I N T E R V I E W 
MSMR101: An Interview with Dr Mesmer's Private Army
with Ian Duggan

It's only a few days until the 10th Annual Circle Jerk! One band making its first appearance at the event is Dr Mesmer's Private Army. We talked to Kent Macpherson (Octave guitar/synth/field recordings) about the concept behind band's performances, aspirations, and the story behind their name.

HUP: You are not a typical band. Explain to us how a Dr Mesmer’s Private Army performance works.

Kent: Every show we do is improvised. We have been together for 2 years and had our first rehearsal last week! That was because we needed to figure some riffs and motifs from other bands to weave in to our set. Every show we have done has been in the key of A minor. It provides us with a simple framework to escape within. Our shows are freeform with no breaks. There are ebbs and flows, dynamic shifts. Slow and hypnotic.

HUP: The concept of the band appears in many ways similar to that of ex-Hamilton band ‘Grok’, with the improvisational nature of the recordings. What was your inspiration for the concept?

Kent: Jeremy [Mayall] and Kent [Macpherson] spoke about this concept of live ambient improvisations influenced by the avant classical soundscapes of artists like Nils Frahm and Olafur Arnalds, utilising pianos, guitars and electronics alongside field recordings. Both of us have been interested in the idea of incorporating a visual aspect to a somewhat static onstage musical performance. Yotam [Levy; cellist] is a rare breed of classically trained performers who is comfortable with this chaos and calm.

HUP: You have released a number of recordings via Bandcamp this year, made up of different live performances, and a studio album called ‘Introductions to the Cosmos’. For someone wanting to experience the band, what track would you suggest for them to go and experience first?

Kent: Dawn 1 is a very good introduction to what we do. It's an early recording for us but captures us in fine form.
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HUP: The band has been active for just over two years. How many performances have you done in that time? Is the project becoming more serious through time? 

Kent: We have done about 15 shows we think. It is semi-serious as all of us have our professional lives outside of it. We all love to hang out and do shows. We don't take ourselves too seriously and truly enjoy the challenge of being in the moment and taking an audience with us on an audio-visual journey through space and time.

HUP: Do you have aspirations for the band?

Kent: We are very keen to take the group to the regions, and in particular, primary and high schools. We recently played to around 100 year 4-6 students at Woodstock Primary School in Hamilton. Their minds were totally blown! We did a Q and A after our performance and the students asked some truly inspired questions. We love playing art galleries and outdoors. We are looking at playing through water at some stage, whilst our audience listens whilst floating above underwater speakers.

HUP: What is behind the name, ‘Dr Mesmer’s Private Army’?

Kent: ​Paul's (visuals) partner came up with it. The word mesmerise is named after Dr Mesmer, who was actually a real person! None of us really know what it means but it does have a certain cryptic nature to it, which we love.

Visit Dr Mesmer's Private Army's Bandcamp page HERE

A number of years ago I bought the compilation “It's Bigger than Both of Us (NZ Singles 1979-82)”, and one of my favourite songs quickly became ‘Danny Boy’ by ‘Alms for Children’. But, like I imagine is the case for many others, that pretty much became my entire experience of the band. A little later I bought another wonderful little compilation called ’Biding our Time’, released by Failsafe Records, which included a song called ‘Point to Point’ by ‘This Sporting Life’; that cassette got well and truly thrashed in my Walkman and, again, ‘Point to Point’ was a favourite. It wasn’t until I received the new release, ‘This Sporting Life - Alms for Children’, that I finally made a connection between the two intimately connected bands. This release compiles the released, and previously unreleased, recordings from these bands into a single CD or digital download. We talked to members Ben Hayman (bass) and Daron Johns (drums) about the release of the compilation, how they feel their songs have stood the test of time, memories of their time together, Hamilton gigs, and more!
 
HUP: You started out as ‘Alms for Children’ in 1980, disbanded, and then reformed as ‘This Sporting Life’ until 1984. Both bands largely had the same personnel, except for a short period in the transition period. Firstly, how have you come to be releasing the new CD, compiling all these recordings?
TSL: Rob [Mayes] from Failsafe tracked us down and said he had always wanted to do a release of all our material. A bit of a bookend to the Failsafe label and the fact that he named the label after a song on our first 7” [Fail Safe off Alms not Arms].
 
