HUP caught up with one of Hamilton's most exciting bands, Landlords, ahead of their performance at The Third Annual HUP Xmas Party on Friday Dec 14th. We talked with Dylan Morgan (Drums) about how he and Andy (Guitar/Vox) and Paddy (Bass) came to form the band, their influences, and plans for the future. 

How did Landlords form?  I was playing drums in a local hardcore band a couple years ago and the guitarist, (Dustin), was really into New Order and similar new-wave style bands. We wanted to start something up so he asked Andy, and Andy asked Patrick. Dustin pissed off to Melbourne shortly after we began.

You guys are or were in other bands – tell us about them… Andy and Paddy were in local metal/hardcore band Dead Dreamers who were active 2012-2016, both are also ex-members of Hamilton/Melbourne hardcore band Hammertime. This past year I've played drums for a few heavier bands such as Two Heavens, Easy Off and Wakhan Corridor.
​

​How did the name Landlords come about? “Landlord” was taken.

When you set out, what were the main intentions, either in terms of what you wanted to sound like, or what you wanted to achieve with the band. Or both! We had a few reference bands that we were all listening to a lot of, particularly; Whirr, Nothing, My Bloody Valentine, Slowdive, Deafheaven. We were all on the same page in wanting to be on the heavier end of the shoegaze spectrum.

How does the songwriting process work in the band? Andy (the songwriter) says that's top secret information.

Do you have any recordings or releases planned? We're in the recording process and it won’t be long until we have a release.

You don’t have a Facebook or Bandcamp or any other online presence. Is that intentional? We're pretty slow at getting things done. It's pretty ridiculous. It’s a bit of an ongoing joke between us, though it's kind of worked out as it’s become a talking point at the shows we play. Maybe we never will...

Catch Landlords live at The Third Annual HUP Xmas Party takes place at Nivara Lounge this coming, Friday Dec 14th, and features five Hamilton bands - Orbjks, Broadcast State, Bitter Defeat, Cartoon Villain, and Landlords. Doors open at 7pm with the first band at 8pm. It's $15 on the door but if you're quick you can grab one of the limited $9 advance tix at undertheradar.co.nz

I N T E R V I E W 
No Comic-Book Superheroes: An Interview with Cartoon Villain  
with Ian Duggan

Coming up on 14 December, Hamilton Underground Press celebrates the end of the year with their ‘Third Annual HUP Xmas Party’. One of the five bands appearing on the night will two-piece ‘Cartoon Villain’, who had their debut track ‘Don't Blink’ make an appearance on the HUP/The Hum 106.7FM’s Top 10 this month! We talked to Wairehu Grant and Albert Bannister about the band; who are their influences, what are the advantages of being a duo, and which cartoon villain would each of them be?

HUP: For the uninitiated, what do Cartoon Villain sound like? Are there any bands you would compare your sound to, or that have influenced your sound?

Albert: We aim for a hybrid of prog, post-hardcore and stoner rock. We were heavily inspired by some of the recent grungey New Zealand bands like Earth Tongue and Mermaidens, and post-hardcore classics such as At The Drive In and Mars Volta.

Wai: We’ve definitely got a strong influence from other kiwi indie bands both past and present. Don’t tell anybody but I’ve been stealing pedalboard ideas from Gussie’s Instagram since we started. shhh! Writing-wise, I also take a lot of cues from acts like Melvins, IDLES and Jack White. Between the two of us there’s a lot of crossover in influences but the exciting stuff kind of comes from the occasional differences in our musical backgrounds.

HUP: If I am correct, your first gig was supporting The Changing Same only in September. You have already had a number of gigs since this time, with more planned. How long had you been together before that first performance, and has the band changed in direction, focus or sound since your debut?

Albert: We formed the band about a week before the first gig. Our sound is starting to smooth out. It’s just a matter of churning out a good volume of material and then figuring out which stuff works and which doesn’t.

Wai: What he said. We basically started the band as soon as I bought a pitch shifter pedal. We’d been seeing a lot of bands like Carb on Carb, Skinny Hobos and Earth Tongue doing the two-piece thing and we thought it could be worth a shot. We’ve played together for a few years in various other acts, so we have a good level of familiarity with each other’s styles.  

HUP: How did you come up with the name Cartoon Villain? And the obvious question, which cartoon villain would each of you be?

Albert: Wai looks kinda like a stereotype Anime villain. Being realistic, I’d probably be Prince Charming from Shrek.

Wai: Yeah, I can roll with generic Anime villain. Maybe James from Pokemon. The name Cartoon Villain was one I was using beforehand for a solo recording project I was working on. Given how fast our first few gigs came around we had to decide on a name quick-smart and this one just seemed to stick.

HUP: Being part a six-piece band, and finding it difficult to have everyone available for practices, let alone gigs, I can see the appeal of being in a two-piece. What advantages and disadvantages do you see in being a duo?

Albert: Pros: Churn out material quick. We’re both on the same page about what kind of music we want to be playing. Lots of bands we’ve been in have suffered from identity crises, where everyone was trying to pull the sound in different directions.

Cons: Hard to build depth and complexity into songs.

Wai: All of the above. There’s definitely a lot of things that make duo set ups logistically easier, but you really have to think outside the box to get enough development and variety in your songs with such a simple set up. But it does give me an excuse to shop around for weird effects pedals. Big plus.

HUP: I know you have already made your way into the studio and made some recordings (e.g., ‘Don't Blink’). What are your aspirations for this band?

Albert: We’re both gonna stick around for the next year or two and see where it takes us, gigging and recording as much as possible.

Wai: Definitely want to keep gigging fairly consistently and refining the set that we have. It’s exciting to think how much our sound could develop over the next year or so.  ​

The 3rd Annual Hamilton Underground Press Xmas Party is on Friday 14 December at Nivara Lounge. Included on the bill is a new band full of familiar faces, ‘Broadcast State’. HUP caught up with Scott Newth, Andrew Newth and Gareth Schott to find out a little about the new band; who is part of it, what do they sound like and, importantly, how many pedals do they have?
 
HUP: The name ‘Broadcast State’, like ‘System Corporation’ – which shares several members with this band – has something of a dystopian feel to it. What is behind the name?
 
Scott: I could tell you a story Ian.  About the name.  I could say it's a statement about the current battle between governments and privately-owned media companies.  I could say it's a throwback to cold war propaganda machines. I could say it's indeed dystopian, because it sometimes feels like we are living in the climate induced end times.  I could go on a big political rant about lizards from 1984 blowing up the twin towers to kill the illuminati, who live in a secret underground sea somewhere under eastern Europe.  But the reality is, I liked the word 'Broadcast'.  But that wasn't available as a band name, so we stuck 'State' on it, and Bob's your uncle.  But it does lend itself to some cool imagery, such as Gareth's poster, above. We actually wanted to be called something else – [I] can't say what. And we reserve the right to change our name without warning.  By the time you print this, we might be called something completely different.
 
Gareth: Forecast Sleet.
 
