A FEW WORDS WITH...DAVE FAULKNER

Faulkner, 32, is singer, guitarist, songwriter and leader of the Australian band Hoodoo Gurus, whish is touring the U.S to support its latest album, "Magnum Cum Louder." The quartet performs Saturday as St. Andrews's Hall, 431 E. Congress. Doors open at 8 p.m. Call 961-6358 anytime.

ON THE ALBUM: "Magnum Cum Louder: is the Gurus' hardest-rocking record to date. "It's the sort of music we're best at. We just went in with the intentiion of doing some demos and started basing away, and everything fell into place."

ON RECORD COMPANIES: Faulkner said the two-year break between "Magnum Cum Louder" and 1987's "Blow Your Cool" was caused by a legal battle between the group and it's former record company, Big Time. "They basically signed us to the world in 1983, and that relationship deteriorated to nothing. There was just a collapse of communication between us and Big Time. We had our biggest hit in Australia off the last album and then couldn't get a video made for our second single. What a joke!"

ON BASEBALL: Through touring, Faulkner has become a baseball fan - of the New York Mets in particular and wrote a song about it called "Where's That Hit: for the new album. "It's very difficult being a Mets fan in Australia because you never get box scores or anything...I saw my first game in 1979; I went to New York for six months after I got out of school and my friends took me to a Yankees game. Now I love the Mets, though our road manager is an Expos fan and gives me a hard time.

ON SUCCESS: We're big enough. We're pretty big in Australia; we play 12,000 seaters there, and things like that. We don't expect the same thing to happen all over the world. We're just happy we can tour around and enjoy ourselves everywhere."