HUP: It has been 34 years since ‘This Sporting Life’ disbanded. When you listen back to the songs on the compilation, how do you feel about them now, all these years later? Which songs do you feel stand up the best?
TSL: The first 7”, [Alms not Arms], is probably the release we are all most fond of. It’s a less thought through approach to making our music because we were that bit younger and had less of an idea of what we were aiming for. It was just a bit more energised maybe. Back in the day though, we all felt a bit sheepish about the song Danny Boy that’s on that first record. Maybe because it’s the one that was seen as the A side, and then was the one that got air time as it charted. All these years later I think we feel ok about even that track now. 1981 is a long time ago…
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The songs we played with two bass guitars, or when Paul and Ben [Fogarty] swapped bass and guitar duties were always memorable because we shook the sound up. ‘Total Loss’, with the two basses, being a bit of a favourite out of those.
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Sometimes we wish we had recorded the This Sporting Life album on something bigger than four track, but at the time, it was the right thing to do. And if it hadn’t been for studios like Lab and Chris Knox’ trusty Tascam, a load of us would never have made vinyl at all. Some of the live tracks that have come out of the woodwork we had totally forgotten about. They were recorded by people in the gigs on cassettes or off the mixing desk to cassette. It is unfortunate that there are no more Alms for Children recordings, but we are just grateful we have managed to save this lot. [continued below]

HUP: What was behind the name change? With name recognition being important, do you think in hindsight it was a good decision to make the change, especially considering ‘Danny Boy’ had charted, and the  ‘Alms for Children’ moniker would have been fairly well known?
TSL: We never really thought anything much through in those days to be honest. We simply started a band, played, got some people that liked coming to see us and then stopped. The concept of recognition or building anything ongoing was never in our minds. We played because we kind of had to. It was important to having a sense of being part of something - anything. AFC stopped for a bunch of reasons that happened at the same time - Daron wanted to move back to Christchurch for a while, we might also have been over doing the gigs a bit (I recall it was pretty full on), and we’d started to become ‘a band with a sound’. What I mean is that we had created something and I reckon we needed to work out if it was a thing we wanted to continue. Paul and I were listening to quite different stuff and I reckon we were trying to figure out if this band was the right container for whatever happened next. We spent some time not playing and then decided to try a different thing for a while with a different drummer. That led to us creating a new band in our heads that we then called This Sporting Life. Then a while later [AFC vocalist] Gary [Charlton] joined, and then after just one show Phil Jackson who was drumming with us left and Daron joined to pickup the sticks. So in many ways it was a new band rather than a name change – its just that all of AFC eventually signed up for it!
 
HUP: I’m sure the release of this album has led to a lot of retrospection. What are some of your favourite memories from your times together?
TSL: Yeah a ton of things are coming back. It’s been the best part of doing this. We’ve connected with a few people and a bunch of stories that had been lost.

Playing with The Chills and The Clean and so many others at places like the Rhumba Bar, [Auckland]. Getting to play at Christchurch Town Hall and Christchurch Uni, and Mainstreet in Auckland with The Fall is a big one. A venue that was always a bit intimidating and strange was the Reverb Room at the Edinburgh Castle pub on Symonds Street. Pretty sure we played there with Nocturnal Projections and Childerns Hour. We had a rehearsal studio in the cellar under it that you could only just stand up in and was shared with Dance Macabre.  

A New Year’s visit to New Plymouth sticks in the memory as well. The New Year’s Eve event was in a huge warehouse. [The Herco Pilots’] Harry Ratbag was MC and a bunch of people played including Fetus Productions, Verlaines, Childrens Hour, [and] Chris Knox. It was a bit chaotic in the crowd but a great weekend.
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It was a really productive time for New Zealand independent stuff; Bands, Comics, Design, Radio, Venues all sorts. It seemed everyone was starting something. We all had jobs as well as the band. And sometimes that was super useful like the fact Daron was a printer – posters and covers resulted. Ben worked in a stationary warehouse so an envelope was used for the covers for the first 7”.
 