HUP: So who is in the band?
 
Scott: We are Gareth Schott (sink \ sink, Ancient Tapes), Kent Newth (Rumpus Room), Gavin McDermott (Sora Shima), Andrew Newth (Southern Tribe) and Scott Newth (System Corporation).
 
HUP: How is this band different or similar to your other projects, particularly Rumpus Room, sink \ sink, Love & Violence, Southern Tribe and System Corporation, of which members of Broadcast State have been central figures in?
 
Andrew: One of the coolest things about playing with other people for the first time is discovering your sound. There were ideas about the sound the band would take on before we started but the reality doesn't really match any of those. I guess you could say Broadcast State sounds like an amalgamation of those bands we've come from but it's very much its own monster.
 
Gareth: We are still early days, but many of the associated bands mentioned are ongoing, so there is no reason for doing Rumpus Room .2, as that project still exists. I think we will attract those comparisons due to the members of Broadcast State, but I hear Scott playing bass much differently in response to Gavin’s drumming. I am playing differently to the way I did in Ancient Tapes (although the Ebow does come out for one song). I think maybe I disrupt the amazing interplay you see between Andrew and Kent in Rumpus Room, which then leads to different things. Kent has an amazing ability to just land in the song and give it its spine, so that if he’s not there for some reason the song loses something vital and we struggle to play it. Lots of pedals but people know what to do with them, and when to use them. We work really well together, complementary both in style and tone. For me there is a hint of new wave and post punk to what we have so far, but who knows where it is going?
 
Scott: I don't think we set out to sound like anything in particular.  We wanted to just play the type of music we like, and I assume everyone bought that idea along in their own minds, and then had to adapt that to what came out of it.  Of course, there are elements of all our other bands (…maybe not Southern Tribe so much), but that's to be expected I guess.
 
HUP: Who is playing what? Who is singing? And who is writing the songs?
 
Andrew: Scott is on vocals 100% of the time and bass 95% of the time. We have three guitarists, Andrew, Gareth and Kent. Andrew has picked up the bass for one song so far, which is a first, and we have Gavin on drums. Needless to say, it can be a big sound at times. Song writing is very much a collaborative thing in this band. Most songs have fallen out of jamming together. We have tons of ideas that need to be formed into songs all from recorded jams that we are working through together. Sometimes someone will come to practice with a song idea but we all treat it as a collaboration.  We're not interested in getting hung up on who did what and when, that just gets complicated and boring.
 
Scott: In the future I think we will be working on songs people bring to the band and those might be a little more sophisticated than the raw adaptations of jams we have turned into songs so far.
 
HUP: How many pedals will you have between Gareth, Andrew and Kent?
 
Scott: I'm not sure how many pedals there are. But even I have two if you count my tuner. 
 
Gareth: I count 30.

Those with a penchant for experimental sound and vision are in for a treat this coming Thursday, November the 8th as The Meteor plays host to Floris Vanhoof, a Belgian filmmaker, musician, instrument builder, performer and visual artist based in Antwerp. A multidisciplinary artist working with hybrid forms of music, photography, and film, he builds audiovisual installations, creates expanded cinema performances, and releases his own music. In this performance he will use a brainwave-controlled film projector and homemade musical circuits to create a mind-blowing hypersensory experience of flickering colour and synthetic sound.
 
Joining Floris will be Kraus, a key figure in contemporary New Zealand underground music. His singular and eclectic work encompasses a wide range of influences, from Golden Age electronics and psychedelic rock to Eastern folk Floris Vanhoof and pre-modern Western musics. Since 2002 he has released 15 albums, and presented his powerful and endlessly evolving live performances throughout New Zealand, Australia and Europe.
 
HUP caught up with the pair to discover a little more about what lies in store for the shows, and how the tour came about.

HUP: How did the show come to be? 
Kraus: In 2015 and 2017 I toured with Floris in Europe. His live performances are so mind-blowing that I really wanted to bring him to New Zealand! But Floris and I were in touch through mutual friends for about ten years.  We both built our own synthesizers, which are of similar design - they are Serge machines, which is a very strange and wonderful kind of modular synth from the 70s. I believe the sound potential of these instruments is infinite, and even though the technology is considered obsolete, there are many unknown worlds still to explore with them.

Are you touring Aotearoa or is this a one off show?
Kraus: Yup this is a full NZ tour (see details at the end of this article), Floris has come such a long way so we wanted to do as much as possible. We have shows in Auckland, New Plymouth, Palmerston Nth, Wellington, Christchurch, Oamaru and Dunedin. Floris also has two sound works at Audio Foundation opening on Weds 7th Nov. They are "Talking Gongs", which has two gongs with speaker drivers attached, so they act as speakers playing electronic music, but they colour the sound with their own resonance. The other work "The Fluid Computer" uses a Leslie speaker to spin computer code sound around a room. There are also sculptures made of peas and toothpicks and slide projection.

What kind of stuff can we expect at the show? 
Floris: I present a brainwave controlled 16mm film projector: an EEG sensor on my head captures the electromagnetic currents inside my brain. These tiny electronic voltages control the speed of the 16mm film projector. The projector goes faster when I'm focused and slows down when my concentration level drops.
Kraus: Floris's film work is intense and mesmerising, you feel like you are falling into the screen. I will do a performance with my synth, which will sound like: if you described techno music to an intelligent ape, and then gave them a futuristic digital-analogue hybrid synth to play with, and said go for it.

What would you consider the perfect outcome for the show?
Floris: Bring your friends.
Kraus: Yeah I just really want cool people in Hamilton to see Floris because his work is amazing and hypnotic and joyful!

Floris, have you visited NZ before to play shows? 
Floris: Only in my imagination. But after the Nowhere Festival at Audio Foundation we had time for a few amazing trips in Auckland and around.

Kraus, what else have you got going on at the moment, any more Pouffe shows/releases on the horizon? 
Kraus: More Pouffe yes! Me and Matt are recording over Christmas when he comes to Auckland. We only ever seem to record around Christmas time. Maybe we will do another Christmas song.
​

​Those not able to get to The Meteor this coming Thursday, 8th November, can catch Floris and Kraus performing at the following whare around Aotearoa...

Wednesday 7th November - Auckland, Audio Foundation w/ Kraus
Friday 9th November - Palmerston North, Snails w/ Kraus and Oona Verse
Saturday 10th November - Wellington, Pyramid Club w/ Kraus and Oona Verse
Thursday 15th November - Christchurch, Space Academy w/ Kraus
Friday 16th November - Dunedin, New Athenaeum Theatre w/ Kraus
Saturday 17th November - Oamaru house show

​I N T E R V I E W
If it Ain’t Broken: An Interview with Martin Phillips of REPAIRS
with Ian Duggan

​​Auckland band ‘REPAIRS’ are returning to Hamilton in mid-November, playing with Landlords and Cartoon Villain at Nivara Lounge! We had a talk to guitarist/vocalist Martin Phillips about what happened to his other band, ‘God Bows To Math’, where REPAIRS are at with the recording of their debut album, and whether sharing a name with a New Zealand music icon has led to any cases of mistaken identity!

