SCREAMING Jets bassist Paul Woseen had been putting off making a solo album for more than 20 years but when he finally did it, it only took three days.
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“I’m a gunna — gunna do this, gunna do that — and I’ve been meaning to do this since before I was 20 but it just didn’t seem or feel like the right time,” he said.
A bit of prompting from Screaming Jets vocalist Dave Gleeson helped push Woseen over the line and the resulting album is Bombido.
A mix of new originals and stripped-back versions of Jets tracks Woseen penned — including their top 30 hit (and arguably their best track) Helping Hand — Bombido is a good example of what fans can expect when he plays at The Loft on Saturday night to conclude two months of national touring.
“It was recorded, mixed and mastered in three days,” Woseen said, adding that a lot of first takes made it into the 11-track album.
“I’m a big fan of the ’60s and early ’70s where you had a lot of dudes and dudettes … would just rock up at a studio because someone sees them playing at a coffee shop and likes them. They turn up, smoke a big reefer, just play their songs and the album’s done — no stuffing around.
“That’s how I approached Bombido.”
While some tracks on the album date back to Screaming Jets’ first two albums from 1991 and ’92, others are more recent.
“I’m always writing,” he said.
“I’ve just written a swag of songs for a new Screaming Jets record, which we’re going to do at the end of July or beginning of August.”
While Woseen is usually the principal songwriter for the Jets, it’s not a role he chose.
“I gradually took responsibility but I’d rather not. I’d much rather have total input from everybody,” he said.
“If it ended up that I didn’t have a single song on the next record, I wouldn’t give a damn because it means the other songs are stronger.”
Woseen’s solo shows have more “of an intimate vibe than a Jets show” but he assured fans the solo thing was not taking over from the Jets thing.
“The band turns 25 years old this year so we need to have a party — it will probably last for a few days,” he joked.
The party-hard reputation of The Screaming Jets still lingers in Warrnambool — they were infamously blamed for leaving a slightly mythologised trail of destruction at the long-gone Lady Bay Hotel many years ago.
Woseen laughed at the memory and said he knows “exactly what happened” on the night in question, but refused to go into specifics, instead preferring to let the myths and rumours live on.
“We were touring with (Scottish hard rock band) The Almighty, so there were 15 guys together, under the age of 25, on the piss and on the road,” he said by way of explanation.
“When you’ve got a bunch of Scots and a bunch of Australians on the road and on the piss for a couple of days, shit happens.”
Woseen will be spinning yarns and playing songs at The Loft on Saturday. Doors open at 6pm.