By Joe Matera

Tough Love is the fourth album from Geelong’s always compelling, never compromising electric guitar voyagers, Magic Dirt. Like its predecessor of 2000, What Are Rock Stars Doing Today?, it’s an explosive dose of power pop that crams 10 years of intense passion and experience into 45 minutes of ragged chords and razor sharp lyrics. The result is an album of brash power, tender emotions and immediate melodies that sets a new benchmark for Magic Dirt’s edgy guitar textures and runaway pop. Joe Matera recently sat down with Magic Dirt’s singer and chief songwriter Adalita to talk Tough Love.

JM: Was there a lot of pressure in regard to trying to replicate the success of your previous record?

A: "Yeah there was a bit of pressure but I think the band tended to put it on themselves. We really didn’t take any pressure from outside, rather it was all from inside. But it had to do more with writing better songs and in general, to keep bettering ourselves".

JM: How do you approach your songwriting, do you write in one sit down session or do you accumulate varies lyrical ideas over a period of time?
A: "It varies, sometimes I do sit down and write a complete song and they’re the songs that are really easy like "Watch Out Boys" or "Tee Vee" that sort of just pop out. Then songs like "Girlboy" can take a lot longer, maybe even a year or so to complete. Usually I’ll write the riffs and the lyrics and then take it into the boys and we’ll jam it out and everyone will add their piece. "Drunk For You" was the hardest song to write for the record. We worked on that solidly for about two years. That was a real hard baby to pin down".

JM: "Vulcanella" is a little more experimental with its stream-of-consciousness like monologue?
A: "Vulcanella" came about from all the jams we did one day in the rehearsal room and we all decided to make a song out of it. So I got the boys to shorten it to about four minutes into a piece of music. And I grabbed some poetry of mine which was stream-of-consciousness, just the grabbed the cans and put them on and said ‘ok play the song and I’ll see what happens’. I sort of rapped over the top of it and that’s the end result I guess".

JM: With the songs being so personal, when it came time to record the vocals, were they hard to put down?
A: "Yes very much. I think the songs themselves are really personal and quite emotional so I was trying to get some of that emotion out and sometimes it wasn’t working. So I’d have to step out and come back in and I’d have to do like take after take after take to get it right. I was singing 11 hours a day so it was pretty taxing, and it was a bit difficult. But in the end I think I’m glad it was so hard. Simply because it really brought the best out in me. The recording process all up was 12 weeks including pre-production.

JM: Tough Love was recorded at Melbourne’s Birdland studios with producer Lindsay Gravina (The Birthday Party, The Living End), what did Lindsay bring to the process?
A: "He was very knowledgeable and had a lot of patience in that he could push and pull the band. And because he and I get along really well, he could really push me to do better and to really extract everything he could out of me".

JM: Adam Kasper (Pearl Jam, Foo Fighters, QOTSA, Nirvana ) also came on board the moment he heard the demos for Tough Love?
A: "We basically brought him our tracks and left him to do his magic. I think he has a really great approach to guitar based music. He simplified everything and made sure my voice sort of stuck out and was pretty raw. He didn’t add many effects to anything. He kept it basically to its bare essentials and just got the sound. When we recorded the record we made sure we got the best possible sounds down on tape and then when Adam came along, all he would have to do was to weave his magic and make sure that the sounds were even better".

JM: Are you using the same set-up gearwise, live and in the studio?
A: "Yes it’s the same. Funnily enough I just use a transistor amplifier - a Jazz Chorus 120, along with my favourite guitar, a ’69 Gibson SG. My pedal set-up is pretty much just a Line 6 Delay, a Boss DD-5, a Vox Wah and for my standard fuzz sound, I use a Boss DS-1.