Rob Hirst On His Ghostwriters Side Project
An excerpt from the interview I did with Rob Hirst of Midnight Oil in 1998.
Cris Cohen: You have this other band, Ghostwriters. What do you get from your work with that band that you don’t necessarily experience with Midnight Oil?
Rob Hirst of Midnight Oil: Well, almost a nervous breakdown.
I think that there’s always a tendency with Midnight Oil to sit on the back couch a bit longer than you should or could, because everyone’s got an opinion and everyone’s probably got the right opinion.
With Ghostwriters, it’s songs that I’ve written and sing and play guitar and produce and play the drums and pay the bills and do the website and the artwork and the film clips and dance steps and blah, blah.
I actually embarked upon it as a non-sitting-on-the-back-couch thing, which became a monster. Not only was it quite successful. But in attempting, like all true control freaks, to do everything, it nearly killed me.
But it was an incredible learning experience. And we’re on to our third (album) now.
But the main thing I get out of it is that I’ve tried to be more and more prolific as a writer and keep that as my main focus. And as anyone will tell you, you never quite get there with this. You’ve never written the perfect song.
(So), if the muse comes past, I don’t let it go too often. Because I know it might disappear for another six months or so.