On behalf of TCE.info, I had the chance to interview Harry via email about the latest single, The Car Song. Here's what Harry has to say:
Casey: Your latest single, The Car Song, has an action-packed film clip. Can you say a little on what it's about?
Harry: The clip is a freudian psychological basketball game which is loosely based on some kind of half-baked knowledge of psychoanalysis and the rules of basketball, courtesy of Mr Ben Quinn. Ben pretty much ran with the lyrics of the car song and this is what he came up with, so full credit to him.
Casey: At a concert at the Metro, when you were filming for your DVD, you
mentioned that your film clips were all of you playing music, because you
tried acting and it hadn't really worked. But that's changed with The Car Song. What's changed?
Harry: I hadn't tried acting. I'm a good actor. I think even bad acting is probably better than mimed playing.
Casey: Who did you work with to make the film clip? Any comments about the
filming in comparison to previous clips? Where did the idea of the basketball game come from?
Harry: The idea came from the director, Ben Quinn. His pitch to us was one of many,but it just stood out right from the start, we could imagine what the finished product was going to look like, and then when it was finished, it actually did look like that! That's never happened before. It was nice to work with a director who really had their own strong vision for the clip, didn't take any shit on the day and then encouraged us all to beat each other up at the end.
Casey: You've just been on tour in the US. Do you find that crowds respond the same way everywhere you go? Are there any surprise hits?
Harry: Saltwater in France is a revelation. Apart from that, people seem to respond pretty much the same all over the world.
Casey: Thanks for your time, and good luck with everything!
The Car Song, the second single from the album Two Shoes, was released last week. According to the ARIA singles charts, it has managed to just sneak in this week at number 50. It's number 12 on the Australasian chart, which means that only a quarter of the top 50 is local material. It's a slower start than The Sly, which was helped by being at the same time as the album launch, but it's sure to see some more time in the charts over the coming weeks.
Two Shoes is still going strong in the charts: after ten weeks, it's at number 21, down one from last week. It hit platinum a long time ago, and at this rate will hit double-platinum very soon.
Another busy week has gone by... The Car Song was released as a single, available nationwide, and will show up in the ARIA charts tomorrow. In Sydney, there was the basketball game with Channel V, which the boys won 21-8, and also their MTV TRL appearance, where some fans forgot their names and the audience held up pussy-cat masks.
From the forums, zazzy reports from Ryan that the "major project" isn't a movie, or anything to do with Will Hoge, so conspiracy theorists will have to dig some more ideas on that front!
Things just don't seem to slow down for the band recently. Back from the USA, this week they will be in Sydney for a couple of promotional events, which you can be a part of too!
First, they will be appearing on MTV Australia's Total Request Live on Wednesday. You can be part of the audience for TRL, just check their website for details. Evidently they will have "a sing and a chat", so if that sounds good and you live in Sydney, get down there! Otherwise, catch it live on MTV.
On Thursday, the boys will be going head-to-head with Channel V presenters in a basketball match. You can be part of the audience for the match by registering here on the official TCE website. This is part of the launch of The Car Song single, which is released today!
Following up on the "major project" mentioned recently, user 'sunset light' in the forums dug up some interesting links! Ryan mentions Will Hoge, who they played with a couple of times on the US tour:
And they're all top dudes too. With a bad bad badass tour bus. You should see how purple that thing is. We're trying to convince them to come to the Land of Oz.
And on Will Hoge's site, he has a couple of things to say about TCE:
So back to The Cat Empire. It doesn't seem like it would work but it was f***ing great. Super cool guys. Talented, talented musicians and we all just hit it off. Somehow we realized that the only real common thread we shared was soul and energy. But those are pretty important for all of us. So point is, it was great. There's gonna be a lot of cool stuff in the near future for both bands (together and separately). We'll keep you posted on that.
Now, it seems that this is a little too recent to be the project that resulted in cutting short the European tour, but who knows? Definitely more grist for the rumour mill...
There are rumours flying in the forums, kicked off by a little message in the current tour section of the official TCE site. The European tour has been cut short because of a " major project in the pipelines"! Current conjecture (check out the forum thread here) is focused around some kind of US deal - a contract, a tour, a movie, a TCE-branded wine (or rum?) label, nobody know for sure, but that hasn't stopped us trying to work it out. No doubt we'll know soon enough.
In other news, it's Harry's birthday - if you want to leave your well wishes, drop by this forum thread! Happy Birthday, Harry!
10 North 2nd Street, Harrisburg, P.A.
No Tickets - free all ages street party!
For photos and discussion of this gig, see this thread in the forums.
Thanks to erikred, who joined the forums especially, we have a first-hand account of TCE's adventures in San Francisco. Here is the review in the gigography:
Oliver came on stage quiet-like; I think most of the crowd thought he was a roadie at first, but they quickly recognized him and gave him some welcoming cheer. They opened with a nice intro, including Harry playing the Darth Vader theme on his horn. And then they were off and running
Good to see that the TCE magic works the same on both sides of the world, even if the water does spin the other way down the bathplug...
http://www.highergroundmusic.com/
Musichead has the details: The Car Song will be released as a single on June 19, just a couple of weeks from now. It's tracklisting will be:
1. THE CAR SONG 4:19
2. THE MOTHER PLACE 4:27
3. THE RETURN 4:05
4. SOMEDAY (CAR SONG BLUES) 4:43
Those middle two songs are old, but chances are that very few people have heard them outside a gig or two. It looks like they are also continuing the tradition of putting a different version of the title track on as well, like with the Swing version of The Sly on their last single.
In my opinion, The Car Song has their strongest video clip yet, so this will be a release to watch.