Fun Drives Cake Eaters

Illawarra Mercury

Thursday May 24, 2007

KILMENY ADIE

MY FRIEND THE CHOCOLATE CAKE

Sunday:

Heritage Hotel, Bulli

Musician Greg Patten is trying to maintain his focus during this phone interview.

But with his band mates from My Friend The Chocolate Cake lurking and joking in the background, and battling a hangover from last night's start-of-tour celebrations, it is not easy.

Nevertheless, Patten soldiers on, largely fuelled by the fact the drummer is excited to be back on the road.

It has been a long time since the Melbourne-based band has been on tour, or had a new album to promote.

Released on March 17, Home Improvements is the fifth studio album by the ensemble that includes Patten, singer and pianist David Bridie, cellist Helen Mountfort, violinist Hope Csutoros, guitartist Andrew Richardson, multi-instrumentalist Andrew Carswell and double bassist Dean Addison.

"I'm very (proud of it). It feels great," Patten says of the new release.

"I was talking to someone the other day and said how it was a very easy procedure. It was a lot of fun.

"We did rehearse for it ... everyone knew what they had to do and the process of putting it down was easy. We did a lot of it at David's. He has a studio at the back at his place and we did bits and pieces. It wasn't those 18-hour days with smoke haze and the rock 'n' roll idea.

"We ate well, drank well, played well and had fun."

This ethos comes with the band on tour. As the group haven't been together for a while, the road trip is seen as much an opportunity to catch up and share stories as it is about work.

"That's why the band's still together, 'cos we don't do it often," he jokes, referring to the group's history that dates back to 1989.

"Everyone's excited because the first gig was great. Everyone played well. We will see how the hangovers go, it certainly feels like we're on tour ... (finding) comfort in the local wine."

Patten promises shows on the tour, including the Heritage Hotel gig, will feature a mix of old and new songs.

"It's quite a long show with two one hour sets. There's lots of material," he says.

"There's lots of records to draw material from so the shows tend to be fairly different. We've been doing it for 13 years so it's almost obvious what we're going to play, then David calls it or he writes the set lists anyway."

© 2007 Illawarra Mercury

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