Lawrence Greenwood tells DARREN LEVIN why he’s dropped the Whitley moniker in favour of a fresh start in London.

Whitley is dead. Long live Whitley.

Fed up with the rigours of touring and less attentive crowds back in Australia, Lawrence Greenwood has decamped to London to hang out with family, travel and rediscover himself as a songwriter. He’s also decided to retire the Whitley moniker that’s served him well for two albums – 2007’s The Submarine and last year’s Go Forth, Find Mammoth – but will take it out for one last spin during an intimate solo tour back home in May.

Speaking to M+N from a classic red telephone booth in Peckham, “a really dodgy suburb” south of London, Greenwood has a surprisingly self-deprecating sense of humour for an artist that so willingly bemoans audience chatter at his gigs. Never one to mince words, he speaks candidly about his plans for the future, his perceptions of Australian audiences and his love-hate relationship with his adopted hometown of Melbourne (he actually hails from the Bellarine Peninsula on Victoria’s Great Ocean Road).

What’s prompted the decision to take a break?
It’s really complex, but to sum it up: I just need to try something different, musically. I know I’m not going to stop playing music, but this particular style of music – or, I would use the term “brand” – is not going to be where I’m headed in the future.

So where are you headed?
I just want to focus on songwriting. It’s weird – Whitley always seemed like a tool that I used to flesh out songwriting. But I guess I’ve realised now that I don’t need any tools to do it. My values have changed slightly, I suppose.

So just to be clear: that’s it for the Whitley moniker?
Oh, yeah. Totally.

We saw Sally Seltmann drop New Buffalo this year. Are you going to be doing the same and releasing albums eponymously?
Yeah, I will be in the future … I live in Europe now, so I’m just going to wander around here for a few months and not do anything in particular.

When did you move over?
Only three or four weeks ago. I’m in London at the moment. I’m literally standing in a red telephone box. You wouldn’t believe it.

How long do you plan to be over there?
I have no plan on returning anytime soon. I’m going to come back for the tour. But this is where I need to be at the moment.

Were you feeling disillusioned with Australia?
Not with Australia, no. I love Australia like I love anywhere else, I suppose. I guess the music industry and the machine over there, I felt like I knew it pretty well. The mindset that I have now, perhaps it’s better to hang out somewhere else, hang out with my family and do some basic stuff and see what that’s like.

How much family do you have over there?
Just on the Greenwood side, on my father’s side, there’s something like 27 cousins.

The press release talks about you studying as well?
Yeah, I’m looking around at universities here. To see what’s around and what interests me.

“Everybody no matter what they do has to deal with dickheads. Unfortunately, the ones I deal with are the ones talking in the back without listening to the music, but that’s always going to happen.”

Any frontrunners for a course?
Yeah, probably anthropology or philosophy. I find those interesting, but it’s whether I have the mental chops to keep up with everyone. I like watching documentaries on it. [Laughs]

On the music front, what’s the plan?
Just the songwriting part of it. That’s what I realised I love about music. It’s not the touring or playing relentless amounts of shows … I’d prefer to focus on music as an art form rather than a machine concerned with how many heads are coming to the gig, how many people you can possibly play to and what the next press opportunity is … I just really want to write songs, and I can do that quite easily without that sort of stuff.

In that sense, are you going to embark on a more album-oriented career?
I like shows, I like live performance ... I don’t really mind if I’m supporting people or anything. As long as I’m playing to an attentive audience, that’s all I really care about.

Is that the idea behind going to a place like London, where you don’t have the same level of notoriety or following as you do here?
Yeah, it is. A lot of it’s also because some of the people that are close to me have moved here as well. It seemed like the right time. We were going to move over with the Whitley stuff and pursue it over here. But, like anybody, I’ve just got to pursue what makes me happy. Like I said, that’s writing songs and recording songs. I’m going to do that. I don’t know if I have any ambitions with it. I just want to settle down, get a nice sounding room somewhere and an old tape machine and just record things.

Have you written any new songs outside the scope of Whitley?
I haven’t written anything proper yet, just a few guitar parts. I don’t know how to explain it. I feel like I’m playing music more like I did when I was 17. I’m enjoying just listening and being there at the time, and I’m not thinking about where it goes. Actually, that’s a lie. I am thinking about writing songs, which is absolutely a pursuit. Just writing songs is a more basic or honest thing. I don’t care if I have to work a job or anything, as long as I have that passion for what I’m doing, which to be honest, was lacking at the end of touring this album [Go Forth, Find Mammoth].

Was there a particular turning point on the tour?
There was a different crowd that started coming to shows that weren’t particularly attentive people. They seemed more interested in getting drunk and having a good time – and that’s totally fine – but it seems like music was the secondary focus of the night. To me, that kind of seems like the result of something that’s been pushed too hard, or entered a different market through some turn of events.

I guess that’s always the danger when you wrote pop-oriented music.
Yeah, but the weird thing is, I just wanted to write a pop record to have a pop record … I wanted to write a pop record as a challenge.

