The Sunnyboys are a band that many people hold dear to their hearts - maybe because their story was such a flash in time. They made a fast ascent in the early 80s on the back of singles like 'Alone with You' and 'Happy Man' and fell apart just as quickly when Jeremy Oxley, the band's driving force, was diagnosed with schizophrenia. Since that time people have often wondered 'whatever happened to Jeremy Oxley?' He was only 18 when he penned his best tunes and cut an engimatic figure. These days he lives a secluded, solitary existence. While he's in good health, he's not up for the rigours of the promo trail. Twenty years after the split comes This is Real - the first compilation to treat their music with a fan's respect.

Peter, the Sunnyboys are back. How does it feel to be talking about music that you made 20-25 years ago? Music that's still causing a stir...
When you think about it in terms of years it's quite a long time ago but, to me, it seems like yesterday really. I suppose it's because the songs kept being played a bit on the radio. We didn't really go away even when we stopped playing.

Do nostalgia and the post-punk ethos mix?
Should it? (Laughing) Even the most hard core punk mellows out I think and looks back with fond memories. I was just watching the Don Letts documentary on the Clash's Westway to the World and that was pretty interesting watching those boys speaking in 2000 about being out on the road and stuff like that. They were looking back in nostalgia. I think it gets you doesn't it?

Do you look back dewy eyed on the Sunnyboys efforts?
(Laughing) Not dewy eyed. I mean there are certain emotional memories. It was more like 'well, that was pretty good fun…it was pretty bloody quick!' When I listen to the songs that takes me back more than wandering around thinking about it which I don't really do too much.

Back in 1980 the band pretty much came out of nowhere (Kingscliff, NSW) and were an instant hit in Sydney. Was that a surprise to you?
The essence of the band was that myself and Jeremy and Bil (Bilson, drummer) had played together in high school bands and we had never really been influenced by any sort of style or any sort of fashion. It was though just being young and naïve to any sort of group. When Jeremy wrote a song he was writing from purely his own instinct. Of course you're influenced by melodies that you hear around you, the Beatles on the radio or whatever. But he would write these songs and we'd just go into the rehearsal studio and play them. We weren't thinking, 'oh, the Saints were really big, I really love that band, let's try and make this song sound a bit like that.' We never really ever did that. We just played the songs as we thought the songs should be played. And that's why it's quite distinct because we were and really innocent. It happened so quickly too. As soon as we started playing people started coming to see us. So we never had the chance to say, 'OK, now how I we going to get people to our gigs? Maybe we should change this or that or wear leotards or put masks on or something?' There was never any of that. We never had to think about how we looked or maybe we should change the songs to fit into the punk era or power pop. We just played them as they were.

When you talk about 80s Australian independent music most of it was played flat out, loud and aggressively. But even when the Sunnyboys tried to compete you still had a lightness of touch - was that a conscious thing?
No, it was totally natural and I think that had to do with Jeremy's songs because they were extremely melodic. We arranged them so that there always be a little bit of melody so I think that's where the lightness comes from. But we played them at full bore. The live stuff on the compilation is great, really electric and I don't think that was ever quite captured on any of our recordings.

Reading comments from all the band members from the time nobody ever really seemed satisfied with how the recordings sounded?
Well, particularly the second album. I think the first album sounds really great and it captures us, almost. But the second album got messed up because we went into the studio and we played as we normally played but it just seemed to come out really thin. We still had all the same instruments and amplifiers that we had on the first album but it lacked any real punch. The songs were there, I thought. But the sound was shocking. And with the third album the sound was really smoothed out although we'd probably learnt to play a little smoother by then but we were still pretty raucous. The boys still played through Marshalls and played really loud.

What did you see as your role in the band?
I pretty much organised lots of things. I did a lot of arranging with Jeremy for his songs. I wrote a few songs. I played bass, of course. Sang a few harmonies out of tune (laughing). But I was pretty much the organiser especially in the early days doing our rehearsals, getting our gigs.

It seems that you were the one trying to keep things together as well?
Um, yeah, from the second album on it was getting a bit difficult so, yeah, I did try and keep things together to a certain point until Jeremy's illness got too predominate to do anything. We had to stop, basically.

How is Jeremy faring these days?
Good. I went and visited a couple of weeks ago and he's doing really beautiful landscape paintings. He's writing a bit of music too. But he lives on his own and he's quite comfortable and happy in the land that he is in. He looks after himself, cooks for himself, he's not way out there or anything.

Can you give us some insight into what is the land he is in?
It's very difficult. With schizophrenia it's really quite internalised. There are lots of things happening in the person's brain and the electricity is moving so quickly in there so thoughts come in and out really fast so sometimes it's difficult to have a conversation where you talk about something that travels in a certain direction. A bit haphazard, a bit fast.

Have you found yourself delving into it to find out as much as possible, become an expert almost?
Almost (laughing). When something like this happens you research it to find out how to deal with it. But I can't really comment too much about it. I'm not in that person's head and it's hard to explain. I mean you only really see the behaviour and it varies so much in a lot of different people and a lot of people suffer from the illness. There's all different degrees of it and often it's cyclical. You will get very low, bad times when it's very acute and then you will get times when you appear completely normal. But, then, it comes on again.

