Peter Garrett calls out the 'insidious' influence of social media

If not physically from performing a 40-song set in his typically intense no-holds-barred style, then emotionally, from the roller-coaster ride of the farewell tour, that kick-started eight months earlier at the Newcastle Entertainment Centre.

However, Garrett felt the opposite. Standing alongside the twin-guitar attack of Martin Rotsey and Jim Moginie and in front of the driving rhythms of Rob Hirst, had left him inspired.

Songs presented themselves. They needed singing.

"I really didn't feel at all like I'd fallen off a cliff, it was just like I'd dived off a high diving board," Garrett tells ACM.

"I was happy to get up on the diving board and try some somersaults again. That might be a slight form of creative madness, but I thought I better go with it."

Garrett found a studio and brought in his "music brother" Rotsey (guitar), The Jezabels' Heather Shannon (keys), Evan Mannell (drums), Rowan Lane (bass), Freya Schack-Arnott (cello), Ollie Thorpe (pedal steel) and his daughters May and Grace (vocals) as his backing band The Alter Egos.

The end result was his second solo album, The True North. It follows 2016's A Version Of Now, which marked his return to music after a nine-year political career which saw him serve as federal environment and education minister in Kevin Rudd and Julia Gillard's Labor governments.

The record is due for release on March 15, but the singles The True North, Innocence Parts 1& 2 and Permaglow have whet the appetite of fans.

Even at 70, Garrett's passion and fury is still burning, but he's also become more reflective.

Garrett says he didn't attempt to compete with his own band's monumental back catalogue.

"With the intensity and ferocity of the Oils, particularly with the twin guitar attack and Rob driving it so strongly, there's no way you want to try and replicate that," he says.

"That's a one off in every sense of the word, and said with the greatest amount of respect. It's about finding another place to try and communicate songs.

"Some might have some bite in them, and they're never going to be about moon and June and whether she looked at me the wrong way. They're always gonna be about the things that are floating around in my mind.

"But there is some reflection in it. I think that's natural after the intensity of both the runs we had."

Of the new singles, Permaglow, is the most obvious nod to the Oils' classic '80s sound, but its focus is a more modern phenomenon.

It speaks to Garrett's increasing concern about the influence and power of big-tech social media companies like Meta and Tik-Tok, especially on younger generations.

The idea crystallised as he walked around streets in Sydney at night and saw numerous blue glowing lights in residential towers from people watching screens alone.

"I think it's a tragedy and I think it's going to have terrible repercussions in the years to come, and it already is, with the levels of anxiety," he says.

"I'm not talking about the fact we use the technology, I use my iPhone and recorded some of these songs out of my head onto voice memos on my iPhone.

"I get my news there and emails and so on, but having it as your major reference point and communications point exposes you, at whatever age, to these things that have been set up by big tech companies that have no concerns about the emotional impact that those platforms can produce for people.

"They're not regulated like we regulate print media, or telly or radio. It's a free-for-all and they wanna make as much money as they can by sucking people down a rabbit hole and getting them to buy stuff. It's very insidious and it needs guardrails."

Audiences across Australia are being treated to hearing tracks from his new album The True North during March with a series of shows.

In late February, Garrett made headlines and felt the wrath of "Swifties" when he accused pop megastar, Taylor Swift, of "price gouging" and lamented the popularity of her music in making it more difficult for young Australian artists to achieve commercial success.

In recent weeks, Taylor Swift took out several spots in the ARIA top 10 album charts, along with numerous other international acts, while Australian content across all charts dwindled.

Garrett says this is clear proof that government investment in the music industry is needed in Australia.

"I really strongly believe that we shouldn't lose sight of the fact that telling stories about our own place - the country and community we're in - is really essential to our national health and having a strong culture," he says.

"It's a globalised world that we live in, but we need to draw on our own roots and connections for the sustenance and to build up that picture of what it is to be living on the east coast of Australia in 2024.

"You won't get that from a rapper in LA, however good or bad they are. You can only get that from supporting your local musicians, writers, poets.

"That builds up a reservoir of connection and identification which is good for a place and essential given the rough-and-ready world people are facing with cost of living."

See Peter live here:

Tickets can be bought HERE.