ALL ABOARD FOR FUN TIME
Spellbound's Interview with Iva Davies, 12 April 1993

Have you ever said to yourself, "If I ever get the chance, I'd like to ask Iva Davies 'this'?" Then you kinda smirk at yourself, "When am I ever going to get the opportunity to do that?" Sure, when hell freezes over and you suddenly accomplish all your lifetime goals at once, right? So, what goes flashing through your mind when the voice on the other end of the phone says "hello" and damn if he doesn't sound just like Iva Davies!?... a moment of panic?... disbelief ("Who is this, really?")... or an incoherent but barely suppressed urge to break into Monty Python? You fumble for the appropriate "hello" (he is waiting, you know), and exchange awkward if sincere pleasantries. After all, what does he know about you? Just surface facts, while you practically know his life story. So, you take a deep breath and launch into the interview for which you've been collecting questions during the past five years.

We decided to start with a year in the life of the man, namely 1992. Although to us it may not have appeared to be a busy year for Iva, it was. A year that brought him to somewhat of a crossroads in his career. To stay with the Regular, well-trod road or take a Massive step forward onto a new path. We asked him about his directional decision.

Spellbound: Why the departure from Regular/Festival?

Iva: Regular/Festival? Now, that's a simple one because it's purely a matter of having fulfilled the obligations of the agreement. It was literally kind of like the date ran out. No big mystery at all or anything with that. And we looked at a whole bunch of people to go with, including going back with Regular and Festival. At the end of the day, when everything was weighed up, the best situation was with Massive, and Laurie Dunn. You need to go back and gather some facts there because Icehouse's original management company was a collective of fellows who, although the management company split up, still see each other and speak to each other regularly. A friend of all of theirs was Laurie Dunn, who in those early days operated in London his own record company and was also at certain times working for Virgin. Similarly, when he came back to Australia -- he'd been away for a long time -- he was working for Virgin here, and when Virgin were bought by EMI he decided to start his own label here. So he still has the association with EMI through his distribution here. He also knows and has known various of our managers so it's all like a big kind of club.

Spellbound: The Massive Club... so basically they gave you the best offer then, maybe above and beyond Regular?

Iva: Yeah, the best offer in terms of it being a bit more open. It's a small company, but Laurie's a very dedicated record man. There are a lot of guys that, you know, kind of ride along with it, but Laurie definitely wants to be master of his own ship. He takes an interest in everything and really gets things moving, so that's good, too.

Spellbound: Gives you more personal attention.

Iva: Well, yeah, it was interesting because in the end we probably dealt more with Festival than we did with Regular. But Laurie is really a man to work hard at his thing and so we're dealing more directly with the independent label than we are with its distributor -- as opposed to what was happening between Regular and Festival; we were dealing generally with the distributor, who was Festival.

Spellbound: That sounds like a better situation.

We then questioned Iva about the overseas label situation pertaining to Chrysalis. While the record company had a major breakdown in communications and was bought and sold like second-hand furniture, Icehouse's Australian-themed Code Blue was put on hold. With perhaps a hint of bitterness, Iva explained what it was like to be held in suspension for two years.

After getting us really talking about record companies and solicitors, Iva then very quietly blew our minds. After living two years as starving Icehouse fans, Mr. Davies revealed to us a banquet.

Spellbound: So is there anything in the works for an overseas label?

Iva: Well, we'll be looking...yes, there are, there are little things but...

Spellbound: ...nothing you can mention...

Iva: Not really. A little bit depends I guess on this year, too, because we're due to actually have three albums out this year.

Spellbound: This year?

Iva: Yeah...

Spellbound: Pardon, you said three?

Iva: (laughs) Well, yes, there's a double album which is coming out in a couple of months, we hope.

Spellbound: He's dropping breadcrumbs... that's the Project, right?

Iva: That's correct, yeah. I've separated them into two albums. There's a lot of material. I guess they're all kind of from the same type of mechanism, all the material, but I separated one out into a more straight forward dance album, and the other one into a little bit more esoteric album.

Spellbound: Icehouse at its best, esoteric?

Iva: Well, it's all different. I mean, you're going to probably have some mixed response, I guess. This whole project has really been something that I've been standing back from. And I have some favorites out of this collection and some which I'm not necessarily totally convinced by. But that was the aim of the project, to let other people maim and mutilate, basically. And some of it's obviously really successful, but of course the net result of all of them is that they're all sort of new things. There are a couple of things which are obviously virtually unrecognizable as anything you've previously heard. So they constitute really new songs, you know.

Spellbound: So who's doing the maiming and the mutilating?

Iva: Well, a whole collection of people, including a lot of work done by a company called General Dynamics -- in fact led by Cameron Allan, who produced the first Flowers album. He's based in Los Angeles now. The way this started was with Ray Hearn, our old manager who has been based in Japan for eight years. He's an entrepreneur of sorts, and part of what he's been doing has involved taking a lot of tapes from old people, from 'old' people (laughs), from old established artists, old people... and giving them to various remix guys and reprogrammers and then having new dance orientated things done with them. He's done that very successfully for a lot of people including Yellow Magic Orchestra. Really I guess a whole generation has never even heard of Yellow Magic Orchestra, although they're huge stars in Japan. And he's produced these new albums out of their old things. Ray himself is not an engineer, but what he does is he has certain people whose work he's been watching and he goes and employs them to do this kind of thing. One of those people, obviously once again part of the club, a friend of both of ours, being Cameron Allan, has been working in this area and he was employed by Ray to do some of this work. So when he was talking about a similar thing for the Icehouse material, he requisitioned Cameron, and he's done a lot of the stuff on this album. But there are all sorts of other notables as well, including Bill Laswell, who's sort of a legendary producer in America insomuch as he's a bit left of field, I guess. He's been involved with people like David Byrne and Brian Eno, and he has his own label which releases world music. He's actually a bass player by trade, but he's not what you'd call a pop producer. He's done a few things and one of the things he did was a version of "Love In Motion" with Chrissie Amphlett singing the lead vocal, which you've already heard from Masterfile. His versions are most recognizable as the original songs. Cameron Allan's are quite different. There's been some stuff done by Guy Pratt, some stuff done by an English guy called Mark Gamble, and some stuff done by 808 State. So this is kind of really Ray's idea. It came out of the fact that he'd been doing this with other people and he knew that we were going to be held up in other ways. He just wanted to make it a kind of personal project to do this. And I really just made myself available to help wherever it was necessary and kind of stood back from the whole thing. So, to a certain extent, I take no responsibility (laughs). Really, it's a peculiar thing to do because these guys were basically given carte blanche to do anything they felt like doing with the songs, even so far as to cut up the lyrics. Cameron Allan did a version of "Man Of Colours" where he cut up all the lyrics and made them into peculiar lines, which is kind of interesting. So, I couldn't afford really to be too precious about it because it would kind of defeat the purpose.