And is the idea behind the intimate shows you’re playing in Australia an attempt to flush out that element of the crowd?
Exactly right, and the choice of venues is in line with that sort of way of thinking.

Conversely though, I just noticed you’re on the bill for Splendour in the Grass?
Yeah, that’s a bit different, isn’t it? I guess that’s just about getting the boys together. The band that I’ve toured with are such close friends. As well as this solo tour, which will be more of an intimate experience, hopefully we’ll do some capital cities shows with the band to just have fun. That will be more of a celebration for the people that I’ve played music with.

How did the band take the news?
They’re OK. Those guys are my closest friends, so they’ve seen what I’ve gone through after releasing this album, and they’re really supportive of it [the move]. In fact, some of them are going to try their luck over here … They’re wanting to experience something different as well, but I think we’re going to experience it as friends. Not just a band.

Colin [Leadbetter, Go Forth, Find Mammoth engineer] is always going to be recording music, I think. His intention is going to be to come over here and get work as an engineer or a producer. And Luke and Andy, the drummer and the bass player, are music junkies. They don’t care what it is, they just want to play music. So I don’t doubt for a second that they’ll have something going on.

Do you think you’d work with Colin as a producer/engineer again?
Yeah, absolutely. I think he’s one of the most underrated guys going around. You have so many guys who are talented engineers … [but] his skills are beyond anything the average person has. I don’t doubt for a second that he would be able to get a decent job over here.

Are you happy with how the album turned out in retrospect?
Sonically?

I meant more as the final Whitley album.
Yeah, I’m glad because it seems to be in two halves: the first, quiet little bedroom album; and the second is a big, poppy extravagant kinda album. I’m happy I got to work with people like [Midnight Oil’s] Rob [Hirst] and Jim [Moginie] as well. It was a great experience. I can’t put a negative spin on it if I tried.

But I guess with its popularity came other unwanted elements.
Yeah, I mean, everybody no matter what they do has to deal with dickheads. Unfortunately, the ones I deal with are the ones talking in the back without listening to the music, but that’s always going to happen. The thing that made me feel bad would be the people who actually came to see the gig. I’d talk to them afterwards and they’d apologise for how their city has behaved. This isn’t the majority of gigs, but enough to actually tip me over the edge.

Any particular city you’re referring to?
[Pauses] You know, Melbourne – where I’m from – actually pisses me off more so than anywhere. We’d get to The Corner, it’d sell out and be a big gig or whatever, and people would just stand there with their arms crossed and infer that they’re in a band that’s much better. [Laughs] They don’t really care about the music and the engagement’s not there. It’s just that attitude that breeds a particular style of performance and music and culture. There are some great bands from Melbourne, but I don’t think in 20 years I’m going to be in that basket as the Whitley thing. But, yeah, Melbourne takes the cake: I love it and hate it.

Do you feel like London has more attentive crowds? Have you been going to shows?
Well, not so much London or the UK, but I went along to some shows in France and went on a tour with someone to a lot of small towns, and obviously Paris and Grenoble and places like that. But with audiences, the music was the primary focus of the evening, and not getting pissed and having a good time. It was really nice to see that balance achieved between going out, letting your hair down and having a good time, and actually paying heed to artists that were performing for you that had worked really hard. There was a joint experience between the crowd and the performer, and that’s really inspiring to see that.

I hear they keep you well fed in Europe as well.
Oh, man. The hotels in the morning give you breakfast and at nighttime, the venues give you food and they take you out for dinner.

They have a really different way of treating artists over there, which I think a lot of venues here could learn from.
Well, we’re a convict society. We care more about booze. [Laughs]

There seems to be a sizeable expat community over in London right now. Do you feel part of that?
I’ve got a couple of friends over here that I’ve caught up with, but it’s a pretty shocking experience when you’re walking around a museum and everyone working there is Australian … I had an awkward experience at a cafe with Australians there, who must’ve just left recently and were of that age that would know of my music. They were kinda giving me weird looks. I thought that was exactly what I was trying to get away from. I think it was the fourth day here, or something like that … Maybe I need to go to Chernobyl or somewhere like that; hang out in Prypiat for a while.

What are the upcoming shows going to be like? Is it just you and guitar?
I might get Seagull [Chris Bolton] up to play some guitar with me. He’ll be opening. It’ll be a very stripped-back affair focusing on the quieter, or for lack of a better explanation, “songier” songs.

Are you going to try and recreate some of the more epic tracks on Go Forth, Find Mammoth as well?
Yeah. Hopefully, like a ‘Psycho Killer’ acoustic style.

I’m particularly looking forward to the “offensive banter” that the press release promises. I hope you won’t let us down.
Time and time again, you can always rely on the fact that I will let people down.

I think that’s a good point to end it.

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Whitley’s solo tour begins on May 8 at the Clarendon Guest House in Katoomba, NSW. For more dates click here.