Interview: Mark Wilson (Jet) on ARC and the Eagles’ Hotel California
By Sheldon Ang
The Australian Rock Collective (ARC) is exactly what it sounds like: four of the country’s most accomplished rock musicians coming together as mates and as true students of the music. Featuring Kram (Spiderbait), Darren Middleton (Powderfinger), Mark Wilson (Jet) and Davey Lane (You Am I), ARC’s combined track record spans decades of touring, stacks of ARIA recognition, and songs that have helped define modern Australian rock, formally validated through 33 ARIA awards and 16 top ten albums. Formed in 2014 after a one-off invitation to play around the World Cup in Brazil, the band has since built a reputation for delivering big, communal nights out – presenting classic albums with the care, fire, and attention to detail you’d expect from lifelong fans.
Ahead of ARC’s latest show, celebrating the Eagles’ Hotel California album and a run through key hits – Sheldon Ang from Sheldon Ang Media speaks with bassist Mark Wilson. In the chat, the Jet musician looks back on the Brazil World Cup origin story, explains how the band chooses each year’s repertoire, and breaks down the challenge of recreating the records faithfully, right down to the feel of the bass parts and the layered guitars and harmonies. He also shares a few touring reflections from Jet’s recent run overseas, the euphoria of playing in front of 150,000 fans in Chile, and what audiences can expect when ARC brings these songs to the stage.
A YouTube video of the interview is also available below.
ARC returns with their new tour playing across Australia this June. Tickets are available through Live Nation Australia
Sheldon Ang: How’s your Easter?
Mark Wilson: I was in Chile with Jet. So I got home on Good Friday, so I was pretty jetlagged.
Sheldon Ang: No pun intended.
Mark Wilson: Pardon the pun (chuckles), but it’s in a complete opposite time zone. I’m fine now, but I just kind of chilled out with my kids.
Sheldon Ang: The Australian Rock Collective comprise of yourself from Jet, Kram of Spiderbait, Darren Middleton of Powerfinger, and Davey Lane of You Am I. It’s essentially a supergroup.
Mark Wilson: Yeah. I mean, we’re not shy away from calling us that (chuckles). Everyone else does t it. We’re also old mates. That’s the thing, that’s how it all started, because we all knew each other from festivals and playing around. And we have an opportunity to start doing stuff together. And, yeah it has been over ten years now we’ve been doing stuff together.
Sheldon Ang: 33 ARIAs and 16 top ten albums; it’s a pretty impressive resume. So who came up with the idea?
Mark Wilson: It was actually Darren (Powerfinger) in 2014. Darren got asked to put together a band to go over to Brazil and play at the World Cup for the Australian cohort over there. And he called us and said, “Oh, you want to come to Brazil.”
And I missed the call, and it was a voice-to-text and I said, “What the hell is this?” And obviously I haven’t heard Darren correctly. Like, there’s no way Darren would be asking me if I wanted to go to Brazil. But it was. So we went over there and played in front of a big cohort of all the Australian fans, because they (The Socceroos) were playing in Porto Alegre against the Netherlands.
They put out a big concert there for everybody, and we played a bunch of Australian songs, a bunch of our songs, each of our songs. And, we had so much fun doing it that we decided to turn it into like a band. And we’re all super busy with our own things, so we sort of have a couple of times a year to play together.
But I always tell friends, it’s just like a school camp. You’re going away with a bunch of people you don’t normally go away with and a different dynamic. So, yeah, it’s really fun.
Sheldon Ang: Yeah. So the band we will be covering the hits from Hotel California by the Eagles, which is a 1976 album. The songs will include the likes of Take it Easy and Wasted Time, obviously Hotel California and New Kid in Town. Why Eagles and why that particular album?
Mark Wilson: We’ve done a few before, we’ve done The Beatles, we’ve done Neil Young, Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd. So we just thought we wanted a change; stylistic change. Probably not as obvious choice for us. It was the 50th anniversary (of Hotel California album), which we normally don’t sort of try to steer away from doing 50th anniversary these days because you sort of start running out of albums you want to do. It seems like we don’t really need to do them anymore either, because the last few times we haven’t done anniversary records. I don’t know why we decided it was just like we kick around ideas like this. By the end of this tour we’ve probably got the idea for next year, ready to go. But I guess someone was probably listening to it and noticed that it was the 50th anniversary of Hotel California.