Spellbound: Hearing about this Project album brings to mind actually an interview you did a while back where you said the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra was covering "We Can Get Together." Did that ever come about?

Iva: No, the story rings a bell. I think somebody told me this was happening, and I haven't heard anything since. I don't have any kind of hard evidence on that.

Spellbound: It'd be an interesting bit to throw in amidst all this chaos.

Iva: Yeah, things sort of seem to happen that I'm unaware of. I mean, we'll walk into a supermarket and hear a version of "Crazy" or something like that which I've never heard before.

Spellbound: 'This song sounds familiar -- it's my song!'

Iva: Yeah, it's kind of peculiar, but once you've released a song, anybody can go and record it.

Turning Iva's thoughts to another "project," we talked with him about the only single to come off the Masterfile compilation, "Love In Motion." We wondered how the girl who "touches herself" (and hits big with it in America) was chosen to be the vocalist. He explained how he had very little "hands on" experience with this particular single.

Spellbound: You mentioned the version of "Love In Motion" done with Chrissie Amphlett. How was she chosen to be the vocalist?

Iva: I'm not entirely sure. I think that Laurie Dunn, who is the managing director of Massive, had been managing director of Virgin Australia, and the Divinyls are signed to Virgin Australia, so they had some kind of association with her and it may have been at his suggestion. I'm quite sure that Bill Laswell had no idea, or perhaps he did have an idea, of who Chrissie Amphlett was after "I Touch Myself" in America, but as I said, there's been a kind of committee of guys that have been instigating these mixes and suggesting various people and various possible ways of doing things. Really, I always seem to be the last one to have heard the mix or whatever.

Spellbound: The last to know... So you really weren't there in the studio then with her.

Iva: No, I wasn't, partly because Bill Laswell's got a very enclosed method of working. He doesn't like anybody in the studio. I daresay that was the main reason, and the other reason is that it's fairly intimidating singing in the studio, and certainly if you're having to sing somebody else's song and they're sitting there, watching you... a bit difficult, so I never really thought, 'Well, I should go in and have a listen or be there,' or whatever, because I thought that would probably be counterproductive.

Spellbound: On the CD single there were various mixes of "Love In Motion," some that we thought were quite good. On one of them, you played basically all the instruments including bass, which we're really not familiar with you playing. Is Stephen out of a job?

Iva: Uh, no (laughs). There've been a lot of things over the years that haven't necessarily been credited accurately. Part of that was just pure diplomacy. The fact of the matter is, I played probably half the bass on the Flowers album, all of the bass on Primitive Man. And over the years I played a lot of solos... I remember reading a review of "Baby, You're So Strange" in an Australian magazine which was glowing about the amazing guitar solos of Bob Kretschmer. Got pissed off, 'cause I'd played it...

Spellbound: Well actually, we've noticed that through the years, such as performances of "Touch The Fire" where Bob's up there smiling away and sort of moving his fingers correctly... sort of... strumming the rhythm guitar part while your solo is playing on the track.

Nineteen-ninety-two also saw Iva don the producer's mantle, only to have it become a bit soiled. The "mussing up" was labeled with his name, but we gave him a chance to air the dirty laundry. After the cleaning up, he led us out of the murky Daylight into the shocking dark.

Spellbound: You also did a bit of producing with Living Daylights.

Iva: Yeah, well that was kind of a honeymoon with Laurie (laughs). I must admit I was never an enormous fan of the demos. It was partly a mission of my own because I've never done a lot of producing, just to see how I would go. At the end of the day, it was produced on time, under budget, and the managing director of the company was happy. Then the band went and remixed it. The version that was actually released is not the version that I produced.

Spellbound: Is your name on it?

Iva: It is.

Spellbound: Oh, dear. Well, that's not very nice. Hopefully that won't throw you off from doing perhaps some future projects with other acts/bands?

Iva: Well, it's possible. I haven't heard too many things in Australia that I've been really excited about, I must admit. We've been going through a kind of really blank period. I went to the ARIA Awards about a week ago, and I found it fairly disappointing when I compared the fact that in the boom period of Australian rock music in the same charts there would be a song by new bands like Icehouse, Midnight Oil, Divinyls, Eurogliders, Cold Chisel, The Angels, Australian Crawl, Men At Work, JoJo Zep and the Falcons, Split Enz, Dragon, in the same year, in the same chart. And it really was kind of a particularly healthy period.

Spellbound: The Eighties were good to Oz music.

Iva: The early Eighties were, yeah. And I think we're up to this really blank period where nobody knows what's going on. The thing is, that's kind of produced what the new album due -- that's the third album -- is going to be, which I'm sort of writing at the moment -- furiously writing. And that's going to be a bit of a shocker, I think.

Spellbound: Really, a departure... again?!

Iva: Well, it's pretty raw. But, at the moment what's happening is you've got a whole bunch of dance clubs, which I'm sure you have all over the place. And then we've got a whole bunch of seventeen year old people who are wearing flares and long hair and trying to be Seattle. And yet, with the right idea, but not quite getting there. I'm sure this is actually going to happen, you know. It's almost like what was occurring just before punk, with the fact that on one hand all the hip people were going and dancing on glowing floors to John Travolta. And then, within about three minutes, that whole thing was totally upset because this fellow in London had released a song called "God Save The Queen." I feel that it's that crisis point again.

Spellbound: Yeah, that's exactly what it seems like over here.

Iva: That's good, because I could never get excited about dance clubs.

Spellbound: Can you dance?

Iva: Only for large amounts of money...

Spellbound: What are your rates these days?

Iva: ...no, I'm not a dancer... (laughs). No, I've never been that comfortable, but I don't know... but, no, I can't relate to the whole recreation of going out and jumping around to something that comes out of a box. To me, music has got to be a bit more real than that. Of course, that's sort of tied up too, because I'm aware of the mechanics behind the creating of that and now it's got to the point where producers are creating a mythical band, and then it comes out and it's really a guy sitting in a studio somewhere, creating these things with machines. The bottom line is that this music has no soul. 'Soul' is a bad word to use because it sort of evokes a whole genre of music. Perhaps 'heart' is a better way to describe it... fairly shallow.

