Interview: Steve Pinkerton
Discussing The Ronson Hangup's latest album, 'Centaurus'
A lot can change in thirteen years.
Melbourne-based supergroup The Ronson Hangup released their self-titled debut album in 2010 to rave reviews from the international guitar pop scene. With their latest release, Centaurus, the band expands their core pop/jangle/psych sound into more adventurous musical and conceptual territory.
The evolution of their approach is partially due to a key line up change. Vocalist Steve Pinkerton (The Anyones/The Everyones) and guitarist/vocalist Ashley Naylor (Even/Paul Kelly/The Church) still form the songwriting core of the band, but guitarist/producer Mal Pinkerton (The Anyones) is no longer a full-time member—although his guitar work appears on a handful of Centaurus tracks.
The Ronson Hangup’s impressive lineup also features drummer Dave Mudie (Courtney Barnett), bassist Luke Thomas (The Pictures) and vocalist Erica Menting (The Golden Rail).
“The first album was recorded with co-founding member Mal Pinkerton as producer and engineer, but he has since relocated to a regional seaside town and decided to leave the band,” Steve Pinkerton told me in the interview below.
“So this second album was driven by me and Ash, who wrote all the tracks and handled the production. This enabled a more cohesive album because each track on the album was chosen in the context of the overall album’s sonic and stylistic vision.”
The result is an expansive collection of songs that effortlessly incorporates the hooks and harmonies of the British Invasion, moody psych melodies, and the righteous riffage of ‘70s rockers—which only makes sense for a band named in honor of The Spiders from Mars guitarist Mick Ronson.
I caught up with Steve Pinkerton by email from his home base in Australia.
Steve Pinkerton Interview
It has been more than a decade since your last album. Why is now the right time to unleash Centaurus?
Steve Pinkerton: We really enjoyed touring the first album, receiving positive reviews and solid airplay—so we intended to follow up reasonably quickly with a second album…however, each of the members of The Ronson Hangup are members of other active bands and those bands happened to fire up at different intervals over the intervening 10 years.
For example, Dave Mudie is the drummer for Courtney Barnett who from 2015 has had some extensive global touring commitments. Meanwhile Ash Naylor is also a guitarist with The Church who also tour internationally—and he is also guitarist with Paul Kelly who is one of Australia’s most acclaimed singer-songwriters.
The rest of us have had our domestic touring commitments in various other bands. Ironically, the COVID lockdowns gave us an opportunity to regroup and focus on finishing this second album. We decided there is no better time than now to release it!
The album opens with the muscle-y title track, but quickly shifts gears to the moodier psych rock of "Waxes & Wanes." Do you consider those the two stylistic poles for this collection?
Steve Pinkerton: That’s a great observation—and the answer is yes. I assumed that people would listen to the album in numerical order and therefore I wanted to give them a quick snapshot of the breadth of our musical style to keep them engaged. The aim was to demonstrate some rock power infused with vocal harmonies, guitars and melody within those bookends.
I'm really drawn to the track "Can't Stop Me Now." Can you tell me how that one came together?
Steve Pinkerton: Ash was the driving force behind that one and he is a Johnny Marr devotee, so his aim was to provide a backing canvas that reminded him of something from The Queen is Dead by The Smiths for me to come up with a vocal melody and lyrics. Ash was inspired by The Queen is Dead because he loves that the guitars are all so orchestrated “almost like one big guitar solo.”
In the opening riff, Ash was trying to channel ‘What Difference Does it Make’ but he then added an electric 12-string to make it more trippy. The pre-chorus was inspired by REM’s Murmur (or Reckoning) as Ash is also a big Peter Buck fan. He deliberately aimed to give me a canvas that didn’t occupy all the melodic territory thus allowing enough room for my vocal to fly over the top.
"Hickok's Curse" is another standout from the album. It reminds me of the poppier moments from your debut album. How do you think your sound/songwriting has evolved?
Steve Pinkerton: We are very happy with the results on ‘Hickok’s Curse,’ so thank you very much for enjoying it! I think our sound and songwriting has evolved because our vision on this album was more focused. That is, the first album established our overall sound and direction, but on this album we refined it. We feel there is an overarching theme to this album both musically and lyrically.
There's some great guitar work on that one, and throughout the album, which only makes sense in a band named for Mick Ronson. Who are some of your other guitar heroes?
Steve Pinkerton: Yes, I love the guitars on ‘Hickok’s’ too! The guitar influences on that one are definitely John Squire from The Stone Roses and Peter Buck—and there’s some open chord XTC’ish influence, as well as James Honeyman-Scott (Pretenders) and Johnny Marr (who acknowledges Honeyman-Scott as a major influence).
Other guitar heroes beyond Mick Ronson are Jimmy Page, Nancy Wilson, Jimmy Hendrix, Eddie Hazel, Robert Fripp, Peter Koppes and Marty Willson-Piper (The Church), and Martin Rotsey and James Moginie (Midnight Oil), to name just a few!
"Just Steady" is hypnotic. Was that one always meant to be the album closer?
Steve Pinkerton: Yes it always seemed the perfect closer because it is a bit of an epic, somewhat melancholy and it seems to evoke a visual of credits running up on a cinema screen. The piano solo on the outro is played by Tony Gould, a highly acclaimed jazz pianist who duels with Dave’s power drumming.
If I got in the tour van with you guys, what would I be listening to?
Steve Pinkerton: If you jumped in our tour van our playlist would look something like this: ‘Magic Man’ by Heart; ‘Tin Soldier’ by Small Faces; ‘It Is Not Meant To Be’ by Tame Impala; ‘My Baby's Gone’ by Axiom; ‘Life's Been Good’ by Joe Walsh; ‘Corner Of My Eye’ by The Lemon Twigs; ‘You're No Good’ by Linda Ronstadt; ‘The Coldest Heart, by Belles Will Ring;; ‘1983 (A Merman I Should Turn To Be)’ by Jimi Hendrix Experience; ‘Voices’ by Cheap Trick; ‘No Time’ by The Guess Who; ‘Les Fleurs’ by Minnie Ripperton; ‘For Always’ by The Stems; ‘London’ by Noonday Underground; ‘Couldn't I Just Tell You’ by Todd Rundgren; ‘Lay Down (Candles In The Rain)’ by Melanie; ‘The Happening’ by Diana Ross & The Supremes; ‘Love And Hate’ by Michael Kiwanuka; ‘Stella Anning’ by Empty; ‘Hold Your Head Up’ by Argent; ‘Isn't It About Time’ by Stephen Stills Manassas; ‘Tear It All Away’ by The Church; ‘Colour My World’ by Petula Clark; ‘Could You Be The One’. by Hüsker Dü; ‘Memory Of A Free Festival’ by David Bowie; ‘Lady Friend’ by The Byrds; ‘Message To My Girl’ by Split Enz; ‘I Can't Let Go’ by The Hollies; ‘Lady In The Front Row’ by Redd Kross; ‘Isn’t It Time’ by The Babys; ‘Strangers On A Train’ by Sports; ‘Don’t Let It Bring You Down’ byb Neil Young; ‘I Am The Resurrection’. by The Stone Roses, and ‘Gone Away’ by Roberta Flack.
More From Ashley Naylor
The instrumental album Soundtracks Volume 2 was released shortly before Centaurus.
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A smashing interview. A new band to me but I'll certainly be checking them out after hearing those tasters. Johnny Marr and Mick Ronson influences are no bad thing!