HUP: How would you describe the band’s sound to the uninitiated?

Martin: This is something that I've struggled to define myself. We've spent the last year or so learning and figuring out what our sound is but I'm still not confident that I can really put my finger on it. Our music is energetic and emotional and loud and comes from a place of love. It's something we do for fun and to spend time together. It's also very cathartic. 
 
HUP: Martin, you were formally the front-person for ‘God Bows To Math’. How did that band cease to be?

Martin: We're technically still a band! We're just separated by about as great a distance as it's possible to be. Tom moved over to Edinburgh in 2016 and him and his wonderful family are settled there now. Me and Sam are still kicking around Auckland — Sam plays in an amazing band called How Get — and we've flirted with trying to write some new songs. One day, when everyone's schedules line up, we'll definitely play some shows again!
 
HUP: REPAIRS released their debut EP in January 2018, and I understand you are currently recording an album? When will that be out, and should we expect any change in direction from the ‘Repairs! The Band!’ EP released earlier this year?

Martin: We've been trying to record something for a while now but it's been a pretty slow process. There's been a lot of learning, how we react in the studio and working through songs. We ended up recording the EP completely live in the practice room so we could have some recordings out, and since then we've been figuring out what the next steps are. We've actually just been down to a friend's place in Tauranga and managed to record the bulk of an album. If everything goes well it should be finished early next year and then we just need to figure out the release stuff. Ideally it will see the light of day late next year (looking at August/September) once all our schedules line up and we can do some shows around the country. We're hopefully releasing a split 7" with a band called FADOHT earlier in the year on acetate as well.
​
There'll be a bit of a change in direction from the EP - we've refined a couple of the tracks from that release, and written a lot of new songs since then. Once we started playing a lot more shows it really helped clarify what our strengths are as a band and what sort of music we want to be playing and releasing. Plus we've all become IDLES super-fans, so expect a decent amount of influence from that! In general the album is looking a bit noisier and heavier than the EP but with some poppier elements thrown in as well. 
​

HUP: We interviewed Martin Phillipps of The Chills a few weeks ago. Has sharing a name (albeit with a slightly different spelling) with a New Zealand icon affected your path in music, and has it led to any cases of mistaken identity?

Martin: I love this question! I don't think anyone has legitimately confused us but it certainly hasn't hurt my chances of booking venues! Most of the time it's an easy way to break the ice with people and it helps to identify people with shared musical taste (it can lead to some great conversations in random places like taxis or workplaces). I have a good friend in Dunedin who used to live next door to Martin and always wanted to try and introduce us. I love The Chills and would still really like to meet him someday.
 
HUP: What part, if any, does being part of a married couple in the band (bass player Nicola and Martin) play in how you write music (in terms of subject matter and or how you sound)?

Martin: Haha, unfortunately the answer to this is pretty boring. The only difference that being married makes is that Nic was already aware of how my brain works prior to joining the band, so came into it fully aware of how I can be sometimes. With REPAIRS there's a good dynamic between the three of us and it's definitely its own unique relationship. Usually it's more likely that Nic and [drummer] James will be in agreement if there's something that divides us; a combination of my sometimes crazy ideas and the bond that all rhythm sections generally share. We don't have any set approach to how we write music, but it's pretty collaborative. All three of us have written songs that'll likely appear on the album and we share lyric writing duties as well. It helps that James is a talented guitarist and Nic is learning to play drums - I'm the only one confined to a single instrument).
 
HUP: Your first gig was only in August 2017. How have you managed to gain such a good following in such a short time?

Martin: We're still a very young band and still figuring out our way in the world. We haven't really built up a following as such yet but we've certainly been blessed with some amazing friends and an incredible local music community that have supported us. Before our first show it'd been a while since I'd last played and it's been amazing to get to be back playing gigs again, seeing old friends and making new connections. Music is an incredible tool for building community and I feel very privileged to be able to play in a band in NZ right now. 
 
HUP: Do you have aspirations for REPAIRS?

Martin: I have many aspirations that range from the absolutely unrealistic to more pragmatic ones. At the core though we want to be able to keep making music together and keep enjoying it. The best part of being in a band is the connections with other people. As long as I'm able to make those connections and share a passion for music then I'll be more than happy. 
 
HUP: When and where are you playing in Hamilton?

Martin: We're playing on Thursday 15th November — it's the first show of our tour! — at Nivara Lounge. Landlords and Cartoon Villain are also playing, and both of those bands are amazing!

Failsafe Records was founded in Christchurch by Rob Mayes in 1983/1984. From the label's beginnings, recordings were made that captured songs from the Christchurch scene, by bands that Mayes was seeing at local venues. Failsafe provided many bands with a means to have their songs recorded and distributed, which might otherwise have never been documented at all. Further, through album and compilation releases, these bands were introduced to a broader listenership than they might otherwise have attained, and some went on to bigger things. Take ‘The Bats’, for example, who contributed the song ‘Get Fat’ to Failsafe’s ‘Accident Compilation’ (1984), prior to their debut Flying Nun release.

Mayes has some highly ambitious plans for Failsafe Records, with the intended release of 25 albums over the next 12 months. We talked to Rob about this goal; how is he going to carry it out, all while based in faraway Japan?

HUP: Rob, you have stated that you have 25 albums scheduled for release over the next year on Failsafe Records. By my calculations there have been a little over 75 items released on the label since 1984, so you are planning on increasing the labels catalogue by about 25% in a very short period of time! How are you possibly going to manage to release all these items? And what are some of the releases we should be looking forward to?

Rob: It’s an increase by 33% to be exact. I’ve done 76 releases, or 79 if you count the re-releases of the three ‘80s compilations, so 25 is roughly one-third again. How am I going to manage it? I may not manage it all, but that’s the goal I’ve set myself and I’ll give it my best shot. And it’s even grown a little bit more as I uncover material I didn’t know about. There’s a Mainly Spaniards album just added to the pile because I found a full live recording to multitrack that I hadn’t heard before, plus an unreleased studio single, and they’re quite a notable band that deserves more than a one hit wonder entry in the history of New Zealand music [The 1982 ‘That's What Friends Are For’ 7” on Flying Nun].

