Huxton Creepers back in the day. Artist supplied.
Legendary Melbourne band Huxton Creepers are back in the swing of things. No longer just the odd show here and there, the Creepers are playing more regularly, including an Australian East Coast tour, and are issuing their first new music in 36 years and a vinyl re-issue of their “12 Days to Paris” album.
Bass player Matthew Eddy spoke to the I-94 Bar on the eve of their album’s 40th anniversary shows.
I-94 Bar: How many shows are you doing on the tour?
Matthew: I think we’re doing one, two, three... about eight.
I-94 Bar: I know you guys did supports for the Sunnyboys and the odd gig here and there, so is this the first actual “pack the suitcase for a couple of days” tour?
Matthew: Yeah, it’s a bit longer than usual and a bit more special. We’re working really hard on it, as opposed to doing a support where we just get together and practise a couple of times.
We’ve done the Sunnyboys support, as you said. That was a one-off. We did the Models and a special one at the Yorkshire Stingo for the “Mind Your Language” series a couple of years ago. We also did one at the Balnarring Yacht Club. Sometimes those one-offs come up and we just go, “Yeah, let’s do that,” and practise a couple of times in the week before. But we’re going a bit further this time and really working. We’ve got an album to promote, a single to promote and stuff like that.
I-94 Bar: It’s all happening. Forty years of "12 Days to Paris" is an absolute reason to hit the road again and celebrate.
Matthew: Well, everyone seems to be doing it. I guess most of us have had kids and they’ve grown up, and work isn’t as full-time as it used to be. You’re not exactly scratching around looking for things to do, but you’re going, “Okay, I’ve got a bit more time now.”I don’t go out and see that much music, audience and musicians from yesteryear thinking, “What’s wrong with still playing?”
I-94 Bar: Nothing.
Matthew: So it’s kind of good. It meets both needs. For a few years now, we’ve been wanting to do some new stuff. For what that’s worth, I don’t know whether people are interested in it, but we are. People might think, “Shut up. We liked you back then when we were kids. Stop thinking we’re interested in what you’re writing now.” Certainly my wife is of that opinion. But it really is to please us as much as anything, and if anyone else likes it, that’s good.
We’ve recorded a new single: one song written mostly by Rob and another song written mostly by me over the last couple of years. We thought, “These are pretty good. Let’s record them.” We got Finn Keane from Head Gap and went into Audrey Studios with him. We had a great few sessions and came up with a single. It’s out now, or it’s on pre-release, I think. You can order it on Bandcamp.
It comes out on vinyl in late July and it’ll be available at the shows. We’ll be playing it at the shows as well. Then the plan is to work on the rest of the album. We want to record an album by the end of the year, so we’ll see where that leads. It’s good to have a crack, I reckon.
Huxton Creepers 2026. Artist supplied.
I-94 Bar: One hundred per cent. I remember reading an interview years ago with Deniz Tek, when Radio Birdman made “Zeno Beach”. I think the interviewer asked, “Why now, all of a sudden?” He said it was just to keep the live shows going, because in his mind, if you only did the back catalogue, you’d become a tribute band to yourself. Do you share that sentiment, or did you just think, “Why not have a crack?”
Matthew: I think I do, actually. Doing the old stuff is fun and it’s appreciated by the audience, but there is a feeling of, “This again? What are we doing this for, really?” You can ask that about anything, but I think it does get a bit boring doing the same old stuff.
We have a great time at the shows, there’s no doubt. I think we’re still a pretty vibrant, entertaining band, and judging by the response from the audience, we can still play well. In fact, in some ways, we’re playing better now than ever. We’ve had more experience and we’ve been working on our stuff for a long time.
Certainly the between-song patter and stuff is part of the entertainment as well. We did a fantastic show at The John Curtin a few years ago, just before COVID, I think. We rolled out a few anecdotes from back in the day and it was really good fun. A lot of people who came to the show said, “That was great. You guys are better than ever. We’ll keep coming back.”
There is that, but like Deniz said, you can’t just keep doing the same thing. “Zeno Beach” was a terrific album. Purists would disagree, but I thought some of it was up there with their best stuff.
I-94 Bar: You’ve got the new single "Oppoistes Attract" coming out and an album later in the year. Is it just the one song for now?
Matthew: For now, yes. It’s sort of a double A-side. We’d like to think both songs are equally good and equally worthy of listening to, rather than having an A-side and a B-side. We’ve got a good lot of songs to work through and try to come up with an album. We think we’ve got a strong album in us. We’ll leave it to others to decide whether that’s true, but we’re going to have a crack and enjoy doing it. There’s good enthusiasm in the camp.
I-94 Bar: It’s also rare, I guess, for a reunion after this long to have all the original members…..
Matthew: Well, in fact, it doesn’t anymore. I don’t know if you’ve heard, but over the last few years of playing, Paul Thomas, our lead guitarist, has become less and less enthusiastic about doing it. Maybe he had the Deniz Tek blues, I don’t know. I don’t think he was finding that much enjoyment in it, and it was getting harder to get him on board.