Spellbound: So this album's going to be pretty shocking to us?

Iva: I could honestly say that there are some other atmospheres from the more luxurious sound productions of the past, but not really too many. It's a different kind of thing. Now, I'd be tempted to say it's a bit like the first album, but then the first album is fairly luxurious keyboardwise. We've been scrupulously avoiding keyboards of any sort. It's a very kind of bleak album.

Spellbound: Are you going through a dark period?

Iva: Apparently, because every time I write a set of lyrics, it's incredibly dark. I wrote a song the other day, while working with Paul Wheeler and a fellow called David Chapman. I'd finished this set of lyrics and I had a rough vocal of it. I brought it in before we were about to record it into the studio, and David listened to it on a Walkman. He sat there and he just shook his head and he said, 'This is going to upset a lot of people!' So, what can I say? I'm not responsible (laughs).

Spellbound: What kind of darkness is it?

Iva: Not personal darkness as in "Don't Believe Anymore" stuff. Kind of a bit like "Walls" type bleakness.

Spellbound: You're not becoming Morrissey, are you?! You were born on the same day...

Iva: Is that right? I've never been a great fan of his, but he's had some great titles. The only Smiths' song I really liked was "How Soon Is Now." But, yeah, it's kind of the same dry comments as 'I hate it when my friends are successful.' It's not that that's the subject, but it's just that kind of style. I borrowed some of that kind of style of comment from Lou Reed and Iggy Pop, who've always managed to be flippant but have a dig at something at the same time. I guess it's sort of reminiscent of that Berlin period of Lodger and The Idiot and Lust For Life. I don't know whether you know any of those albums. You've got to listen to The Idiot by Iggy Pop; I mean, it is the best album ever.

Spellbound: Alright, we'll rush out and buy it today...

We don't know if two days later can qualify as rushing out, but we did buy The Idiot. We listened and enjoyed. Maybe not to the extent Iva does, but it does nestle down nicely next to the Bowie CDs. Getting back to the man responsible for our trek from record store to record store (The Idiot is hard to find)...we were eager to know at what stage the writing for the album was, and how soon would we see a tour.

Iva: We're doing demos and finals at the same time. We're kind of like self-producing. There'll be an additional refining stage, but it's pretty much a cottage album, in a way.

Spellbound: Are you in a public studio or in your own?

Iva: Well, we're doing a lot of it in the new studio at home, but some of it can't be done there, or set up. Paul can't play drums there and stuff. So, we're commuting between home and then when we're ready to do a final, we go in to Trackdown in town and spend a day. We're doing that on Friday with a new song that we just finished. So, we're writing a song or two and then going in and doing it properly, and then all the master tapes will probably get farmed around various producers. You see, I'm making albums differently, and I think this is the way that probably a lot of things are going to get done in the future. Instead of booking a huge slab in the studio and the guy comes out, stays at a hotel and works for three months and whatever and runs two months overtime. Because technology has changed, I think that what you're going to find happening is that people will be doing a lot of stuff at home and then they'll be sending them off to somebody who can put another slant on things and add things and edit things and take things out and whatever and then send them back and then you'll send them back again. You know, eventually collaborate in that way with producers rather than have them as boss of the session for three months.

Spellbound: When you spoke about a sort of refining period, will that be when you'll bring the rest of the guys in the studio to help you?

Iva: Well, it's possible. At the moment, the core of the playing is just myself, David, and Paul. It's really like a three piece band. And, unless there's a good reason to do otherwise, that will remain.

Spellbound: And then, the album will come out...

Iva: Well, hopefully, we're aiming at August or September.

Spellbound: That soon? We'd heard the end of the year.

Iva: Well, you know, I say that now...

Spellbound: How soon after the album's released do you think there'll be a tour mounted? No pressure...

Iva: Well, I don't know. That's sort of an unknown quantity, because things have changed here to the extent that it's not really viable. The idea of promoting an album by playing it live has kind of become redundant. One wouldn't really consider playing unless there was some kind of interest in the album already. So, I guess what I'm aiming at is an album which is not ambitious moneywise, and it's going to be a fairly dangerous album, so it may well just disappear, in which case it would be not really worthwhile to put the whole machine into operation. As it is, really, quite a machine when it gets going. But I can't afford in my own head right now to be turning into John Farnham. It's taken its toll, over the years, of going down that road. To be honest, that kind of thing is just not working anymore. As well as the fact it's abhorrent to me, idealistically. Realistically, it doesn't work anymore. We've just had a couple of albums out here, by very famous people like Jimmy Barnes and Midnight Oil, and they're pretty much what one would expect of those two bands. But, there doesn't seem to be a huge amount of interest in it because I think people's tastes are changing. We don't really know what people's tastes are, so at the end of the day, I just decided to do exactly what I felt like doing, in spite of the fact that it may be a complete disaster. I guess the only guarantee that I have on that is that if I can keep it cheap, then it won't be too much of a disaster.

The newest name to write down on the Icehouse roster is David Chapman. David has been seriously working and writing with Iva, along with Paul Wheeler. We wondered what kind of effect this new blood was having on Iva's songwriting.

Iva: David's very good; he's a guitarist. I guess the good thing is that we share -- with Paul too, to a certain extent, although he was kind of a whippersnapper when all this was happening -- certain influences, which are fairly exclusive. For this reason I find it not dissimilar to those which Bob had actually, so I guess nothing's really changed. I've always had the same basic plan, and tried to drive at a certain area; it's just that there've been so many occasions where we've been distracted either by producers or by the industry or whatever. There have been, for example, a number of songs which would fit fairly comfortably on this new album. I would cite something like "Regular Boys," or even "Lucky Me" or something like that. It's not quite as radical as that, but maybe like "Baby, You're So Strange." It's a peculiar mix of this Berlin sound and there's a little bit of glam and a little bit of metal. But, as I say, it's always like we've been driving at the same area. I mean, the original of "Nothing Too Serious" was quite raw. David Lord made it into a nifty little fast song, you know. There were a couple of demos of that which were very dark. It was, in fact, a song about a reasonably apocalypse type of idea. Which is not a charming thing to write a song about, but all with a little bit of tongue in cheek. But, none-the-less, the sound of the originals of that were quite dark. And so, as I say, there've been glimpses of that for one reason or another. The machine has focused on things like "Electric Blue," which I never said was my favorite song.

We then brought up the subject of videos with Iva, asking if he thought they are as important now as when four young guys called Flowers filmed "Can't Help Myself."

