From a land down under: Colin Hay brings 'American Sunshine' to Englert

By Diana Nollen

The Gazette

Men at Work may be sitting idle, but lead singer Colin Hay isn't.

After the Australian rockers stormed the U.S. scene in the early '80s with “Who Can it Be Now,” Hay went solo in 1985. Even with recordings, concerts and acting gigs under his belt - including memorable cameos on TV's “Scrubs” - he's pretty much been flying under the radar since those halcyon days of touting vegemite sandwiches.

And don't look for Men at Work to be making the nostalgia concert circuit.

“Greg Ham and I got together in 1996 to 2002 (for occasional tours) but it just got kind of boring,” says Hay, 56, who lives with his wife, Cecilia Noel, in the hills of Topanga, Calif. She'll join him onstage Friday night at the Englert Theatre in Iowa City.

“She sings a lot of the harmonies, so she's important,” he says of his wife of seven years, a Peruvian salsa vocalist who has her own successful recording and touring career. Hay is happy when she can join him on tour.

“We get a little separation anxiety if we have to be apart for more than a month, so she sings in my band, too. ... She comes and goes if she's got stuff to do. ... When it's me singing solo, she sometimes comes and just hangs out.” That kind of togetherness “means you cannot forget what someone looks like,” Hay says fondly. He's been touring “quite often” in the past 10 to 15 years, “in a cool kind of way,” mostly in North America, but also in Europe, Australia and North and South America.

“I've had some cool rooms to play in all across the country. The thing that's great - one of the benefits of flying under the radar - is when you go into a town and play there, the people who come are there because they want to see you play,” he says. “They're not there for any other reason, so it tends to be a really great experience.”

He calls the live experience “very nourishing.”His Englert audience will get a sneak preview of his latest CD, “American Sunshine,” hitting stores in September. He'll sprinkle in some Men at Work classics, as well. “The mix changes every night,” he says.

About six songs off the new disc were recorded in Nashville - and born out of desperation.

“I don't subscribe to the idea you have to be inspired to write a song. It's great if you are, if that does happen, but if you're not inspired, you have to go ahead and write the song anyway,” he says. “When I was younger, I sat around waiting for inspiration. I don't have time for that anymore. Fear is motivating.”

That was driven home in Nashville, where four musicians were slated to record with him over two days.

“I prepared three songs, thinking that will be enough, and had the idea for another one. ... When I went there, (the musicians) were so good, they recorded those three songs before lunchtime. I had to go back to the hotel and look through my mini CDs of stuff and finish off more songs. I ended up finishing up three or four songs that night. I wasn't inspired. I was scared,” he says.

“We ended up recording nine songs in two days. It was pretty astonishing for

me - and pretty exciting.”

• What: Colin Hay

  in concert

• When: 8 p.m. Friday, Aug. 14
• Where: Englert Theatre, 221 E. Washington St.,

  Iowa City

• Tickets: $25, general admission, at the Englert Box Office, (319) 688-2653, or www.iowatix.com

Information:

www.englert.org and www.colinhay.com