Hello,
This Friday, we welcome Robert Forster’s wonderful, lyrical ninth solo album, Strawberries, into the world. Strawberries contains eight songs recorded quickly in Stockholm last year with a group of local musicians, each number telling a distinct story, eight mini melodic dramas delivered by one of the great modern romantic musical storytellers. Thematically, it’s very different to his last album, 2023’s The Candle and The Flame, which was partly informed by his wife Karin’s diagnosis during COVID of stage four ovarian cancer. It’s great to see Karin and Robert together in the recent video for his new album’s title track, goofing around in their Brisbane kitchen.
“She's getting better,” says Robert from their home by Zoom. “We’re kind of confined to our suburb here, but that’s OK. We go for walks, talk, swim, all of which we really enjoy. Life’s not so bad, you know.”
Robert’s 67 now, but he’s accomplished quite a bit in that time. Some people say that AC/DC are Australia’s greatest band, but for an admittedly smaller group of listeners that nation’s greatest musical export is The Go-Betweens, the band he started as a twenty-year-old suburban punk in 1977 alongside co-writer/frontman Grant McLennan. Together, they patterned a melody-heavy, lovelorn pop sound that endured over nine albums (with a twelve year hiatus after 1988’s commercial high point, 16 Lovers Lane), before McLennan died suddenly in 2006. Here’s a concise Greatest Hits they’ve supplied on Spotify.
And a video of Spring Rain, one of Robert’s songs for the band, which he wrote when he moved to London for a time in the mid-80s:
As well as the nine solo albums, Robert has toured regularly since McLennan’s passing, and has also written two award-winning books: the memoir Grant & I: Inside and Outside The Go-Betweens and a great collection of his criticism, Ten Rules of Music Writing. The day we speak he’s putting the finishing touches to his first novel, which is alarming for the rest of us hacks.
Anyway, Robert generously gave up some of his evening to deliver his Life & Times answers to Ted and you can read the results below. As ever, thank you for reading. Feel free to share and perhaps subscribe if you don’t already. We rely entirely on our paid subscriptions, though this is a free edition.
See you on Friday,
Ted and Niall
The Life & Times Of…Robert Forster
What was the first record you loved?
Look, it's probably Ramblin’ Rose by Nat King Cole, which I heard on the radio when I was a very young boy, before The Beatles. That was a big one to me when I was five. It's a very big slow ballad, and I just loved it.
And what was the last record that you loved?
An album I really like is Cameron Winter’s Heavy Metal, which came out the end of last year and is slowly gaining more and more attention. It's sort of piano based and full of interesting instrumentation. A very precocious singer songwriter who's doing good things.
What is your earliest memory?
Being held under a shower by my father. I’d spilled tomato sauce on myself. My mother thought I was bleeding, which I wasn't. My father was taking a shower at the time, and I was put under with him - probably the first time I'd ever been under a shower, now I think of it. I must have been bathed before then. I was like three, something like that. Not terribly traumatic.
What is your daily domestic routine?
Every day is different because I work from home. Wake up around nine o'clock, breakfast and then get into whatever I have to do, whether it's writing or song writing. In the afternoon my wife and I might go for a swim in a nearby lake or go for a walk. Then dinner, maybe read. In the evenings, I often have to do emails and work, I have a manager in London and so forth. It doesn't sound terribly exciting, does it?
Who or what is the love of your life?
It would be my family.
What is your worst habit?
Apart from occasional impatience, it’s drinking my coffee too hot. Yeah, my worst habit is probably hot drinks, which I’ve now almost cured. Various people have pointed out it is probably not good for my mouth and throat. I'm someone that goes to a café and asks for - or used to ask for - an extra hot flat white. I’ve toned that habit down now, though.
When were you most creatively satisfied?
Probably now. I’m putting the finishing touches today, actually, to my first novel. And I'm very, very happy with Strawberries, my album that I recorded in Stockholm in September - that still feels very close. Why? First of all, I recorded an album really far away from home. It’s sort of a gamble, you know, to go to the other side of the world and rehearse, record, mix an album in four weeks. Nothing can go wrong when you're working on that time frame, so it was just satisfying on a making and doing level. And then beyond that, I was just really happy with the band, really happy with the songs: just very proud of the way it came out. I'm surprised I'm still writing songs I like so much, and so to record them so well is a pleasure. There's a lot of new things on the record: it's my first eight song album, for example. There's half a dozen things I've never done before on this record. I think that's a good thing to be doing at this stage of my life.
