A lot of people would've been happy for the Gurus to stay with that caveman approach.
I don't care about that. Whenever we're ever recording we make music that pleases us and we hope that other people can dig it. The thing with the Hoodoo Gurus is we are all huge music fans. It's not that we are influenced by a couple of things. It's not a situation where we say we like Ultravox and we're going to make a record that sounds like Ultravox. There's thousands and thousands of elements that make up the Hoodoo Gurus tastes. I think that's an important lesson for some of the younger bands can learn because records come out and you go 'well that sounds like this and that sounds like that…' But if you're into enough different stuff then the lines start to blur and you invent your own sound. It's no good listening to a couple of early Stones records because it's going to be pretty obvious what you're going to sound like.

The Troggs had some amazing guitar sounds - things like 'Feels like a Woman'.
'Feels like a Woman' is a great song. What about the fuzz guitar on that! (Sings) 'I never thought you was groovy' Blahn, blahn! Incredible, incredible guitar sound. Actually I'm gonna go and play that later. At the moment I'm into the Johnny Ramone guitar sound. I went and saw 'End of the Century' (the Ramones' documentary) recently. And I went back and started listening to those early Ramones records. He had such a unique guitar sound and it only changed on the fourth record because he put different pick ups on his guitar. But particularly that first album - what beats that? And, actually, the guitar sound on 'Feels like a Woman' is pretty close. That and the first Stooges album. That also has a killer guitar sound on it. That's something to aspire to.

When it comes to the Stooges are you debut album, Fun House or Raw Power. Because it says a lot about a music fan about which one they pick.
(Laughs) God, I love them all. It's really hard. But as much as I love Raw Power - that's not in there. It's when Ron Asheton is playing guitar. I think the sound of the guitar is better on the first album. It's very close to the sound of the first Ramones album; it's very dry. Fun House is a bit wetter but I love the performances on that second album. I love the jazz odyssey things they get into - the free jazz that was probably inspired by the MC5 and Sun Ra and Albert Ayler and Ornette Coleman.

Did you get the Fun House Sessions?
I did. I was very fortunate to get one of those. Good on Iggy. The songs come together very well and it's funny to hear that he's working the lyrics up as they're rehearsing. He has no idea about the lyrics when you hear take 1 he's just singing indistinguishable phonetics but all his whoops and hollers are in place. The ones that you know off the final version of Fun House they're all in place before any of the proper lyrics have been worked out.

Be My Guru - the documentary on the DVD is a far cry from End of the Century. You couldn't call it a tell-all expose.
Are you saying that it's much warmer than End of the Century? That we all come off looking like mates? Maybe we're better actors than what the Ramones are? The documentary certainly wasn't set up to be a tell-all expose.

But the Hoodoo Gurus story is not without its conflict and drama. Like, for instance, the doco breezes over the sacking of original drummer James Baker.
Well, I didn't edit the thing. I can't even remember what questions they asked. But James was sacked and I don't really have a problem with that because the fact is, at the time, he wasn't pulling his weight. He wasn't giving everything to the band. It had got to the point where when we had big gigs he'd play fantastically but when we were out in the sticks somewhere he just wasn't interested. When we first started he was absolutely fantastic and shaped the way we sounded and looked but when it went from just being a cool thing to do to having to really work he wasn't interested. He was more interested in playing in a 'real' band like Beasts of Bourbon and that used to really fuck us off. He was a fantastic drummer and I wish that we didn't have to do what we did but he really forced our hand with his attitude to it all.

So who was the Johnny Ramone of the Hoodoo Gurus?
Have a guess? There was only one taskmaster cracking the whip.

But I can't imagine Dave Faulkner is the conservative member of the Hoodoo Gurus?
I wouldn't want to say who the most conservative member is but I am very proud to say that all the members of the Hoodoo Gurus did vote Labor in the last election. Even though the Labor we are being dished up is way more right wing than where they should be.