HUP: Both bands were based in Auckland. Did you ever make it down to play in Hamilton, and if so, do you have any particular memories of playing here?
TSL: Memory is in short supply about a lot of that time. So long ago, but yes we did play in Hamilton. At a farm. It was a day time gig in the outside if I remember right. We also played Hamilton Uni with Childrens Hour, and think that was Children’s Hour’s second ever gig. [continued below] 

HUP: How well have the band members kept in touch since the split of ‘This Sporting Life’?
TSL: Gary, Paul and Ben all moved to the U.K. in the late ‘80s and Daron to Sydney. Paul and Ben saw Gary a couple of times in the first few years in the UK before he moved to Australia and everyone lost contact. Fifteen years later Paul and Ben reconnected. Being in the UK they had the chance to go see some of the bands that influenced the early sounds of AFC – Wire, Magazine, Gang of Four and a bunch of newer bands. The odd jam session was had as well with Paul’s son playing drums. The two reconnected with Daron - who is based in ChCh now - around 2010, and then with Gary - still in Aus -in 2015. We have Rob Mayes at Failsafe to thank for giving us a really great reason to start talking again and its great – thanks Rob!
 
HUP: Failsafe are releasing a lot of material over the next year. Included among this is ‘Beat Rhythm Fashion’, who are playing some shows to support their release. Are you planning on doing some shows to support your release?
TSL: No plan as such; more a vague notion. We live on four different land masses now. It needs to work for everyones lives as well. We’d definitely all like to get together sometime as mates. If making sound was also involved then that would be great. If it’s looking like more than just a vague notion we will certainly let you know.
 
HUP: How can we get hold of the album?
TSL: The Interweb has got loads at Failsafe. Theres a download only version or you can get the CD package mailed to you. Please do – we need the encouragement.

Also, if you are in Auckland and fancy a shop then Flying Out have some. In Welly, Slow Boat Records has some and there will also be some in Christchurch and Dunedin soon, and we will update our Facebook page once we know which stores.

R E V E I W
‘This Sporting Life – Alms for Children’ compilation
 
Former Christchurch, now Japan-based Failsafe Records have some pretty ambitious plans for the next 12 months, with the intended release of 25 albums. Having ‘This Sporting Life – Alms for Children’ among the first of these releases is highly appropriate given this is where the label’s moniker originated, and the Alms for Children song ‘Failsafe’ fittingly opens this compilation. While Flying Nun have been getting the press recently for archiving their master tapes in the Alexander Turnbull Library, the release of compilations like this – bringing together the collected works and live recordings of these inextricably intertwined bands from the early ‘80s – is every bit as laudable for its safeguarding of our musical taonga.

Alms for Children and This Sporting Life existed in the ’81-’84 period, considered by many to be the golden age of New Zealand music. The opening tracks on the compilation belong to their Alms for Children period, with songs from the 1981 ‘Alms not Arms’ 7”. Following the B-sides ‘Failsafe’ and ‘Mother’, the original A-side ‘Danny Boy’ is included at track 3; this highlight will be familiar to many New Zealand music fans not around for the original release, due to its inclusion on the 1988 music compilation ‘It’s Bigger than Both of Us’. Most of the compilation is dedicated to ‘This Sporting Life’, beginning with tracks from their two Flying Nun releases, 1982s ‘Show me to the Bellrope’ mini-album and 1983s ‘In Limbo’ EP. If you are familiar with The Mekons 1981 single ‘This Sporting Life’, from which the band took its name, you will be in familiar territory among these songs. The compilation winds up with a series of live recordings, including one of the highlights for me, ‘Point to Point’ – again, familiar to many a New Zealand music fan through its original appearance on the fantastic early Failsafe compilation, 1986s ‘Biding Our Time’.

Overall, this compilation provides an excellent document of a band whose music has slipped from public consciousness somewhat over the last 35 years, but whose songs are well worthy of both preservation and to be brought back to the forefront of the minds of lovers of New Zealand's post-punk music. While Failsafe are doing their thing, wouldn’t it be great if something similar could happen for Hamilton music? The seminal Orange Recordings 1989 cassette-only compilation Surf Music, for example, certainly forms a gaping hole in my Hamilton music collection; how great would it be if someone could delve into those music archives and release our music from that period digitally? In the meantime, I can’t wait to see what Falisafe brings us next!
 
The ‘This Sporting Life – Alms for Children’ compilation can be bought via their Bandcamp or from Failsafe Records, as a digital download or physical CD.
​- Ian Duggan

HUP caught up with James Harding of Rangiora rock n' rollers Best Bets ahead of their show at Nivara Lounge this coming Friday, July 20th, with The Situations and Elephant Facelift. Read on to find out more about the band's history, the burgeoning Christchurch scene and James' love of The Situations!

