Alongside his work as an actor, a gardener, and as the frontman of You Am I, Tim Rogers seems to have also found steady employment as his own harshest critic.
Though he’s ostensibly speaking with the BRAG to discuss My Tunes, an upcoming night of music and conversation that will see him play stripped-back songs from across his discography and reflect on his career with long-standing friend Chris Taylor of The Chaser, he still finds ample opportunity to rag on that Tim Rogers guy.
“I’m always about five minutes behind,” he says. “You’ll see when Chris and I talk. I’ll be talking about what Chris was talking about five minutes before.”
Taylor laughs. “You’ll be saying, ‘Hello, good evening,’ when I’m on my second question.”
“They’ll go, ‘Gee, that Tim Rogers can play a dunce really well,’” adds Rogers, not uncheerfully. “Half an education and a couple of nervous breakdowns will do it every time.”
Even though Rogers might be his own worst enemy, he has no shortage of devoted fans – among them Taylor, who personally selected the musician as his My Tunes sparring partner. “A lot of my misspent youth was spent going to You Am I gigs and being magnetically drawn to Tim in particular,” says Taylor. “[He] was doing something in rock’n’roll that few other people were doing at the time, which was putting on a show.
“It was sort of the time of shoegaze, and a lot of bands like My Bloody Valentine and Ride – who I love – came out and never looked at you. But Tim came out and waved his arms around and put on a fucking rock’n’roll show. It was like a revolution.”
“All the movement and arm-swinging really did start off as a way to not get hit by cans and bottles,” says Rogers. “A lot of shows we played early on were rougher because we were playing heavier, more hardcore… If you move around there’s less chance of getting sconced.”
Taylor chuckles, “I know the gig at Giant Dwarf is billed as being in acoustic mode, but we [should] put the word out through the BRAG that you need to bring your ammunition. Bring anything you want to pelt at Tim Rogers. Let’s get him back to self-defence mode.”
The pair laugh. They do a lot of that. Indeed, they come across as genuinely firm friends. Neither can remember exactly when they met each other, but Taylor guesses it might have been on the set of The Chaser’s War On Everything, way back when.
“We often joked in The Chaser that there were two people who would always say yes to a cameo. One was David Stratton and the other was Tim Rogers. We were incredibly grateful, cause a lot of people in the music industry… either they’re a bit too cool to do a comedy show or a bit too uncomfortable. And Tim was neither of those things. He always said yes. So I think it was our very first episode ever of The Chaser’s War On Everything, there was a parody sketch … I can’t remember the joke. We needed a rock star and Tim stepped up to the plate … and then we couldn’t get rid of him.”
“I’d just turn up,” Rogers says drily. “I thought there was some kind of equity benefit.” But habitual self-depreciation aside, Rogers does admit he enjoys any opportunity to leave his comfort zone. “I get asked, ‘Why do you do film … and TV stuff?’ One, it’s work. Two, there’s a chance to learn something. I started in theatre, but television and comedy – there’s an opportunity to learn. I’m not there for the sandwiches.
“If you’re asked to be on something and you’re the rock’n’roll guy, I’m aware that there’s an expectation that you’re going to be a bit of dill and won’t take direction well and that you’re just looking for the drinks rider. But I’m very concerned with doing a good job. I’m attentive and want to listen, and I like being directed, because I don’t trust my own instincts in mediums other than music. I guess sometimes that gets mistaken for generosity.”
“You’re really good at it,” says Taylor, stepping into the middle of another Rogers versus Rogers fight. “The reason we knew, even before we got you in to do any comedy work … [was because] I’d seen you on The Micallef P(r)ogram(me). You used to do these fake interviews; these very well written, awkward interviews. Normally it’s people like Andrew Denton and then one week it’s Tim Rogers, and [you] just nailed it. [You] got into the rhythms of [Shaun] Micallef’s comedy. I was like, ‘This guy gets it, let’s get him in.’”
The warm feelings go both ways. When asked if he is looking forward to My Tunes, Rogers seems most enthusiastic about being up onstage with Taylor. “I like doing just regular shows, but anything involving a friend and someone I have a lot of respect for and there’s a lot of to-ing and fro-ing – I’m excited about that.”
It’s that level of mutual respect that promises to make the upcoming night at Giant Dwarf so much fun; that and the prospect of some very good-natured, old-fashioned ribbing. Whether it will be Taylor pulling his friend’s chain or Rogers picking up the slack and tearing straight into himself remains to be seen.
My Tunes Acoustic Series: Chris Taylor Presents Tim Rogers is on Wednesday January 20 atGiant Dwarf.
