"The Underminers have found words and names for those emotions you could never quite put your finger on - a diverse album filled with imagination, emotion and infectious melodies. 'Let's Get T-Shirts Made' is an album that makes you want to hear more from this duo."- Sarah Ortenzio (Beat Magazine, Feb. 2004)"Hayward's voice has the knack of reaching into your soul and feeling around until it resonates with something really sad, mournful or regretful; together with Morris the songs he writes have the ability to pluck open past scars and re-evaluate the damage done, or take you on dreamy 3am wanderings through re-imagined pasts."- Jarrod Watt (ABC Radio Online, Mar 2007)
"If you care about the music of Mark Hollis you'll appreciate where Justin Hayward and Chris Morris are coming from. This is a lovely package of 10 songs... Hayward's voice has that same mellow, breathy alto tone, well suited to the songs' ambling pace; the lyrics make for interesting listening too. Ballarat-based producer David Beattie adds a few programming touches, and you won't find a better rhythm section than Dave Patterson on acoustic and electric bass and Lawrence Nulty on drums. Dream City Film Club is a stand-out, and the easy grooves of We All Made It Through and Self-Made Man are sublime... these guys are consistently good." Jeff Glorfeld, The Age
"...excellent arrangements around heart-wringing tales from the land of thirtysomething. To say this release has been hotly anticipated in their hometown is an understatement. Hayward's voice has the knack of reaching into your soul and feeling around until it resonates with something really sad, mournful or regretful; together with Morris the songs he writes have the ability to pluck open past scars and re-evaluate the damage done, or take you on dreamy 3am wanderings through re-imagined pasts. ... a potential Australian album of the year... This is an excellent album that withstands repeated playing, indicating there's much to come from this songwriting duo and the musicians they surround themselves with." - Jarrod Watt, ABC Ballarat
“A dream you touch the surface of / Ain’t a dream that’s good enough” (from A Dream You Touch The Surface Of)
Even criminally unsung, our best songwriters are compelled to create. It’s certainly true for two of the most undervalued songwriters working in Australia, Justin ‘Happy’ Hayward and Chris Morris, the duo at the core of Underminers.
“Baby can you wait a little longer / Before I join the throng and / Say my whole life was wrong…?” (from Self-Made Man)
Beyond The Stars, the second album from these pop craftsmen, delves into the central dilemmas facing any practicing artist: disillusionment, balancing your craft with your responsibilities and what you gain and lose with the resulting shifts in priorities.
Working with producer Dave Beattie ('The Hard Word', Snog), gun mixer Andy Stewart and friends like J Walker (Machine Translations), Hayward and Morris started fresh for the new album. “With Beyond The Stars, we made a conscious effort to write a set of songs from scratch, Lyrically, I was looking back over my 20’s. I was in bands all that time, but at the end of my 20’s I went back to Uni and became a teacher. As you get older, you start focusing on other things: family, home…” Hayward muses. “A big part of the album is about losing connections. You lose that contact with people you were really close to in your 20’s.”
This is powerful, intimate songcraft, musing on bittersweet monents like birth notices posted along with a friend's funeral arrangements in the local newspaper (Page 21) or spitting out uneasy sentiments like Stand For Something’s “…I’m not fucking around / The real estate agent bleeding in my basement / The bank manger in the boot of my car.” Hayward reveals, “I’ve never felt like I was very political, but I’ve come to think that expressing ourselves, making music, is a political act, because so often individuality and expression are not encouraged.”
Singer-songwriter Hayward and guitarist Morris are well-respected in Ballarat, coming from a particularly rich period of the town’s musical history. Underminers formed in 2002 after Hayward took long service with cult band The Dead Salesmen. Hap and Chris had collaborated on various side projects but finally recorded Let's Get T-Shirts Made in 2002, working with Black Cab’s Andrew Coates. On the strength of those songs, Mushroom Publishing signed them in early 2003. Last year, new demos found their way to Croxton Records label bosses Mick Thomas and Nick Corr who fell in love with Underminers’ songcraft, thus Beyond The Stars.
At 33 minutes, this album is brief but filling, carrying its substance gracefully, ripe with melancholy pop gems where bittersweet melodies traverse the undercurrents in Hap and Chris’ trademark intelligent, emotive writing.
Hey fellas it was real nice to do some shows with you after all this time, I feel a real link between what you're doing and what we're doing, and I wouldn't say I felt that about many other bands...keep up the good work, you guys are great. Keep us in mind for further shows! Love from Dirtbird.
Thanks Hap! Good to keep the luddites in touch! Thanks for your kind words. I really love your music and would love to share a stage anytime. Haha, tell Chris his wise words continue to be an inspiration :)
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