HUP: How did the band get together, where are you based, and what is the music scene like there at the moment? I'm digging Wurld Series a lot, and of course there's Salad Boys and T54...and the always-popular-in-Hamilton, The Bats!
James: Olly and I were in a band called The Transistors for about fifteen years. Our bass player and best mate Colin decided to hang up his bass a couple of years back and it seemed like a good time to wrap things up. Ol and I wanted to keep writing songs together so we started Best Bets and drafted in my brother Luke on bass and our friend Matt on guitar. We started jamming in late 2016 and it felt good right away. We are based in Otautahi, Christchurch. Although we all came from Rangiora, in North Canterbury originally. I guess there's a scene in the loose sense of the word. Aside from the bands you mentioned there’s also Nervous Jerk, The Ruling Elite, The Fluffies, Contact Rock, Motte, Pavlov’s Puss, Cowboy Machine, The Teasers, Ben Woods Group and PGX, to name some more. Joe from Salad Boys and T54 is actually filling in on bass for us on this tour.

Are any of you involved with Melted Ice Cream at all? It seems like a really great and supportive label. Yeah well speaking of Joe, he’s actually the founder of MIC, but it’s now being run by our mate Brian Feary (who plays in Wurld Series and about a million other bands). It’s a fantastic label, the last Transistors release came out on MIC and we’re stoked to be releasing the Best Bets EP on cassette through the label too. It’s really sounding like a scene actually now that I think about it.
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How do your songs come to be/who does what bits? Initially it was just me and Olly writing songs as a two-piece, that’s how three of the songs on the EP started out. As soon as we got Luke and Matt in the mix the songs became what you hear on the record. They added so many great ideas to the songs which really lifted them. Matt is an incredibly melodic player, those two are definitely the most musical in the band. Olly and write the basis of the lyrics, probably about 50/50 each.

You only released the Life Under The Big Top EP in February this year, but are there any more recording sessions in the pipeline? Yep, we’re just about to put out a new single online. It came out some recordings we did with Joe over the past couple of months. We’re in the very early stages of recording an album.
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​Any favourite songs to play live? We've been writing a lot of new songs and it’s always fun to try them out live. We’ve been doing a cover of a Flying Burrito Brothers song called Older Guys which is a gas. It’s kind of hard to pull it off and sometimes we don’t, so it’s a fun challenge.

Tell us about the show with The Situations, are you guys pals from way back? 
​We first met The Situations in January 2008 in a tiny spot in the Coromandel called Kuaotunu. We were both supporting a band called Pierced Arrows, which featured Fred and Toody Cole from Dead Moon (RIP Fred). There was a bit of sizing each other up at first but by the end of the night we were best mates. It’s been that way ever since. Countless tours and shows, they’re our brothers, some of the best people I know, and they’re legitimately my favourite band.

Have any of you had previous experiences of Hamilton music/shows/bands? Good or bad! Transistors played in Hamilton a few times, once really early on with The Mint Chicks at a place with a glass stage...I wanna say Yellow Submarine? We did a show there with Guitar Wolf at Static which was great, except that we broke the stage from jumping around too much. We also opened for a band called King Cannons at some massive sports bar. The less said about that one the better. Our mate John said it was “TEDIOUS”.

Haha! Ok we need some fun facts about the band...Who is the best cook in Best Bets? I actually don’t know who the best cook would be...I feel like it might be Matt, although I’ve never tried his cooking so I'm basing that more on the rest of the band's established mediocrity in the kitchen.

And the most sporty member? That would be Luke, but he’s overseas at the moment and his replacement Joe detests sports.

And who is the most likely to get arrested? Any of us could get arrested when The Situations are involved. ​

Catch Best Bets with The Situations and Elephant Facelift this coming Friday, July 20th at Nivara Lounge! HUP has a copy of The Situations ltd edition double A side 7" single 'Island Fever/You Are What You Are' to give away - to enter, just drop an email to us by 8pm Wednesday, at hamiltonundergroundpress@gmail.com, telling us about the best bet you ever made. It's a great record, have a listen here... 

I N T E R V I E W
The Return of Beat Rhythm Fashion
with Ian Duggan

​‘Beat Rhythm Fashion’ were active in the late ‘70s and early ‘80s, releasing three excellent singles in '81 and '82 before disbanding. Later, in 2007, ‘Bring Real Freedom’ was released – an album containing the singles, their b-sides, as well as a series of live recordings. In 2018 the band are back again, with a soon to be released album of new recordings. We talked to Nino Birch and Rob Mayes about Beat Rhythm Fashion being back together, albeit with members in different counties, and the new album.
 
