In 1987, the song "Ship of Fools" launched the band World Party to the forefront of the modern rock scene. Other hits followed, but they ended suddenly in 2001. That's when frontman Karl Wallinger suffered a brain aneurysm, one that was misdiagnosed at the time.
"I came out of the bedroom saying, 'Hey, I've got a bit of a headache,'" Wallinger recalls. "I came out again an hour later and said, 'Phone an ambulance,' and then went and passed out for 24 hours."
Wallinger has been fighting back ever since. He was able to return to performance a few years ago, and as a way of reintroducing himself to his old fan base — and hopefully picking up a few converts — he's just released a five-disc collection called Arkeology.
"Reality is this mundane thing, full of things like shopping lists and memos to yourself," Wallinger says. "The idea is really to find the place where you can forget about all those things and you have as little to do with it as possible. The best way to make music is to not really be conscious, so I try to emulate that as often as possible."
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