Last time we talked to Dave McCormack, it turned into one of our most memorable interviews yet. With Custard set to play their next reunion show under the stars at Brisbane Festival, we couldn't knock back a chance to pick up where we left off. 

Hey Dave, this is Rohan. How are you?
Hey Rohan, how are you? Good to speak to you again!
You too! How’ve you been?
I’ve been very good. When did we last speak? Was that for the flood thing? Yeah, that’s right. It’s lovely to hear from you.
That was a great show.
It was good fun. We had good fun, didn’t we?
We did. Now you guys are back for the Brisbane Festival. Off the top of your head, how many reunion shows will this be?
OK, we can work this out. There was the Q150, that was one. There was the Meredith Music Festival, two. Float On, three. This’ll be the fourth one. We’re making a habit of this thing! It’s incredible!

There was a time when a Custard reunion seemed like an impossible dream. How’d it become possible?
Well, the first one was the Q150 gig with Powderfinger, and because we’ve known Powderfinger for a while, it was a big show. People have always asked us to reform, but a couple of the band members, for whatever reason, didn’t want to do it. And then flukishly we all went, ‘yeah, let’s do it’, and we had such a great time that we thought we’d do it again later. If it’s the right event, and it’s a bit of fun, we’re really enjoying it.

Why do you think it didn’t happen sooner?
It’s just one of those things. It’s like the four minute mile. Once you crack it, it’s easy. Initially it was like, ‘nah, we don’t want to’ and then we popped the cherry on it and it was like, ‘you beauty! This is alright’. It’s good just on a personal level to be hanging out again. Well, we don’t really hang out that much - if we do one or two gigs a year, we see each other once or twice – but it’s nice to connect with old friends. It’s lovely.

When something like Brisbane Festival comes up, is it a drawn out process to get the guys together? Or now that you’ve done it a few times, is it easy?
It’s easier. It’s a bit more matter of fact now. It’s not so much a mental block, it’s a logistical thing. Are we available, what’s the venue like, what do you think the vibe’s going to be… I can’t really put my finger on it, because we get offered quite a few gigs, and some of them we just say ‘YEAH!’ Especially in Brisbane. It just seems fitting to do special gigs in Brisbane. We’ve only done one Melbourne show, and the rest have been in Brisbane. It just feels right to me. 


We had a little rehearsal yesterday, and we’ve expanded our set by three songs, so that’s going to be very exciting. I want to keep the tracks a surprise, just in case we don’t do them and no one will be disappointed. But yesterday at rehearsal I said ‘why don’t we try these three songs’ and it’s like muscle memory. It just comes back. Everyone played it really well, and it was just great.
Maybe every time we do a gig, we’ll learn one or two more songs. Soon we’ll be playing everything. It’ll be incredible.

Is there any chance of new Custard material?
Imagine that! Maybe! I don’t know. I’m feeling very feisty and excited today so I can’t say no to anything. We haven’t done anything, we haven’t rehearsed or really thought about new songs, but the idea seems attractive to me now. After years of not really thinking it was appropriate, maybe it is. Maybe we’ll be one of those bands that everyone hates because they break up and then they get together and then they start recording new material that no one’s really interested in. We could be one of them!

You could have the whole Cold Chisel thing going on. Have you seen how many reunion shows those guys are playing?
Oh god! Yeah, look at John Farnham. He loves it as well, doesn’t he?
If those guys are the bar, you’ve got a long way to go. They’ve increased people’s tolerance levels for bands reuniting.
Oh, good on them! Good on them! Look, it is exciting, and to have Custard mentioned in the same sentence as Chisel and Farnham… it seems right to me. I think we should be up there. Next it’ll be an ARIA Hall of Fame award. Oh, come on!

Speaking of Custard being in the same sentence as those guys, the last official release from Custard was The Essential Custard.
That’s correct.
It’s a bit surreal, because if you look at the other guys who have had Essential compilations, it’s your Farnhams, your Diamonds…
Bob Dylan…
Yeah, Dylan… how did that feel, having The Essential Custard in the shops?
It felt great. Sony own all our recordings, right, so they can do with them basically whatever they want, but they gave us the courtesy email saying, we’re thinking about putting out this double CD thing, do you want to pick the tracks? And we just went, nah, you pick ‘em, do whatever you want. It’s exciting. It’s liberating to see what people choose.

Once you saw the track listing, did you think to yourself, ‘that’s what I would have picked?’
Look, I didn’t look at it that closely to be honest. But then the other day when I was thinking of three new songs to play at this gig, I was looking through that, because I don’t have copies of a lot of it, and there were a few glaring omissions.
Maybe The Essential Custard Volume Two?
Oh god, that would be great! That would be tremendous! The Even More Essential Custard. Or The Slightly Less Essential Custard. What’s the opposite of essential? If something is not essential, it’s like, optional.
Yeah, The Optional Custard would be amazing. You guys should come out with that.
The Not Definitive But Not Too Bad Custard.
The It Goes Alright Custard.
Yeah, The Fair To Middling Custard. That would be a big album. There would be a lot on that.

I have to admit, when I saw The Essential Custard on the internet for the first time, I kind of thought it was a Photoshop job. Like one of the fans had gone, ‘this would be cool’. Because Custard’s not an establishment thing.
Yeah, but they’ve done it. We’re in the big leagues now! We’re filed under ‘Essential’. It is a compliment that someone would be motivated to do that. I do appreciate it. And it’s good for me to have a copy of the songs as well. And I gave my dad a copy, so he’s got more songs than he’s ever had before.