HUP: Firstly, you have a new album due out soon. What is it called, and when is it set to be released?
Nino: The album is called ‘Tenterhook’ and we aim to release in the next couple of months…
 
HUP: What has been your motivation for recording again as Beat Rhythm Fashion?
Nino: I had intended to do this with [my brother] Dan, but sadly he ran out of resilience, so it was a natural development that took shape when I set up my home studio.  The other motivation of course is to speak to these challenging and interesting times and that is what this material does. Even though there are few of the early BRF songs reactivated, these songs have retained their relevance I feel. This re-emergence has been wholeheartedly encouraged and supported by Rob Mayes.
Rob: We talked about new material after the ‘Bring Real Freedom’ album landed in 2007, and the impact it had. People all over the world and people in New Zealand rediscovering and recognising the bands work. For me personally, I wanted that album to be the album the band would have made after the singles, with those fantastic live tracks fully realised, but of course we only had my live recordings to represent them. I always wanted to hear where the band would have gone next from that start point of majestic, beautiful, yet intelligently political and socio-political, songs. The band were peaceful anarchists at the time and they didn't sell songs about girlfriends, etc. The songs were always more poetic and deeper than that. This new album started out of some new songs Nino sent me. They had the same seeds as the BRF sound but with 30 years of travel in them. So as producer I tried to take Nino back to the leaving point of BRF, which was 1982-3, when they left for Australia and did different things. We picked a handful of songs from the live material that didn't get a proper studio outing and rebuilt them, then took them forward production-wise to what we can do now. Layered guitars and vocals. etc. The way we've done it has been very organic, in that we've let the songs grow naturally from the starting point of where BRF left off. It's like a time machine took the band forward to the present day and the music continued.
 
HUP: Nino, your brother Dan, who was the other central, constant figure in the band, died in 2011 (since the release of 2007s ‘Bring Real Freedom’). How has being without him affected what you are doing with Beat Rhythm Fashion now? Was it a difficult decision to record again under this name because of his passing?
Nino: This is Dan’s legacy. He is constantly in my thoughts throughout the creative process. I miss him each day. Dan and I remained extremely close ‘til he passed. His plan was to call our new band ‘Tenterhook’. I like the word and its meaning, in so far as the common consideration that our current global situation is well and truly on ‘tenterhooks’. I have done what I think he would have done had he been here and called the album ‘Tenterhook’.
 
HUP: The music you released in the early ‘80s had an atmospheric and somewhat haunting quality to it, particularly the magnificent singles ‘Turn of the Century’ and ‘Beings Rest Finally’.  Your sound has been likened to Gang of Four, Joy Division and early The Cure, among others, though these are comparisons that I personally don’t think describe your sound particularly well. Are the new recordings of older songs revisited, or new compositions altogether? And does the material sound similar in style to your ‘80s songs, or is this a departure from what we might expect?
Nino: So yes, we have revisited four old BRF tunes: Optimism, Hard as Hell, Freezing Mr Precedent and Property.  These have been fully rebuilt while by default BRF. You will hear a marked leap from the old tunes you can hear on the live disk, ‘Bring Real Freedom’. We have intentionally produced a ‘90s kinda sound here… [we] wanted plenty of edge and bite in beautiful clothes. The new material is all very BRF because it is me…. can’t do much else. [continued below]

A R T I C L E
​‘Lots and Lots of Hell’: A Q & A with Deathnir
By Ian Duggan
 
Deathnir are set to release their second album, Second Sin, on 25 May. We caught up with Andrew Carter (lead guitar, vocal) and Adam Johnson (bass) to talk about the upcoming release and video. 

HUP: It has been two and a half years since ‘Die By The Axe’. How has the band’s style or the sound on ‘Second Sin’ changed from that album?
Andrew: We have been working hard on writing songs for the last couple of years with the intent of making an album that was pure metal. No ballads. More speed. More attitude. The songs on ‘Die By The Axe’ are good in their own right, but we wanted to pursue more of a thrash sound for ‘Second Sin’. Our style has also changed a bit since Brad Ion (lead guitar) and Luke Elliot (drums) joined Deathnir. Brad’s playing style is quite different from my own and he has a very distinctive guitar tone. Luke’s drumming is also a bit different from our previous drummers’ styles and so he brings that extra diversity into the backbone of our songs. 
 
