Dave McCormack gives us a short history of his beloved band.<\/p>\n
He’s composed scores for shows like Rake, Redfern Now, Jack Irish and more.<\/p>\n
Most recently, he’s been the voice of Bandit Heeler, the father of a little dog called Bluey on the children’s TV show of the same name.<\/p>\n
Now, he’s released A Complete History of Popular Music, the first album for his band David McCormack and the Polaroids in 20 years.<\/p>\n
He doesn’t expect this to be one of his bigger successes.<\/p>\n
“There’s no real expectations,” McCormack casually notes from his Sydney home. “If anyone listens to it, that’s cool.”<\/p>\n
A reminiscence between the Brisbane-bred McCormack and drummer Shane Melder sparked the reunion a couple of years ago.<\/p>\n
“We were talking about all these Polaroids songs that we never get to play. So, we did a gig of playing the old songs.”<\/p>\n
This turned into a trip to the recording studio to make 2024 EP Get Old, but there was more in the tank.<\/p>\n
Reuniting The Polaroids scratched an itch for friendship and collaboration \u2014 naturally, that led to more music.<\/p>\n
“It’s fun playing with different players,” McCormack says.<\/p>\n
“What tends to happen is, we’ll book a gig, we’ll have a rehearsal, I’ll get so vibed by being in the rehearsal room with these people that I’ll go home and write a couple more songs.<\/p>\n
“So, for the next rehearsal, we learn a couple of new songs: it’s sort of a feedback loop. I get a buzz out of it, so I write more songs.”<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
David McCormack and the Polaroids made their latest album in less than two days. (Supplied: Das Kong)<\/p>\n
McCormack has no shortage of outlets for his energy \u2014 or his songs.<\/p>\n
Besides Custard and The Polaroids, he’s made records with The Millionaires, Who’s Gerald, The Titanics, COW, Miami and more, not to mention the soundtrack work that has seen him win a bunch of APRA Screen Music Awards<\/a>.<\/p>\n He’s remarkably prolific, but recent releases \u2014 including a Custard double album and two Polaroids records \u2014 have left the creative well a little dry.<\/p>\n “I feel like the well’s pretty dry now,” he says of his collection of songs. “In the last two years I must have recorded like 30 songs or something.”<\/p>\n But you never know when a fragment from the past might re-emerge and find itself becoming relevant again, as happened on McCormack’s latest album.<\/p>\n “There’s one called Heavy Metal, on YouTube there’s a version from the mid-90s, so I must have had it forever but never recorded it,” he says.<\/p>\n “There’s another one called Cronies of the Summertime, which I must’ve written 10 or 15 years ago. It was going to be a Custard song and for some reason we didn’t do it.”<\/p>\n Revisiting these old songs feels like stepping into a time capsule.<\/p>\n “It takes me right back to that period and that time,” he says.<\/p>\n “That’s the great thing about music. It’s like it can really trigger time travel in a way, like it’s like smell.<\/p>\n “I love listening to 70s radio stations because that’s when I was growing up. I hear those songs and you just transported back to my, grandmother’s backyard in Toowong. Or living in Kenmore and going for a swim.”<\/p>\n The perfect power of popular music<\/p>\n One shouldn’t read too much into the title of the album. McCormack and his cronies aren’t looking to.<\/p>\n