The New Incarnation of the Booga Beazley - A Head Like A Hole Interview

BOOGA BEAZLEY of Head Like A Hole: The New Incarnation of the Booga Beazley

An interview by Sarah Kidd.

When Booga Beazley picks up the phone the first words out of his mouth are “I am just walking out of the gym”, not something most people would have expected to hear from the king of down and dirty New Zealand rock music… but Head Like A Hole are currently on a 12 date tour of New Zealand celebrating the release of their debut album ‘13’ on vinyl; so Booga is making sure that he is fighting fit.

I asked him, now that ’13’ is twenty five years old, did it feel like they made it a lifetime ago:

“A lifetime ago? Some days it does feel like a lifetime ago, other times you know it just feels like yesterday. It all depends on how old I feel on the day I wake up (laughs), you know if I got aches and pains and far out I’m finding it hard to get out of bed then I’m thinking yeah it was a lifetime ago”.

So in all honesty, why now? What has prompted this trip down memory lane for the band?

“It’s our first record on vinyl, we had always planned to tour 13 and we just think that people want it; they wanna hear it, they wanna hear the tracks back to back off 13. And I would say for a lot of people that it is a nostalgic sort of thing. It’s like going back to when you were a bit younger. Hopefully we will see a lot of those old bastards out (laughs) and maybe we’ll see some of their children with them. Back in those days it was all on wasn’t it? Those Head Like A Hole fans that came along in those days, some of them would have children that would be of the age now. We’ve gone across two generations!”

When Head Like A Hole first emerged on the Wellington scene back in 1990 they consisted of two blokes (Regan and Hamill) and Beazley who had been roped in as a singer after returning from Art School in Auckland. They still needed a bass player and a name, so Andrew Durno was added to the mix and courtesy of an infamous NIN song they finally had their name. After scraping together some cash and booze they recorded some songs on cassette; and the EP Shitnoise was born. They shared a practice space with Shihad, and one day lead singer Jon Toogood mentioned that they should come on tour with them. Regan, who apparently had no suitable ‘rock wardrobe’ decided to play naked; and so the legend began.

Would we be seeing any nakedness on this tour I asked Booga slyly?

“(laughs) I would think about going partially naked if I was in good shape and that’s why I am at the gym. I’m training hard because you know when we got back together back in 2009 I was in my Jim Morrison phase. I had a big beard, and I was well over 105-110kgs. I was a big bastard and shit over the last few years I’ve decided that’s it, I have had enough. I’m not like David Bowie but I’m doing a bit of a Bowie-esque thing. I’m the new incarnation of the Booga Beazley.”

After a couple of years HLAH decided to record an album, that album of course being 13. Released in 1992 it was an anthem for many of us, the outsiders; the kids that hung around the back fields of college in our doc martens smoking our cigarettes. The album was raw and unapologetic. It didn’t care if it couldn’t be placed into a particular box and neither did we. We played it loud and followed the band religiously; the fans from the early days recalling the shows where the boys would play covered in mud or decorated head to foot in body paint. HLAH was a huge influence on a whole generation of New Zealand 90’s teens and twenty something’s – a fact that still makes Booga smile to this day.

“I have been told that a few times and it makes me feel good when I hear those things. I just watched an edit of a documentary that is coming out about us and it made me realise just how much of an impact or supposed impact we did have on music around that time. Because sometimes I think that maybe we didn’t have much of an impact, so yeah it’s a bit of a weird one for me. That’s probably one of the main reasons that we decided to put this record out on vinyl. I mean the only other vinyl we’ve got is a single which is ‘Credence’ from the last record and we thought you know if we are going to start off with any album it had to be 13 really where it all began.”

