Last week, the Musicadium team were ecstatic to receive a phone call from Phil Buckle, member of Australian band from the 90’s, Southern Sons, who wanted to add Southern Sons’ catalogue to iTunes via Musicadium. We thought that it would be interesting to get Phil’s perspective on the industry as it is right now. What we got was a fantastic interview with a great (and realistic) view on the industry with the benefit of hindsight. 
Tim Price interviews Phil Buckle:
Southern Sons experienced a great deal of exposure in the early 90’s and had a number of singles and albums that charted quite highly in the ARIA charts. How do you believe that experience in that timeframe compares to today’s music industry?
I think the main difference is that it is no longer imperative to secure a recording deal with a major label. Although to achieve total world domination it probably still is. But if your aim is to make a living out of what you love doing then the internet has made it possible to do so……………but it’s still hard.
In those days the artist would leave it up to the Record Company to do all the “grunt” work. Publicity, liaising with the radio stations and keeping the members of the band financially solvent during that whole process. For this service they charged a premium…………and it was quite a premium. They got their pound of flesh. In the final analysis, when the math is done, our Record Company profited far in excess of what the band…..as a whole did. Far in excess. And bear in mind that we had a very shrewd manager who cut us an exceptionally favorable deal with the record company. They made a lot of money on their investment. Don’t get me wrong, we were not ripped off at all in anyway but the deals are structured in such a way that the company will make millions while the artist will make thousands. In those days the artist would have to sell multi platinum and tour extensively to pay off their recording costs and advances. There are plenty of stories of well known bands who never recouped and worked themselves into the ground, eventually disbanding and still in debt.
So you don’t need to do that anymore. The downside being that you don’t have the weight of the company behind you so you miss out on the distribution networks and instant radio relations. The internet is not really going to replace those things. Why? Because EVERYONE has the same advantage. You are competing with everyone else who calls themselves an artist……..and their mums, brothers and sisters and pet dogs. Everyone is shouting for attention and all believe they are worthy of it.
There were benefits with the old system and there are benefits with the new system. Bottom line is that it’s still tough out there.
How do you think that the experience of releasing these albums independently now into the digital realm will differ from the first time round these albums were released, via a label?
The first time around we had the benefit of years of gigging and of course the power of a major label. Plus we were new. I’m not thinking of this as a “release” or even a “re release”. We are making the music available for those that never got to hear the whole albums and for the new generation who were too young to be interested. The real big difference is that the music is available internationally. We never had an international release even though we worked hard on it.
The band certainly contained some great names - Jack Jones, yourself and Virgil Donati. You have all gone on to play in bands with and write songs with people like John Farnham, Rick Price, Gary Beers, Tina Arena and Steve Vai. Are you still in contact with the rest of the band – are you all excited about getting your catalogue into iTunes?
From time to time we bump into each other. Sometimes I see Virgil if I’m in LA and I’ve met Jack at a couple of gigs. I haven’t seen Geoff in a very long time as he moved to Spain and only recently returned. We all came from very different musical backgrounds and we all dived in different directions when the band split. These albums have not been available for the last 10 years so I’m excited to get them out there again. We had to wait until all contracts had lapsed and the master recordings had returned to our company.
What were highlights of your years in Southern Sons?
Truly the whole thing was a highlight. I mean that sounds like a sucky answer but you have to understand how many years the band worked to achieve what it did and the musical climate of the times. We just didn’t fit in and everyone was telling us just that. I came from a background of Dylan and Joni Mitchell and then years of Jazz guitar, Mahavishnu and Alan Holdsworth. Virgil came from Buddy Rich to Toto and Jack from Van Halen to Hendrix………in the alternative Australian culture we were seriously “not cool”. We defined “not cool”. We were not part of the street culture, we were practiced musicians.
Look at it this way……..at that time some popular bands were Hunters and Collecters, Spiderbait, The Screaming Jets, You Am I…………..all great bands in their own styles but here WE were singing “Heart In Danger” and “Hold Me In Your Arms” and Virgil was doing 10 minute drum solos that defied description. I mean WE were the alternative band!!