Iva: I'm not really qualified to make a comment 'cause I've ceased to watch any of that stuff. I don't watch that much television anyway, but I've always had a real aversion to the media. So I don't really know how it's affecting other people. But from where I see it now, I can't believe it's anything like as important. The other night at the awards, for example, a local MTV host announced that MTV was to go off the air here. I can only imagine that this means that basically people are not interested enough. I remember a time when to get a play on MTV in America was absolutely the most important thing for a music industry person, so I guess I don't know whether I'm wrong, but I don't think it's anything like as important as it used to be.

Spellbound: Speaking of videos, and Icehouse videos, whose idea was "Dusty Pages?"

Iva: Not mine.

Spellbound: He's not responsible... we're doing the 'he did it, he did it' thing again...

Iva: Well, as I say, over the years, credit has not gone where credit was due. (laughs) Some people should have been nailed to various stationary objects, for things which I've had to explain.

Spellbound: As you are now...

Iva: That was a couple of guys out of Melbourne who were very vogue video makers for a while and probably still are too, called Paul Goldman and I forget the other guy's name -- collectively known as the Rich Kids. They've done some good videos, too, but on this particular occasion I just arrived and there it was, it's like, 'Get in that thing.' That's the similar story to the 'dangling in the molecule thirty feet in the air.' There've been a lot of those. The last video that I really got involved in was the Australian "Great Southern Land" video, which was a long time ago, whereby the director kind of lost it halfway through. I mean he wasn't particularly experienced and it was obvious that the whole thing was totally out of control. I kind of took the reins with the cameraman and said, 'Right, this is what we're going to shoot.' Planted all these stakes in the ground and set them alight, and I basically said, 'Bring on the goannas,' and stuff like that (laughs). I actually went into the editing suite and labored through those long nights, saying, 'No, freeze that shot, step-frame this one,' and blah, blah, blah, when I didn't have a clue really about the mechanics of making videos. I've always been of the opinion that music should be heard and not seen. So therefore, I guess I've had to excuse myself from the whole mechanism of videos a little bit. Their validity as pieces of art is questionable. And for me, I'm a musician, and my bit sort of begins and ends with the music. So, I guess I'm not responsible...

Spellbound: You're not very comfortable in front of the camera?

Iva: I hate cameras, I've always hated cameras...

The Masterfile compilation was also an event for Icehouse in 1992. But for the fans, it was a deja vu. Hadn't we seen this one before with Great Southern Land? We voiced our confusion to Iva and got a slight surprise when he agreed.

Spellbound: We were kind of curious: Masterfile was your first release on your new label, and it seemed to us that 'Oh, my goodness, haven't we done this before and called it Great Southern Land?' So can you tell us the reasoning why it was again a greatest hits package?

Iva: Right, you're right, and it was a misgiving that I had also. Really, it's a case of an introductory thing to the label. And, rightly so, Laurie believes that really nobody did a lot of work on keeping the profile of the band's work in the public eye. One of his specialties is that packaging is a priority. Over the whole of his career with his own label, and his various things with Virgin and whatever, he's been known for the quality of his packaging, so to him it was not a great matter of principle of rereleasing a similar package, because as far as he was concerned it was a different package. I must admit I had the same misgivings, but then on the other hand it was gold within about four weeks, which was a great thing because it was a real shock to me, but it also introduced the band again to Australia where it had been very quiet for a long time. And really set up an opening on a new phase. But beyond that, I can't really sort of explain too much further.

Spellbound: It was his idea... you're not responsible...

Iva: I'm not responsible...

A question that was voiced to us many a time, especially by those who sent money to America to get news about an Australia-based band, we brought to Iva himself.

Spellbound: Why did the official fan club close down?

Iva: Basically because there wasn't really anything to tell people, 'cause there wasn't anything happening.

Spellbound: So it was basically a lack of information?

Iva: Really, yeah. It was getting very difficult to produce information because there wasn't much apparently happening. Certainly, there wasn't anything at all happening for a while, except really fascinating stuff like archiving and things like that.

Spellbound: Do you think an official club will start up again?

Iva: Well, it may do; there's a lot of work in it. I guess that's something that hadn't been considered at the moment because there are so many other things. The process of getting these three albums together is pretty amazingly intense at the moment, because I'm having to try and write songs and design covers for other things at the same time and stuff like that, you know. I hadn't really thought about it, to tell you the truth.

Spellbound: So, you'll be doing some more artwork?

Iva: Well, not entirely mine, no. I mean I initialize this sort of idea, and then put it in the hands of somebody who is actually going to put it together. And that's going on at the moment, because the artworks of all three albums are related. The one thing you could say about these three albums is that they're all experiments. They don't fall under the category of an Icehouse studio album, and that applies to the double project album. Also, the new studio album is kind of out there as well, so...you know, it's a year of experiments. So I guess in that way they're related even though the music may be completely foreign.

So many people have come and gone within the Icehouse camp. We envisioned Iva's address book as one full of scribbled out names and new entries written over old. We inquired as to whether he was still in touch with those names that were still legible.

Iva: Some yes, and some no... Bob is the ever-elusive person. I mean we did have a Christmas card from him which had yet another phone number on it. Whenever I've tried to call him, I can't find him, so I don't know where he is. But I think he's kind of enjoying being elusive at the moment, so I'll wait till he gets through that phase and surfaces again. Guy Pratt was out not so long ago, and actually came up and stayed at our place. As usual, he's jet-setting, and being incredibly famous and witty and hanging out with all the right people. Who else? Actually our place has kind of been like a hotel lately. It's been like so many people staying: Cameron Allan came and stayed when he was out here, and just within the last four weeks. Steve Morgan just left this morning; he's been here for a few days. Paul Gildea was up for about four days, and Paul Wheeler has stayed over. Simon Leadley, the engineer at Trackdown with whom we're working closely, comes up and stays regularly. It's really been kind of bedlam, you know. So many people flitting in and out, considering I'm pretty insular really. But it's nice too. I guess the whole summer here was taken up with the building of the studio. It's pretty full on when you have people ripping bits of your house apart. So we didn't really have a break until the last few weeks when it's all been sitting there. And even now there's still things unfinished whereby somebody turns up at seven in the morning and starts hammering and sawing. So I'm trying to work and also enjoying the end of summer as well, because pretty soon now it's going to be gone and that'll be it, and then we'll be right into solid work with no possible distractions.

Spellbound: No more windsurfing...