HUP: Since we last talked to you your friends in Alien Weaponry – who would commonly be seen wearing Deathnir t-shirts – have gone on to have some pretty big successes. Has their success altered your view of what you might achieve with Deathnir?
Andrew: Alien Weaponry are good friends of ours and it’s good to see them doing well taking NZ metal to the next level. I don’t think it has altered our view of what we will achieve “with Deathnir”. I have always believed that to succeed you need to work harder than everyone else around you and I think Alien Weaponry have achieved that. Right now Deathnir is working pretty damn hard too and we have big plans for the (not too distant) future.
 
Adam: It’s very encouraging and exciting to see what kind of progress can be made in a fairly short time when all the stars align. So while I wouldn’t say it “alters my view”, it is encouraging.
 
HUP: What are your plans for promoting this album? Have your ideas regarding how to promote an album changed since the last one?
Andrew: We want to get ‘Second Sin’ publicised really well. Right now our plans are still developing, but we have been doing pre-order sales which give fans the chance to get a $10 discount from the full price when the album is officially released on May 25th. After that the album will be released on iTunes, Spotify, Google Music, Pandora and all the other good digital stores. We are going to do promotion campaigns on social media websites and our own website (www.deathnir.org). We also intend to print loads of posters advertising the album and sticking them up wherever we can. On top of that we have several more music videos in the works, so fans can get a bit more engaged with the album, and finally we will do a tour which we are aiming for later in the year.
 
HUP: You are playing on the 25th at Nivara Lounge, the day the album is being released. Is this a release gig for the album?
Andrew: Not officially. The 25th is a continuation of the Garden Place show we performed at in March, for the bands that didn’t get to perform because of the thunderstorm that hit that day. However it is the first show we are playing that the album will be available at, and the last show where it will only be $10 to celebrate its release; so if anyone wants a copy for cheap then May the 25th is your chance to get it and also see it performed live. The album will be available on all good digital stores from that day and we will be planning a tour in support of it later this year. [continued below]

HUP: Tell us about your new video, ‘Bringer of Evil’.
Andrew: Our video for Bringer of Evil was produced by Saroj (Sarj) Gundiga and myself. It is the first video to be featured off this upcoming album and was a lot of fun to make. We wanted to do a video which had more cinematic stuff going on rather than a band playing and we went with the idea of an occult blood offering. Basically in the video there is a pentagram made out of candles with five cloaked men on each point of the pentagram. They pass around a sword and slice their palms, pouring their blood into a chalice, and when they have all done it ‘the appointed one’ drinks the blood and is possessed by a demon. Obviously this is a very dark theme, and we wanted that to be replicated in the shots, so we filmed it in a black room with only the candles lighting the room. I think maybe a couple of the shots were a little too dark, but all in all it came out pretty much how I envisioned it.
 
HUP: What are the lyrical themes of the new album?
Andrew: Hell. Lots and lots of Hell. One way or another, haha. We have a couple songs about war, a couple songs about the devil, we have a song about a crazy doctor abducting people and cutting them open while they watch. It’s a very dark album.
 
Adam: War, Death, Pain, Chinese food….. all the fun essentials.
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Formed in Hamilton in 1993, Disjecta Membra is commonly considered New Zealand’s premier goth band. Active in Hamilton until 1996, they moved to Wellington in 1997, and released their debut album ‘Achromaticia’ in that year. While Achromaticia has been out of print for many years, interest in the band, and the album, has grown. To meet demand, the band have recently released ‘Achromaticia: Twentieth Anniversary Edition’, which features three CDs.
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The first disc features the album, Achromaticia. From the opening (church) bell, this album is classic ‘90s Goth rock, much of which more than adequately stands the test of time. Highlights for me are the more upbeat songs; ‘Skin Trade’, in particular, sounds like it could have been pulled from the Headless Chickens debut Stunt Clown, while the cover of (Hamilton band) The Haunting’s song ‘Rats’ is also (still) superb. Other strong songs include ‘Cathedral (Deus ex Machina Mix)’ and ‘Danse Macabre’. It is difficult not to make comparisons with the sound of this album, from 20 years ago, with more recent releases. The production quality of the newer releases has of course advanced greatly, the band’s sound has diversified, and singer Michel’s voice has become stronger and deeper through time. But I think anyone buying this album will know what they are getting. Classic. ‘90s. Goth.  

