BWW Interviews: MEN AT WORK Singer Hopes to Get Back to His Hay Days

Few artists would relish the position Colin Hay will find himself in this Friday. Hay, the former front man for Men At Work, will be the opening act in a triple bill that also features the Violent Femmes and headliner the Barenaked Ladies on "Last Summer on Earth" tour.

The tour's first stop is 6 p.m. Friday at the Lifestyles Community Pavilion (405 Neil Ave in downtown Columbus). Hay sees the tour is a great opportunity to get his material from Next Year People in front of an audience.

"I don't see it as a challenge. I see it as a great opportunity," Hay says in a telephone interview from Los Angeles. "It's not dark yet (when I go on stage). That's the challenge sometimes: trying to catch people's attention when they are trying to figure out what seat they're in. It'll be fine."

Hay was home from a recent tour in Australia long enough to catch his breath and pack his bags for the upcoming two month tour of North America. The pairing of Hay and the Barenaked Ladies seems nearly perfect. Both achieved their fame with a quirky catalog of hits but both have songs with a lot of depth and power resting just beneath that surface.

"I really haven't ever toured like this with a package of bands," Hay says. "I'm looking forward to it very much. I was very pleased to be asked. I probably wouldn't have been asked 10 years ago. I look forward to hearing what both bands are doing and seeing what unfolds."

While he may be new to being part of a packaged deal like "Last Summer on Earth" tour, Hay is a bit of a road warrior. After Men At Work went on unemployment in 1986, Hay immediately threw himself out there as a solo artist. Since moving to L.A. in 1989, he has put out 11 solo albums, more than triple the amount Men At Work put out in their three year run.

The sound of Hay's latest effort, "Next Year People," is a far cry from his Men At Work days but reveals a more mature harmonies and lyrics that run a thin line between optimism and despair. "We've had dust storms before and spit out the dirt. We've had droughts before but none quite like this," Hay sings on the title track, but then hits on a hopeful chorus. "Next year everything will come good. The rains they will fall and we'll dance on the hood ...Yeah next year people wait and see. We're next year people you and me."

The imagery of storms and droughts came to Hay after watching the Ken Burns' documentary "The Dust Bowl." The metaphor works on ecological and emotional levels.

"It seems the planet is fast approaching a ... climate change," Hay says. "It seems like there could be very difficult times ahead of us wherever you live. The Dust Bowl farmers kept doing the same thing and expecting a different result.It's a very curious part of the human condition to believe that next year will be better than this one.

"While my situation was not nearly as bleak as theirs, I could kind of relate to what these people were going through. I've been touring year in and year out for the last 25 years. Sometimes you wonder if you're actually getting somewhere or if you're doing the same thing and expecting to get a different result."

THE SUDDEN EXPLOSION OF FAME

Hay has experienced the high water marks and low tides of fame. Three years after forming, Hay, the late Greg Ham, Jerry Speiser, Ron Strykert and John Rees became the band of the moment as Men At Work. Their debut "Business As Usual" album became the number one album in the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia and New Zealand and spanned hit singles "Who Can It Be Now?" "Land Down Under," and "Be Good Johnny." Their follow-up "Cargo" carried with hits like "Dr. Heckyll and Mr. Jive," "It's A Mistake" and "Overkill."

Near the top of that roller coaster ride, Hay penned one of his more enduring classics, "Overkill."

"I was living in Melbourne at the time and the band had started to take off and become very successful. I realized that nothing was ever going to be the same again," Hay recalls. "There was the possibility for it to be all too much for me. My anonymity was gone.

"I used to love walking around the streets and being a part of the tapestry if you like. I realized with the band becoming very successful, that was all going to shift and change. Nothing was going to be the same after that."

And then like that, Men At Work's moment was over. Months after playing in "OZ for Africa," the Australian version of the Live Aid concerts, the group disbanded and Hay embarked on a solo career. The band did reform in 1996 but it never recaptured its original prominence.

"Once it (Men At Work) was over, I picked myself up and off I went," Hay says. "There was a little bit of sadness. You just have to keep moving forward."

Ironically, "Overkill," a song about worrying about the price of fame, helped the singer find a new audience. In 2002, actor Zach Braff and producer Bill Lawrence approached Hay about using the song on the television show SCRUBS. Hay himself was featured in a series of cameos on the episode "My Overkill," playing the song on an acoustic guitar.

Hay says the exposure from that episode was huge. His music went on to appear in episodes of MODERN FAMILY ("To Have And To Hold") and ARMY WIVES ("Waiting For My Real Life To Begin") and in Braff's movie GARDEN STATE ("I Just Don't Think I'll Ever Get Over You").

"I keep making records but they don't get played on the radio. Playing these live shows was the only place where people would get exposed to what I'm doing," Hay says. "(But) Television is so powerful. When Braff and Lawrence asked me to come in and do that role, it opened me up to a whole new audience who weren't even alive when (Men At Work) was around."

The Last Summer On Earth tour, featuring Colin Hay, the Violent Femmes and the Barenaked Ladies, arrives June 5 at the Lifestyles Community Pavilion (405 Neil Ave in downtown Columbus). Gates open at 6 p.m.