Murph From The Wombats: Wombat Buttocks, Paul McCartney and Back To The Future!

Murph from The Wombats came to play and chat about a bunch of nonsense at the iHeartRadio Sound Bank, Powered By Northwest Federal Credit Union!

During our conversation, we talked about International Wombat Day, how wombats have strong buttocks, keeping things fresh and original after 20+ years, being honored by Sir Paul McCartney back at home in Liverpool, the perks of being The Wombats, nerding out over Back To The Future and the monkey who puts the tour schedule together!

Watch out for the deluxe edition of The Wombats' album 'Oh! The Ocean' coming in December and you can see about all of the tour dates and everything at TheWombats.co.uk 

Thanks Murph! You're a gem and a treasure, my friend.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Murph from the Wombats is here with us ladies and
gentlemen in our Rheart Radio Soundbank powered by Northwest Federal
Credit Union. Murph, thanks for taking some time to do
this today. I know you guys keep them busy with
the tour going on. You got the Anthem tonight, What
New York's coming up Boston for this run, and a
whole bunch of new shows you just announced and everything.

Speaker 2 (00:19):
So thanks for coming out and doing this for us.

Speaker 3 (00:20):
Man, Thank you for having me.

Speaker 1 (00:21):
Really appreciate it. First thing we got to ask about,
got to talk about. We just had the big holiday,
International Wombat Day was just an October twenty second.

Speaker 2 (00:29):
What did you do to celebrate?

Speaker 3 (00:31):
I did the show. No, I didn't. I didn't know
it was international one that day until we got on stage,
and that kind of made the whole gig instantly awesome.

Speaker 1 (00:44):
So yeah, now, do you have to do something every
year on October twenty second for it?

Speaker 3 (00:48):
I think we should be doing something every year for me.

Speaker 1 (00:50):
Yeah, show new song, cover song, something like that.

Speaker 3 (00:55):
Well, they have extremely reinforced but and that's how they
protect them sell from their prey, so that so they burrow,
they burrow down and if something's trying to eat them,
then they've got to get through the backside first. So
I think kind of reimagining that on stage would be

(01:15):
pretty cool.

Speaker 2 (01:16):
I like this for Dan and Tord. I like this
for the boys a lot.

Speaker 3 (01:19):
Yeah, if I could kind of Yeah, We'll have a
makeshift kind of burrow and I'll go in there and
then they just have to run at my Derria and
see if they make it through. Uh.

Speaker 1 (01:33):
October twenty second, twenty twenty six is gonna be the
best Wombat show ever.

Speaker 2 (01:36):
Yeah, I can't wait for that.

Speaker 1 (01:38):
Well, talking about the guys, Dan and Tord, you've known
each other forever now, it's been over twenty years for
the three of you, starting out at school back at
home in England. Like, that's a huge feat for any
band to have the same original member since the beginning.
How do you guys keep it fresh after twenty years?
How do you keep all of that going, the creativity
and stay friends too.

Speaker 3 (01:59):
Well, a healthy dose of insanity. It works pretty well.
But you know, I think we've we've always just we
always prioritize, you know, the album and the tour that
comes ahead of anyone else's personal feelings and you keep
that at the top of the pyramid and anything's kind

(02:22):
of possible. But yeah, no, we're we're very lucky that
we still get on so well, and we're very I
think we are the only band that still has the
same line up from certainly from the UK and that
two thousand and six two thousand and seven period.

Speaker 1 (02:39):
Going back also to your beginnings, it's pretty awesome that
over the summer you got honored at your school at
the Liverpool Institute for Performing Arts by mister Paul McCartney.

Speaker 2 (02:47):
So that's not too bad.

Speaker 3 (02:49):
No, that was awesome. Yeah, I believe I'm a doctor now, yeah, exactly.

Speaker 2 (02:52):
Yeah, when a Beatles.

Speaker 3 (02:54):
You get away for it to happen on a flight,
so we have like a doctor on board, and I just.

Speaker 1 (03:02):
I am thank you very much. It's pretty cool that,
you know, you know, a Beatle. What other fun moments
have happened for you because of the Wombats.

