Interviews : “I wanted to be like Judas Priest” – An interview with Steve Hughes

Steve Hughes is a man at a very important crossroads. While he’s happy as ever to wax lyrical about the good ol days of death and thrash metal in Australia, pontificate on the dangers of the New World Order, and point out just what’s wrong with the people of earth (and it must be noted; never with a tone of condescension or arrogance), Hughes is starting to question existence, and his place within it. Or lack thereof.

“I’ve never really felt Australian,” he tells me when I ask if touring to Australia feels like returning home. “Just being on the road so long I don’t know where I live anymore. I live in a nowhere world. A nowhere land. It’s a strange position to find myself in.”

Steve Hughes

Though 2014 will be Hughes’ fifth year in a row performing in Australia, he’s spent the last few decades building a fan base across Europe, where he’s regarded by and large as one of the funniest, hardest working and genuinely nicest comics on the scene. But despite being one of our most successful comedians, it’s taken quite a while for anyone besides the comedy fanatics and metalheads of Australia to discover who he is.

“That’s usually the way it happens in Australia. I don’t think Australian’s collectively have a ‘fame psychology’. That’s what I call it; unless you go away, and get some kind of recognition or respect from overseas, you’re not really regarded here. Because I think unconsciously Australians have a psychological dichotomy going on, where they boast about being the best country in the world, but they don’t have an internalized identity. They’re very reactionary about anything negative being said about their country, but they also don’t really respect anything unless it’s approved of overseas. They respect outside recognition far more than they do in their own country. They’ll give it to you once someone else from overseas does. If you look at a show like the Voice, they will always get three or four judges from overseas. I think it’s subconscious, but doing that makes people think, ‘ok, those people are to be respected.’ If they were all Australians they’d be going ‘well who’s this lot?’ Canada does it, New Zealand does it. New Zealand had its 21st anniversary for the comedy festival and they got an American to MC it? Why? If the English had the 20 year anniversary for a comedy festival, no one but an Englishman would be MCing it.”

It’s hard to argue the point. The “token Australian” appears on many more Australian productions than they do international ones, and their inclusion seems reluctant, not warranted. But that’s not to say that America and Britain are the only places that produce content worth consuming, as Steve points out.

“Australia has an amazing amount of production when it comes to bands and art. Phenomenal performers, great bands. But there’s no infrastructure; there’s no way for them to get around their own country, and there’s no way for them to get out. We don’t give any credence to anything we create unless we get out. The Hard Ons have done what? 27 albums? Has anyone ever given them an award for cultural contribution? No. Has anyone made a film or written a book about The Angels or Hunters and Collectors?”

I was going to point out the made-for-TV mini-series about INXS until I realized that just proves Hughes’ point – they made it out of Australia. That’s why Channel 9 decided they’re worth dramatizing. That, and the terminal choke-wank.

“There’s a guy making a film about Australian metal at the moment, which is a start. But there’s still no book on the Australian thrash or punk scene, and yet we were there from the start. I should know, I was in it. I was the fucking start.”

It’s hard to miss the amount of conviction Hughes has on the topic. It’s not bitterness, by any stretch, but hearing him speak about an unsupportive environment (one which hasn’t changed in almost 30 years), I begin to understand why he not only left Australia, but why he left behind music to do comedy.

“Bands just became harder to make anything happen. I was playing in a “mainstream” band. We were together five years, did five hundred gigs, released two albums, we toured with The Angels, with Hunters and Collectors, and it fell apart. And it became so frustrating, to put so much time and effort into bands and just to have them fall apart again and again because the bass player wants to do something else, or the singer keeps changing his mind, or the guitarist decides he doesn’t want to tour.”

This is something I can relate to. I’ve been drumming and singing in metal bands for nearly a decade, and as most of you know, it only takes one member to bring the whole unit to a complete stop. There is something liberating about going out on your own and telling jokes, with no band mates or managers or producers to rely on, but there is a cliché that I know personally to be true, and that Hughes confirms for me now – no matter how good they get, all comedians just want to be rock stars.

“I always wanted to be in a big band. The underground and their identity, where fame is anathema, they never wanted to be “big” bands, but they were influenced by them. And I never understood that. The whole idea was, ‘well, you wanted to be a band. That’s what happens, if you’re good.’ You’re not chasing fame for fames sake, but you want to get on a tour bus, and be like Metallica. I wanted popularity, because I wanted to be in a band and making money from it. I wanted to be like Judas Priest.”

