Interview with Mark Seymour in the lead-up to the release of his Slow Dawn album.

Author:  Jane Rocca, The Sydney Morning Herald.

Date: 23 May 2020.

Original URL: https://www.smh.com.au/culture/music/mark-seymour-in-retrospect-i-would-never-conduct-my-artistic-life-in-that-way-again-20200520-p54uwe.html

Article Text

Mark Seymour: ‘In retrospect I would never conduct my artistic life in that way again…’

Mark Seymour. Occupation Musician. Age 63 Relationship status Married. Best known for His band Hunters & Collectors. Currently Releasing a new album.

My paternal grandmother suffered from mental illness. It was quite traumatic for us growing up. It was very hard for my father, Frank. There was so much darkness at the time and it really marked our middle adolescent years.

My mum, Paula, was a historian and schoolteacher. She was artistic and had four children. She encouraged us to sing together and play instruments, and taught us how to harmonise. She had an intuitive understanding of chord structure and melody and showed us how to investigate songs as stories. She loved Irish music and had a passion for exploring the history of her family name, McInerney.

Mum went to university and got an arts degree – it was a significant step for a woman in those days. My parents came through the Great Depression and World War II. Mum emerged at a time when they had to knuckle down and make conservative decisions about their life. That may have been a great source of frustration. As I got older, I realised that a lot of her interest in creative things was deeply buried and occasionally would emerge.

Mum had the ability to unravel knots in balls of wool – she loved to knit. She had incredible patience and I always related that to her ability to calm everyone down. At home, Mum was the boss. She was the still point in the family and I learnt a lot from her as I got older, especially when it came to my own career and dealing with others.

I spent a lot of time with Mum as she approached death; that affected me and shifted my view of the world. She died from Alzheimer’s in 2015.

I have two sisters, Hilary [six years older] and Helen [two years older]. I always admired Hilary. She was the first to leave the nest and did an arts degree at Monash University. She was immersed in a culture that looked exciting to me. I was also obsessed with her collection of Bob Dylan records. When she moved into a share house in St Kilda, that hit all the wrong buttons for Dad but looked exciting to me.

Helen towed the line; she became a very effective schoolteacher at an elite level and is retired now. She is all I am not. She has a very focused mind. When we make family decisions, she’s always the first one I go to.

Mum’s first loyalty was to Dad. On some level, she might have understood my decision not to be a schoolteacher – which destroyed my father – and to become a musician. She maybe knew why I was rebelling, but was conflicted and gave Dad emotional support.

My first kiss was with a girl in year 10 in Heidelberg [in suburban Melbourne]. We had been to see a movie and I was walking her home. It happened out the front of her house on a cold, rainy winter afternoon.

I had a few strong relationships in my younger life. One of those, with a woman called May, spawned an album Hunters & Collectors are well known for, Human Frailty. In retrospect I would never conduct my artistic life in that way again and write about the events as closely as that, no matter how deeply in love. But then I wouldn’t have written [the band’s hit single] Throw Your Arms Around Me, either.

I am a big admirer of country singer Felicity Urquhart. She’s a good friend. It’s hard to find people who are grounded and aren’t pissing in your pocket in this narcissistic industry. She is one of those rare people who is strong and knows her sense of identity.

I met my wife, Jo Vautier, in 1981 at a cafe in Auckland after a Hunters & Collectors gig. We kept meeting over a long period of time and didn’t date until many years later. We married in New Zealand in 1994 and have two daughters, Eva, 26, and Hannah 23. Jo now works as a counsellor. I married for love and a lot of people don’t.

I have written many songs about Jo. There’s a song on Slow Dawn, my new album, called Joanna. It’s about us driving in New Zealand around the time Eva was conceived in her Ford Anglia, a dangerous car that was always losing brake fluid.

I never thought I’d marry. I never imagined it in my youth. The thing is, I never ruled anything out, either. Life has a capacity to cough stuff up and you’re confronted with situations. And yes, marriage felt right.

Mark Seymour and the Undertow’s album Slow Dawn is out on May 29

This article appears in Sunday Life magazine within the Sun-Herald and the Sunday Age on sale May 24.

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