Auckland-based noiseniks Swallow The Rat is a band making big noises on the music scene both here in Aotearoa and beyond, with their delicious slabs of discordant post-punk. Having recently returned from the prestigious SXSW festival in Austin, Texas, the five-piece band is about to tour Aotearoa in support of the release of their debut self-titled EP, and, happily, it all starts in Hamilton this coming Friday, April 26th, with a show at Nivara Lounge. HUP caught up with Austin-native Brian Purington (guitar) ahead of the show.

​HUP: First of all, congratulations on a pretty exciting few months! Playing SXSW is kind of a big deal…how was it in reality? It looked kind of hectic…did I read it was nine shows in a week or something?!

Brian:  Yeah, we played 9 shows over 8 days.  I think we had 6 shows booked when I flew over and added a few more last minute. We closed out the Shifting Sounds party and a band on the bill (Ex-Optimists) invited us out to Bryan Texas (about a 90 min drive from Austin) to play another show with them the next night.  So the following day after playing a house party in the late afternoon we headed out there, arriving around 10pm, played around 12:30am, and drove back to Austin after the show ended.  I think I made to bed around 4:30am...

HUP: How did you guys go down over there? Were there any stand out shows? Would you do it again?

Brian:  Believe it or not all of the shows were good but I would say the stand out gigs were our Official Showcase at Barracuda, the NZ Music day party at the Parish and the Shifting Sounds party at the Hole in the Wall. We were lucky enough to share the stage will a number of great band.  Everyone we worked with over there was super welcoming, supportive and seemed to have a genuine interest in what we are doing. I think we would certainly do it again if given the opportunity.

HUP: Congratulations also on the EP! Releasing it on vinyl is pretty special too, what can you tell us about that, how did it come about/where was it mastered/pressed etc?

Brian:  Essentially we were invited to play SXSW and didn’t have any merch to sell!  So I did a limited run of 7”s, which includes the 3 singles we have released thus far, on a label I co-run with a friend/collaborator back in Austin (Headbump Records).  The UK label, Reverb Worship, also did a small run of CDs for the release.  It was pressed through A to Z Media, recorded/mixed by Nick Abbot at Northwestern and Mastered by Alex Lyon at the Bubble.  All the artwork/design was done by our drummer, Hayden. We have a few copies left that we will be selling at our upcoming NZ shows.

​​HUP: How do you find the music scene here compared to the one you grew up with back home in the US? 

Brian:  I wouldn’t say it’s fundamentally any different.  It’s just much smaller and you don’t have the same volume of touring bands coming through New Zealand.

HUP: What are the plans for the rest of this year, any more writing/recording/shows etc?

Brian:  We just finished our debut LP and are looking to release it later in the year and that will be followed by some NZ/Aussie touring.  We are also looking to get back to the USA sometime early next year.  In the meanwhile we are working on some new material and hopefully get to recording it soonish.

Catch Swallow The Rat at Nivara lounge this Friday,  April 26th, with two amazing support bands – Taurangans Threat.Meet.Protocol, and Kirikiriroans Cartoon Villain.

HUP: As a co-host of HUP and The Hum 106.7FM’s Tekau Nga Waiata Pai Top 10 show, and as a frequent gig goer, we know you have a love of new music, and particularly that from New Zealand. How did your interest develop in garage punk/garage rock, freakbeat and psych from the ‘60s?
​
Phil: I grew up loving ‘60s music. Even in my teens I was all about the Beatles, then The Who, Stones, Kinks… and naturally dug deeper. I got stuck on the Velvet Underground for a good few years, then Beefheart.  In a previous life I worked in libraries, and an old mate Terry Bishop was the music buyer for Hamilton’s libraries. We’d pore over catalogues, and he’d turn up with all sorts of cool stuff, as many of us around in the 90s will attest!  One day Terry added an amazing compilation called ‘Everything You Always Wanted To Know About ´60s Expansive Punkadelic Garage Rock Instrumentals But were afraid To Ask’ to the collection, then a few more ‘60s garage and psych releases.  They didn’t get borrowed much and ended up in my collection, to which I soon added the legendary Lenny Kaye-curated Nuggets box set, and then there was no looking back.

​HUP: What are some of your favourite songs from this era?
 
Phil: Wow, hard question.

As actual songs, I’d list:
​
‘Gloria’, by the Van Morrison-fronted Them. The perfect song, and one that was widely covered by garage bands. At last count I have versions by well over fifty ‘60s garage bands; faves being Los Temperatios, Los Sharps, Los Young Beats, and Delfini from Zagreb.

The 13th Floor Elevators’ debut single ‘You’re Gonna Miss Me’ and ‘Slip Inside This House’.
​
The Who’s ‘My Generation’ – not so much the original, but weird covers such as Zlatni Akordi’s, an Italian freakbeat band called The Geordies, and Som Beat from Brazil. And Los Shakes’ Spanish version ‘el Mugroso’!