A couple of years ago he said, “Yeah, I think I might call it quits.” It wasn’t a hard, “Boom, I’m out of the band,” but he wasn’t very enthusiastic. The other three of us thought we’d like to keep playing together, so we got into the rehearsal room a number of times over the next year. We did some new stuff, some different covers, and just saw where it would take us.
Rob was heroically trying to do the job of lead guitarist, rhythm guitarist and singer, and he did okay. We thought, “Yeah, we could do this.” But in the end, I think we realised we needed another guitarist. We approached Julian Matthews, the bass player from the Stems, who is also a fantastic six-string guitarist. He said, “Yeah, I’m in.” For the last six to eight months, we’ve been playing together, rehearsing and doing these new songs. He’s now our fourth member. He’ll be playing on the shows, he played on the singles, and he even did the graphic design for the new single, so he’s very useful.
I-94 Bar: 12 Days to Paris has been reissued on Cheersquad, is this the first time it’s been reissued?
Matthew: On vinyl, yes. I think about 15 years ago we put it out on CD as a double CD. It had all the tracks from the album and then a whole lot of demos and live stuff from the same era, which was great. That’s what I’ve been practising to. It was a really good little production, but that was on CD. This is the first vinyl reissue. If you were quick enough, you might have got the gold vinyl, which was a special Cheersquad offer.
Probably a year or two ago, Wally Kempton from Cheersquad asked if we’d like to do it. We said, “Yeah, sure thing. We’d love to.” I think his releasing of this stuff has been a big impetus for a lot of bands, and it certainly was for us. The re-release of old vinyl is a great idea, and I hope it’s working well for him, because it’s working well for us. It has brought us back together and pushed us forward.
It was also very nice to see a billboard on Hoddle Street the other day with my face on it. Wally was pushing Cheersquad nicely. I was a bit surprised to see it. He’d sent an email saying, “We’re doing billboards,” and I thought he probably meant big posters or something. It was a shock to see it straight after Guzman y Gomez. A nice surprise. Cheersquad is doing a great job pushing things for everyone, and we’re really pleased to have it out there again.
I-94 Bar: Vinyl’s big now too.
Matthew: Vinyl’s coming back, and it’s a good time for it.
I-94 Bar: Just before I joined you, I saw on the Facebook machine — I think it was Cheersquad — that the reissue had charted and charted pretty well. So obviously it’s been good and paid off the billboard money.
Matthew: Yeah, I hope so. That’s good to see too. Again, I’m surprised. We never charted back in the day, so I don’t know why we are now. We had the odd thing. I think “Pretty Flamingo” went to number 13 in Toowoomba. Apart from that, I don’t know. We would have done well on the independent charts and on Triple R and things, but as for ARIA, or whatever it was then, or 3XY, I’m not sure we made much of an imprint.
I-94 Bar: I want to ask about “12 Days to Paris” and the follow-up, So This Is Paris. Was there any connection with Paris?
Matthew: None at all.
I’m pretty sure that when we were doing the first album, the engineer and producer, Ian McKenzie from Platinum Studios in Melbourne, was listening to the tracks one day. I think he said he was at home or on the beach or something, and he was drunk. He was listening to “Part the Seas” and didn’t know its title.
The next day, I think he said, “I was listening to that song — what’s it called? "12 Days to Paris" or something?” We said, “That’s a great title for the album,” so we used it. Then, of course, I guess it probably told a bit of a story about where the band was: 12 Days to Paris, looking forward to getting to Paris.
With our sort of dark sense of humour, we thought the second album could be called “So This Is Paris” — as in, not that much to get excited about. I think a bit of that was going on.
I-94 Bar: You said it maybe only did well in Toowoomba, but after the album came out, how did the career of the Creepers go? Did you start playing bigger rooms?
Matthew: “12 Days to Paris” actually sold very well. I’m not sure about the numbers, but it ended up in a lot of people’s collections and was very much loved. I think So This Is Paris didn’t do quite as well. The trajectory after “12 Days to Paris “was that we could do shows to a thousand people in Melbourne and Sydney, and perhaps Brisbane as well, which was great.
Amazing. You’d drive to the Tivoli in Sydney and see a queue around the corner and go, “What? Is that for us?” That was terrific for a couple of years. But without huge sales, I think the record company began to get a bit less enthused. They were saying things like, “We don’t really see a single on this album, so you’ll need to do a cover for a single,” and that sort of thing.
There was a slow decline in the trajectory, I guess. We ended up doing demos for a third album. I don’t know who we were with then —somebody else in the band would know all of this; I’ve got vague memories — but we were definitely demoing a third album and those songs weren’t going to be released. So we released them ourselves on the EP “Small Mercies”, which is a great little record. It was released independently, and that was pretty much the end of the band.
That was around 1989, I think, when we first called it quits. That’s when Paul left to join Weddings, Parties, Anything, Rob started doing his solo stuff, and Arch and I went back to uni.
I-94 Bar: You also made a record for Corduroy Records with my friend Nick from The Breadmakers.
