Drummer Rob Hirst of Midnight Oil
On January 20, 2026 Rob Hirst, the drummer and songwriter of Midnight Oil, died after a battle with cancer. In 1998 I was lucky enough to interview Rob following the release of their album Redneck Wonderland. Here is an excerpt.
Rob Hirst: As we were making the record, and as the political climate darkened, we ended up re-recording four or five of the songs to make them angry and tougher, particularly as we toured and the songs took on a new light. We decided we wanted to make the strongest and angriest musical statement that perhaps we had done since 10 to 1, which was, as you said, born of a similar political climate in the early 80s.
Cris Cohen: I’m guessing one of those songs you re-recorded was “Concrete”?
Rob Hirst: It was indeed. In fact, I remember exactly the time that we decided that the album version that we’d recorded with Magoo, who produced the bulk of the record, was too safe and too tame. (We were) playing a couple of showcase shows at the Mercury Lounge in New York last year. And we decided that that song, “Comfortable Place on the Couch,” and a new song that Jim (Moginie) had written, which was the actual title track, “Redneck Wonderland,” really should state the case at the beginning of the album.
And if people could sort of get through that, then they’re lucky to go the whole distance. If they weren’t, they’d sort of go back and play Diesel and Dust.
Cris Cohen: I was going to say, what you guys probably consider tame, most guys consider right out in the front.
Rob Hirst: Yeah, I guess it’s degrees. But there again, there’s been a lot of very strong, strident political music made, not the least of which would be people like Rage Against The Machine. A lot of people like that.
We felt that we had to put it in terms that were as strong as when we were just starting off, remember not to get too produced, and to throw away the rule book.