Iva: I haven't sailed for ages; I'm surfing at least every couple of days at the moment. I've been doing this for about a year and a half, and I surf a big Malibu board. So Tony Llewellyn and I go surfing probably every couple of days, nearly every day at the moment, and it's something you can do for like an hour and a half and then get back to work. But, as I say, pretty soon it's going to be cold enough that it won't be a great inducement to get in the water (laughs).

Spellbound: Does it help you clear your head?

Iva: Absolutely, yeah. It's something that Paul and David find difficult to deal with, because when I've been sitting in the room for six hours or something, I really have to go out, you know, and they're not even vaguely inclined towards anything that involves sunlight. So it's very difficult for me to go, 'Well, just going to go for a surf for an hour and a half...'

Spellbound: Maybe you should check their bedrooms and see if there are any coffins in there.

Iva: Yeah, really...(laughs)

Spellbound: So you're basically not really windsurfing anymore?

Iva: Well, I haven't been so much because I've got a fascination with learning how to surf. I got to a point with windsurfing where I couldn't do much more on flat water, and I was getting bored with that, and I had to get into the surf. Except every time I got into the surf, it was a bit of a disaster, because I'd get kind of cleaned up and worked over a bit. So I decided I'd learn how to surf and get used to the whole thing. And, I am, too, I have gotten used to it, but as I say, that's my current fixation -- learning how to be a Malibu legend.

We asked Iva to lead us through a typical day at the studio. He turned out to be a very proficient tour guide.

Iva: Currently, there are two processes: the one which is done at home, and that would be that I'd probably go upstairs and kind of have a tidy-up from the chaos of the night before, because I hate working in a mess. Kind of washing the cups and vacuuming...

Spellbound: Ah, yes, we've heard about your vacuuming...

Iva: Fascinating stuff... and then David and Paul, they're kind of night owls I guess, so they don't arrive usually until about eleven o'clock. It's hard to sort of get them out of bed, basically. We usually spend quite a lot of time before they can concentrate, because at the moment there are no curtains there. So the sun blazes in and these guys being closeted night people can't really function well in daylight. So, it's not until about four in the afternoon where I'm actually getting anybody to really concentrate. At the moment the way we're writing is kind of pretty haphazardous, not anything like as methodical as what I would do before. Paul has got a MIDI kit which he sits at and fools with, and we've got a guitar plugged in and a bass plugged in and we might fool around with a few loops. I guess you know what loops are; they're the way lot of dance music is generated, but we're kind of doing perverse things with them like turning them backwards and stuff. And that's basically the way we're writing. Usually once we've got an idea by doing something like that, we might sit down and organise it a little bit better with the computer. So, that's that process, and at the moment I'm usually clocking off at about seven in the evening, so it's not really a long day. However, this will go on for a few days or even a week before I've got a whole song organised and usually I write the lyrics away from everybody and present it to them, or make them leave the room for a couple of hours and I'll sing it. So, once I've organised it to that extent, then what we do is we book a day at Trackdown with Simon Leadley, who is our main engineer. And we'll arrive down there at ten in the morning after having assembled a bit of equipment that we're having to remove from Whale Beach. Arrive in town at ten or ten-thirty, set up Paul's drums, and that'll take a couple hours to get happening, and then run up what we have already and play it all again live. We fiddle around a bit more with it during the rest of the day and quite often that day we'll go until eleven o'clock or so at night.

We then questioned him about which atmosphere he's more comfortable in -- recording in the studio, or being on tour -- and it seem Mr. Davies prefers vacuuming studio carpeting to a confetti covered stage.

Iva: I've always preferred to be able to control the sound. There's something about playing live which is obviously totally beyond your control. I mean, that can be good, and that can be not good, you know. There are enough unknown quantities in that to make it a little bit disturbing. You don't quite know when something's going to completely spit the dummy and break down, or when your voice is going to break down or something. So, the reason why I've not weathered touring very well is because I'm incredibly intense about getting from one end of the show to the other in one piece. And while I'm touring, this is my entire reason for existence. It requires that I have to be in bed at blah, blah, blah, and I can't go out to a club and do what I want... and I can't smoke this number of cigarettes, and I can't do any more than this number of interviews in a day or I won't have any voice left, and it becomes kind of a totally possessing thing. And I'm usually just incredibly stressed by it all the time and it's not a great way to live. So, had the tours been not so intense, I might have got the opportunity to enjoy performing a bit better, but my major recollection of all those years of touring is just that I can't remember what happened because I was so worried the whole time.

Spellbound: Would you say basically the biggest tour probably would have to be the Man Of Colours tour? We guess your recollection of that would be a bit of a blur, too.

Iva: Well, they've all been a bit of a blur. It might have been the biggest in some ways, but then on the other hand Flowers toured non-stop for 14 months. And when we were touring in those days it was a lot more rigorous. We were doing nine shows a week with a Sydney to Melbourne drive overnight in the middle of it. You can do it in about 15 hours. So I sang and spat blood into a microphone; that's the sort of shape I was in. I don't have a real friendly recollection of touring at all.

After having been to Iva's studio, we then stepped into his living room and asked him to put some music on. This is what was playing...

Iva: (laughs) You know, last night I was playing a very old Brian Eno record called Here Come The Warm Jets. But I very rarely play anything at home. Especially at the moment when I'm writing. I walk around in a daze basically because my head is like this kind of tape recorder on a loop. It just continually plays what I'm working on, and if anybody gets in the way, then I'll jump on them. If anybody puts a radio on... It's as if you were trying to plan a speech or something and you walk into a room and there's talk radio on, it would be incredibly annoying. I guess you can imagine that. So I don't really have anything on. And then recently I've got a whole influx of stuff that we listen to upstairs, out of curiosity. I'm not a great fan of a lot of it but a lot of stuff from England; a band called Suede, a band called Levitation, Soul Asylum, Soundgarden -- I kind of enjoy that second album. But as I say, a lot of this stuff is just for curiosity value -- Jesus Jones' new album, stuff like that.

We got Iva talking about his hobbies and how he fills his spare time. We discovered "spare time" does not enter into Mr. Davies' vocabulary.

Spellbound: Between the studio and your normal life and the surfing, is there anything else that you do?

Iva: Not a lot. Not really. I guess that pretty well takes care of it. You know, I'm either up in that room, or out in the water.

Spellbound: So you don't really have any other hobbies?

Iva: Nope. It's kind of boring, really, isn't it?

