Well it was a long wait - almost 3 years since #4 Record - but You Am I's fifth studio album Dress Me Slowly was finally released on April 30, 2001.

Dress Me Slowly took many twists and turns in it's formation. Mainly due to overpowering record executives.
"We had to fight to get the opportunity to record and have the songs done this way," says Tim. "In coversations with the label overseas going back three years now, it was requested we approach songwriting from a different tack, with an eye to being more radio friendly. We'd nod, go away and write songs exactly in the same style and with the same approach." The suits also suggested to "dumb down" the song lyrics by removing every second word to come up with a pop hit.
"We're really not prepared to do that," demands Tim. "We're people passionate about making a racket, not racketeering."

Intial sessions in November 1999 with American producer Ed Buller (Ben Lee, Alex Lloyd) were scrapped after he was instructed to mould You Am I into a contemporary rock act capable of selling a million records. "We were up for it at the start but soon railed against it completely when we thought about the repercussions," recalls Tim.
"We were going to have to play these songs for the next couple of years and we didn't feel as if they'd come from our gut. We've got to listen back to this stuff in the future and I didn't want to be a part of it, so we stopped our relationship with Ed Buller right there. We shan't meet again."

Eventually, Cliff Norell (REM, The Replacements, Rollins Band) got the nod as producer. "He was recommended to us by a lot of people and so we spoke to him on the phone and he made the right noises," says Rusty. The majority of the album was recorded in Sydney's Q Studios in mid 2000.
"We basically just went into the studio in Sydney and spent four weeks recording. We had a whole bunch of songs (35 in total) and whittled it down to about 12 or 13 and recorded them," recalls Rusty.
"We were going to put the album out at the end of last year (2000), but there were so many records coming out so we thought we didn’t need to rush it out."

The band took advantage of a further delay, wrtiting three additional songs which turned out to be highlights from the album: Beautiful Girl, Watcha Doin' To Me and Kick A Hole In The Sky.
Rusty again: "Tim had a bunch of other songs and we thought lets go and record them as well so we went into the studio with Paul McKercher who recorded our live album and Hourly Daily. We went to the studio with him and recorded these three extra tracks and they ended up all making it on the album."

Dress Me Slowly was also the first time full-time fourth member David Lane had recorded with the band.
"I get to play the fiddly bits on the record," Dave says modestly. "But a lot of the time Tim would come up with a riff, and what's on there is just a development. I throw in a few more notes, but, basically, the catchy bits, he writes."
"We don't need to explain things to each other very often," says Tim. "If we've got a song that needs to push a certain emotional button, Davey will keep hitting those notes and those chords."

Dress Me Slowly debuted in the national ARIA chart at number three, breaking their run of three consecutive number one album debuts. The intial Australian release came in a very nice limited edition digipak containing the 8 track Tim Rogers solo disc The Temperance Union.

View pictures from the Dress Me Slowly recording sessions
Dress Me Slowly Lyrics