Interview: Tim Freedman

It's Time - The Whitlams return from hiatus to headline Flix in the Stix this February.

For Australian city-dwellers in summer, the typical "dinner and a movie" night has been transformed into "twilight picnic and a movie under the stars" for a long while now - whether we’re watching on rooftops, in parks, showgrounds, sports fields or at the beach. The urban landscape is dotted with silver screens in summer, but what of regional centres?

Flix In the Stix first answered the call in 2009, bringing night-time film to the bush and showcasing Australian movies and short screenplays as you picnic under the stars. Then they one-upped the stargazing cinema of the cities, adding live artists to the bill for a rounded evening to amuse your eyes and ears.

This year, Flix In the Stix have added local bands, spoken word artist Murray Hartin, and three times ARIA Award winning band The Whitlams to the line-up that’s about to tour around the country.

When Eventfinda spoke with The Whitlams’ frontman Tim Freedman, we discovered why the band chose Flix In the Stix to return from a three year hiatus.

"It was an interesting match - not just run-of-the-mill, but films and picnics and things" he said, adding that he’ll get out to country towns at "any opportunity I can get if [the event's] well run, it’s something I’ll always do."

Asked about any fond memories of playing country gigs, Tim says the band clocked up plenty of miles in the first ten years, recalling "good rock’n’roll gigs in Bendigo when we were starting off, and we used to do the university in Armidale often in the mid-90s - wild nights with the students - Gladstone, up north; it’s like a different country up there, with the air and the cane fields..."

With Gladstone, Armidale (watch out uni students) and Bendigo on the Flix In the Stix itinerary, it’s not hard to understand why The Whitlams signed up for some extra rounds of gigging, partying and hanging out with the locals.

Tim’s youthful abandon shines through as he offers a peek into Whitlams practice for the tour: "It’s quite playful really; you don’t have to get it right the first two times. You try and arrange yourselves around how much you remember, even if you haven’t played it in three years."

Tim hasn’t stopped playing in three years though, releasing a solo album, Australian Idle; its cover of him laying on a poolbed a nod to 1960s film The Graduate, for which the Simon & Garfunkel penned soundtrack remains a clear winner. "I play a lot of Simon & Garfunkel to my daughter, and we sing along to that," he divulges.

Any other music in film that he loves? "For soundtracks, there’s a composer, Bernard Herrmann, who did a lot of Hitchcock’s later films, and he did that spooky saxophone motif in Taxi Driver. Randy Newman’s my favourite kind of songwriter, and I also like his work in films like Toy Story, where they fit the characters wonderfully. He comes from a musical family, his cousins and nephews are soundtrack composers as well; my favourite is Thomas Newman, who did a beautiful sort of piano soundtrack for Revolutionary Road."

Sounds like Flix In the Stix chose someone who definitely knows and loves their films, and the accompanying music, to be the headlining band for the tour.

"I just watched My Girl with my daughter, and they used Elton John’s ‘Tiny Dancer’ really well. I didn’t realise they were the first to use it like that, and Almost Famous was the second, in the tour bus. But it works – it captures a moment, captures a time."

Capture a moment in time at your local Flix In the Stix, showing in Armidale, Bowral, Canberra (sold out), Dubbo, Orange, Wagga Wagga, Bendigo, Gladstone, Riverina, Rockhampton, Ballarat and Tamworth.