Obviously it has had a huge affect on you and your family.
Well, it's like losing somebody. The person that you knew is not there anymore. That, for our family, for any family, is a really really hard thing to grasp. The person that you knew before is still there but only get to see glimpses of that person. It's a very hard thing. It's like someone has died except they're not dead. They've become somebody that wasn't them. They've changed extremely.

Did the band burn a few bridges by the end of the 80s?
As the Sunnyboys, as a group, we didn't burn any bridges. What happened afterwards with Jeremy was he was drinking heavily and he was coaxed into using the Sunnyboys name with younger, more pedestrian musicians. They recorded an album (1989's Wildcat) and then he was, basically, sent out onto the road. That's when the real horror started because he was very sick and this manager fellow was sending him out onto the road. As soon as promoters or clubs knew that the Sunnyboys were playing they, of course, wanted the band to play but it gradually went from clubs wanting them to play to, in that particular time of Jeremy's life, not even being able to get a show because Jeremy was turning up really drunk or really injured. He was really injuring himself badly. So that was a disaster. Since then we've been able to reconcile all that. We did a little tour in 1991 when Mushroom Records put out a half attempt at a 'best of' record. When we first tried to get some shows to promote that no-one wanted us. They were like 'no way' because they still remembered a couple of years ago with Jeremy. But eventually we did play and it worked really well so we were able to stop with a bit of dignity at that time. More particularly for Jeremy.

You played at the Mushroom show in 1998. Any chance of some shows this time around?
I don't know. I don't think so.

Of course, the Sunnyboys are best known for 'Alone with You'. How do you feel about that song these days?
I heard it on the radio the other day, on FBi radio, and it sounded great. I think it's pretty individual and that's why it's lasted. When you listen to it today it doesn't sound like anything else. You know it's the Sunnyboys. It was one of the first songs we rehearsed. One of the first songs where Jeremy went 'hey, I've got this song' and we went 'oh yeah, sounds pretty good'. So it was kinda with us from the start.

Did you ever get sick of playing it?
Yeah, a little bit and Jeremy got sick of playing it. He'd be like, 'we're not playing 'Alone with You' tonight and, of course, we'd always end up playing it anyway (laughing). We had to play it. The crowd wouldn't let us go if we didn't.

I was interested to see that the version on the compilation is a mono mix. Obviously mono was phased out around 1968. Did you have a special yen to mix it in mono?
Mono mix? You've got me there. I don't know anything about it. (laughing). It's true. I'll have to have a look myself.

What did you think of Jimmy Little's version?
I liked that. He changed 'alcohol' to 'music' though. But then he's a staunch non-alcoholic. He doesn't like alcohol. But I like the version, I like that whole album too.

Has there been other covers of Sunnyboys material that you've enjoyed?
The Superjesus did a version of 'Alone with You'. I don't have a copy of that though. I don't think there's too many others actually.

Is that a surprise to you?
A little bit. 'Cos I think quite a few songs would be good to cover. A lot of cover bands did Sunnyboys songs but I've never seen a Sunnyboys show like the Chisel Show or the INXS Show. Although INXS are now an INXS show.

What recordings do you think best reflected the Sunnyboys experience?
I think probably the first EP and the first album were the most exciting times. They were the most innocent times. We were just playing and it was great. There were no problems. The problems started from the second album and the third album. So there's always this dark cloud hanging over those. It stopped just being music and started being more of the business and my relationship with my brother and my brother's relationship the band. We were young and living in each other's pockets. We got ourselves into debt for some unknown reason. So it would be that first 18 month period where it was just totally innocent and alive before any serious shit started going down.

Is it hard not to talk about the Sunnyboys without a hint of sadness?
Only because of what happened with my brother. Otherwise there's no sadness in what we did. Of course, if Jeremy hadn't have become ill who knows what would of happened. But, the fact is, he did and we only played for about three and a half years and stopped. That's the facts of the matter. But, for me, the sadness is his illness. He was an amazing musician and still is but he just can't direct it in a way. So that's sad but not that whole period of time. It would've been better to be a bit older and to have that success rather than being so young. Then you could get your head around the mechanics of the industry. We were naïve to all that.

Did it take it out of you? Did you take some time to recover from the Sunnyboys splitting?
Not really. After Sunnyboys were immediately formed another band. Bil and myself formed Sparklers with my sister (Melanie) and we had a degree of success there. Richard went onto to play with Weddings, Parties, Anything and the Saints so we continued playing music. I played up till about 1991 with the final Sunnyboys tour and then I opened the Woodfire Pizzeria. So we had a pretty good run of playing.

You mentioned that Jeremy still writing music.
There's some new music of Jeremy's that we are probably going to put out. He's made a whole acoustic album with a friend of his and that's really good. And he's written eight pieces on the piano which he played and recorded on the piano. They slow, melodic piano pieces which are really beautiful. So he still produces music in his way. He still creates. Whether he's ever going to be able to come out and perform is another question. It's a much more difficult thing to get up in front of the public. He doesn't like doing that too much. He likes being by himself or in the company of a few people. Just quiet without the pressures of having to perform.

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©2004 Christopher Hollow