A R T I C L E
Interview with Elephant Facelift
with Ian Duggan
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Elephant Facelift are a new band in Hamilton featuring a couple of familiar faces. We interviewed Sam Brockelsby and Albert Bannister about their sound, aspirations and potential family rivalries!

HUP: Albert has featured in a series of bands, including ‘Goth and the Pixie’, ‘Wink Wink Nudge Nudge’ and ‘Ancient Tapes’, while Sam fronted ‘Ancient Tapes’ through their existence. Does the sound of ‘Elephant Facelift’ feature commonalities with any of these bands, or are you something different again? (feel free to mention any influences here)
 
Albert: Every other band in I’ve been a supporting musician playing other people’s songs. For a while now I’ve been itching to write my own songs and sing in a band. We’re both using Elephant Facelift as a chance to mess around with song ideas that haven’t fitted the style of other projects. My main influences are largely grunge, post-punk, and prog (The Mars Volta, Radiohead, Nirvana, and local heroes Mermaidens). I don’t have great upper vocal range so my favourite vocalist is Johnny Cash.

Sam: No, it's quite different really, and for me that was kind of the whole point. After doing the shoegazing thing with Ancient Tapes, I was keen to try something else. I've always been into prog and space rock, and it has been really cool working those genres into the Elephant Facelift stuff. I'm also the only guitarist, and so my guitar playing has to do a lot more work than in previous bands. And best of all, I get to use my fuzz pedals as much as I want without infuriating the other guitar players.
 
HUP: How many gigs have you played so far?
 
Sam: Two since we formed in Feb.
 
HUP: At the Graeme Jefferies gig, you were higher on the bill than Albert's dad, Matthew Bannister. Did this lead to any family tension?
 
Albert: Haha no, my dad is not competitive so it was chill.
 
HUP: What are your aspirations for the band? I understand Albert is heading overseas soon; is this the end already?
 
Albert: I’m going to be back in July so it’s not permanent. We’re both just looking to play as much as we can while we’re both here. The duo format makes it really easy to practice and write new material.

Sam: I think we're both keen to keep playing once Albert is back - play more shows and maybe get an EP or something out there.
 
HUP: Who writes the songs?
 
Sam: Both of us.
 
HUP: What is behind your name, ‘Elephant Facelift’?
 
Albert: One day I was watching Planet Earth and started thinking about what would happen if you injected elephants with botox.

Visit the Elephant Facelift Facebook -> HERE <- 

​A R T I C L E
Enoch Interview
By Andrew Carter
 
I’m sitting down with three members of a Hamilton metal band called Enoch. Lorraine Brodie, John Brodie and Michael Germon rest patiently on a black leather couch. Michael is wearing a black leather jacket with dark blue jeans; John is repping a Metallica ‘Ride the Lightning’ shirt and black jeans, with his long hair draping over his face (full bogan); and Lorraine is dressed nicely with a long sleeved white top, black jeans and her hair tied back. I am in appropriate metal attire, full black, leather jacket and jeans, about to interview these three peculiar people. And here we go!
 
HUP: Tell me about the band’s history. Who are your members and how did you meet?
 
John: I met Lorraine years back.
 
Lorraine: In 2011, and we were in a different band at the time.
 
John: Yeah, we were in two different bands and we met through someone we knew and then I moved cities and joined Lorraine’s band (which dissolved), and then we started our own band which was Enoch.
 
Lorraine: Then we decided to move from Christchurch to Hamilton where we found Michael, and then we found Ross.
 
Michael: I got in contact with John and Lorraine through NZBands; they had an ad up, I applied, and it worked out. Then we jammed for a month or two, tried one other drummer and then got Ross in and that’s been the line-up ever since.
 
HUP: How do you describe your music? What is your genre and what are your favourite bands?
 
Lorraine: We’re probably like Alternative Metal and then have a kind of Nu Metal sound to some of our songs.
 
Michael: I feel like Alternative Metal is what you say when you don’t know what you’re called.
 
John: So we’ll say Alternative Metal, haha.
 
Michael: When I joined the band Enoch’s sound was very Korn and Sepultura influenced. I enjoyed more Metalcore bands like As I Lay Dying and August Burns Red. Stuff like that. Got into Trivium and Parkway Drive and now I’m into Arch Enemy and Black Dahlia Murder. Probably the closest bands to the genre I listen to would be Mudvayne and Slipknot.
 