And also the second set will do like their Greatest hits album, which is also one of the top-selling albums of all time. So I don’t know, we just choose things because it sounds interesting to us…and because we got to sit there and learn like 20 songs, 25 songs or something. So we take it pretty seriously.
We work pretty hard on making it perfect. This comes with its challenges too, especially vocally and guitar-wise. We’ve had to bring on an extra singer and an extra guitarist to cover. There’s so much guitar, harmonising and stuff like that. You kind of need three guitars – they had three guitars. So yeah, no idea why we chose it. We just thought it’d be fun. You know, it’s going to be fun for us, I guess. And we all love the tunes and stuff.
Sheldon Ang: Yeah, you got Kram, who is a trained punk drummer, and yourself – a garage rock bassist from Jet…
Mark Wilson: If you’re looking at purely what we do, but we actually can do many styles. And that’s the part of this project that is sort of showcasing. I think a lot of the people who come and see us play that they’ve seen all the shows, and they almost come to see how we’re going to do it, like how we’re going to sort of tackle these tunes.
It’s pretty varied all the styles we’ve been doing, you know, we’ve done LED Zeppelin, we’ve done Pink Floyd completely different. We’ve done Neil Young and The Beatles completely differently. And now again the Eagles, which is again, completely different, way more country on the Greatest Hits album. Obviously, the Hotel California album doesn’t have as many sort of country numbers.
Sheldon Ang: Typically, there are tribute bands and cover bands. But with the ARC, it’s unique, isn’t it?
Mark Wilson: Yeah. We always look at it as a recital, like you go see a classical orchestra. We are not digging ourselves up. But we are trying to deliver this little elevated thing in nice theatres. It is a nice, good show, but it’s not safe. It’s not dress-ups either. It’s basically us saying this music that we like, and we’re going to try to attempt to recreate it perfectly on stage for you, as if you’re listening to it on the album. Like we use the same guitars, same amps. Is it much of the same gear. We can kind of get our hands on it to try and recreate that original feel, you know.
Sheldon Ang: We’ll be seeing a lot of signatures from Powderfinger, Jet, Spiderbait and You Am I?
Mark Wilson: We’re trying to make the record sound like the record we’re doing, rather than make it sound like us. You know, like you’ll see us doing probably styles that you’re not used to seeing us play more so.
Sheldon Ang: So we’ll be seeing a bit of Randy Meisner and Timothy Schmit as well from you?
Mark Wilson: Yeah. I’m just sort of cracking into it now. Randy Meisner is a great bass player. It’s quite interesting to deconstruct. It’s quite simple, but it’s not easy. He’s amazing, and it’s nothing like technical. It’s not like doing LED Zeppelin, where you’ve got to be technical – it was like one of the hardest things, and even Paul McCartney stuff too, like when we did Abbey Road – that was tough. There’s a lot of like super melodic things and one thing at a place and everyone knows it, but the same as this, it’s so sparse and the bass really nails everything down.
So I’ve got a pretty important job. It’s not like a technique. It’s not like physically hard thing to play. But the feel is a thing that’s hard to get. And you have to work on the way it feels because it’s so important to how these songs feel
Sheldon Ang: Will there be any surprises in a setlist, for example, will we be hearing Are You Going to Be My Girl or Look What You’ve Done?
Mark Wilson: No, not on this show, unfortunately.
Sheldon Ang: So ARC will be paying Hotel California back-to-back?
Mark Wilson: Yeah, we just do this this day. We’re just doing the album that we say we’re out to do.
Sheldon Ang : Actually, can I tell you a bit of a story. Your mate Kev Temperley from Eskimo Joe told me that in 2004 they were up for eight ARIA awards. He said, whenever they announced the winner, it would be Jet because of Are You Gonna Be My Girl, and he’d be like, ‘mother f*cker’.
Mark Wilson: (Chuckles). We’re okay now. But yeah, I could get how that would be frustrating. They should have put their album at a different time.