​HUP: How long has ‘Retrospect’ been going?
​
Phil: Somewhere around 7 years
 
HUP: How frequently do you make new shows? Are you still discovering plenty of new songs to play on the show? How often are you now having to repeat content?
 
Phil: Weekly. It’s produced and aired at Free FM before syndication across New Zealand, and via a handful of selected Canadian stations and one in California.
Yes, I am discovering new stuff all the time. It’s all about the hunt!  Just this week I’ve scored new stuff from [old] bands The Bojax, The Muldoons, The Bucket City Distortion Racket, a bizarre LP by The Four Skins, which seems to be a bunch of medical students [?] singing about STDs, and one useful track called LSD, and global garage tracks from Hector et les Mediators [French freakbeat], Norwegian band Firebeats Inc., and a psychedelic Czech band Blue Effect.
​
I have somewhere around 15,000 tracks to play with, so I only repeat things I really want to. I still have a backlog of 100 or so full LPs to sort through, yet to be played.

​HUP: What kind of following does the show have, and what sort of feedback have you received from your followers?

Phil: Social media makes all the difference – I share artist and song info there, and also the podcast links. That generates a heap of feedback from all over the world, and a bunch of stuff I can’t translate. Retrospect has over 7,000 Facebook followers and in a good month has over 10,000 podcast listens.
 
It’s cool having loyal listeners keep in touch. In fact, this month I invited one of the biggest fans to select all the tracks [episode 358] and co-host from North Carolina.
 
HUP: How much New Zealand and Hamilton content is there among the songs?

Phil: A fair bit, although a lot of the NZ ‘60s stuff is more soul or R&B rather than real garage punk. There’s a few good comps for sure [Wyld Things, A Day In The Mind’s Mind] and I do have a few faves including some early Ray Columbus material that is reallllly good, a super-obscure cover of The Who’s ‘I’m A Boy’ done by Wellington’s The Rising Sons featuring Denis O’Brien [owner of Slow Boat records and brother of RNZ’s Phil O’Brien], who doesn’t even have a copy. In fact, they hadn’t heard it for many years until I played it.
​
Not much Hamilton content. The few bands I do have are a bit ‘pop’ for my podcast, with one exception – the incredible ‘Belly Board Beat’ by local band The Music Convention! That’s totally WILD and someone should get the rights for their local government election campaign ads. LOL!

Retrospect 60s Garage Punk Show is available from:
The Access Internet Radio NZ app
 
Free FM's website

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Apple Podcasts via iTunes

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​I N T E R V I E W
Nod your Head and Shake it at the Same Time: an Interview with Peter McCall of ‘Fazed on a Pony’
with Ian Duggan
 
Dunedin’s ‘Fazed on a Pony’ released their fantastic EP ‘That’s How the Light Gets In’ late in February.  We have featured a couple of the tracks on our HUP/The Hum 106.7FM Top 10 of new New Zealand songs, including ‘Natural Toast’ - which made our #1 a couple of months ago. We talked to front-person Peter McCall about his musical influences, the artwork of the release, the meaning of the band's name, and more!

HUP: My first, second and third impression on first hearing ‘Natural Toast’ was how much the song reminded me of Pavement. I, and the other primary contributor here at HUP, grew up on different sides of the world, but we were independently obsessed with Pavement in the ‘90s, so for us this is a great thing! Listening to an interview you did on Radio One, you confirm the Pavement, and also Silver Jews, influences. How did you get into these bands, and why do you think Pavement still has such an influence on you and other bands 20 years after they split?

Peter: I had a friend in high school that was into a lot of 80s and 90s guitar music and was always trying to get me to listen to bands like My Bloody Valentine, Slint, Dinosaur Jr, etc. He must have given me [the Pavement album] ‘Slanted and Enchanted’ on USB at some point and it probably sat on my computer for a couple of years before I listened to it. When I did finally put it on – one summer afternoon back at my parents place, cleaning my old room – I listened to the first half thinking that I didn’t really get it. Then ‘Here’ came on and I just thought it was the best thing I’d ever heard. It was sad, catchy, nostalgic, clever, messy and mysterious. I suppose it expressed something, or a combination of things, that I’d felt but never heard before.

After that, Pavement was really all I listened to for a long time, searching out every b-side and live clip, learning their songs (there’s an amazing website called slay tracks, which has tabs for every Malkmus song, including Jicks stuff). I found the Silver Jews through the Malkmus connection, around the time they put out ‘Early Times’. David Berman has his own thing going on and is one of my favourite lyricists. ‘Starlite Walker’ is, to me, a perfect album.

I think what I find compelling and inspiring in Pavement and in the Silver Jews are their contradictions – that the music can be ironic and sincere, epic and pathetic, tight and loose, often within a single phrase. It’s profoundly pathetic country music that makes you want to nod your head and shake it at the same time.
 
HUP: It isn’t just the music I love with your EP; the art work, featuring ponies galloping in front of a mountain range, is also fantastic. Who painted it? What else can you tell me about it?