John: My influences are Korn, Sepultura and Soulfly. Skindred as well, but also more mainstream metal bands. Pantera, Project 86 and P.O.D; stuff like that as well.
 
Lorraine: I grew up liking bands that had female voices, or female solo artists. I really like Tattoo and I quite like In This Moment, but I also listen to some really heavy stuff like Impending Doom and Living Sacrifice. So really a wide range of stuff.
 
HUP: Would you call yourselves a Hamilton band?
 
John: I was born in Timaru but I moved around a bit and would say Hamilton is definitely my home now.
 
Lorraine: I think the home of the band is between Hamilton and Auckland, ‘cos we’re half there, half here. I’m from South Africa but I consider New Zealand my home, because I moved [to New Zealand] when I was 13.
 
Michael: I was born in Auckland, lived in Australia for 4 years, and have spent 10 years in Hamilton. Hamilton is definitely home.
 
HUP: Who writes the songs? Is there one main writer or does the whole band write together?
 
Michael: When I joined the band there were four songs written already, so I had no input at all, but then John and I worked as a writing team. I think I have a big influence on the melody and harmony of the song and John has a big influence on the groove and the rhythm of it, so it’s kind of two sides of the same coin and it works really well.
 
Lorraine: Usually Michael and John will write something first and then Ross will come up with a cool drum rhythm for it, and then I write the vocals and lyrics at the very end, although we have some songs where the vocals were written first.
 
HUP: Tell me about the new single. What’s it called and how will it be released?
 
Lorraine: It’s called ‘Loner’ and it’s got a video that was done by Cloudfall Productions.
 
John: We’re releasing it on the 27th of April on Bandcamp, iTunes and Spotify, and we’ll be releasing a video on YouTube and Facebook. It’s the first single on our upcoming EP, which will be released around August some time. Mordecai Records recorded the song.

HUP: You guys performed at Festival One this year. Can you tell HUP about that experience?
 
Lorraine: Well first, when we arrived there, I couldn’t believe how well we were treated! They had cars for us and they packed all our gear and drove us around. There was this musician’s lounge that fed us for free. It was amazing.
 
John: It was pretty sick. We played with some really good bands; Vanguard, Chasing South and Lead Us Forth. It was really good. Really good crowd response and they want us back next year.
 
HUP: What’s your opinion of the New Zealand metal scene?
 
Michael: I actually think in general it’s really good. All the band’s we’ve played with are real supportive. What hate there is is just keyboard warriors. The people who are actually out there really doing things are united really. I think the only problem is people not coming to gigs, hahaha. But I think it’s growing.
 
Lorraine: I think for such a small place as New Zealand there is so much creativity in it. There are all sorts of genres. We are so blessed with so many different opportunities for events and gigs going on every single weekend that we’re spoiled for choice. It’s really good.
 
HUP: Your band has Christian members. Do you identify as a ‘Christian Metal’ band, and if so how do you feel in a secular scene?
 
Lorraine: I think we’re a metal band with Christian members in it, and because of our beliefs that will bleed through into our music that we put out. Though we have some Christian messages in our music the music is still for everyone. Mostly we play with non-Christian metal bands and we have lots of friends who aren’t Christians, and even Satanists, and we get along so well despite that. Initially, when we appeared on the scene, we had a bit of back-lash. But to be fair people didn’t know what to expect, and once they got to know us we became friends.
 
Michael: We’re a band with Christians in it but I wouldn’t label us a Christian band. We’re just a band that plays with other bands. There’s been a bit of back-lash about Christianity but I wouldn’t say there’s been any more than for being Nu Metal, or being female fronted, or just not being Death Metal. The things people normally hate on, people will hate on, but I think in general people respect us for what we believe.
 
HUP: If there was one thing you could tell the readers about being in a band what would it be?
 
Michael: You get out what you put in. There are lots of people who would love to be in a band but are you willing to put the time and money into it? Is it rewarding? Of course. But you get out what you put in.
 
Lorraine: Don’t be afraid to haul your gear through icy rain to get on a bus to get where you need to be, because we’ve all been there and you need to go through that stuff to get to the good parts and it’s so much more rewarding when you do.
 
John: If you wanna be in a band, be in a band, and put everything in it. And if you’re a bassist change your strings, haha.
 
Enoch’s single ‘Loner’ will be released on the 27th of April.
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