This show is for Brisbane Festival, and the last year has been busy for the Brisbane music scene. We’ve seen Rocking Horse nearly close. What did you make of that?
I was heartbroken. Rocking Horse is such an institution. Warwick (Vere's) always been such a supporter of Brisbane music, and it’s always been a great place to get good music. I bought The Pixies’ first EP from Rocking Horse when they were on Adelaide St, and I was only a youngster. It was just cool. It was just great to go in and hang with music fans with such knowledge who could help you and guide you. When our first 7” single, ‘Rockfish Anna’, was in Rocking Horse, I thought, ‘yeah, we’ve made it, this is cool’.

This probably sounds terrible, but do you think it’s inevitable that Rocking Horse will shut down as people move away from brick and mortar stores?
No, it is inevitable. It’s the way of the future. But there will always be a niche market for vinyl or special imports or things. There’s always going to be people who want to buy physical products. But the days of having two or three CD stores in a shopping centre, they’re over. It’ll be specialty, and Rocking Horse fits that bill.

On the live scene, we’ve seen a bunch of new bands come through in the past year or so. You’ve played a little bit with Ball Park Music, how do you rate the younger Brisbane scene at the moment?
I rate them very highly. I think they’re a lot more professional than back in our day. Everyone seems to be really good at their instrument and quite together in the business sense, which is quite amazing. In our day, I’ll be the first to admit we could hardly play. It was a bit more of a happy accident before. But everyone seems more prepared for it now, so that’s good.
They’ve all got good gear, they’re all really confident on stage. They can sing well, they’ve got lots of energy. My recollection of the old days is that we were just fumbling. We were quite uncool and borrowing guitars and having shitty amps and not really knowing how to do anything.

Would Ball Park Music be your pick of the younger bands?
Look, you’ve got me. I don’t know a lot of younger bands. The ones I know, I think, are my pick. I don’t know many. There’s Ball Park Music, The John Steel Singers, there’s the Hungry Kids of Hungary, and there’s a band with the Tickle sisters, who are they?
Little Scout?
They were good. See, I don’t even know their names, but I do meet people.
I think they played the Float On gig.
Yeah, I think that’s where I met them. They’re cool. They had a good vibe and a good energy, I like that. Look, I’m getting old now, Rohan, so I don’t really go out to see bands. Unless I’m playing on the bill I don’t really see many bands. I know I probably should, but it doesn’t happen.

As far as getting older goes, do you think between Float On and the rediscovery of The Go-Betweens, that Brisbane is getting better at appreciating its bands?
Yeah, maybe so. The Go-Betweens, although they were only admired by a small group in Brisbane at the time, I think they’ve really flourished. People are starting to appreciate what a fantastic band they were. I think that Regurgitator and Powderfinger and Custard had a fair bit of response from Brisbane people as we were going, it wasn’t like we were ignored, but it’s nice to be remembered fondly. We’re a heritage act now. It’s nice to be in that echelon.

Do you feel like a heritage act?
Look, I don’t really. Sometimes I start to think of it that way. But we had a rehearsal yesterday, and it was just fun and easy and I don’t feel too weird about it. We’re still not really much better or worse than we were back in the old days, which sorta feels right to me. I always go by the feel of things. You don’t want to analyse them too much. You’d stay up all night, wouldn’t you, analysing things? Just go for the vibe. It’s fun.

How does your mindset change when it’s a Custard gig as opposed to a Polaroids gig? Do you feel like you do anything any differently?
Not really. I probably talk less when it’s a Custard gig because we’ve got a lot of songs to get through, and there’ll be more people there at a Custard gig. It’s easier because everyone knows all the songs. I don’t really sweat on the setlist. It’s just like, yep, they’ll know all of these, it’s gonna be fun. It’s sort of like two different parts. The pre-2000 part is the Custard stuff and the post-2000 is the Polaroids stuff and there’s a little bit of crossover but they’re sort of quite different.
But like I say, I try to keep the talking down to a minimum (in Custard). I’m prone to just waffling on a bit on stage, but with Custard we’re going to play about 25 songs, so we haven’t got time to be sidetracked. We’ve got to stay focussed.

People do love to hear you talk, though. I think it’s one of the reasons people go.
Yeah, look, and it’s always going to happen. I’m always going to have a chat. It’s just so fun to have a chat, especially when I’ve got the microphone and no one else does so they can’t really answer anything back. So it’s a control thing. It comes down to a deep seated control issue. I need to have control.
I feel like we just made a breakthrough, Dave.
We’ve worked through some of our problems. This is good, this is therapy.

Now that we’ve worked out that issue, one of our writers wants to give you another complex. One of the girls just passed in a note that says, ‘what do you say if someone tells you Dylan (McCormack) is better looking than you?’
I respond very, very positively. Dylan is better looking than me. I take it as a compliment because we’re related. So even though he’s better looking, I must be OK looking, just by genetics.
Just by association, really.
I’m happy to dance in his shadow. That’s fine. I can hitch my wagon to his star. They’re doing very well, aren’t they, the Gentle Benners?
Yeah, they really are.
They’re incredible. Every time I see them play, I’m amazed that they’re not even more popular than they are. I’ve seen them play gigs in Sydney and Melbourne to little, if any, people. I don’t understand why they’re not huge. When you’re talking about Cold Chisel, you should put Gentle Ben in there as well.
Maybe there’s room on the Chisel bill for another support band…
Yeah, or a collaboration.
The Essential Gentle Ben! Where’s The Essential Gentle Ben?
Yeah! Come on! They’ve got three albums, that’s enough. Put it out!


We can probably safely let you go at this point, but thanks for talking to us, Dave.
Oh, thank you, Rohan. I’ll speak to you in a couple of months, hopefully. Stay well.

Custard play the QUT Festival Theatre as part of Brisbane Festival this Saturday September 17 and The Standard (Sydney) on Friday September 23.