Steve Poltz

Shortly after the first performance of his January Austrlaian tour at Sydney's Peats Ridge festival, we sat down with Steve Poltz for a chat.

On his tenth visit to our shores, it's obvious that Steve Poltz has a love affair with Australia. He's toured with Jewel (with whom he wrote the wildly successful song 'You Were Meant For Me') and in recent years as a solo artist, returning every year or so to build on his fan-base with intimate shows at venues and in living rooms across Australia.

"This is my tenth trip to the land downunder... can't believe it. This is my last trip, I'm never coming back. Ten, I'm finally full. I'm calling it my Farewell Australian tour. Me and Liza Minnelli," Poltz says, with a level of conviction only John Farnham could match.

"Where's John Farnham from?" Poltz asks.
"Not originally Australian... I think he's from England," I respond.
"Did he start the Beatles?"
"I think that's the guy yeah."
"He's that drummer that wears a lot of rings right?"

As more and more off-the-cuff banter like finds its way into our conversation, you get a sense that Poltz's lyrics -- dotted with rapid-fire rhymes that are as simple as they are off-kilter -- are a very ingrained extension of his personality. As he segues off into yet another Poltzesque run-on story about the first time he let a man shave his legs (a mushroom-induced experience), we get to talking about sobriety. Six years sober, Poltz has been-there-done-that and is enjoying life on the other side.

"I love when people drink; I'm a live and let live kind of guy, it just quit working for me. I'd used up all the beers and whiskey and drugs I'd needed and I'm on this crazy other high."

"I like a nice cup of tea, good stimulating book, nice conversation, good movies, old Bob Dylan songs. I can put on a song by Bob Dylan and really go on a journey; when I'm hearing it I like to picture him typing it into a typewriter -- especially stuff he did in the 60s."

Without a pause Poltz switches gears and pulls a haunting, a capella, rendition of The Times They Are A-Changing out of nowhere.

"I just think  he probably wrote that really fast and he was on such a roll. I find beauty in the arts and I feel like I'm drunk and high so I don't want to disturb that."

Without his demons, Poltz doesn't feel that he has any less access to his craft.

"None of that stuff gives you inspiration. It's fun, don't get me wrong it's all fun but no, inspiration comes from the powers that be in the sky, whatever that is. I kind of think there's this crazy spirit in all of us, and whatever that idea of god is, it's in all of us. And if we're true to the vision of what we're supposed to be then the vibrations will ring really clear."

A modern troubadour, Poltz tours incessantly. Recently rarely a year goes by where our distant shores aren't graced by his presence. For him it's as much an psychological imperative as it is a living.

"I tour a lot because I feel like time can't catch up with me as long as I keep playing shows. And then I come home, time catches up to me and I feel kind of sad. I don't know what to do the first couple of days when I get off the road. I just sit there and I don't even call anyone and I get really blue."

His shows are quite a mixed bag. "I never use a setlist; I didn't know I was going to do Dick's Automotive [earlier]. I didn't like the way the sound was going and rather than be a pussy little musician and go 'This doesn't work!' and storm off stage so I took it off in another direction."

With a repertoire of bizarre, comedic and truly heartfelt songs, Steve Poltz has an uncanny ability during his shows to move from the hilarious to the touching in a single breath; often in the same song. I ask if this is something that he approaches consciously in the songwriting process.

"If ever I planned to do it, it just doesn't work and it comes out shitty. It sounds like I'm trying. But when it just happens and it's organic, that's the best. When it happens it's like a mare giving birth, and there's no controlling what that kid's going to come out as."

Indeed, sometimes his songs surprise even him.

"There was a song on my new record Dreamhouse called "Digging for Icicles". I wrote out storyboard and I said I wanted a guy to get in a car crash and be frozen to death in the song; I wanted to be this brutal dark song. So I had this guy get into the car crash and next thing I know he ends up meeting the girl that crashed into him and gets her pregnant and they start a family. It became this love song; I tried really hard to kill off the guy but the song wasn't working that way. So I was like well I lost control of this song... somebody else took over."

As we talk about songwriting, the topic of inspirations comes up, and quickly leads back to Bob Dylan and his idiosyncratic performance style.

"I've seen him with The Dead, Tom Petty backing him up, solo acoustic, with The Band, all over. And I love him, but he's a very challenging guy to see. It's not what you'd expect; if you heard the records and expect this guy to come out and tell stories. He's not going to say a word, he's going to do whatever the fuck he wants. And the songs are unrecognisable. So if you accept that that you're seeing the guy that wrote these songs and just go with it. It's like if somebody's going to fuck you up the ass, just enjoy it. Just go in and know you're going to get fucked up the ass and then you'll enjoy it.

So that's the way I look at it; I don't want to go in and get hostile like some people and be pissed. It's Bob Dylan, he's going to do it. It's going to be shitty. In Buddhism, the first belief is life is suffering; that's why Buddha is smiling, because he's already made peace with the fact that life sucks. So if you know the Bob Dylan concert is going to be shitty you're going to go and have fun, 'cause it's not going to be good. But I fucking love him and would see him at any chance I could get because who knows how long he's going to be alive. He's truly a different god and I'm not going to miss him if he comes through."