When one looks at the track listing of 13 there are plenty of standout’s, such as ‘Never Mind Today’ and ‘Narcotics, Noise & Nakedness’ – but it was ‘Fish Across Face’ that became the anthem for HLAH, the single making it into the NZ Top 10. It’s still Booga’s favourite to this day:

“Well you know we just love that song, it’s got great riffs, and the drumming’s wicked. Musically I think it’s a great track. Sometimes I look back on it personally and wish I could have done the vocals better, I mean I had only just started teaching myself how to sing really. When it came to recording that album I was still just developing my style and my technique to sing properly, so you know I think I could have done a better job but people still love it so that’s cool. Another thing that really helped that song along was the fact that we had Nigel Streeter on board doing the video and he did a fantastic job. It really represented the band well; you were watching Head Like A Hole you know?”

In a decade where it was all about boy bands or grunge, HLAH were unique. Well known for their on tour antics I asked Booga if there were any particular crazy stories in the memory banks that he might like to share.

“Craziest from the very start? (laughs) There are a few unspeakable ones! One time in Australia Nigel was playing naked and this girl leapt up on stage and lifted up his guitar and you know positioned herself in front of him on her knees. Nigel was like ‘Holy Shit! What’s happening I’m trying to play guitar!’ And before he knew it she had actually slung around to the back and had her tongue where the sun don’t shine (roars)! Aw dude that makes me laugh to this day! I remember he was telling me later ‘Dude I couldn’t get rid of her fast enough!’”

Intrigued and dying of laughter I asked how the great Nigel Regan did manage to get rid of her.

“What he did was he spun round quickly; it was like a cat getting sniffed in the arse by a dog you know? He spun around quickly and put his doc marten boot on her back and just went ‘whoosh’ and catapulted her back into the crowd. He then leaned over to me while he was playing and was like ‘B that girl just stuck her tongue up my ass!’ (roars with laughter)”

Stories like these and the pure honesty in with which Booga tells them is what has made HLAH so endearing to fans over the years. When the band broke up in the year 2000 many believed it was the end of an era and mourned their demise. Luckily in 2008 they were asked to reform for the Homegrown festival of 09. After a few warm up gigs the boys decided that they actually quite liked playing together again and followed up the Homegrown show with a winter tour. The tour was a hit with the fans but not financially successful. In spite of this HLAH decided to get back in the studios and in 2011 released the rip snorter of an album ‘Blood Will Out’ which featured the magnificent single ‘Glory, Glory’. The album Narcocorrido followed a few years later in 2015.

The current version of HLAH is missing a couple of the orginal members, most notably Mark ‘Hidee Beast’ Hamill, but as far as Booga is concerned the essence of HLAH is still there.

“When we got back together and we released Blood Will Out I think that was a great start to our sort of reuniting and possible chance of continuing on. We’re definitely not a reunion act; we’re like a covers band of ourselves. I mean we’ve got a different bass player (Simon Nicholls), but we’ve got the two Nigel’s (laughs) and that was the nucleus of like Head Like A Hole to begin with. So in my eyes and in Nigel’s eyes, no matter who’s playing drums or bass it’s still gonna be Head Like A Hole. I mean no disrespect to the other members you know, but the lineup we got now? I think we’re playing the songs better than we ever have”

It really was fantastic to hear the enthusiasm in Booga’s voice as he spoke. He sounded driven, like a man with a purpose. I had read that they were well underway with recording their seventh album and asked for confirmation.

“(laughs) Well…we’ve got some tunes. We have recorded a couple of tracks but that doesn’t necessarily mean that they’re gonna make it onto the record. We’re gonna have a new track straight after the tour – so we’ve got something in the pipeline that we’re gonna release. It’s pretty goddamn heavy so I’m not sure where that may be played because we are definitely not writing songs for the radio.”