But that, obviously, didn’t happen. Instead, after only three years of performing stand up in Australia, Hughes left the heavy music scene and took off to Europe, largely on a whim, to see how comedy might work out. While it must’ve been a tough decision, the fact that bands find themselves today in the exact same position Hughes found himself in the 80’s must ultimately mean it was the right one.

One thing that has separated Hughes from most comedians for his entire career, aside from his heavy metal/homeless aesthetic, has been his caustic and insightful anti-establishment bent. Never afraid to call bullshit where he sees it (and he sees it everywhere), I can’t help but feel that this attitude is heavily influenced by his time in the metal scene. You’ll rarely find a metalhead “fitting in” – by definition, they can’t. And they don’t care. That “I don’t give a fuck” attitude is what has allowed men for decades to grow out their hair and barely wash it, fling it and themselves across sweat soaked stages and scream into a microphone for an hour at a time. And while, to the best of my knowledge, Hughes has never circle headbanged on stage (something I can’t honestly admit to), his attitude, his vibe, his persona, is still very much the outsider metalhead, which his comedy reflects. While clean cut comedians joking about relationships and pets have become stereotypes in their own rights, Hughes’ “what’s the deal with-” jokes are about censorship, chaos and the human condition, not airplane food.And just like the decision he had to make all those years ago to put down the drum sticks and pick up a notebook, Hughes today finds himself at a junction. He’s been following the same path for many years, but evidently isn’t seeing the results he originally expected to.

“I’m coming to the point where I’ve discovered that continually rattling on and banging my drum against the establishment’s door is becoming a moot point. And that you can only rail so long with anger and frustration. It was making me exhausted after four years on the road. There’s been a lot of soul searching for me, for the past few months, because I started to have intuition tap me on the shoulder and say ‘you can’t rail against it for that long before you start to think that maybe you’re perpetuating the very thing you’re against.’ I was getting caught up in the energy of it, which is vastly negative; it’s causing destruction. And it’s doing me no good on a psychological level. It’s taking me into my head instead of my heart. And so I’m more interested now in swaying it around.  “Human beings like to have breakdowns to have breakthroughs. I have reached a breakdown. Through exhaustion, frustration, and other things happening in my life, I started to wonder. Why must we have a breakdown to have a breakthrough? Why would we pin ourselves to the wall and start creating destruction, maybe there is a way can we get to a place where we can manifest a breakthrough without a breakdown.”

This holistic, almost Buddhist-like Hughes seems at once both totally at odds and yet completely congruent with his on stage message. Though much nicer and spiritual than his usual tone, his material has never been about answers or solutions, but progression. And with this new outlook, are we about to witness the rebirth of a brand new genre of Steve Hughes in the next few months and years?

“I keep asking, ‘what’s the point?’ It is what it is. No amount of pushing against the establishment is really going to stop it. You have to evolve into a far higher realm of consciousness, where you learn to accept. And it’s not a passive acceptance, you’re not giving in. That would be defeatism. It’s not that. It’s that I can’t overcome this with the same energy that it’s projecting. I may even stop comedy for a year, after this tour. Just to reassess, see what’s going on.”

In true Steve Hughes fashion, that last line is delivered dead pan, nonchalant and without a hint of bravado. It’s just a matter-of-fact that one of the world’s most revered and admired stand ups might quit for a year to see what he thinks about the world.  Despite all the talk of transcendence, fame psychology, and the underground metal scene, it’s refreshing to hear that, when I ask Hughes if he has any last things he’d like to add, he’s still a working comic at heart.

“Well, I’ve got some shows on this weekend. Everyone should get there. Hopefully I’ll be there too.”

Catch Steve Hughes in Australia on his current Australian tour.

While It’s Still Legal – Australia Tour

Friday, 18th and Saturday 19th April 2014
Melbourne Town Hall, Melbourne
Click here to purchase tickets.

Saturday, 17th May 2014
Vividwireless Astor Theatre, Perth
Click here to purchase tickets

Saturday, 31st May 2014
Enmore Theatre, Sydney
Click here to purchase tickets.

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