Mark Kingsmill's do. Does it cut it?
Does that cut it (laughs). Now you've found out - he is the most conservative member of the Hoodoo Gurus. You worked it out from the haircut.

When was your best hair? The 'My Girl' video?
No, no, no. I was looking at the DVD the other day and saw the 'Countdown' awards and that was when it was really out of control and I was like, 'good hair Shepo!' That was when it was really long and I had to tease it and hold it all together with this industrial strength hair spray that you couldn't get in Australia. These days hair product is a multi zillion dollar industry but back then it was so hard to find what was needed. We ended up buying shitloads in America and bringing it back.

If Robert Smith asked you to join the Cure would you have accepted?
No way. Robert Smith ruined that look for me. Back in the early 80s he had some kind of shaved sides thing going on. And then he took the big hair idea and absolutely ruined it for me. I hated the Cure. I wanted to have nothing to do with all that. I was dirty I had to find another look. And I blame Robert Smith.

What do you hold as your favourite Hoodoo Gurus record?
I think Crank is my favourite album. I love the sound of that. I got to work with Ed Stasium, who was actually the Ramones engineer for a lot of their stuff. And he was doing Living Colour at the time and they were great sounding records for the 80s and we got to use him. The fact we actually got to go and live in Los Angeles for three or four months and make it a whole experience was very creative and very positive. And we had a really good time.

Favourite song?
I do like 'Big Deal'. I like playing 'Television Addict' a lot too. Anything with a bit of fuzz tone in it thrills me.

A lot of time is spent on Dave Faulkner's as a songwriter…with the rest of the band being especially nice.
Dave was quite chuffed by that. I think it took him by surprise because it's probably something that he's never really from us before. It's not like we sit around and say 'Dave you're a really great songwriter. I love your work'. So he saw it and was a little taken aback.

Do you feel your songwriting was given enough time in the Gurus?
I suppose I didn't feel confident in the early days to bring my stuff to the table. Dave was writing very good songs and although I'd written for the Hitmen and others I wasn't really that confident in my abilities as a songwriter. These days I'm a lot more comfortable with it. I think I can put together a pretty good song. There's been various bits and pieces on the Gurus albums and I was really happy with the Monarchs album I put out in 2001 called 'Make Yer Own Fun'.

What happened to the Monarchs?
Nothing much. We really felt like were a band out of time. In 2001 rock just wasn't happening. We started and we were getting a couple of hundred people to the Annadale and then when the album was out we were still only drawing 200 people - quite possibly all the same people. Then by 2003 it was 'the new rock' - it was like a fashion label or something - so if we'd stuck around or that record had come out in 2003 or I was twenty years younger it might've been a different story. We could've been where Jet are now. Or at least the Datsuns. But I'm really proud of that album. I thought we wrote some fantastic songs. And we toured hard off that record too. But indifference, more than anything else, put an end to it. Nobody was interested.

One thing that's quite obvious from the DVD is that there was some tension with Kim Salmon producing the last album - Mach Schau.
Well he confused me because all through the pre-production of that album I thought we were on the same page. The fact that we were in two minds about the type of record that we wanted to make. I know that Dave had a few issues with Kim too but for me Kim and I clashed on the way to approach recording guitar. I have a very particularly idea about the type of guitar and amp I want to use for certain songs and Kim would pretty much disagree with me on nearly every issue.

Like how?
Well, say, if I wanted a Fender Jaguar with a vintage 50s amp sound he would want a Gibson Les Paul with a Marshall stack. So it was very frustrating for me to make the record but having said that I really love the way it came out. It wasn't supposed to sound like a Hoodoo Gurus record but, of course, it did end up sounding like a Hoodoo Gurus record. It was a shame it was a struggle and we found ourselves in that position because I have an enormous amount of respect for Kim and I still do and the record sounds good.

So what are the chances of Kim producing the next Hoodoo Gurus record?
(Laughs) Well I don't know. I don't know if the Hoodoo Gurus will be making another record so…

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