Peter: My partner, Rosa, did the painting of Aoraki with galloping horses in front of it. I think it was initially a somewhat ironic attempt at making a stoner art poster – with all the bright colours and cliché beauty of mountains and water and horses running. She had it at her brothers flat and would go to his place once and a while to hang out, adding a bit more to it each time. Eventually her nephew, two at the time and completely obsessed with horses, saw the picture and freaked out – started jumping on it and kissing all the horses - so she finished the painting and gave it to him.

Around that time I had decided to really lean in to the pony vibe of the band and thought it would make a good cover. However, what you see on the EP cover is me holding a photo copy of the image sticky-taped to another piece of paper that has the band name added. It was the stencil for a screen we made up to print t-shirts with. While making the t-shirts I realised I like the look of the stencil more than the original art. The orangey-brown paint around the top of the mountain is paint-stopper from the screen. [continued below]

HUP: What is the scene like in Dunedin currently? Are there still good numbers of people – and students in particular – interested in live, original music? What other bands from down there should we be checking out?

Peter: It’s hard to say, really. From what I can tell, there’s the student scene, which consists of a few student bands that play pop music and draw huge crowds, and then there’s everyone else, who sometimes get a great attendance and sometimes don’t. I don’t go to as many shows as I used to and would not consider myself an authority on the state of any scene.

Some of my favourite current Dunedin bands are Wet Specimen (led by Lucy Hunter of Opposite Sex), Tiny Pieces of Eight, Koizilla, and the Rothmans.
 
HUP: What are your aspirations for the band? Should we expect more songs soon?

Peter: I don’t have any careerist aspirations; I would just like to keep going for as long as it feels good. I’d like to put out a full length, which will be the next project and one I’ve started working on. We’re taking a short break from playing to write. Hopefully we could have something out by the end of the year, maybe sooner.
 
HUP: What does the band name, ‘Fazed on a Pony’, mean?

Peter: I’m not sure, but perhaps Malkmus or Berman could tell you. It was a phrase written on the insert from ‘Early Times’.
 
HUP: You toured the release of ‘Light Gets In’ in January, including Auckland, but you had no Hamilton date included. Do you think you will make it up here at some stage?

Peter: I would’ve loved to have played Hamilton and hopefully we can at some point in the future. It was the first tour I’d organised so I tried to keep it simple – we also all have jobs and had to do it over a couple weekends. Perhaps next time we can take some time off and go to a few more places in between the big cities.

Trepidations play at Nivara Lounge this Saturday, March 23rd, along with Bruises and Nagasaki Tan. HUP caught up with Will Saunders (guitar) to shoot the proverbial shit. Here are some Q's and As to those Qs...

​Who are Trepidations and from where do you hail?
Heath on drums, Jared on bass and Will on guitar from Auckland where we all ended up one way or another

How long have you been together, and have you been in any bands previously?
About a year now and yep we've been and are in bands from Royal Falcon through to The Quick and the Dead, Bearhat and The Lowest Fidelity

You have a cool song out on Bandcamp, I Can't Go On - any more releases imminent?
ta very much! ...That's the first demo recording we did and we will have an album out later this year with any luck

How does the songwriting work in the band? And where does the inspiration come from?
Originally I wrote some tunes and asked Heath to play drums - then we cajoled Jared into whacking some bass on top - after rehearsing a few times we just started making more sounds and songs up as we went along. 
Inspiration now feels a bit like we're swimming through a stream somewhere between Can't Buy Me Love, Helter Skelter and improvised sound - the water wings are slightly deflated, we only have one flipper between us but we're splashing away optimistically!

You're heading to Hamilton on Sat March 23rd - tell us about the show...
The fantastic bruises organised the gig so we are stoked to be able to join them - they have four twisted tunes out now on bandcamp so I'm looking forward to kicking out some jams with them and Nagasaki Tan. This will be Trepidations third show.
​

​Have you played here before in any other bands, or do you know any bands here?
Hamilton is a first for me gig wise so hopefully it won't be the last... Royal Falcon must have swooped through at some stage!

Some less important information about the band...

Who is the most likely member of the band to get arrested? And what for?
We're all pretty straight arrows here at Trepidations - but I wear two pairs of glasses at once sometimes and you know how these things can go occasionally...

Who is the best cook in the band?
Heath - black beans maestro that he is

Which Trepidation is the sportiest, and what do they like playing/doing?
Jared probably. No idea which ones but he's definitely proven a good sport all round I'd say!

If you could plan a gig anywhere in the world with 3 bands dead or alive, where would it be, who is playing, and what are we drinking?
Pyramids, MC5, Dead Moon and Syd Floyd. Drinking in the wonder of it all...

​A R T I C L E
‘A Little Trap I Made’: An Interview with Ben Woods
with Ian Duggan
​
‘Future City Festival’ is looming! And one of the acts that I am most looking forward to is Ben Woods, whose song ‘Lozenge’ is seriously good! An earworm that you aren’t unhappy to have there, no matter how many times it repeats through your mind. We caught up with Ben to discuss that song, his upcoming album, the Christchurch music scene that keeps on giving, and more!