The list aims to tie up the loose ends of the label with remastered versions of material that hasn’t had that treatment, so there’s a couple that I’ve already slipped out with the Perfect Gargen EP, and the really successful This Sporting Life album, plus coming up:

• Malchicks – ‘Everything’ is a collected works and rarities collection that really sounds fantastic with some proper 2018 mastering technology applied, and their shoegazer sonic dream-pop sound sounds pretty vibrant in the present climate. I’ve also dug up some early recordings that no-one’s heard, so that’s quite exciting.
• The Lils – 'Lodestone' (Expanded) collection also polished up remarkably well and is really punchy. I’ve got three unreleased songs for that collection too, so it’s always good to add more to the picture.
• The Holy Toledos – 'Forget and Forgive' (Expanded) is a The Byrds influenced chiming pop album that got overshadowed by their acquisition by Sony Records, where they got over polished. Again, nice to get the full mastering on it. And there is the two EP B sides and an unreleased single, ‘These Last Days’, plus a really nice remix of ‘We Just Talked About The Weather’, and about seven unreleased live tracks. So that’s going to be a good collection to deliver too.
• The Newtones - 'New Way' collection is a big one. They were an important Christchurch band, and they released two singles independently. So once they sold out, and the band disbanded, there was no one to champion them and their legacy. So they kind of relinquished to a distant memory. They were the impetus for me starting my label because I saw them play a fantastic track called ‘Four Ships’, and I popped down to the local record store to buy it only to find it wasn’t recorded or released. The band disbanded a few months later and that song was lost forever. Until now. When guitarist-singer Tony Peake died in 2010 I was sent his collection of Newtones recordings, and there were a bunch of good live recordings that yielded some really nice versions of unreleased songs, including the ‘Four Ships’ track. So that’s going to be really nice to deliver. There’s also a small book with it containing essays by a few people on the Christchurch alternative music scene and what it was like to live and breath music as we did.
• Throw – 'Re Rememory' is a remaster collection of the band’s ‘Rememory’ album from 1995, which hasn’t been remastered before, and the 2005 ‘Dreambaby Goodbye’ collection. It was really early dreampop and the band made a good dent on student radio in the early ‘90s.
• Springloader was my post-Throw shoegazer band. We didn’t manage to officially release much at the time of our existence in 2004, but we did manage to do some really good studio recordings, and there’s a great 14 song album plus some unreleased demos for this collection, which sounds pretty relevant with the new shoegazer resurgence.
• 147Swordfish – 'Into Silence'. Also from the ‘90s, a collection of one of my favorite bands at the time who were a standout of the [1993] ‘Avalanche’ and [1994] ‘Good Things’ collections. They had aspects of shoegazer and alternative, with a really great melodic hook tinge on some songs, and that raw sonicness on others. The collection has 17 tracks by the band, including remasters of their four released tracks, plus three more unreleased tracks from the ‘Avalanche’/’Good Things’ sessions, some more studio recordings from an unreleased second session of recordings, and then I had two DAT live recordings of the band on fire, so it’s a pretty exciting collection.

There’s a few more albums in the queue, including the last album in the Pop Mechanix collection, unreleased studio material from post-punk band YFC (two basses, drums and a microphone), Auckland post-punk band Corners, who were very Gang of Four and angular before going on to pop success with a very different sound a few years later as ‘Peking Man’, The Beat Rhythm Fashion 'Rarities' collection of early ‘80s material, and then some new albums from Kimo [JPS Experience’s Dave Mulcahy], the melodic contemplative mood collaboration project Songs in the Key, the new Beat Rhythm Fashion 'Tenterhook' album, etc etc… [continued below]

​The reason for why ‘this much’ now is that I decided a little while back to ‘finish up’ my self-appointed task of writing more detail into the Christchurch perspective New Zealand music history book, as represented by releases. There are other things I’m wanting to focus on and I need to close part of this chapter off to move forward on those other things. To be honest, I haven’t been quite sure what my goal was with part of what the label has been doing, and I’ve only just recently got a handle on it, and as outlined above put in a plan to complete it.
 
I’ve felt all along that there was a hole in the local culture scene that I was experiencing growing up in Christchurch, and the picture we were being presented with as a record of our culture. I didn’t understand exactly what bugged me about that until recently, and I now think it has a lot to do with representing community at all levels, even the micro level, or a pub or club, and what happened there for the 100 to 500 people that made it their own. In the rush for globalisation, chart success, and national tours, what was getting left out of the picture was what was happening directly around us as individuals in our community, i.e., my experience. We weren’t being given access to our personal experience of music; the bands we saw around us at the local in the weekend. So my nagging question was, “why someone else’s music and not ‘ours’? And I tried to do something about that for me, or ‘us’.

I’ve tried to focus my aim a bit instead of going for the completely unachievable “colour in all alternative New Zealand bands into a world stage”, to painting in the holes in the local community I grew up and was formed in. And that comes down to the much more achievable 25 albums, released for people that were there, and anyone else that cares to seek them out. Still an unachievable goal, but at least one that doesn’t require me to promote each album and secure distribution for obscure material in small town petrol stations.

I’ll do that for a select few releases, like the new ‘Beat Rhythm Fashion’ album, which is really a part of something different. But it’s out of proportion for an obscure historical release, as the people who are interested in those ones need to be doing the leg work to find them.

HUP: When you say, “finish up”, are you saying that's the end of Failsafe? Or just the end of the retrospectives?

Rob: That's the completion of my involvement in archiving the music history stuff, yes. I'll be doing new material still, but I’m unlikely to be doing any more archival releases. And with the list above, I’m hoping people will feel I’ve given the scenes a really comprehensive going over. 

For the future I'm not entirely sure what I'm doing with music. It is still really important to me. I have a band in Tokyo called ‘At Skylines’, playing instrumental post-rock dream-pop shoegazer stuff, and that’s really rewarding and exciting. We surprise ourselves and make music I’d want to listen to. I still love the music I've been involved in, but I've got to move forward too. Wherever that may be. I will be keeping the full catalogue active; it's not the death of Failsafe, but I will be focusing my efforts on the future after this 25 push. [continued below]

​HUP: Are you still going to be releasing the music on CD, or will you be reverting exclusively to digital? Most of the bands, or artists in the bands releasing material on the label, were well known from the age of the CD, which some argue has now passed; I assume there is a demand from the fans of these artists to have the music released on this format also? 

Rob: Failsafe Records was actually from the age of the cassette, and the reason for that was because it was accessible and feasible for me to operate a boutique cottage industry label in that way on that format. It’s not because I didn’t want to make big glossy vinyl albums at the time; it’s because if I had gone that route I would have sunk the label, and my resources as an individual, in one or two releases. I’ve managed to keep the label happening by adapting to the media formats that allow me to do runs that match the reality of presenting truly independent alternative artists, keeping the music as the primary goal. I’ve never participated in the whole chart thing. I’m a complete failure at hyping artists to shift units. Once the album is complete and I’ve presented it to the public as best an individual can, I leave it at that and expect some level of effort from the listener to seek out and support the work. I know that’s not how the rest of the music ‘industry’ works, but it’s the only viable route for me. Otherwise I’m playing into the music merchant thing, and I’m not that. I’m not quite sure what I am, but it’s not a shop-keeper trying to move stock.

The CDs thing came along in the ‘90s through a deal I did with Shock Records, and a guy there Jason Reynolds who was very supportive. He covered the costs of manufacturing those early ‘90s discs in exchange for a chunk of the discs for the Australian market. So, no upfront manufacturing costs for me, but professional discs for the label releases. It worked well until he left to go on to bigger things in the U.S., and Shock slapped a huge manufacturing bill on me for the last four discs. I managed to wriggle out of that and that was the end of the CD releases ‘til the early 2000s, when CDR became a thing. I did a large part of the 2005 Retrogenic 30 abums in 30 days exponge on CDR, purely because that was the reality of what the releases could support.

