experience and knowledge, and with the benefit of hindsight, Strachan would give one piece of advice to his younger self – relax and enjoy the ride.

It doesn’t matter what you’re doing, whether it be going to uni or driving a train for a living or whatever you’re going to do, you’ve got to relax and just enjoy it. You only get to do it once, and all of a sudden it’s all over. I don’t have regrets, but I’d certainly say just chill out and don’t worry so much.

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