Peter Garrett's Australian drawl is clear, precise and relaxed. He's speaking by phone from his San Francisco hotel room as Midnight Oil begin their brief four date US tour to promote their 10th album in 20 years

They've just completed a two week tour of Australia, and after the American tour, they're heading for one London show at the Forum, October 29.

The legendary Midnight Oil, two decades down the track.

" I never ever expected I would get paid to play music", Peter Garrett told me last Sunday evening. " I first made a record so my gran could have one. I never expected we would still be going strong in twenty years' time. Two years ago, I never thought we'd play in Whyalla again, either".

But Midnight Oil ARE still going, and they've changed. Garrett's changed. He's more easygoing, sense of humour firmly in the forefront.

There's a reflective tone in our conversation. Like their new album, "Breathe", the edge is still there, but there's a welcome, relaxed freshness, too, a confidence brought about by having consistently proven that things can be done differently. Even if you move against the mainstream, success is possible. If you stick at it long enough you become part of the mainstream - or the mainstream catches up with you. And then it's time to reflect and move away once more.

"As you know, Vince, we're a volatile band. We've had our rocky times, but we've tended not to wear it on our sleeves. We're supposed to have split up ten times in the past couple of years".

I tell him I believe that volatility is the most important ingredient for the longevity of a rock band, that without volatility the music becomes insipid, without flavour, devoid of soul or attitude or character. He agrees.

"We've been very much a do it yourself band, broke away from our agency so we could do the bookings and other business stuff ourselves, tried to be self reliant.

"When you're a volatile , successful band you either bond or you bust. After all these years we've bonded, we're getting wiser, we're working out the human relations of it all. The challenge is to be creative in a world where the turnover in music is way too quick for most people. Most people get 30 seconds at it.

"But it's simple to define Midnight Oil. It's a place, its music and its fans. This very brief tour is just to touch base with our fans, the media, the record company. We live in Sydney, but we're alive. We're still a band, we're very much together, here's our record, and we believe in it. We're going to do a quick tour and then go straight into the studio and do another one, and if it all goes well we'll come out again real soon and do a good, solid extended tour".

I tell him that some of the more cynical people in Australia were calling this the dinosaur tour, that the band was all washed up, that Midnight Oil were all but finished.

He calmly responds. He's heard it all before. "I don't think it is at all", he responds. "The shows are all sold out, the crowds are going off, the record's getting great airplay all over the world.

"The band's probably reached a point where the only reason for being a band is because we all want to be in a band again. It's not a career anymore, we just all want to be in a band again, like we did at the beginning. The one thing about Midnight Oil, above and beyond all the politics and everything else, is that we have always wanted to do it just for the sake of the music.

"You just can't have a career when you're in a band. When you're in a band, you're in a band, that's it".

Nevertheless, when you have massive world-wide hit albums such as "Diesel And Dust", tilting you into the spotlight, five years of pressure trying to equal its success with such classic albums as "Blue Sky Mining", and a relentless touring schedule that keeps one away from home and family for a year, the pressure must be enormous.

"Pressure, yes, but you won't hear a word of complaint from me about being a musician. It's the best job ever invented. I get paid to write and sing songs. Is there a better job on earth? Never let me hear a musician whinge, you know?"

Whinging. There certainly seems to be a barrage of whinging coming from the Australian music industry these days. Sections of the so called Australian new breed do nothing but whinge, completely ignorant of the tradition and depth and history of our industry, now firmly in place. Caught up in either their own agenda, or struggling to keep their job, it seems most are more content to critcise the past rather than see the whole picture. A sad state of affairs.

There seems to be contempt from some quarters, of the foundations set before them, a misguided attitude and jealousy about such internationally successful bands such as the Oils, INXS, Crowded House, Nick Cave and many more, too many to mention here. It doesn't happen anywhere else in the world. In the UK and the States, tradition is embraced, enhanced and built upon.

Garrett again remains calm, but firm.

"I think it's contempt", he tells me, "I think it's insecurity on the part of some of the younger acts. It's weird. In part it's just an extension of the tall poppy syndrome. They don't seem secure enough to acknowledge that other people have made legitimate contributions. Just because you've made a few records, doesn't mean you still haven't got something legitimate to say.

"Tradition doesn't seem to be nurtured like it is in other countries. It's an immature thing. We've just got to hope they grow up a bit.

"Last year it was the Cruel Sea who knocked the old guard, this year it's You Am I. By their own definition from last year, Cruel Sea would now fall into the old guard category", Garrett says.

"I like You Am I, but they look and sound a bit sixties to me". Sometimes I think it's more the managers than the bands, though".

We move away from the gripes and into the Oils new album, "Breathe", a "creeper" of an album. On first listening, I thought it was too laid back, the songs weren't catchy enough, I only liked two songs. But since then, I've listened to it a lot more, and now I think this is one of Midnight Oil's better albums, a radical departure from the past, perhaps a stepping stone to their next phase of development. Now there's only two songs I don't like. It still has that Midnight Oil ferocity in sound, but the feel is far more relaxed, more space. Personally, now that I've had time to absorb it, "Breathe" is up there with "Diesel And Dust" and "10 to 1" . And Peter Garrett's contribution has been more than with any other Oil album.

"I had a bit more to do with it, yeah", Garret tells me, adding, "I think it's the most different album we've ever done. It's the first time we've done any recording in the US, and although most of it was recorded in Australia, it was a good idea finishing it off in New Orleans.

"With previous albums, I've been involved in campaigns and politics, important issues. It was time consuming. After a two year break, and doing other projects it was great to get back to record in a situation where there were no agendas, no time tables. For me, it was case of not having a closet full of things pressing on top of me.

"We could just lay back and listen to the band, making music in the studio. We could try things out, work with the producer. I didn't have to get up next morning and argue for a tree!!

"You know, we tried to do the big rock song thing, the producer looking out the window, the tape operator rolling a joint, and you reach a point where the big rock song isn't big anymore.

"It was spontaneous. We just wrote some songs on the spot. We didn't have to get out the Oxford Dictionary to figure out whether or not we got it the right way around or not. Let's just do it, let's be spontaneous. It was uplifting for us.

"We've said a lot of things in the past, and we've said them clearly. This album is something that is very emotional, very raw, and has conveyed another element of the band. Those elements have always been there, but they've been overshadowed by the big political songs. They snuck out more on this record. We either breathed or drowned. We chose to breathe.

So, the Oils aren't splitting, they're not finished, they've taken a big breather and they're headed down another pathway.

Garrett sums it up perfectly : "By taking a long break, I think we did ourselves and our fans a big favour".

From In Music & Media, by Vincent Lovegrove

(Note: this article has not been approved for reproduction.)