THERE’S no stopping The Clouds. The band had a Farewell Tour in 1997 after releasing four albums and a number of EPs, but forces keep bringing them back together for regular tours, some even with new material for the fans.
Singer-songwriter Jodi Phillis said there was a lot more to the band’s connection than a group of like-minded musicians or even friends.
“We are all fire signs,” Jodi said. “We have incredible astrology and numerology and the whole bit - Chinese and Western astrology. Both boys are Sagittarius, both women are Aries. On the Chinese astrology we’re the four quadrants. So we’re perfectly symmetrical. It’s really bizarre.”
The band formed in Sydney in 1989 when Jodi was working as a graphic artist for the famous Mambo label with original Clouds drummer Stuart Eadie and was friends with The Sunnyboys’ Peter Oxley.
“Peter knew I wanted to start a band. I was asking him if he knew any musicians and he said ‘I’ve got a mate whose girlfriend is a bass player and he organised a barbecue for us to meet.”
That was the beginnings of the distinctive harmonies and songwriting pairing with The Clouds’ Trish Young.
The rest of the line-up changed in the early years until David Easton came in on lead guitar and Eadie left the band to be replaced by Raphael Whittingham.
“When Stu left the band we advertised for a while for a new drummer and then we heard someone rehearsing with a band at the studios which used to be our headquarters, where we had a rehearsal and recording studio,” Jodi said.
“We could hear this amazing drummer and we kind of stole him from the Daisy Chains which we are forever guilty about. Yeah, we did stuff like that.”
The four have since been a formidable team which has survived the test of time.
“Our sound was based around our harmonies and chord progressions and then getting clever guitarists and great drummers, great players who wanted to do stuff that hadn’t really been done before, new rhythms or new notes, new scales, try it all.
“That’s what we were about, just coming up with new notes, new intervals and lyrically too we were always trying to write about something that hadn’t been written about before. I think that’s the good thing about (the band’s third album) Thunderhead, is we got into some really interesting feminist lyrics or, philosophical stuff. I think lyrically Thunderhead is probably the strongest album for me.”
The Clouds (clockwise from front left) David Easton, Raphael Whittingham, Jodi Phillis and Trish Young.
It was the harmonies that were distinctly The Clouds.
“School choir definitely had a huge influence on me,” Jodi said. “I went to Lane Cove Primary School and the choir mistress was just incredible. She made a little select audition choir rather than just the school choir and we went in all the eisteddfods and performed on every weekend. That’s when it got really serious and she really trained our ears well and we did some great, complex harmonies. That’s where I learned all about it.
“Trish came to the group with her own influences in music. She was more into pop. She was already playing in bands in New Zealand. She came with that kind of world inside her.”
The band heads to Queensland next month as part of the Retroactive Tour, coinciding with the release of their four albums on vinyl as a box set.
With their loyal following, the Sydney and Melbourne shows have already sold out.
“We definitely see a lot of old fans for sure. But there’s a whole bunch of new fans. And in fact, the old fans’ kids now come along and they bring their friends. So we’ve got a second generation happening which is really cool,” Jodi said.
“It’s really enjoyable now that we’re not stuck together all the time. It makes it a lot more fun.
“Before it was like being married to three people. But now that we’ve got space in our own lives, and we come together once a year or whatever, we realise what a great friendship we have and we just make each other laugh, which is the best thing.”
Jodi said the box set release had given her a new perspective on the band’s albums, although she still believed Thunderhead was their finest work.
“Thunderhead on the whole, but there’s definitely some favourite songs mixed in to some of the b-sides and on all the other albums. With time in between, I’m enjoying them all.
“Listening to Penny Century is really enjoyable. That is definitely the iconic one for the majority of the fans, but a lot of fans say they love Thunderhead.
“And I listened to Futura again the other day and that was really enjoyable. It is very eclectic. It really swings in mood and vibe and genre. It’s a pretty interesting album.”
The Clouds’ Retroactive Tour heads to The Triffid in Brisbane on May 18.