​HUP: Your debut solo song, ‘Lozenge’, was released last year on Melted Ice Cream’s fantastic 'Sickest Smashes from Arson City’ compilation. ‘Lozenge’ is also the title track to your upcoming album. When can we expect to see the rest of the album?
 
Ben: I was hoping to release it early this year, but booking this tour ended up being a lot more energy and time than I had anticipated, so it's been put on the shelf a little bit. As soon as the tour is over it's number one on my priority list. It's all finished; I just need to figure out who's going to put it out or whether I’ll put it out independently.
 
HUP: Is Lozenge indicative of the rest of the songs on the album?
 
Ben: Nope! That one's the lone charger for sure. A little trap I made to lure everyone in so they listen to my sad arse, draggy, downbeat songs. Really, there's a common thread in all of them, but LOZENGE is definitely the only one at that pace.
 
HUP: How has Christchurch come to have such a healthy scene currently? Or has the scene simply never waned there?
 
Ben: I don't know if it's any healthier than any other of the main centres around. There're people who put a lot of work into making stuff happen, especially Brian [Feary] who runs MIC. There's certainly a lot of different little pockets of people who will stick with whatever artists or bands they feel connected to. But, because of that it can sometimes feel like you're playing to the same room of people over and over, and it's often not a big room at all. I feel like the hope for a lot of people playing in somewhat alternative bands in Christchurch is that all the little indie sects will slip over into each other and combine to be something a bit more open and inclusive, and available. That's what I'd like at least, but don't know how it happens!

​HUP: You are described as a multi-instrumentalist. What instruments do you play?
 
Ben: Nothing too wild. I'm getting worse and worse at guitar over time, despite it supposedly being my main instrument, but I kind of like it. I also try play a bit of bass, drums and piano. I'm really horrific on the cello, but have been trying to figure out how to work my flatmates one recently.
 
HUP: Are you playing Future City Festival solo, or with ‘Ben Woods Group’? What instruments are you bringing with you?
 
Ben: Playing with Symon Palmer, Ryan Chin, and IRD Rory Dalley. We've got drums, guitars, bass, synth; we've even got lap steel this time around!
 
HUP: You played guitar on the Wurld Series EP ‘Stately and Befrothed’, which, with its heavy Pavement overtones, was another favourite among us here at HUP and on the Hum 106.7fm. Did you have much of a hand in writing those songs? Who are your major influences?
 
Ben: Luke [Towart] wrote all those songs just on guitar, and then we'd workshop them as a band. I wrote all my guitar parts, but then sometimes someone would have something in mind they really wanted to hear and sing it. Then I'd work something out around that. I have a special place in my heart for Luke, Brian and Abi [Macilquham] who were the line-up for that EP.
​
I think in regards to that EP, the big influences might have been stuff like Guided by Voices, Alex G and Silver Jews. Though if you mean mine currently, I've been listening to lots of Chris Knox, that album Armchair Boogie by Michael Hurley, and also getting back into PJ Harvey. There's other ones that'll always be somewhere within me like Cat Power, Will Oldham's stuff, and Fugazi. 

​HUP: You are playing at Future City Festival with the original line-up, performing just the early songs. What has led to this reformation?
​
Adam: Rob asked nicely.

Jae: Full credit to Rob for sparking this off. I've been in hiding for years and I needed a catalyst. At first I thought we'd ease into it with some more relaxed, low-key support gigs. But hey, why not come back guns blazing.

Rob: We’d been toying with the idea for a while on-and-off, and I thought that making it a bit special - playing a festival, and just doing the early stuff - might give us the extra oomph we needed to get going. Everyone seemed keen and after a bit of texting back and forth we got together and it was pretty much exactly like it was in 2006! Shit jokes… lots of noise… mean songs!
 
HUP: Sora Shima, perhaps more than any other Hamilton band this millennium, gained critical approval outside of the city. It felt for a while like the band were on the verge of something. Why did Sora Shima stop performing?

Rob: It did, eh?! We got some decent press, and great support slots with the likes of Broken Social Scene, Mono, Jakob, Dimmer, and Sonic Boom from Spacemen 3. I left in 2010 due to a change in career. Becoming a teacher meant little free mind-space and no time to focus on the band. It knackered me out completely. So Sora Shima Mk III was formed and they carried on for some time, recording an album. Gav [McDermott, drums] eventually moved to Switzerland, so I guess that was a fairly big factor. Jae can probably answer that better!

Jae: Gav recorded all of his drum tracks for the album ('You Are Surrounded') before he left NZ, so fortunately we were able to get the album finished in his absence. But there was no release show, tour, or anything, so it was very bittersweet. At that point it was just myself left from the original line-up, and just after Gavin left I also lost my job and went through some heavy shit. So I descended into a pretty dark place, financially, emotionally and eventually creatively. Essentially the answer to the question is... I simply couldn't do Sora Shima without Gavin.
 