Sheldon Ang: Yeah, and since then, he bought the rock star kit, the leather jacket, the black fingernails, and. Yeah, perhaps Jet actually inspired them to a certain degree.
Mark Wilson: Yeah, you look at that, I mean, we all kind of feed off each other.
Sheldon Ang: So, if you don’t mind me asking, what was it like to be a member of Jet back in the early 2000s?
Mark Wilson: Well, I was 20, 21 when we started making records. So it was a bit of a whirlwind. You kind of at that age, just do whatever, you don’t care. You have no anchor anyway. You’re just ready to go.
So we just went on tours, forever. We made records and toured nonstop for like 6 or 7 years, maybe to our detriment, but we’re playing again now. We started playing again in 2017. I was saying before I just got back from Chile, where we played to 150,000 at a festival. We headlined the festival over there. So we’re still heading out. We play overseas a lot more than we play in Australia, actually.
Sheldon Ang: How was it like to play to that many people?
Mark Wilson: To play that many, it’s amazing. But there’s not much difference between 50,000 and 150,000 when you’re standing on stage; you can’t see them anyway. So it’s pretty. It’s just that you feel the energy. It’s pretty cool.
Sheldon Ang: Yeah. And I hear it’s more nerve-racking to sing in front of 100 people than in front of 100,000 people?
Mark Wilson: Absolutely. You can’t see anybody. It’s been more nerve wrecking just playing in the garage in front of your mates, you know?
Sheldon Ang: Yeah. It’s amazing. Hey, Mark Wilson is so great to talk to you, mate. So, I hope to see you in June. So tell us about the show. What can we expect?
Mark Wilson: We just really try and bring a really fun, enjoyable, high-class show to people like us. We’re essentially celebrating these state songs that were written 50-odd years ago. And things that we love. It’s always a pretty, I mean, there aren’t many shows we haven’t done that haven’t got a standing ovation.
There’s a good dose of nostalgia course, because it’s an old record and people coming along to say, to have a listen, to see how we attack it. But yeah, I think, come along and see for yourself…
ARC returns with their new tour playing across Australia this June. Tickets are available through Live Nation Australia
Sheldon Ang Media would like to thank Revolution Per Minute, the Australian Rock Collective (ARC), and Mark Wilson for making this interview possible.
AUSTRALIAN ROCK COLLECTIVE (ARC) PLAYS EAGLES
THIS JUNE
HOTEL BRUNSWICK, BRUNSWICK HEADS, NSW
FRIDAY 5 JUNE
CONCERT HALL, QPAC, BRISBANE, QLD
SATURDAY 6 JUNE
CIVIC THEATRE, NEWCASTLE, NSW
TUESDAY 9 JUNE
ANITA’S THEATRE, THIRROUL, NSW
FRIDAY 12 JUNE
LLEWELLYN HALL, CANBERRA, ACT
SUNDAY 14 JUNE
HAMER HALL, MELBOURNE, VIC
TUESDAY 16 JUNE
CONCERT HALL, SYDNEY OPERA HOUSE, SYDNEY, NSW
THURSDAY 18 JUNE
THEBARTON THEATRE, ADELAIDE, SA
SATURDAY 20 JUNE
ASTOR THEATRE, PERTH, WA
WEDNESDAY 24 JUNE
For complete tour & ticket information, visit: livenation.com.au
Connect with ARC
About the interviewer: Sheldon Ang, photographer, writer and the founder of Perth-based Sheldon Ang Media (est. May 2022) has been accredited to over 220 of the hottest acts including Taylor Swift (ERAS Tour in Sydney), Coldplay (Perth), AC/DC, KISS, Metallica, Iron Maiden, RHCP and P!NK with reviews shared by the likes of Belinda Carlisle, UB40, Delta Goodrem, and Roxette. He has interviewed rockers Suzi Quatro (pictured below), the late Ace Frehley (KISS), John Steel (The Animals), Frank Ferrer (Guns N Roses), Phil X (Bon Jovi), Andrew Farris (INXS) plus over 100 artists. He’s also a contributor on Triple M Radio as a music journalist.
