Life is change. After playing for years as a three piece under its original line up, when Groovin the Moo headliners Wolfmother initially split up Andrew Stockdale took the chance to play with the dynamics of his crew a little. Musing over his early decision to bring a second guitarist into the outfit, "I thought it might be a bit better for the dynamic for hanging out," Stockdale says. "If there were more people around then everyone might socialise and mingle a bit better back stage or on the bus, or travelling."
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Getting on with everyone after the glitz and glam of a big concert has faded into the night is something Stockdale has had plenty of experience with.
"I have been on the road with, let's say some colourful characters to say the least," he says. "When you've got like 13 people on the bus, some of these roadies, I mean, geez. You get some out-there characters. I think I've managed to co-exist harmoniously with some pretty colourful people."
With the core band back to a three piece, once again, regardless of how many people who are on stage, at the end of the day what matters most is the music.
"Personalities and dynamics are all interesting stuff, but all you want to do is focus on the art, really don't you?" Stockdale says. "If you don't have a good song or a good record then all these crazies don't have a job."
Speaking of art, the wild-haired guitarist reports he has some new material to share with the world. "I've actually just written about 17 songs for the next Wolfmother record, so we might try out some of those songs for Groovin the Moo tour," he says.
Getting excited all over again about "British metal, '70s metal, prog rock and all that kind of stuff," for Stockdale Wolfmother is one massive excuse to be creative.
"Sometimes you look at the negative sides of it, and think 'Why do you want to tour the world, you've got a house, you've got a home life any everything, why do you want to keep going?' But then sometimes I think, 'What if I didn't have it, you know? What if I wasn't in a band and didn't have an audience that wanted to hear this music?' Man, you'd miss it. You'd miss that amazing opportunity in life that you can't switch it on or switch it off. You can't go down to the shops and say, 'I'll have a Wolfmother fan base and a festival circuit please.' It's like, this is one of those once in a life time sort of things, and you've just got to make the most of it, every tour, every record, just try to never take it for granted."
Helping Wolfmother continue to tour festivals the world over is the band's ongoing appeal.
"The music itself is at home in that context, you know what I mean," Stockdale says. "It sort of has that high-energy uplifting vibe that suits big crowds at festivals. With songs like Joker [and the Thief], it's just got that rollicking beat that seams to work well with 20,000 people or 10,000 people, or 50,000 people. It engages a big audience."
Though when the songs were first composed, Stockdale had little idea of their people-pulling power.
"When we first started we could have gone in so many different directions," he says. "When I came up with the riff for Woman, it was the catalyst for everything else. We just built Wolfmother around that song."
GROOVIN THE MOO
Who: Wolfmother + many others
Where: University of Canberra
When: Sunday 3 May
Tickets: 99.90 + booking fee, available from 2015.gtm.net.au