So to have such success after the years of slogging and lineup changes and record company rejection etc etc was just very, very sweet.
Are you (Phil) playing live music at the moment?
Funnily enough I’m rehearsing at the moment for a show in Sydney in March. Some folks have talked me into performing a sort of “songwriter plays his stuff and has a chat” sort of night. I’ve got some guest vocalists singing and a little band as well. Apart from that I haven’t had time to play……or the inclination really. I still practice Jazz guitar a LOT!!! Mainly I write and produce and I do this 7 days a week.
You co-wrote a personal music favorite of ours in the office (and ARIA song of the year in 1990), Burn for You, with John Farnham. How did that come about and was it a difficult song to get out?
That song was originally for the State (my band before the Southern Sons)……….well at least the part I had already written was. It was an idea I was working on for about 6 months. I had the guitar part and the “Burn For You” title and chorus melody. The problem was that I couldn’t sing it. It was way beyond my capabilities as a singer. So I kept putting it off and every now and then I’d come back to it and try again. Every time I sang the chorus I would get emotional…….I would actually well up with tears…….so I knew I was onto something and that there was a little bit of magic in that fragment. So then one day I get a call from John’s producer Ross Fraser (an old school friend of mine) and he asked me to go over and do some writing with John and him. I couldn’t believe it. Ross had just signed my band (The State) and had liked the songs so he was going to give me a go. This was truly a lucky break for me and I stayed up most of the night trying to come up with ideas. Around lunchtime on the first day of writing John asked me if I had any ballads I was working on. Remember that I was keeping this little idea for my own band,so I played him another idea that I had. It was a song with a girls name in the chorus so he wasn’t too keen on it. (it was called Analise) “What else have you got” he asked. So of course out came my very shaky chorus of Burn For You and John and Ross and I finished it off in the next couple of hours. We wrote the verses and bridge and recorded it then and there. John had the idea of writing about being away from Jill when he was touring. I learned a lot about song arrangement from those guys. I wish I had that version we recorded that day. It was my first experience of working with a gifted singer and as part of a writing team. It was a great day and marked a turning point in my career. Not only had I been initiated in the art of co writing but I had heard how a good idea could be transformed by a great singer into something really special. How would my other songs sound, I thought, with a really good vocalist? I was about to find out. The next day I called my manager and we decided to fire me as the singer in the band. We were now looking for a good vocalist……and we were in the middle of recording an album!
Reunions are all the rage. ACDC, Guns and Roses, Cold Chisel. Chances of a reunion?
If there was a compelling reason then perhaps. I can’t speak for the other members but I just couldn’t stop everything I’m doing and commit to it.
I truly miss the musicianship of that band though. It really was a bunch of shred heads disguised as a pop band and when that band cranked up it was a joy to be on stage.
But we had that time and it was great and it ran its course……………next.
Once again speaking for myself only, I’m addicted to making new music. I don’t feel any real desire to go back and visit the past.
What do you think of the new generation of Australian Rock? Any favourites?
At the moment I’m enjoying The Temper Trap and Empire Of The Sun and Lisa Mitchell. I’m also interested to see how Adelaide guitarist Orianthi does in the US as we did a lot of work together and well…….I do have a track on that album!
I’m also an admirer of Daniel Johns and look forward to anything he does.
I like bands that aren’t scared to nay say the mainstream……..and these days the mainstream is as much alternative as it is commercial. Originality is truly a scarce occurrence in the music world and just being different doesn’t equate to originality. In fact being different is the easy part. Being good…..however you care to interpret that……….is the hard part.
How do you purchase your music?
I buy everything……and I buy a lot of music…………..on iTunes. Except for the rare guitar things like Wayne Krantz in which case I’ll buy from the artist’s web site.
Southern Sons’ catalogue of Zone, Nothing but the Truth and Self-Titled will be live on iTunes very soon. In the meantime, read up about the band at Wikipedia or watch the filmclip for Hold me in your arms on YouTube.
since changed, and with the decrease in record sales and the recent havoc within the music industry, artists are looking for new and interesting ways to get their music heard.