HUP: What are your best memories of the times the original band were together?

Jae: Yeah, probably the four of us making hellish noise in my spare bedroom in quiet Forest Lake. I remember we went to the neighbours to apologise for the noise pollution and they said they actually opened their windows to listen to us! That was great. I'm immensely proud of those early tracks, particularly Spinetingler, which was recorded all live and we didn't even care about mixing it. So I love the raw energy of it. Musically, I think the song Tornado vs Trailerpark is our crowning achievement; we've never quite captured lightning in a bottle again like that... yet! On the live side, being taken very generously under Jakob's wing early on was really amazing for us. We played some fantastic gigs, enjoyed it all, and it was always a laugh a minute.

Rob: Sora Shima was instrumental (no pun intended) in helping me settle in New Zealand. I joined via an online ad, just after moving here from Amsterdam. I made pals early in my new hometown through music, and that was really nice on a human level. We used to make a hell of a racket in Jae’s spare room. I don’t know how we didn’t get shut down. The camaraderie was ace; recording, making CDs, getting a decent reception, playing with some great bands. It was a lot of fun.

Adam: Driving long hours to play music to strangers, which is more enjoyable for the most part than it looks on paper. [continued below]

​HUP: What have all the original members been doing since you all last played together?

Jae: I needed some kind of expressive outlet so I formed Gang Violins, which remains (very) active. I also did some solo/duo ambient and loop project stuff on the side under the name Palaces, which I've since shelved. We've all done and are doing other stuff.

Rob: It was probably 2008 when we last played together, I think. Adam left around then and Tu took over on guitar. Eleven years pretty much. I’ve played in Ancient Tapes, and now do Bitter Defeat too. Gav plays in Broadcast State, and Adam has done and still does loads of stuff; Hedge Fund Trader, amongst others. All fairly active musically.

Adam: Living outside of this country, playing in various heavy bands and recording various other heavy bands, driving long hours to play music to strangers.
 
HUP: In what ways did the band change after Adam Fulton and Rob Shirlow left?
​
Jae: I guess there was an element of "staying the course", forging on as best Gavin and I could - and it seemed to work for us as, for a while. The momentum kept building. Full credit to those who came after: Tuhua [Mutu; guitars], Nick [Johnston; keyboards] and Liam [Clancy; bass], for continuing that momentum, bringing new elements to the sound.
 
HUP: There have been hints dropped over the last few years that the band were emerging from the hiatus, but it’s never happened. What was behind the hints, and what prevented a reformation prior to this time?
​
Jae: Those were false starts, nothing more. A lot of wishful thinking, mostly on my part. Life just gets in the way. Gavin's been back for a while now, but it's taken this opportunity and Rob's positivity and persistence to really get me back into it. I'm moody. I can't just turn the switch back on... it needed to feel right. The original line-up playing the original tracks just felt perfectly right to me. We've stripped it right back to the big bang and maybe now we get to do it all over again, perhaps differently this time.

Rob: We’ve wanted to do it I think, but life and stuff made it hard; family, living on the other side of the world, etc. This time was a proper effort at committing though, and it’s worked so far. ​ [continued below]

​HUP: You have teased on Facebook that this could be start of something, depending on how things go?

Rob: Yeah who knows! I reckon we’ve got some decent new stuff in us, but there’s also the album that never got toured, so who knows. Not that Adam or I were involved with that, so I guess we’ll just see how things go. I’d be into making a new EP though for sure.
​
Jae: Nothing's planned as yet, but I think we're all secretly hoping for more. The planets have aligned again, so it'd make sense to seize the opp. Right now though, this gig is a one-off reunion. So if you want to see more, come and support it... please! I want to do more because I can't take any more bitter-sweetness! Gonna give this gig 100%. It's been said that on a good night it's like this band can open blackholes and that's my intention. I hope this isn't fleeting.
 
HUP: How have recent practices been feeling? Does it have the same sense of excitement as it did when the band were first together? No lingering tensions, I trust, if they ever existed in the first place?
​
Jae: The feeling is pretty comfy. I love these guys! Tensions that might have existed have completely evaporated to the point where I can't even remember what we squabbled about. In saying that though, a little tension generally does good for the music itself! I'm sure I owe a few apologies... Playing these songs again feels like "ahhh, so THIS is what was missing from my life". Guitar riffs I totally forgot have returned like magic. It's like the synapses reconnected - just surreal and awesome. Let's open a blackhole. Bring earplugs and an open mind.

Rob: Really good actually! A few bum notes here and there, and remembering the subtleties of the music, where you played certain things. It’s come back quickly though, and I can’t believe how good it sounds. We were really good, eh?! There’re no tensions at all – at least from my perspective. It’s getting together for a one-off and then see how we feel after that really.

Adam: The practices have been more efficient than I remember them being ten years ago. It would be a logistical miracle managing to continue with the original line-up, but with a band that has had 7 members and countless contributors, who knows...