Spellbound: Well, we heard once that you like to read quite a bit, with history being a favorite. Is that still true?

Iva: I read every night, yeah, before I go to sleep. It's kind of a ritual of mind, doesn't matter what hour it is, and whether I'm really tired, I always make myself read for half an hour at least. I'm just steadily going through everything in the house. Anything I haven't read, I'll pick it up.

Spellbound: Did you get around to the Serrated Edge books by Mercedes Lackey that we sent you?

Iva: I haven't read those, I must admit. I'm very sorry about that... (laughs)

Spellbound: Naughty boy...

Iva: But, I guess my priority for reading is classics. I figure that there have been so many classic books written that I would rather read those things which have stood the test of time and obviously had some value in them, than read something which was as yet untested, and may be a load of rubbish.

Spellbound: Now, how can anything inspired by you be a load of rubbish?

Iva: Oh, well, I don't know, I mean is it a successful book? Did it get rave reviews?

Spellbound: Well, I don't know about rave reviews, but the writer does very well for herself over here. She even has her own fan club!

Iva: Really?

Spellbound: Yeah.

Iva: Wow...

Spellbound: So you have to sit down and read it.

Iva: Oh, okay...

Spellbound: It'll take you five hours, that's all. (he laughs)

We then threw Iva a curve ball which he caught quite well. When he pitched it back, it became a speed ball, with a philosophical twist, aimed at the music industry.

Spellbound: What makes Iva Davies angry these days?

Iva: Angry...well, where do you start?

Spellbound: In alphabetical order...

Iva: I guess I'm going through a real period of anti-industry sort of feeling. At the end of the day, all this stuff that's happened with Chrysalis and all that is very illuminating. I found it very difficult to work out the logic behind an album which had had two Top 20 American singles, and align that with the fact that we don't have a contract with them anymore. There are a lot of things about the industry in music and art which kind of make me angry. It's not bitter; it's a different thing. It's interesting because I can afford to be kind of philosophical about it. You know, you can't go and relive those years and grab all those opportunities that were lost, some of which I completely blew. But, at the end of the day, I still feel really comfortable with the legacy. I may have compromised to a small degree, but I'm not unhappy with the actual hard product, you know; I'm proud of it. This is a nice way to feel, I guess. At the end of the day I think it wasn't too bad and it wasn't completely dishonest and I didn't wear what people told me to wear and stuff (laughs)...

Spellbound: It wasn't completely dishonest?

Iva: Not at all. Obviously as I said there have been occasions where I've been bulldozed, but not too many. This is good, so I can sit back from the whole thing and not be kind of bitter and twisted. It's a different kind of thing; it's not bitterness, it's like a kind of regrouping.

When speaking about the new album, Iva seemed to have donned his "armor" to protect himself from the backlash of feelings he experienced during and after the Code Blue period. We talked with him about Code Blue and whether this particular dragon had any fire left in it.

Spellbound: Are we seeing shades of what happened with Code Blue reverberating here?

Iva: Well, it's possible, but Code Blue was a different thing. Yes, I'm aware of that kind of trap. The difference is that Nick Launay produced the album in his particular way. And, to me, it didn't have a lot of the heart of what was there in the demos, which one of these days I'll actually release. It was kind of distilled out of it. So that what we ended up having was a kind of token version of what it could have been. And that album is not going to lie down yet, but it won't resurface again in the form in which it was released in Australia. So, I understand what you're saying. A more "rock" album is going to alienate people. Certainly, if you take that line and then go about a thousand miles further, probably that's about where I am now. However, I believe that this is going to be rawer, and rawer in a different way. I think it will be done without too much counterproduction and fuss, and I hope that it retains a lot of its conviction, whereas the Code Blue demos actually had a lot more heart than the final product. Does any of that make sense?

Spellbound: It makes a lot of sense. We certainly agree that the B-sides that you released of the demos of "Where The River Meets The Sea" and "Knockin' Em Down" were much better than what came out on the album.

Iva: Well, there were a lot of improvements in some areas, but the net result was that it was hard to listen to that album. I never listen back after a project's finished, except maybe once. But, for some reason, I actually made a comparison one day and I listened to Man Of Colours, or part of it anyway, and then I put on Code Blue, and I found it really difficult to sit there and be assaulted. It was just the way that he produced the sound in that it actually makes it difficult to listen to. It's interesting because I've been listening to quite a lot of Seattle bands and stuff like that and in spite of the fact that it's kind of really rugged music, it's not abrasive in the same way. So, I don't think it's necessarily fair to sort of go, "Is it going to be as difficult to listen to as that?" Hopefully, it will be a lot more organic, and that's really what I'm looking for. I'm looking for something which isn't so highly produced. It certainly won't be a polished thing like Man Of Colours. That was a real studio masterpiece, in a way, really it was. David Lord is a pristine producer; everything is beautifully done. But on the other hand, Paul never really got to play the drums the way he can. When he does play like that, it has such life in it, you know. I'm hoping that the result of this more clumsy process will actually produce something with a lot of life. It may be that some of it might be confronting, and some of it might be depressing, and some of it bleak, and some of it might be hostile. But, I think at least it will sort of tell you that and perhaps some people will understand that too.

Spellbound: Well, you get a big pat on the back for recognizing Paul's talents!

Iva: Oh, absolutely! He's been really key to the current process of writing, which is very difficult to organise, because as I say we're writing in an environment where he can't really play real drums, and I've been having to kind of trick the situation into accommodating his input. And although he's not an experienced songwriter, he has a great musical sensibility, so I depend a lot on him at the moment for his ears. Certainly a lot of what we're doing is based around his performance.

Spellbound: We remember five years ago in San Diego, CA, sitting in the California Theatre, listening to Paul do his soundcheck, and watching a few ceiling tiles actually fall down from the force of his drumming (he laughs)

Iva: Really? I wasn't aware of that...

Spellbound: It's very true. This poor little old janitor had to shuffle from aisle to aisle with the ladder, trying to put them back up!

Iva: Oh, no... I'm not responsible...

Spellbound: You were out of the building at the time. (he laughs again...)

We asked Iva how he sees himself as a musician, and once again got a very humble response. We're sure his fans would disagree with him when he uses words like "average" and "decent."

Spellbound: How would you rate yourself as a bassist?