Matthew: Yes, I did. When was that? Early 2000s, I think. I never really wrote songs for the Creepers. That was Paul and Rob’s job. I didn’t know how to play guitar, but during the 1990s I fiddled around with it and started writing tunes of my own. I decided, “If not now, when?” I started making little demos at home.
Then I got in contact with Paul because he was the only person I knew who could run a studio. He had a little studio in his house in North Melbourne, and I spent many a night there recording those songs.I didn’t have much money, so Paul was doing it for mates’ rates. He also decided he wanted to have a crack at drumming. He’s actually not a bad drummer. He’s a very musical fellow and he did a fantastic job. If you listen to it, it’s A-grade drumming, but he’s not known as a drummer. I really love that album.
I don’t think it sold many, but Nick said, “Yeah, I’ll put it out,” when I approached him. Good old Corduroy Records. I did another one about 10 years ago, just on my own, which is on Bandcamp. That’s my point of release now. If I ever do anything, I’ll just chuck it on Bandcamp.I’ve got one follower, I think.
I-94 Bar:. I was on the YouTube machine before and rewatched the video clip for “My Cherie Amour”. Was that filmed in St Kilda? Whereabouts was it?
Matthew: Yeah. At the time, I was living in a house in Gurner Street in St Kilda, just off Grey Street. This was one of those great events. We didn’t really have two coins to rub together, most of us, but the record company was saying, “Here’s $50,000 for the album, and here’s $10,000. Go and make a film clip.”
We employed a film company — I can’t remember exactly who it was — that had been making film clips for a while. The idea was to have "My Cherie", the woman in the song, coming to a party. But the party was going to be the biggest party St Kilda had ever seen. It seemed like everyone in St Kilda at the time was there. If you do some spotting, you’ll see lots of people. It was a huge, debauched thing that got visited by the cops about three times. I think they’re in the clip too.
It was all filmed in the house. That party went for quite a while. I’m not sure the record company thought it was money well spent, but somehow we got to take it to Molly Meldrum’s house one morning to present it to him. We were like the scared little band going to see Molly with our offering, saying, "Please, Molly. Please accept us. Please accept this gift.” I think he looked at it and went, “Hmm. Not really good for our teenage audience.” Anyway.
I-94 Bar: With the reissue of “12 Days to Paris”, what would you like the album to be best remembered for?
Matthew: Probably the songwriting. I think it was really good and consistently strong songwriting. We’d been writing songs for a number of years, rehearsing them and, more importantly, playing them live night after night.
The great thing about Melbourne music in general, and certainly at that time, was that you could cut your teeth. You got to do all that stuff where you wrote for an audience. You were trying to get attention, get a good reaction and get people having a good time, because that’s what we went out to watch music for. You had to show your passion night after night. It wasn’t just a performance. It was quite real. You were out there to enjoy yourself and get others to enjoy themselves. I think the songwriting reflects that.
It’s attractive songwriting, I think. For want of a better term, it’s power pop or something. The lyrics are largely heartfelt, and I like that combination of having something to say on an emotional level while also having a lot of fun and energy. It’s a good combination. That’s what I’d like it to be remembered for.
I think the production was fantastic. Straight after it, we probably thought, “Gee, it’s pretty slick.” It had that ’80s production, where you couldn’t be out of time. It had to be perfect; there couldn’t be any mistakes. It would be unfortunate if that sucked any life out of our performances, but I don’t think it did. The use of drum machines was a big thing then, with that idea of perfection and the big drum sounds. A couple of songs really stick out to me because we played more as a band.
Normally it was, “Here’s your drum track that we’ve programmed. Play along to that. Do the bass, then the guitar, then another guitar, then the vocals, then the six-part harmonies,” and blah, blah, blah.
But “Guilty” and “Locked Away” were done more live. There were a couple of B-sides too, including “I’ve Been Around”. Those ones where we played more live had a more spontaneous feeling. They’re really good, and I don’t know why we couldn’t have done the whole album that way. That’s the only regret: that we didn’t do more of it with that live feel, because we were up to it and the engineer was fantastic.
I don’t know why we had to go down the drum-machine road on some of the songs, because we certainly didn’t later on. But having said that, “Autumn Leaves” has fantastic energy. I think the whole album has a verve about it that you can feel.
Anyone I speak to who owned the album still thinks of it fondly.
I-94 Bar: That’s the main thing. Aside from the reissue, the upcoming tour and the new single, is there anything else to plug?
Matthew: Not really. The tour, obviously, we want to plug. There’s Sooki Lounge in Belgrave on 7 August and the Croxton on 8 August. Then there’s Marrickville Bowlo in Sydney and Newcastle that weekend, followed by Brisbane and the Gold Coast the next weekend. Those will be good.
After that, we’ll be looking at recording the rest of the album, and that will hopefully lead to more. That’s about all. We’ve got Icecream Hands supporting in Victoria and our old friends the Johnnys supporting in New South Wales and Queensland, which is excellent.