​HUP: For the uninitiated, how would you describe Te Huhu’s sound? Who are bands that you are most similar to?
Sam: That’s a really hard one. It’s probably easier for an outsider to answer that one. Who do we sound like?

HUP: As an outsider, I think you probably sound a bit like the most laid-back moments of Naenae Express, if they were to lay back a little further. Fair assessment?
Sam: Yeah, I guess we've got a similar connection to that kind of retro kiwiana type of sound that Naenae does, or something. Te Huhu is kinda nostalgic sounding. [We were] once described as 'a drowsy blend of atmospheric, stoner, blues, psych-folk-rock jams'.

HUP: You debut album ‘Recychedelia’ is listed on Bandcamp both as released on October 2018, and as “coming soon”. So far, only three of the ten songs have appeared. When can we expect the rest?
Sam: We put those first three songs from the album up towards the end of last year as a kind of motivation to get the vinyl pressed and ready for release with the remaining digital tracks. The vinyl record might still be a few months away, so we’re going to release it all digitally in the next few weeks with a pre-order option for the vinyl lovers out there. It’s been a long haul due to the DIY nature of it all.

HUP: Your song ‘For Love’ topped the 95bfm charts late last year. What have been some of the other highlights for Te Huhu since your formation?  
Sam: Well, we’ve had a couple of other singles in the 95bfm Top Ten going back a few years, and we played at a combined 65th birthday party at the Ngataringa Tennis Club, which lingers in the memory as easily our best live outing to date. We also opened for The Phoenix Foundation at Shadows Bar & Grill one afternoon and they mentioned that our set was very relaxing, and we took that as a great compliment. [continued below]

HUP: Where does the band name ‘Te Huhu’ come from?
Sam: The Beatles was taken.
 
HUP: Prior to Future City Festival, I understand you have your own ‘Field of Dreams’ festival. What can you tell me about that, and how is preparation for it going?
Sam: Yes. We’ve put together a high-quality line-up of psychy bands on a limited-edition cassette and we’re having a geg party to celebrate. We’ve called it ‘Field of Dreams’. It’s kind of a mutation out of a month-long residency we held down at the Kings Arms Sports Bar a few years ago with some of these same bands.
 
HUP: I assume this is a Kevin Costner, "Build it and they will come" reference?
Sam: Yes, it is precisely that. What a buzzy film. We’ve put together the stage over the last few weekends in my back yard out here on the Awhitu Peninsula and it’s all shaping up really nicely for what should be a mint day out in the countryside with some mates and some of the best bands in the country.
 
HUP: What are the other bands at Future City Festival you are looking forward to seeing?
Sam: I think we’re only in the city of the future for the Friday night and I haven’t seen any of the other acts playing that night so am looking forward to seeing as much as I can, but especially The Fatalities who I have just discovered and am quite enjoying.

Visit:
Te Huhu website: http://www.tehuhu.com
Field of Dreams website: fieldofdreamsnz.com

Future City Festival is only a few weeks away, so HUP are catching up with a few of the bands playing the event. Future City Festival's band with the lowest average age is Gisborne punks ‘Sit Down in Front’, who have found a bit of success in the last couple of years in the Smokefreerockquest competition. We had a chat with Cory, Rikki, Jackson and Roman about how a band of school kids from Gisborne have come to be influenced by The Sex Pistols and the Clash, why Cori Gonzalez-Macuer and a contestant from TV show The Block have come to be wearing their t-shirts, and more!

HUP: The band cite The Sex Pistols and The Clash as a couple of your main influences. How have a group of 15-year-olds from Gisborne come to be exposed to such classic, important bands as these?
Cory: My parents listen to heaps of that type of music, so I guess I just grew up with it. We also figured out that that type of music suited my vocals. Plus, those bands are just bloody good!
 
HUP: Sit Down in Front have already released one album in June 2018, ‘Red Light Runner’, recorded when you were 14-year olds. How would you describe the sound of the songs on that album, and do you think your style has evolved since this time?
Rikki: Our style hasn’t changed much since day one, but I think our songs are becoming more refined and are getting tighter the more we play. I would say that our new stuff, due out later this year, is a lot fuller as we used top of the line gear to record, and our producer Greg Haver pushed us pretty hard.
 
HUP: I see you have been doing some recording recently at Neil Finn’s Roundhead Studios in Auckland. How did that opportunity come about?
Jackson: Our manager got introduced to Greg Haver and he was keen to do a single with us. He works out of Roundhead a lot, so we managed to book in a day in there. It was awesome! The gear is amazing! Blew our minds.
 
HUP: What are your aspirations for the band? Do you have a few more years to go at school, and is there the worry of what will happen to the band as the end of the school years start to approach?
Rikki: We are keen to get a few bigger gigs as well as get as many people as we can listening to our music. We are looking forward to releasing our new single, around May, and just keep having fun. Not really thinking too much about post-school, as there’s a bit of water to go under the bridge. And who knows what opportunities will come up between now and then. 