Toward the end of the 2000s we got some funding support from Creative Communities to cover pressing costs, and I did a handful of releases (Pop Mechanix, Beat Rhythm Fashion, How To Kill, etc) on proper pressed CDs, but still with hand assembled covers. It was great to have that level of quality and production. Not that the CDRs were lacking in swish design and packaging, but you know, more permanent pressings, etc.
​
With this next batch the accepted delivery media thing is cause for concern. Some of the remaining shops in New Zealand are less than enthusiastic about CD, and to be honest, even I don’t have a working CD player. But I do buy music on CD to have a physical representation of the item. To make it mean something, and that’s really the consideration for me. I want to recreate the feeling of meaning to the music Failsafe presents, and if the customer isn’t into that, then they’re not a match for what I’m delivering. There has to be some level of commitment from them to the music and I’m finding a healthy core of people worldwide who support and appreciate that. 

So, for these some will still be released in hard copy format, but most will be digital with extensive liner notes. Part of the reason for that is a few of these releases are expanded editions of the compilations, and will amount to multi-disc collections; some of them ten or more CDs full of content, just to get the material from my archive to the public sphere. I’m doing that because I’m thinking I can’t be the only one who sits at home remembering the great local artists, scenes, venues and gigs I’ve experienced, and want to refresh my memory. Through hard work and good fortune, we have recordings of a lot of great material that could just as easily have been lost to the void. That’s part and parcel of small-town New Zealand, and a history of indifference from broadcasters that it wasn’t viable for this stuff to be recorded properly in the first place, let alone produced and presented to the public, apart from in a live form. It’s easy to not understand the effort and resources that it took, and still does take, to get something out there for people to hear. I totally understand why these bands didn’t make it to finished vinyl in the day, and I’m glad that I can use my skills to present them now, for what it’s worth. [continued below] ​

HUP: I have a couple of compilations released on Failsafe in my collection; the fantastic 'Biding our Time' from 1986 and 'Good Things' from 1994. These followed on from 1984's 'Accident Compilation', and along with a number of others you released, these have been described as 'scene defining compilations'. What compilations among these retrospective releases?

Rob: Part of the final push is to expand these collections to include everything I can find that is relevant to those scenes. I’m using these as a coat hanger to really flesh out the different time peroids and scenes they relate to. I’m still working out how I’m going to handle this, but I’d like to do them in a couple of different versions; the ‘Original Release’, remastered and expanded, with one song from as many bands from the scene as I can find (we were originally limited by the length of a cassette or CD, but with digital releases it can be as long as you want, so I want them to be comprehensive overviews); then, ‘Expanded’, squeezing in as many recordings as I can find from the bands on the collection that have fallen out of ‘print’, or unreleased tracks, etc; and finally, a ‘Deluxe’ bonus set that has live recordings from the period, hopefully full live concerts from some of these bands to really get a feel for the time and the scene, for the inbetween songs banter and live vibe. So, we've got:

• Accident Compilation - 1980-84; the Christchurch Gladstone, Star and Garter/Hillsborough alternative scene. I've got three expanded versions of this planned; 1) the original release in digital download form. It's only ever been available on cassette and double CD before; 2) ‘Accident Compilation – Expanded’ will have extra songs from artists that were part of that scene, but which didn't fit on the 90 minute format of the original cassette release; 3) ‘Accident Compilation – Deluxe’, with additional tracks per band. This was to address studio outtakes and singles and EP b-sides on indie releases that are never going to see the light of day by themselves, and; 4) ‘Accident Compilation - In Concert’, concert recordings from the scene. 
• Biding Our Time - 1984-86; where Christchurch was seeing a lot of Dunedin (Chills, Stones), Auckland (Childrens Hour, Bird Nest Roys) and Wellington (Spines) bands through. I’ve already got some fantastic material with seven unreleased Bird Nest Roys songs, and Martin Phillipps is looking into getting clearance for some more Chills tracks from the same on-fire concert that the I took “I’ll Only See You Alone Again” from. So again, that’s going to be a really interesting and exciting collection, including, 1) the original release in digital download form. This includes two songs left off the original CD release, but present on the cassette; 2) ‘Deluxe’ (as above), and; 3) ‘In Concert’.
• South - 1987-88. I’ve got a lot of studio recordings where only one song saw the light of day. So I’m going to get to expand the picture hugely and give a bigger view of what was happening, and a more fitting representation and remembering for those bands; ‘Original’, ‘Deluxe’ and ‘In Concert’.
• Avalanche (1993) has never been remastered and there’s some unreleased tracks to go with that, so ‘expanded’ with outtakes and remastered versions of this album.
• Good Things (1994); Expanded with outtakes, and remastered.
• Keeping Secrets (2005); Digital download version.

So, yeah, quite a lot of material for people to choose from! Historically, it’s going to really offer a different, more diverse, view of alternative music in New Zealand, and specifically the scenes in Christchurch beyond the pretty narrow picture we have now. I’m hoping it will again show how vibrant each time period scene was, and give a real feel for those times.

There will probably be some overview compilations. Maybe my label overview picks or something.

HUP: There is still some fantastic music coming out of Christchurch, such as what is being released currently on the 'Melted Ice Cream' label. Have you kept up with what is happening in the music scene in Christchurch?

Rob: I do see some of those releases, and I know Brian Feary who runs it. Christchurch music is in good hands. It's been very difficult for the city. It was battling the downgrading of live music over the decades, as most scenes were, moving it into smaller and smaller venues, but it had settled nicely with the Dux, Wunderbar, Al’s Bar, and then the earthquakes happened and pummelled it into the ground. The weeks, months, and years where the community had to scramble for a place to be. I was still returning regularly at this stage, but you could feel the pain the scene and the city suffered. It was and is heart-breaking. For me, it kind of ended what I was following. There still were some great bands doing things there, but it was hard to follow it, and I was getting more and more disconnected from it. It became so underground you really had to be there, but I'm glad there are people like Melted Ice Cream to nurture it. Music is local, music is culture, music is community. ​[continued below]

HUP: You have lived in Japan for a number of years now. With the bands on the label being from New Zealand, and New Zealand being the primary target market, how difficult is it running the label being now based in Japan?

