[Matthew Marzullo]

Hi all--

In light of this banter about opposing political viewpoints--whether in the context of the Oils' lyrics or just in general--I thought I'd pull some quotes from interviews with Peter and Rob (taken from the deadheart.org article archive, pasted below).  It's interesting to read what they have to say about it--after all, they're the reason any of us are here (on this list, that is).  Just food for thought...

- (Peter Garret – 1998)
Q: Do you think the Oils have touched the psyche of your fans in a way to prompt them to voice their opinions on political and social issues?

PG: "Every single person has their own political stance, their own character, their own nature, their own set of impulses. There is music for them to choose, and words if they choose to listen sometimes. What happens after that is up to the individual. We don't want to presume or assume that we are taking our audience anywhere. The audience is free to come and go from the Oils, free to agree and disagree. Naturally, we respect our audience's independent mindedness. But at the same time we like to say that it is very cool, if they come on board for some of the issues that we think are important. But it is not part of being an Oils fan."

- (Rob Hirst – 1983)
Q: How do you feel about the reputation the band has as spokesmen for the left or the young or whatever?

RH: Well I don't think we're spokesmen for the left and I don't think we're spokesmen for the young necessarily. If people feel what we're saying in the songs and the interviews and what Peter says on stage . . . if people agree with some of those sentiments then I suppose we are spokesmen for those individuals. As far as setting ourselves up as public champions-nothing could be further from the truth.

Q: Everybody expects something from every band and people expect statements from Midnight Oil. Do you ever discuss this or think about it? Does it bother you at all?

RH: No. The only thing that can concern us is for us to be sincere in what we do and never take that belief in the band, by so many people it seems these days, lightly. I think that our only responsibility is to be sincere to ourselves, to be honest with people who are coming along to see the band.  They might like something that the band says and vehemently disagree with something else that we say. This happens all the time within the band itself. The band isn't one giant bulldozing unit. It's probably a lot more fragile than most people realise.

Matt
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