​HUP: You have managed to get some inspired product placement, with your t-shirts having been worn by comedian Cori Gonzalez-Macuer, and by a contestant on the TV show The Block. How have you managed to make that happen?
Roman: Because being in Gisborne everyone knows everyone, so we decided to send the Gizzy hard team a Sit Down In Front merch package with some other bits and bobs as an encouragement gift. Stu loved the t-shirt and agreed to wear it on TV! For Cory, we randomly met him while we were doing a gig in Raglan and he came over and started chatting to us, so we kept in touch after the gig. We sent him a shirt, and he decided to post it on his Facebook. Right time, right place really.
 
HUP: Lyrically, what are your songs about? Are they at all politically minded, like those of your influences?
Cory: Nah, our songs aren't politically minded. We’re too young to worry about that stuff really. Our lyrics are just random and come from simple things, like reading the paper or watching things outside the car window on the way home. The first song we wrote was about not having any cream for our dessert when camping (hahaha).
 
HUP: Really impressed by the long list of sponsors the band has acquired, something I think other bands (and probably even us!) should think about. How do you go about attracting such sponsors?
Jackson: Gisborne has a good supportive community and when we were putting our album together several businesses offered their support. We put together a bit of a sponsorship package that included a free gig, and luckily a few places came on board.
 ​
HUP: Who are the bands you are looking forward to seeing at Future City Festival?
Roman: The bands I'm really looking forward to seeing there are: Carb on Carb, HEX and Nadia Reid.

I love Beat Rhythm Fashion’s 1981 singles ‘Turn of the Century’ and ‘Beings Rest Finally’. But I was way too young to have known the songs when they first came out; I discovered them much later in life. Nevertheless, despite not knowing them from new, these songs have become in my mind timeless classics. Following only a short period in existence as a band, and in spite of having released such excellent songs, they were gone.

Now, after 35 years, Beat Rhythm Fashion have a new album, ‘Tenterhook’, to be released on 11 February.

Like all the best albums, and like their earlier singles, this is a slow burner. The album opens with the single ‘Hard as Hell’, however, which is perhaps the most ‘immediate’ song in the collection, and in some ways is the closest in feel to those early singles. Not a new composition, this song can be found amongst live recordings from a gig recorded at The Gladstone in Christchurch from 1981, posthumously released on the 2007 compilation ‘Bring Real Freedom’. And this isn’t the only revisit on Tenterhook, either: ‘Freezing My Precedent’ and ‘Optimism’ both also gain studio recordings for the first time here. Many of the rest of the songs on the album are new collaborations between original member Nino Birch (guitar and vocals) and Failsafe Records’ Rob Mayes (bass), who has been instrumental in bringing this album to fruition, and on whose label this appears. An early favourite for me is one of these, ‘Dan’, written about founding bass player Dan Birch – and Nino’s brother - who died in 2011. This song is full of emotion, as you would expect of a song from a brother left behind. “Damn it Dan!!”. I’m sure my favourites will change, or be added to, after a few more listens. Give this album your attention, and give it some time.
​
The recording of the album has been a global collaboration, with Birch in Australia, Mayes in Japan and drummer Caroline Easther in New Zealand. The band are coming together, however, with a nationwide tour, including an Auckland gig at the Whammy Bar on 14 March.

Beat Rhythm Fashion Bandcamp: https://beatrhythmfashion.bandcamp.com
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- Ian Duggan

Imagine if you will… a crowd has gathered from far and wide. Celebratory bunting flutters in the breeze. On a wooden platform alongside the towering steel edifice, a bottle of champagne waits. Silence falls as Rob Shirlow climbs the stairs. Mouths drop in anticipation as he lifts the bottle and sends it smashing onto the hull… “I christen thee… BITTER DEFEAT”! Whaaattttt????

Hamilton six-piece Bitter Defeat have risen over the last twelve months to take their place alongside the many, varied and fabulous acts emanating from Hamilton. Rob Shirlow (vocals and guitar) and Ian Duggan (keyboards) are instrumental in operating Hamilton Underground Press (HUP), and are active participants in and promoters of the local music scene. They are joined in Bitter Defeat by Julian White (also of The Scones, Kitchenette; bass), Sam Brockelsby (ex-Ancient Tapes; guitar), Ben Manning (guitar) and Kathryn Thompson (drums). It was my pleasure to interview the band as they gear up for Hamilton’s Future City Festival. 

HUP: I really like the band name “Bitter Defeat”. It seems to me to combine so much conflicting and contrary imagery. There’s obviously a connection to Brisbane band Kitchen Floor’s song of the same name, which you’ve covered live. Can you tell us about the origin of the band-name?

Rob: It was exactly that! They played here a year or two ago and I grew to love that song. Matt Kennedy is a brilliant songwriter, but the beauty is hidden quite deep in a lot of Kitchen’s Floor stuff; not that I’ve heard it all. I think it’s important to hide the essence of songs, the beauty. At least sometimes. The truest beauty is always hidden, I think.

HUP: How would you describe the lyrical content of Bitter Defeat songs when considered along with the band’s name? 