Rob: A little bit difficult in that there isn’t enough income generated to pay anyone anything to do the manual labour of keeping it all running. It’s okay to be generous with your own time, but it’s more difficult to be generous with someone else’s, especially when they don’t have your obsession with it all. I’ve been lucky enough to have had a very supportive family; mainly my mother, who held the fort for the first few years of me being in Tokyo doing mail order for me. I’d just Skype her the orders, and she’d package up the CDs and mail them out for me. Then good pal Dave Mulcahy has been looking after it for the last couple of years. It’s pretty low-key stuff though. Just music enthusiasts who have been looking up bands and scenes they used to be part of, or heard about, and finding there are albums documenting this stuff, and then overseas scene enthusiasts googling New Zealand shoegazer, or post-punk, or following leads from videos they’ve seen or tracks they’ve heard. It’s pretty inspiring to be contacted by these people with a passion for this kind of music and getting it out to them. They’re not casual listeners; they’re passionate music fans with a purpose. Exactly the people I want to be making albums for.
 
HUP: Do you enjoy Japanese bands? Has there been any temptation of diversifying the label and market to accommodate your current life?

Rob: There are a couple of bands I like; ‘Coaltar of the Deepers’ and ‘Miaou’ come to mind. But I’ve come to the conclusion that for me, music is cultural and community based. I’d have to be more part of the scene here to get passionate about the vibrant pool of bands making great music here. I’m sure it happens everywhere on a local level. Local bands speaking to locals with local knowledge and insight. Music is communication, be it with words or with an emotive melody.

I don’t really have any interest in doing Japanese releases. They have their own networks and historical connections to service them. And I haven’t been making and releasing albums because I like the music industry exactly, and there is a massive vibrant local music industry catering to the local market. I attended a music marketing seminar a couple of years back and they said 74% of Japanese music is Japanese language, i.e., locally produced music targeted and limited specifically to Japanese speakers. So that’s the local share of the music market right there. 74%, compared to New Zealand’s struggling numbers.
 
HUP: How did you come to be based in Japan?

Rob: My partner is Japanese, and we spent some time in Europe and New Zealand, and then we decided to go to her home country and try there. It’s vibrant and I’ve had the opportunity to work in film audio here, at a level I don’t think I could have stumbled into in New Zealand. I really like the world perspective I get from living here, and it’s been good for me to grow as a person and drop some of my bad New Zealand habits. I try not to wear the same black trousers for a month, tame the swearing and sarcasm. That sort of thing.
 
HUP: What sort of arrangement does Failsafe come to with the bands releasing their music on the label?

Rob: An entirely fan and friend based one, and a partnership in the art of music for musics sake. Every artist I release is on the same wavelength of doing music for expression, communication. Not one of them is in it for the fame and money, ‘cos there’s no real path to that through a boutique record label from Christchurch.

There are the history archival releases, which are coming from a respect based angle, with me wanting to do something for them to put their music somewhere people can get it.

It’s a complex balance ‘cos you really want to see this music get recognition on one level, but then you’ve got to keep the process financed and moving, so you have to sell the results in order to fund the next ones. It’s very hand-to-mouth, and you want modern day listeners to respect the music you’re offering them. So it has to be done to the highest level it can be; throwing all the modern technology at it to restore and master it, and that stuff is expensive and time consuming to operate (but much better than it would have been 20 years ago). For me, there’s no short cuts and no team of experts and project budget. It’s just what I can do in my spare time while not running on the hamster wheel to pay the rent and feed my family.

It’s a partnership with the bands in many ways, and they’ve got to get something out of it too. And that’s often been rediscovering their own music and the bond of their band-mates, and to have a collected object of their creative talents.

Then there are the passion projects I do that pull me into the process. Like the ‘Beat Rhythm Fashion’ stuff. Initially it was a love and respect for their music. Then with this new album, it’s become a partnership where I’ve produced the album and worked closely with Nino [Birch] and Caroline [Easther], and then I took on bass duties and contributed to the new material. It was a real journey and I love how it went; a mental and emotional exercise from my side to steer it in the direction of ‘what BRF would do’ if they time jumped directly to the present.

Then there is my own music projects. I’ve been releasing my own music on my label since right from the start. It’s been really successful in terms of the label; some of the biggest sellers. And I’m really pleased with much of the music I’ve produced, so that's a win for me on a personal level and for the people who enjoy the music I’ve made with my band-mates (Dolphin, Throw, Springloader, Kimo, Songs in the Key). There’s a lot to be said for if you want something done right, then you need to do it yourself. There’s also something to be said for networking and expanding your field of contact beyond your own circle. I haven’t really been great at the second thing, as I’ve been too busy just doing stuff and hoping people notice. But for my next ventures I’m going to trying to collaborate more with others. [continued below]

​Lastly, there’s the desire to see things through. To keep the projects I’ve worked on in the public sphere and available for those that want to discover them. 

So that’s the remastered and expanding releases that have been on the label. Applying my current expertise to things like the Malchicks catalogue; polishing that up and making it sound like what we were thinking back when we did it but didn’t have the recording expertise to achieve the results. The Malchicks project is a great example of bringing these things home. Firstly, it doesn’t feel like 20 years has passed, and secondly, passing this stuff through modern mastering technology really makes them sound contemporary and next level. It’s been great being part of the conversations with the bands as they talk about what they want to say in liner notes, art work, sound, track order, etc. Hearing what they’re up to. We’ve dug up early demos and master reels. It’s great to be able to paint some shade and colour around the existing stories.

I’ve done the same for the Lils, Holy Toledos, and I am hoping to for a bunch of other important Christchurch and New Zealand artists. Open the archives and let it flow. 147Swordfish, LUC, Throw, Springloader, Dolphin, Kimo, Songs in the Key, Newtones, Corners, massive compilations, etc. What month is it? I’d better hurry up.

​Visit :

• the Failsafe Records website here: ​www.failsaferecords.com/ 
  
• Failsafe Records on BandCamp here: failsaferecords.bandcamp.com/
  
• Failsafe Records on Facebook here: www.facebook.com/FailsafeRecords/

I N T E R V I E W
An Interview with Chris Thompson and Donald McLeod about the release of 'Drunken Nights in Dublin'
with Ian Duggan 

Former Hamilton folk and blues singer-songwriter Chris Thompson recorded an album while in the British Isles in 1974, as a follow-up to his self-titled debut. The master tapes were transferred to acetate by Apple Corps in London and then... it was never released. Until now. Why was it never released? How is it that it is being released now? We had a chat to Chris, and owner of Pinenut Records Donald McLeod, about the imminent release of ‘Drunken Nights in Dublin’, and how it has finally come about 44 years after its recording!

​HUP: Tell me a little about the recording of the songs on ‘Drunken Nights in Dublin’. When and where was this done?

Chris: The recordings were done in London at Bill Leader's studio in Camden Town. Bill produced The Pentangle and Bert Jansch records, amongst many others. Also, recordings were made in Dublin at a home-studio in Terenure and at Eamonn Andrews Studios in Harcourt Street, Dublin Central, a well-appointed professional studio where all the electric tracks were done.
 
HUP: You made an acetate of the recordings at Apple Corps in London? What happened to it?
Chris: I left it at the E.M.I. factory in Middlesex in England, where I had taken it with a view to getting a vinyl edition pressed. Things weren't going very well and I decided that—as I had the tapes, the 1/4 inch reels on which the music had been recorded—I would just bring the tapes back to New Zealand and try to get them released here.