Speaker 3 (03:13):
Oh my god, Well, I think that was a kind
of a you know, huge highlight. I mean even this
year alone, there was that we were in Singapore for
the for the F one and got to go in
the garage and stuff. I mean, lots of it seems
like the longer we stick at it, the more cool

(03:36):
things happened to us.

Speaker 2 (03:37):
More perks of the job.

Speaker 3 (03:38):
Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Speaker 1 (03:40):
I like the cover that you guys did a lot
of the Power of Love, because who doesn't love Huey
Lewis and the News and Back to the Future. You
did that for Triple J in Australia? Do they uh?
Because those songs have been coming out for a long
time now those covers. Did they give you a list
you get to pick it in advance of going down there,
or was it just like, hey, come up with a
fun cover and do it for us.

Speaker 3 (03:58):
It's changed a lot now we used to get lists
to pick from. But the whole reason we did Power
of Love is kind of ridiculous because our tour manager
got married in Italy earlier this year and that's like
one of his favorite songs and he was singing it
at the wedding and we were backing him up and

(04:19):
we literally had no time to get anything rehearsed altogether.
We only knew the Power of Love, so that was
all they were getting.

Speaker 2 (04:28):
Okay, See, I like that story.

Speaker 1 (04:29):
I thought you were going to say it was for
the fortieth anniversary Back to the Future oh, and that's
why you did it.

Speaker 3 (04:34):
No, but when we landed, I did think they were
having the Back to the Future stage production in Sydney
at the time, and I was like, oh, we'll get
a choir of people from the production to sing with us.
And then my manager pointed out that that was probably
one of the worst ideas of all time.

Speaker 2 (04:53):
Why why is that a bad idea? That sounds great?

Speaker 3 (04:56):
I don't know. It probably would have been overly theatrical. Perhaps,
I don't know, Maybe we should have just done it.
You still can, Yeah, that's true. Back to the Future
of the musical is still gone. Do you have a
favorite of the three movies? By the way, second half
of two? I always loved three as well, actually, but
the second half of two is I think that my favorite?

Speaker 1 (05:18):
Back in nineteen fifty five, Yeah, they left the future
to go.

Speaker 3 (05:21):
Back back, ok. Yeah, yea yeah, yeah.

Speaker 1 (05:24):
The redemption story in there, Yes, for his dad and everything. Yeah,
important conversation, guys. I'm glad you guys are here to
see this live.

Speaker 3 (05:33):
I also this year went to the room where they
did the Johnny be Good. What's the enchantment under the
seed champment under the seat?

Speaker 2 (05:41):
I know way too much by.

Speaker 1 (05:42):
The Yes, yeah, coming off pretty nerdy, but whatever.

Speaker 3 (05:45):
Yes, that's now a school and I went there. It
was very cool.

Speaker 1 (05:51):
Tonight we have the Wombats at the Anthem Murph and then,
like we said, New York and Boston for this round
for America, and you guys just announced a new round
two for Anuary in February. You're gonna be in Florida,
the Carolinas, Richmond. If anyone's not going tonight, go see
him in Richmond, not too far Ohio, Milwaukee, Nashville. I'm
just wondering, you're starting in Florida in January, which is great,

(06:12):
but then you end in like Milwaukee. Why didn't you
go the other way because it's gonna be like forty
degrees below zero at that point.

Speaker 3 (06:20):
Well, it's not really up to us. We have this
monkey that has like a huge collection of darts and
various maps, various maps of territories and continents in front
of him, and wherever those darts land is where we go.

Speaker 1 (06:40):
See that's a good explanation for it then, because that
could be the only thing I could think of.

Speaker 2 (06:44):
I'm like, why would you start in Florida and end
in Milwaukee?

Speaker 3 (06:46):
But yeah, no, I think it kind of. Our booking
agents are quite perverse.

Speaker 1 (06:52):
Well, hey, gigs a gig, warm cold, you're still gonna play,
You're still gonna sound great.

Speaker 2 (06:57):
Do you guys want some more music from Murphyre? Can
we do some more? Yeah?

Speaker 3 (07:00):
All right?

Speaker 2 (07:01):
How about we get one more from you by man?

Speaker 3 (07:03):
Sure? Thank you, thanks for coming, thank you for coming
me some of you tonight, and thanks for having me