Tropical Strength, The Fauves

Dave Graney and Clare Moore talk a lot with Andrew Cox and Phil Leonard.

The Fauves 13th album Tropical Strength is a killer. All killer. TROPICAL STRENGTH. Recorded in Bali. Dave Graney and Clare Moore saw them playing songs from it on a triple bill with Brisbanes finest , Custard and The Stress Of Leisure at a hall in a paddock outside Sale in regional Victoria in late 2024. The album never stops giving, in songs, sounds, arrangements, production and lyrics.
Dave Graney and Clare Moore journeyed to the Fauves compound on the Mornington Peninsula which is by the bay but very much on the far flung outer reaches of Melbourne. A good 90 minutes drive from the city. They all talked of their shared experiences of working within differing wings of Universal Records in Australia in the 90s, lyrics, war stories, production, recording in Bali as well as 90s Melbourne, how bands stay together and how they form and split as well as life, death, the futility of existence and Bin night.

The Fauves, L-R Andrew Cox, Phil Leonard (aka The Doctor), Ted Cleaver (bass/production) and Doug Newey (drums).

Seeing the Fauves live is probably the best way into experiencing their mad joy. Also their pure fury and power. A unique band, their bonds run deep. A really great unit. They don’t really belong to anybody. Really. Four very distinct characters on stage but Coxy and the Doctor provide the songs and front them directly to the audience. They seem to fear no one. They - well mainly Coxy - also keep up a real time meta critique of the situation they are in or have come into or are experiencing. They express all this as they tune guitars and manage the expectations of all the stakeholders in the spectacle. Themselves and the watching, listening audience . Its not a really vulnerable or cosy turn that they put on but there is vulnerabilty and sweetness in the songs.

It all comes out in the conversation, I hope.

This is a link to a song from Tropical Strength called Tell Someone Who Gives A Fuck.

We were on a label called Id run by Adam Yazxhi from 1993-1997 which became a part of Universal Music. Specifically Phonogram, which was - with Polydor - an entity in Australia called Polygram. The Fauves were on the Polydor side. Universal Music in Australia included catalogues such as Island Records as well as Motown and Atlantic and DefJam.

(I only recently learned that it had been a European outsider in the UK music scene in the 60s until a brash Australian outsider brought it into the centre of the pop scene with his acts such as the Bee Gees and Cream).

In the 90s Polygram had ourselves, Kim Salmon and the Surrealists, the Fauves, The Underground Lovers, Tiddas, DiG, Rebeccas Empire, Atlas Strings, The Cruel Sea and Powderfinger. Probably many others as well , apologies if I forgot somebody. The point is, all these acts were being signed and put into great studios with talented engineers and producers to make records. They were also given great promotional and touring support.

We went through all that, as did the Fauves. Now we are out on the other side of that industrial pop machine.

That’s what we wanted to talk about.

The album can be accessed here.

There is a wealth of material by the Fauves at Youtube. I collected. a few things here.