Interview by Kris Peters
Aussie rock outfit The Poor are living proof that you can never get too much of a good thing.
Since redefining our rock senses with their debut album Who Cares in 1994 The Poor have drifted in and out of our musical lives, with a splattering of albums in the ensuing years that for one reason or another lacked that knockout blow the original had in abundance.
Fast forward to February 2023 and the release of High Price Deed and the rock clock wound back nearly 30 years in one instance with a triumphant return to the fold that has seen The Poor reclaim all of their former glory and then some.
With a hometown show at Vinnies on August 4 plus an Aussie tour with Rose Tattoo in the months after and a return trip to Europe slated for early 2024, The Poor are a band in demand. So much so that we had to actually schedule a chat with drummer Gavin Hansen to find out the magnitude of what is going on.
"I wouldn't put it in the comeback category," he began, "it's just something we've always done. It's more a sense of having the new inspiration there with Dan (Cox, guitar) and also when someone gets behind you and believes in what you're doing after years and years it gives you that fresh approach and that's what Reckless Records and Scot Crawford did, so that sort of boosted us along."
High Price Deed took The Poor sonically back to the days of Who Cares, with the balls out rock style that earned them their stripes back and pumped to 11.
"The main focus - as every band tries to do - is just capture the live sound and strip it back," Hansen explained of the thought process going into High Price Deed. "And we wanted to keep it as raw as possible but still have something that stands up with what's in the market today. We tried to capture that big sound that we portray live."
In the full interview Gavin talks more about the musicality on High Price Deed, the resurgence of The Poor since it came out, news on the follow-up, the possibility of a new version of More Wine Waiter Please surfacing in the future, next year's 30th anniversary of Who Cares, their show at Vinnies on August 4, touring with Rose Tattoo later in the year, returning to Europe and more.