Just when he thought they would never come, when he felt he had become desensitised to the songs, lyrics finally flowered. I don't know if it was the right amount of beer or what, but I just started coming up with the initial lyrical ideas for most of the record. Music has always come naturally to Perkins, but words are a chore, especially now he's trying to tell stories in as few words as possible. But lyrics are a different world. I agonise over them.
Lyrics can take a couple of years.
It's like doing homework. Similarly, as an instinctive writer, Perkins struggles to articulate ideas about his music in interviews. Because of this, and his general dislike for discussing anything too seriously, a note of mockery enters his tone if the conversation becomes a bit high-flown. Perkins is one of a few sexy and charismatic Australian frontmen left from the Australian rock'n'roll heyday of the 1980s. Whether fronting one of his early punk bands, the Beasts or the Cruel Sea, he had the voice and the moves to turn on the chicks and impress or intimidate the guys.