Has anyone you've ever met made you feel starstruck?
Yeah, I met the Hollywood actress, Lee Remick, who was big from the 1950s until she passed away [in 1991].
I wrote the first Go Betweens single, which was called Lee Remick, when I was 20. This was in 1978. We sent it to her and somehow heard that she’d received it.
Then, in 1986, she was making a film in Sydney, and someone that that I knew from the punk days was working on the film as a set designer. She engineered the situation where I met Lee Remick, and I was completely leg shaking, just overwhelmed because I'd written a song for her when I was 20, and then suddenly I was there with Lee Remick. She was just in another galaxy, a Hollywood film star. She was very generous. She and I sat and chatted for, I don't know, a good half hour. It was beautiful.
Robert and Grant McLennan, playing an acoustic Lee Remick, two decades ago.
Who or what is the greatest influence on your work?
Bob Dylan. David Bowie too. Both of them have a certain amount of dignity. Both have been style icons to me. They’re complete.
What would people be surprised to learn about you?
Probably that I’m not as social or outgoing as I appear on stage. I think this is the same with a lot of performers. You can't judge what they're like from how they are on stage. I'm a lot more of a withdrawn, socially nervous person at times. You've got to remember when you're on stage you’re not alone. And in The Go-Betweens, in the time of punk or post-punk, being on stage was often the safest place in the room. I must say, I feel very comfortable on stage. I really enjoy it.
If you could go back in time, where would you go?
Oh, you know, San Francisco in the mid-50s, New York in the late 40s. Europe just before the First World War.
What do you wish the 18-year-old you knew?
That there is time. That finding yourself is a gradual process. You've got time to learn things. There's a lot of family pressure and society pressure for you to know your path as soon as you step out of school. And it took me a while to discover what I wanted, until I met Grant McLennan and we started The Go-Betweens when I was 20. You can learn things and grow through life, if you're lucky, through your 20s and 30s and 40s. I didn't realise that.
What one book would you recommend that we read?
On the Road, by Jack Kerouac. It’s a book I first read at 18 or 19, and it’s full of joy. It’s very inspirational. It’s a very simple book. People driving around, a lot of youthful energy, a lot of humour. An easy book to read, that's important.
What's the premise of your novel?
It's not too dissimilar. I can tell you that it's set in 1991 and that it's involved with the musical world. So, it's a world I know, but it goes back about over 30 years ago. That's all I can tell you.
Do you mind getting older?
No, I enjoy it. I'm 67 and since about my mid 50s this has been probably the happiest time of my life. I find my 60s really fantastic. I feel like I can still do everything that I've always wanted to do, but I'm just a little bit more carefree. I’m more relaxed, confident. I don’t sense in any key areas decay yet. I can still travel. I can still get on a plane. I still feel well every day. I sleep well. And all these things are very important. The last decade has been very positive.
What's the best advice you've ever been given?
Nothing is ever straightforward. It was given to me by a friend when I was about 20. I was more of a flippant, funny young man, but that's just resonated down my life. I can remember that moment, even though it seemed a bit serious and earnest at the time, but it's been proved right time and time again.
What is the secret to a happy relationship?
Listening. Not trying to dominate. From listening, you get an insight into someone's thinking and how they're feeling. That’s important.
What's your greatest regret?
Mmmm...it’s something silly, like a show that didn’t go well or a show that I didn’t go see. There’s no one big regret. Actually, you know, I wish I’d learned piano when I was young, like 20 or something. I can play a little but I went to it far too late.
What is your desert island disc?
Probably Guy Clark, a Texas songwriter who put out an album called Old No.1. It's a brilliant album. It's just ten classic folk, country type songs. It's an album you can listen to again and again. If you were on the desert island, it's not going to pummel you. It's a gentle album, not much electric guitar, not much drums. It's bass, it's lots of nice acoustic guitars, it's piano, lots of singing: probably suit the location.
Have you ever been arrested?
No. Good question, good question.
Which living person do you just most despise?
Well, I mean, at the moment, it would have to be Donald Trump. Chaotic. Inconsistent. Very unsettling.
What do you consider your greatest achievement?
Oh, the happiness that I've found in life through my wife, through my family, through my work. A happiness that I sort of made enough right decisions to end up in a good place.