The Avalanches at their Splendour in the Grass set in July. The band had "probably not as much as we would have liked" to prepare for the show, says Tony Di Blasi. Credit:Mark Metcalfe That judicious moment of imagined revenge is as heated as the amenable 42-year-old DJ, keyboardist and producer gets. Quick to laugh and well aware of the band's sometimes blackly comic travails, Di Blasi is enjoying not just the lifting of the weight that came with finishing Wildflower, a record so long in the making that it had acquired mythical status, but also the passing of the emptiness that came after its release. "We thought that finishing it would automatically make us feel 1 million times lighter, but it was this weird feeling where we just sat there feeling nothing," Di Blasi says. "I don't know if it was Stockholm syndrome, but it was this weird thing where for the first time in a long time we didn't know what we had to do straight away. We went through this flatness." Made as a madcap six-piece who pulled together more than 3000 diverse samples in an act of audio alchemy, The Avalanches' 2000 debut, Since I Left You, is a landmark long-player. One of the handful of best Australian albums ever made and revered internationally, it's a joyous congregational experience that took our musical identity out of the Oz Rock orbit. That Wildflower, after more than a decade of struggle, even comes close to matching it is no small achievement. "To look Robbie in the face and say to each other, 'We did it', after there were so many times we didn't think it would happen, is the biggest reward of all," Di Blasi says. "I'm so proud of him and he's so proud of me."

Tony Di Blasi during an Avalanches show in London in June. Credit:Lorne Thomson/Redferns Suddenly there are choices – and new pitfalls – open to The Avalanches. Tomorrow they announce their first run of headlining national gigs – in January, including a show at the Enmore Theatre, to accompany their already announced appearance on the Falls Festival. They plan to be on the road for much of 2017, featuring a live line-up – with drummer Eliza Wolfgramm, American rapper Spank Rock and drummer Paris Jeffree – that debuted their complex compositions at July's Splendour in the Grass music festival, to mixed notices. "We had time coming in to Splendour, but probably not as much as we would have liked, to make the show as good as we could. Now we have the time," Di Blasi says. "Splendour was a matter of playing the songs as they were, but now we'll be doing extensions and rejigging a few. We'll take the music to the new level we know it can get to." (From left) Tony Di Blasi and Robbie Chater with James Dela Cruz – who has since parted company with the band – in a promotional shot for the Wildflower album. Credit:Steven Gullick One factor that confused some in the Splendour audience was the absence of turntablist James Dela Cruz, a member of the group during the heady Since I Left You era who returned to join Chater and Di Blasi in 2015 as they geared up for their public comeback, but disappeared again after doing little more than featuring in the promotional material.

"It was a financial issue that we couldn't come to terms with," Di Blasi says. "That's all fine, but in the end we have to be able to not lose money, so we made a decision in the best interest of the band." Robbie Chater (left) with then member Darren Seltmann in 2001. The Avalanches' 2000 debut, Since I Left You, is one of the top Australian albums ever made. Credit:Eddie Jim Chater and Di Blasi, high school friends from the central Victorian town of Maryborough, find themselves in a music industry radically different from that of 2000, with Di Blasi pessimistic about the financial merits of streaming for artists, even as they're trying to clear the "quite substantial" debts they accumulated over years of working on Wildflower instead of selling live tickets and merchandise. Ideally, The Avalanches will get back in the black ink and have some fun along the way. "We really want to play live. Our motivation for so many years while making this record was how fun it would be to perform it, instead of sitting in a room looking at each other," Di Blasi says, laughing. "We would imagine ourselves having so much fun on tour in Brazil, so we're still waiting for that to happen." One possible complication is Chater's struggle with auto-immune diseases, which at one point in the winding gestation of Wildflower kept him from working for three years. When the problem recurred this year, it was suggested, along with the departure of Dela Cruz, as the possible reason several European festival appearances during the recent northern winter were cancelled. Di Blasi, however, isn't overly concerned.

"It's something Tony manages. If he's not being attentive it can sneak up on him and cause massive fatigue, which he's just at the end of at the moment," he says. "This year has been so full on, but he can control it with time. If it was ever going to come on, it was now at the end of the album's journey, but he's doing good." Spending some time in Melbourne preparing to tour at year's end means Di Blasi can get used to hearing Wildflower play in cafes as he eats lunch, and slowly work his way through the list of 30 friends and family members he has to apologise to for dropping out of circulation due to an "unhealthy devotion" with finally finishing their album. Not surprisingly, after such a shared experience, Di Blasi and Chater are now permanently linked. "We're like a married couple," sighs Di Blasi. "We even went on a tiny holiday together after Splendour – after we'd spent years seeing each other every day! There's a lot of love because going through something like this means one of two things: you'll either kill one another or you'll be the tightest of friends." There's even the stirrings of a new record. The pair recently started work on several new songs – as opposed to revisiting Wildflower out-takes – and Di Blasi says they're excited to return to the studio. He's somehow even willing, after all that's transpired, to offer a possible timeline. "It's really optimistic, but I think 2018," he says. "It doesn't have to be this epic journey – we can be lighthearted and reflect on being happier and calmer. We're excited about making music and I believe we can turn a third album around quickly."

The Avalanches' tour includes Sydney's Enmore Theatre on January 5; the Falls Festival at Byron Bay, December 31 to January 2; Melbourne Town Hall, January 3; and the Barton Theatre, Adelaide, January 7. DELAYED ALBUMS It was 16 years between albums for The Avalanches – yet that's hardly a record … GUNS N' ROSES 1991's Use Your Illusion I and II to 2008's Chinese Democracy

Axl Rose went through the full gamut of hard rock hubris, hermitry and hiring a guitarist named Buckethead – so named because he liked to play while wearing a KFC bucket on his head – during a 17-year quest that saw him fire every bandmate. End Result? Tepid. MY BLOODY VALENTINE 1991's Loveless to 2013's m b v The influential Irish noise-rock band and their inscrutable linchpin Kevin Shields went through multiple labels and broke up on their 22-year odyssey, finally releasing their new album through their own website.

End Result? Vast. NENEH CHERRY 1996's Man to 2014's Blank Project Towards the end of her long sabbatical from recording, there were contributions to collaborations and a covers album, but it was 18 years between solo studio albums for the ground-breaking '90s pop star. End Result? Inspired.

PORTISHEAD 1997's Portishead to 2008's Third The trip-hop architects got so deep into making Third that they recorded ideas, pressed them onto vinyl and then sampled them to use in their songs. End Result? Eclectic. DR. DRE

1999's 2001 to 2015's Compton Hip-hop's headline producer spent more than a decade working on a follow-up to The Chronic and 2001, titled Detox, only to abandon it and quickly make an expansive soundtrack for his N.W.A. biopic Straight Outta Compton. End Result? Assured.