Iva: Oh, pretty average actually, very average; I'm not a bass player. I'm not a brilliant guitarist either, but I think I always made a decent rhythm guitarist; I think it's a matter of feel. I think that's something you can't teach people, and it's quite often something that a lot of lead guitarists don't have. The way I write, it's usually based around something feeling good. And Steve is very good, he's always been very good at copying things. I know a lot of players like that, a lot of bass players. I guess Guy Pratt was like that as well. But there's something organic about it especially if it's part of the writing process to actually produce the feel. I guess a good example is "Love In Motion." It's not a very complicated song; it's an incredibly basic song, but it really hinges on its mesmeric quality. A lot of that is a result of the simplicity and the feel of the bass line and very little happening with it. So, it's not the sort of thing you can hand over to somebody and say, well, do that with feel, because people usually will do that mechanically, you know. It's not the same thing.

Spellbound: It's in the genes...

Iva: Not necessarily (laughs). There certainly are a lot of musicians that work entirely from feel, and I think it's interesting that bands like a lot of reggae bands operate entirely on that level. Their bass players usually are incredibly kind of docile. They don't play too many notes, you know, they sort of play one note every three minutes, but do it with such absolute soul, that you feel totally comfortable with that idea. That's the sort of level that I operate on, I guess, and people like Steve tend to be far more interested in the technical expertise of the instrument which has never interested me at all. Otherwise, I would have actually practiced the guitar, which I have never done.

Spellbound: You just like all the offhand noises it makes.

Iva: Absolutely, yeah.

Spellbound: Can you give us sort of a run down of what other instruments you play?

Iva: Well, the only instrument I ever played proficiently was the oboe, obviously. Then, as all good oboists are obliged to do, I also played cor anglais, which is just a bigger version of that, although it's a particular thing. I don't play piano at all well; in fact, I'm totally hopeless on the piano although I've been taught a number of times. It's just one of those things... it's like drums -- I have no affinity with them whatsoever. It doesn't matter how long I would spend playing scales, I just never kind of get it together. It's peculiar because I've written mainly from the keyboards, but that's because it's like a map of music in front of you and it makes sense. Guitars don't make any sense to look at the strings: you sort of go up one string and then you have to go back down to the bottom of the next one and then go up that. On the piano you start at the bottom, you go to the top -- it's really kind of sensible. So, piano, not really that well. Aside from that, when I was at school, I played a large number of brass instruments. Not particularly well. Everything from double B-flat tuba to tenor horn, and everything in between. If you know anything about brass bands, you know there's all these instruments that operate the same way but just sort of come in different sizes, and I played all of those, right up through euphonium and baritone and all that sort of thing. So, apart from that, I don't know... I don't really have any brilliant instrumental skills.

Spellbound: Well, actually, you're leaving one out. As one Celt (the Celt being Kristin) to another, Mr. Davies, you left out the bagpipes.

Iva: Oh, yes (laughs), that's true, but I haven't played them for so long. I guess the last time that I seriously played the pipes was when I was about 12.

Spellbound: What about "Wind And Sail?"

Iva: Well, yeah I did, I hauled them out again, but it was fine because I could play my own tune, you know (laughs). I started playing the oboe when I was 13 or 14 and the fingering is so embedded in my brain that I couldn't really honestly convince myself that I knew exactly where I was putting my fingers. I kind of achieved the result that I needed. I couldn't play a reel these days, I'm afraid...

Spellbound: Well, we thought it was pretty fantastic...

Iva: Thank you (laughs).

Spellbound: Obviously you still play your oboe; how often does that happen?

Iva: Oh, I haven't played for months, which is just purely the mechanics of there are not enough hours in the day. When I had the studio set up upstairs, when I first got it happening, the first thing I put in place was -- here's my oboe and here are all my bits and pieces and here's all my music and this is going to be great because I can sit up here and have a practice, you know. I haven't had one practice up there.

We had to ask this next question. It was almost expected of us. His answer was pretty much expected, too.

Spellbound: Even though we really needed to focus ourselves on what's coming up, can we back you up a little bit here and ask you, and again, don't be humble -- what do you think is your favorite Icehouse album?

Iva: Album? Oh, I don't really know... you know, I don't think that's a question that can be answered. For starters, I never listen to them. In the past when anybody said what's the sort of favorite, what's your favorite song, I would always say and I still believe it, it's the one I finished yesterday. That's the only reason why one would keep doing it. I guess if I thought, well, that was it, that was the best thing then, well then I won't bother trying to do anything else. (laughs)

Spellbound: That's true. Well, we know that probably your favorite Icehouse video would have to be "Street Café," since you had such a lovely time doing that one...(he laughs) so I guess we won't ask you that (he laughs again). Unless, of course, you want to correct us...

Iva: No, I feel it's still obviously a highly regarded video out of the ones that we've done, and it is a good video. I just can't divorce the circumstances of the making of it from the final product.

Iva also spoke to us further about David Chapman, how David was part of the "North Shore Boys" and even owns a bit of Icehouse history.

Iva: David's sort of like a member of another club, the club that includes Paul Wheeler, which is a whole bunch of North Shore boys. The North Shore here is an area where in fact I lived in the Flowers days in a big old house. These guys were all, unbeknownst to me, avid Flowers fans and they turned up years and years later as friends of Paul Wheeler. There's one central music shop in this area whereby they all met each other and found in common that they liked all the same bands; one of them was us in the very early days. Years later it's strange because Paul Wheeler ended up being our drummer, and then I keep meeting all his friends that have bought our old guitars (laughs). So, David Chapman in his own right is actually very successful as a commercial writer; he makes a living out of jingles, but he's actually been in quite a few little bands. Strangely enough, he bought Bob's first guitar that he sold.

Iva then told us that during the two years he took off, there was an inventory of sorts of Icehouse memorabilia. We opened this subject by asking about the fate of one of our favorite objects.

Spellbound: Do you still have the jacket you wore in the "Cross The Border" video?

Iva: I do.

Spellbound: You do... you haven't given that one away?

Iva: No, there are certain things that I won't give away. In these last two years, part of the regrouping has also been a big archival period as well. I really couldn't do anything much, so I've been trying to retrieve all the master tapes from all over the world, and that's facilitated some of the work on the Project [which has since been titled Full Circle]. Because I've been away, such a lot of stuff gets left, and you don't know where things are, and it's a really dreadful feeling to think that everything's out of control. I don't know what equipment is in this box, and I know there's stuff here that doesn't work, and I know there's stuff that I don't need, and I need to sell it because I haven't got any money. So I had a big clean-up, and sold a lot of old gear, and part of that was also going through and cleaning out the wardrobe. What I did is I got all the stage clothes that I thought were good, and turned up in videos and were on album covers and things, and I put them in boxes and stashed them away in a lock-up. And in amongst those are things like that bolero jacket and the beautiful Man Of Colours jacket that Larry Ponting's ex-girlfriend Sarah made, with all the embroidery and stuff on it. Yeah, things like that.