I only lost the acetate because I had to leave town in a hurry. [The acetate] was the master-disc made from the magnetic tape on which the music was recorded. It was the template from which the vinyl copies were to be printed.
 
HUP: And you lost the master tapes back in New Zealand also? When and how did that happen?
Chris: Well, they were destroyed in a house-fire at my Mum and Dad's place in 1982. But not before many of the tracks had been issued on records like ‘Echoes from the Pit’ and ‘Minstrelsy’, and The Village Thing Record Company in England, who released my first album, also had copies of a lot of the tracks. Because these records have found their way into the hands of collectors and 'hi-fi nuts', and in the case of the Village Thing album have been reprinted a number of times, a lot of these tracks, but not all, are currently available on YouTube.
 
HUP: How did you track the long-lost acetate down, and how did you get hold of it?
Chris: The acetate remained in Middlesex for many years before being moved, reason unknown, to a well-known record shop in Soho, and then on to a specialist record shop in London where it remained unidentified for a further twenty or so years. Donald bought the acetate at an auction.

Donald: I got to know Chris recently, and he tipped me off on the acetate advertised on eBay. I had been looking to do a second album release [on Pinenut Records], after my first last year.
 
HUP: A number of songs from the ‘Drunken Nights’ recordings ended up on the 1976 album, ‘Echoes from the Pit’, including Fox’s Minstrel Show, Young Lust, Wild About My Lovin', Barcelona and Upstairs Downstairs, and a couple on 1977s 'Minstrelsy’. How do you feel the versions differ from one another?
Chris: The only radical difference in the versions of the numbers that appeared on ‘Echoes from the Pit’ was in 'Barcelona', which on Drunken Nights is a version with flute, castanets, bongos and a vocal chorus, which is previously unreleased. The song was re-recorded at Stebbings for 'Echoes', but that one is just a solo version. Incidentally, [Hello Sailor’s] Graham Brazier had a copy of ‘Echoes from the Pit’ and used to tell me that Barcelona was his favourite track.

Just to be quite clear about the 'recycling' issue, I have recorded 'Barcelona' on five different albums, and 'Wild Rose' on four. They're two of my more popular songs and because quite often I was involved with record companies who either asked me to record it, or were releasing to a different market than my last release, I would do it again.... and again... "You've got to give them what they want Chris!".

Donald: Two other great songs on the album are an unreleased version of ‘Down on the Old Plantation (The Blue Tailed Fly)’; the album version is a band ska/rock steady number with a Calypso style vocal. And the last song is a wonderful blues rock band version of the Rolling Stones ‘Dead Flowers’ song, also previously unreleased and that otherwise would have been lost forever. [continued below]

​HUP: So, besides Barcelona, the versions on ‘Echoes’ and ‘Minstrelsy’ were the actual recordings you made in the UK?
Chris: Yes, basically, but they were mixed with other stuff I recorded in Auckland, mainly at Mandrill Studios. I had some of the tracks that will now appear on Drunken Nights in reserve, and didn't use them at that time, so I'm very glad the acetate turned up and that now, the completed record can be heard.
 
HUP: Donald, you are releasing the album through your own Pinenut Records label. What have you released on the label to date? Where did you get the vinyl pressed?
Donald: So far, the Sneaky Feelings live LP plus HD and Bandcamp downloads, and I did a re-issue of the 1984 Sneaky Feelings ‘Live at The Windsor’ cassette. Two of my favourite New Zealand bands and musicians. The LP for the new release is being done at URP in Nashville, as was my Sneakies LP, and the 12" EP was pressed at Zenith in Melbourne.
 
HUP: What is it about this album that made you want to acquire it, and ultimately release it? Have you been a fan of Chris Thompson’s work for a while?
Donald: I have had an interest in New Zealand music and its origins since the ‘80s, at least. There is a new wave of folk music with artists, particularly from Lyttleton at the moment too. Some of the heavier folk I particularly like, sometimes called acid or psych folk. Chris Thompson was an early New Zealand pioneer in the genre, and one of the first to make it overseas. The biggest new exponent of it now is probably Aldous Harding. I have followed many types of music, and have always wanted to explore Chris' excellent early work; his first three albums in particular are rare and sought after cult classics. The new album draws from all three, plus some other and unreleased tracks. Chris is a legendary guitarist and has played with the best.
 
HUP: Was ‘Drunken Nights in Dublin’ the name it was originally intended to go under?
Chris: It wasn't the original title that I had in mind. I tossed around a few ideas for a title, like; "Memoirs of a Submariner", " Private Bin" and "Eighteen Months in the Bates Motel".
 
HUP: And is the cover design being used the original intended artwork?
Donald: I do all of the artwork and screen printing myself. The current album is also an art and design project, and one to expand my understanding of producing music on different formats. There is an LP, 12" 45 EP, 180g LP, CD, lathe cut single, lathe cut Peter King 10", and a box set in this release.
 
HUP: Chris, how do you feel the recordings on ‘Drunken Nights in Dublin’ have stood up after all this time?
Chris: I feel they've stood the test of time very well, they still sound fresh and lively and the album really rocks.
 
Chris is touring to promote the record and CD, playing Saturday November 24 at Nivara Lounge, Hamilton, on Thursday November 29 at Cafe 121, Auckland, Saturday December 1 at Southbound Records, Auckland (an in-store performance) and, in the evening, Cafe 121, Auckland, on Friday December 7 at The Porch, Waihi Beach, and Sunday December 9 at Cafe Ninety-Nine, Taupo.

​G I G   R E V I E W
The Chills at Altitude, 14 September 2018
​Ian Duggan

It’s been a long time since The Chills last played in Hamilton—possibly greater than 20 years—so it was fantastic that they finally decided to drop by again.
​
The band played an excellent mix of songs over the night, constantly moving from old to new and back again. The Night of Chill Blue was a beautiful start to the night, off their 1987 debut album, followed by the two openers off the new album, Bad Sugar and Time to Atone. Then it was back to some classics, Wet Blanket and Male Monster from the Id, followed by another new song. And so the intermingling continued. It was clear from the voracity of the dancing along the front row the songs the audience were most familiar with, though it was unsurprising that most were unfamiliar with the newest songs; this show coincided with the release day of the new album, Snow Bound. Amongst everything else, we were treated to Pink Frost, and a sequence of Come Home, new single Complex and an excellent rendition of Heavenly Pop Hit to finish out the set. An encore, politely demanded, comprised of Doledrums, the 2017 single Rocket Science, and an excellent performance of the timeless I Love my Leather Jacket. A well thought out set, featuring some outstanding songs, that few could have gone away disappointed with. [continued below]

The band were also great to watch. Besides the main focal point, Martin Phillipps, drummer Todd Knudson was highly entertaining, his left arm seemingly defying all gravitational principles, constantly flying up into the air and having to be forcibly brought back down onto the drums. Erica Scally constantly demonstrated her versatility as a multi-instrumentalist, swapping between keyboards, guitar and skeletal violin. Meanwhile, bass player James Dickson looked equal parts like the long-lost brother of Martin Freeman, and that he was fresh from flying in on his Sopwith Camel following a dogfight with the Fritz. Or was that just me that was seeing that?
​
The down points? I hadn’t been to the cavernous and echoey Altitude since MSU released their ‘Best and Worst of Mobile Stud Unit’ about 10 years ago. While the venue name ‘Altitude’ is appropriate for a band called ‘The Chills’, on a tour called ‘Snow Bound’, the sound quality became especially problematic during the quieter songs, like Chill Blue and Submarine Bells, and did no favours to support act Reb Fountain. Thankfully, the bigger, iconic, pop songs like Leather Jacket and Heavenly Pop Hit were less affected. Another down-point was a lack of local support. The Scones, in particular, with their Flying Nun aesthetic, would have made for a perfect support act for The Chills, and in front of these punters would have gained some valuable new fans. Overall, however, you can’t fault The Chills for their part in the night. Come back; we need more of your kind. 

