Steve Balbi

From Rose Tattoo to Noiseworks, Mi-Sex to Ziggy Stardust, Balbi has been playing a remarkably varied game for decades. His solo output includes the lauded album Black Rainbow, and as a testament to his mercurial craftsmanship, he is about to re-release a much more surreal version, Rainbow Black. On top of this, there is Moon, a new act including Balbi, Mark Ward, and 13-year-old drumming prodigy Jagger. We told you he was a hard man to catalogue.

“I feel really fortunate,” Balbi admits. “I think I have an ability to be a chameleon. There’s a part of me that just loves rock, and there’s a part of me that hates rock. I can go and make my music in a more storytelling persona, and then move it even further away and do a Ziggy show at the Opera House and put my make-up on and prance around in a mirrorball suit. I think people see me as someone you can’t really pigeonhole. I’d hate to be stuck in that mould of, ‘Oh, you’re the guy who sings that song.’ I have so many peers who basically have to sing the same songs all the same. I’ve forged a career that is able to do different things, even as a producer and songwriter – being able to venture down different sonic paths. Some friends criticise me, telling me to focus on the one thing. But why should I?”

Moon also benefit from one of the greatest press descriptions in recent memory – they’re said to treat “a rock band like an orchestra with its balls out”. Despite there only being three band members, it’s an apt description. The tracks on Moon’s album The Orbitor have an epic quality to them, a classic rock vibe that still manages to seem expansive. With sections that are entirely instrumental, it is Balbi’s hope that listeners can have an almost DIY listening experience.

“We’d intended Moon to be totally instrumental, the whole thing. We went into the studio with Jagger, [who’s] this really proactive guy but had never recorded before. Mark [Ward] and I started writing, and after two lots of five-day sessions we’d come up with this album. During that process, we thought it was only going to be instrumental, but there were parts that needed something. So there are a couple of songs there where only one line will come in. I didn’t want it to be where I was out the front singing, I didn’t want the focus here. I wanted it to be a band sound. And there is a freedom there. There’s an empty gap when you have no lyrics, a void that you get to fill with your imagination.”

Somehow, Balbi has also found the time and energy to reinvent an entire earlier album. Rainbow Black is the surrealist answer to an artist already committed to making music way outside the everyday.

“It’s been so much fun deconstructing this material, and not giving it any limits. People really love the record, and I’m giving them the opportunity to hate it now. ‘Here, have another crack at it! Let’s see if you like this version!’” he laughs. “I think it’s part of that need for me to never be pinned down, to reshuffle it and celebrate the fact that really, anything is doable. If you know the material, you’ll expect it some way, but now you’ll hear it from without. It’s a total remake, but still using some original elements. I wanted it to be unfamiliar and familiar at the same time.”