Spellbound: Speaking of cleaning up, do you think that we'll ever see the Afghan singles re-released?

Iva: Well, I don't even have a copy of those, you know. There are an awful lot of things that I don't have copies of and that's one of the reasons I've been so interested in the various disc collections, because most of the European and a lot of the American releases I've never even seen. And I certainly don't have copies of them...

Iva also make some interesting comments during the updating of his biography that we felt were worth sharing. From beaches to Bacall, curry to cars, it's all there. But how does one sing the name "Humphrey Bogart" in tune?

Spellbound: Who is your favorite musician?

Iva: The early Talking Heads albums, the ones in which Brian Eno were involved, were probably the most interesting for me, up until the point that they started getting a lot of success. Not that this is something I do in principle -- dismiss people after they get success -- it's just that it was Brian Eno's involvement that made an interesting combination.

Spellbound: So, you just want to leave it as Brian Eno?

Iva: Well, I have to say I am a fan of two or three Iggy Pop albums which still remain my templates, I guess. I'm certainly not an overall fan of a lot of his albums, but The Idiot, Lust For Life, and to a certain extent Blah, Blah, Blah were great albums. But those first two are really legendary in my estimation.

Spellbound: You have for favorite bands Talking Heads and Boom Crash Opera.

Iva: Well, Boom Crash is still doing what they do and doing it really well. If I were to list one of the major influences way back in the beginning that really got me interested in this whole thing of popular music, it would have to be Pink Floyd. I bought everything that they'd ever put out. I still think that they stand up very well. I've sort of cited a few people along the way that have been a current distraction. I go back and actually look at what got me interested in the first place... I can remember clearly when I first heard Dark Side Of The Moon, which was late in the piece. But then I joined the whole thing late in the piece. Obviously it's a very popular album, but then it wasn't and it only had just been released and Pink Floyd were a bit obscure. But I remember it made a very big impression on me.

Spellbound: Yeah, they're still very good, especially with the addition of Guy Pratt (he laughs). Okay, so it will read Talking Heads, Boom Crash Opera, and Pink Floyd as your favorite bands; favorite musician, Brian Eno. For favorite video clip, you have Robert Palmer's "Addicted To Love."

Iva: I have? Is this my bio? I don't really have a favorite video. I can't say I've watched too many videos for a long time. No, blank, I'm afraid.

Spellbound: Favorite actor: Humphrey Bogart.

Iva: Yes, I've still got a thing for him. Actually, one of the new songs is a reference to him.

Spellbound: Really? Does it have a title?

Iva: Yes... but not yet...(everyone laughs)

Spellbound: He's doing it again... anyway, favorite actress: Lauren Bacall.

Iva: Well, yeah, I have to say that I was sort of deeply in love with Lauren Bacall in those days, yep. She had a strength that I think these new women in Hollywood that are regarded as the female rat pack would be paled next to.

Spellbound: Favorite movie: Don't Look Now?? (everyone laughs)

Iva: Well, yeah, I mean it is a classic. I still love 2001; I think it's a great movie. I wouldn't put any movie on top of another. There have been a lot. I remember when that came out, it made a big impression, as well. I don't know whether that would be a current favorite. These days if I'm going to watch a movie, I like it to be really entertaining and not too challenging, and that sort of puts me on the level of Monty Python movies.

Spellbound: Run away, run away... (everyone laughs)

Iva: Those I really enjoy.

Spellbound: Favorite T.V. show -- well, that's kind of a loss -- you have the news here.

Iva: Well, I don't really watch television; I don't watch anything regularly. If I were to decide anything now, actually I'm going through a peculiar phase. I'd have to cite that I've become a complete Star Trek fanatic. I actually enjoy the new series so I guess because they're still screening I'd have to say Star Trek: The Next Generation.

Spellbound: Food likes: Japanese, sushi?

Iva: Certainly I was a complete devotee for a long time, but there are no Japanese restaurants up this way. So, since I've been out of the city, that's been difficult. We're going through a curry period. Indian rates most highly at the moment.

Spellbound: Food dislikes: Mexican anything?

Iva: Yeah, still current, I'm afraid.

Spellbound: Here in Southern California, that's blasphemy!

Iva: I can believe it!

Spellbound: Pet likes: beaches?

Iva: Yeah, still current.

Spellbound: Pet dislikes: dogs on beaches?

Iva: Dogs on beaches? I guess that's changed a whole lot!

Spellbound: Although it might make a great song title.

Iva: (Laughs) Yeah, possibly. Well, you write the lyrics and I'll think about it! (everyone laughs) Pet dislikes... one of my primary dislikes is cars.

Spellbound: Cars? Why would that be?

Iva: I don't know. I just don't like motor vehicles.

Spellbound: Hobbies and interests: windsurfing? I suppose we can add surfing to that.

Iva: Surfing has eclipsed that for the time being.

Spellbound: Ambitions: you had Australian Wavesailing title?

Iva: Really? I guess it might be more conservative. I'll never be a Malibu Legend, but I'd like to be able to surf a bit better.

To conclude the interview, we left the floor open for Iva to speak directly to the fans.

Iva: I really appreciate everybody's efforts, that's one thing that constantly amazes me. I mean, we haven't done anything for ages and stuff. However, it is all turning over again...

Spellbound: Do you have any message you'd like to send to the fans?

Iva: Well, let me see. I'm looking forward to seeing the fanzine. Hopefully, there will be a lot of stuff this year to come out, some of which will be, well, it'll be interesting. And you know, I hope that it's not too shocking. But, I'll be interested to hear what everybody makes of it. Certainly, what we're working on at the moment, I'm kind of excited by. And, it's a new phase. I'd be interested to hear, once it does come out, how everybody responds.

Well, that's it, folks. Ride's over. But, keep a hold of your ticket stub. This particular attraction may come around again, or so we've been promised... We'd like to thank Louise Stovin-Bradford for setting this interview up and for putting Iva in a good mood with a huge chocolate lamington! We also send our thanks out to Iva himself for giving us a fantastic interview. We want everyone to know that we had arranged for an hour of Iva's time, and he very graciously gave us two! Iva proved to be informative, patient, and quite funny. We had a great time talking to him, and for that, Mr. Davies, you are responsible!