“I hate pop music. I hate everything about the music industry at the moment. People don’t play music because they love it; it’s just all about the money. It’s all about what tits and ass and what goober you can put in front of the camera with Auto tune on it. It’s just … it’s all trash you know? I wanna feel, I wanna go to a show and feel the hairs on the back of my neck stand up. Even if I sit in front of a computer or my stereo and I put some music on I want that feeling back of when I was a teenager. When I put on Black Sabbath or anything like that and it does it for me I’m like ‘Holy shit this stuff is great!’“

He has a point. While the same manufactured music is played over the air waves, bands that refuse to produce market friendly music are reduced to having their content played on student radio or resorting to avenues such as Soundcloud. Year after year it appears that awards are handed out to those that make the most money rather than those that have true talent. Booga, never being one to fit the mould isn’t expecting to become rich anytime soon nor be inducted into the hall of fame.

“People think that I’m driving around in my bloody expensive car and I’m off home to count my dollars and that I don’t have a job or anything. Well actually I don’t have a job, I am a stay at home Dad and I look after my kids [twins], I look after the house and I do all the washing and that sort of shit and I have got a great wife who goes off and works hard! But as far as HLAH goes, I’m not rushing to the letterbox to get my APRA cheque cause I know that it’s not going to be great; sometimes it pays off but most of the time it’s just a dribble. I would say there are a few people out there going ‘What? But you guys were quite a big deal, what’s the story there?’

Well that’s all got to do with the industry and whether people will spin your track enough times. It’s about whether you can get some publishing sold and you can get your track onto a TV ad; that’s the only way you make money in this country, through publishing and touring. Unless you hit it big and become Lorde or you become … I’m gonna have to say it and it’s gonna hurt me … but Six60. I can see why people love them, totally, but you know it’s nothing special and that’s the whole point – its crap but it fits the mould.”

Sensing his frustration I asked Booga where to now – what was the plan for the future of Head Like A Hole?

“Well like I said we’ve got this documentary that we are just trying to sort out and we are looking at getting it in the film festival. We have just got a few things to iron out and you know who knows what could happen with that – if it’s a success it could set us up for a while. I think people will be pleasantly surprised when it comes out. I’m looking at … like when do things like hall of fame come into play? (laughs) When do you get the phone call? (puts on a gravel voice) ‘Yeah Gidday it’s the hall of fame here, just want to see if you want to come to the Vodafone music awards and accept an award and be inducted’. When does that happen? How does that happen? I don’t think those sorts of things happen unless you have won a music award. They’re just so great aren’t they, music awards. I would support the NZ music awards if it supported NZ music in the right way. If it gave people recognition right across the music industry and not just the people that get a certain amount of tracks, you know a certain amount of spins on the radio. It’s all under like an elite umbrella according to … who? I don’t get it.”

Indeed it is a travesty – as one of New Zealand’s most iconic bands of the last 25 years, Head Like A Hole appear to be constantly treated like the poor cousins; acknowledged, but always pushed to the side when the favourite child arrives. In the meantime Booga has no plans to become gentrified – and in fact rebels against it.

“I’m a lot older, I don’t feel, well sometimes I feel the age I am but I don’t act like some 45 year olds would! I’m a father and I’m a family man but I’m also still a rocker and I try and keep young hearted. If anyone around me starts talking about the weather or mowing lawns or anything like that I just sort of look at them and I’ll just walk away. I don’t want to be a bastard but just because we are at that age doesn’t mean we’re doing that! I actually burnt a fire in my backyard the other day, just piled it up without an incinerator. I’ll let my lawns grow til they are above knee height just to go against the grain (laughs). Someone will say to me ‘Look at your lawns they’re disgusting!’ and it’s like right that’s it! Not cutting them for four weeks!”

Booga Beazley may never fit into ‘that mould’ – and you know what? That’s quite alright with him.

Head Like A Hole are performing live at many places around the country this Music Month, including a gig at Auckland’s Galatos this Thursday, 11th May. Tickets are still available from eventfinda (But get in VERY quickly as this is nearly sold out)! This interview is also part of our NZ Music Month coverage. For more information on Head Like A Hole you can visit their website, or follow them on Facebook. For more information on NZ Music Month you can visit their website.