R E V I E W
'Creative Evolution' album by The Changing Same

After seeing The Changing Same’s recent performances at Future City Festival and on their album release night, many of the songs on ‘Creative Evolution’ were already strangely familiar for me on the first listen to the album. The album kicks off with one of those tracks, ‘A Boy and a Girl’, with its mandolin-infused, country feel; this one for me feels reminiscent of a composition by R.E.M.’s Mike Mills (along the lines of, say, ‘Don’t go Back to Rockville’), and it’s instantly likable. Another favourite on early listens has been the more poppy ‘Dunedin’, a song that with added keyboards wouldn’t have seemed out of place on the ‘Present Perfect’ album by Dribbling Darts (a previous band of Matthew Bannister’s). An instant classic. Another well worth checking out, if you are wanting a further taster, is ‘It All Comes Right’. Besides the music, a further highlight of the release is the cover art, which is good enough to have belonged in the glory days of vinyl; it should be printed in 12x12 inches, simply so we could appreciate it in its full glory!

It’s been seven years since the release of The Changing Same’s previous, self-titled album, and five since their ‘Make up my Mind’ EP. The liner notes state the current album was recorded at Wintec in 2016, the date on the back of the CD says 2017, but the official release was not until well into 2018! Why the delay? I don’t know the answer, though Bannister did have an album release with Sneaky Feelings last year, so I guess he has been busy!

The album is available on Powertool Records via BandCamp as a physical CD or as a digital download.

- Ian Duggan

The Chills were one of a handful of New Zealand bands that I was aware of growing up on the other side of the world. In the 1990s, my more clued-up friends had their records, and would bang on about them for ages. As was often the case, I eventually cottoned on a year or so later, once my ears had 'matured', and I too would bow to the majesty of 'Pink Frost', 'Heavenly Pop Hit' et al. I never got to see them play live in the UK, and have not had the pleasure since. That is about to change and I am a very happy human being. 

The Chills long-awaited return to Hamilton happens this coming Friday, September 14th, with a show at Altitude, the first date on a nationwide tour to celebrate the release of their highly anticipated new album, 'Snow Bound'. HUP posed some questions to chief Chill, Martin Phillipps, about the new album, his songwriting process, the state of New Zealand music, and some ideas of what Friday's show holds in store.

HUP: Congratulations on the new album! 2015’s ‘Silver Bullets’ was your first album in nearly 20 years. How would you say ‘Snow Bound’ differs from previous albums? 
Martin: It’s probably the best produced Chills album ever and it sounds wonderful but the best thing is that it flows like a real album whereas previous Chills albums have often lurched around a bit stylistically.
 
Do you find inspiration for songs comes from a different place these days? 
One of my rules is that my songs really must have some meaning and substance or I will not release them to add to the growing mountain of dubious rubbish accumulating in audio-land. The common theme I saw appearing in the new material was the more mature perspective of a person questioning their role in this time of enormous change.
 
Is your song writing technique the same as it was when you started out, or do you do things differently these days? 
I still tend to catch melodic ideas on some recording device (which is my iPhone these days) and then combine them with lyrical ideas I have written down separately or stored in the computer. I look for interesting and evocative contrasts. But these days I do make myself come up with a song title and maybe a few lyrics every time I find a new riff because the subconscious can surprise you with its perceptiveness when you look back at those ideas further down the line.
​

​To what extent does technology play a part in this? (capturing ideas/lyrics/home recording etc.)
Once I have caught the initial ideas on iPhone or computer then I have the advanced Garageband home-studio program to produce actual demo versions but I am still getting my head around that because I am notoriously slow with technology. Also I am very often plagued with technical issues that people “have never seen happen before!”
 
Your last few releases have been on Fire Records. How do you find working with this label compared to the Flying Nun days?
We still work with Flying Nun Records on our back catalogue for New Zealand and Australia and it’s great to have that connection ongoing but, of course, it has again become necessary for us to have an international label actively based in the heart of the industry, as is the case with Fire Records, and they have been doing a wonderful job for us on these recent releases.
 
What do you think of the state of New Zealand music today, and who, if anyone, do you consider to be a ‘must-listen’?
I think there is so much wonderful new music being made that I can’t keep up and it would be wrong for me to start picking favourites. But along with that there is a lot of very average and weak material where people are constantly re-inventing the wheel and are not even aware of it.  Sometimes it seems the whole ‘X Factor Has Talent’ approach has squeezed much of the excitement, originality and spontaneity out of what is happening - but then there will always be that unexpected new direction and rebellious attitude appearing somewhere. I often feel sorry for those of my age-group who say that the music scene is not as good as the old days when, in fact, they don’t actually make any effort to search for the exciting new artists that are always out there.
 
It’s fantastic that you are coming back to Hamilton, and on the day new album is released too, September 14th. What should we expect to see on the set-list for the Hamilton gig; primarily new songs, or a mix of old and new? 
When we finalised the basic touring set recently we were thrilled to find it is all A-Grade material that we love playing (no filler!) and that it is almost exactly half old classics and half new classics. The older fans have been telling us they love the new songs and that they fit seamlessly into the whole Chills sound so we know we’re doing the right thing and we don’t need to try and be some sort of nostalgia act. We perform live with the confidence of a band that knows this is an exciting ongoing saga.
 
Do you have any favourite songs to play live? 
Any band loves to play newer material as a rule but we have carefully selected only the older songs which still excite us and some, like ‘Pink Frost’, are a joy to be a part of each and every time we perform them. They always change a little but they always carry you away with the atmosphere. 

​Do you have any specific memories of past shows in Hamilton, good or bad?!
We’ve always enjoyed playing in Hamilton. There is an energy there unlike any of the main centres and we’re looking forward to a great night. See you there!

Kia ora to Martin for taking the time to talk to us. HUP has a double pass to giveaway for the show at Altitude, this coming Friday September 14, with support from Reb Fountain! Head on to the post below on our Facebook page to answer a simple question and enter the draw.