Rob: Hmmm. It’s a bit heavy actually. There’s a lot of emotion in there. Tales of love, hope and despair, however they come out. Delivered in quite a messy, half-arsed way, which is appropriate for me now I think about it. 

The lyrics aren’t clever as such, but they are real, and they come from a place I’m not too comfortable with really. The guilty mundanity of a comfortable existence. Longing for newness but you’ve no idea what, exactly. The absolute madness of the world today. Rage at unfairness and incompetence by those in power. Anxiety and learning how to manage it. Toxic masculinity and bullying. Past personal experiences and those I have seen. All while trying to have a laugh and make lovely scratchy upbeat tunes!  

HUP: A song such as ‘Hummer’ speaks about difficult circumstances, and about the power of human relationships to redeem suffering. Similarly, “All the Things” talks of the sun coming out, which manifests the darkness, but only as a weaker reflection of the daylight. Am I right in thinking there’s hope in “Bitter Defeat”?

Rob: Absolutely there is hope. Always. ‘Hummer’ is pretty explicit really, telling someone, maybe yourself, that there is always hope and a reason to ‘be’. ‘All The Things’ is more of a love song to no one in particular and is intended to reflect the actual sun coming up after a night with someone you care about. 

​HUP: I understand the band has its genesis in Rob’s one-man recording project. Rob, how have you found the process of turning over your creations to a wider group of collaborators? 

Rob: It’s been ace really. I’ve been lucky to have found such an understanding bunch. The number one thing was that the creative process and the time when the band is together has to be fun and productive. So far so good. Everyone has input to the songs – I’m not super precious about them, as long as they have a certain feel to them.

Ben: But ultimately, if Rob hates it… then it's out ;)

HUP: And for the rest of the band; have there been challenges interpreting these existing songs, finding inspiration within the existing constraints? 

Ian: For me, although I have always had a love for music, I'm not a musician. My previous experiences of playing in a band were in Spatula Death, where I played vacuum cleaner (not a difficult instrument), and later a toy keyboard and acoustic guitar, which were soon drowned out by the noisy electric ones. In Bitter Defeat, I mostly do what I am told.

Ben: It’s been incredible watching the songs evolve from bedroom demo stage, to early garage practice sessions, to performing them live and now (hopefully!) to recording them in the studio with a producer. Through all of these stages we have all managed to inject a little of our own personalities into the songs which makes them sound different, genuinely exciting and also a little rickety which only adds to their strength. 

HUP: I enjoy seeing Bitter Defeat take the stage, there’s always a lot to enjoy. 6 band members, two microphones, 1 keyboard, 18 thin guitar strings, 4 fat ones, a swag of drums, although sadly no vacuum cleaner this time round. With three guitars plus keyboards, do you need to be wary of musically stepping on each other’s toes? 

Rob: Yeah, it’s a bit of a nightmare at times; not musically, more physically. Actually stepping on toes. We’ve hardly got started really and are still working it all out, especially with three guitars. A lot of the songs start in my spare room and are quite sparse with one guitar, so incorporating three while keeping that pared-down lo-fi essence is a bit tricky. Keeping the ‘less is more’ thing when you have more…it’s a good challenge. 

Kathryn: I’ve had to start drumming standing up to make more room. 

Ian: The great thing is it doesn’t seem to me like there’s any competition among the instruments. When listening back to recordings, all the sounds are there. It all just combines to make one big, beautiful noise.

HUP: How do you see the characteristics of simplicity and complexity contributing to your song writing and performance? ​

Rob: As touched on earlier – it’s hard to keep the lo-fi feel, but having six instruments gives us heaps of options to make things different/odd/sparse/heavy, etc. The lyrics will always be simple but will often mean a lot more than just what you hear. 

Julian: Half of us are doing things we've never done in a band before. I had never played bass and Ian had never played keyboards. I suspect Rob wanted us in the band at least partly because he knew we wouldn't be virtuosos on our instruments and would inevitably keep things simple, although he hasn't said as much, and equally that we would share his aesthetic sense. So in that sense, I think there is a conscious effort to keep things simple, or as simple as you can get with six instruments without everyone playing the same thing. Of course there is plenty of talent and experience in the rest of the band as well to help keep things together and interesting. 

​HUP: Your Bandcamp recordings have that lo-fi character about them that is so beguiling. Is this where your heart lies, or would you say it is more an indication of where you are now?

Rob: It’s exactly where my heart lies! It’s been interesting though recently, thinking about recording in March, how do we capture that sound in a proper studio? Should be interesting. 

HUP: I enjoyed hearing you play “All the Goodies” live - a cover of Hamilton band Dead Pan Rangers. What do you find enjoyable when it comes to covering someone else’s song compared to creating and performing your originals?

Ian: With many new bands, covers are sometimes a necessary evil just to fill out a set. Our second gig was at the fantastic Hamilton Circle Jerk, where bands play a 20-minute set that includes two covers of other Hamilton bands songs... so having a couple of covers was a requirement. We only played The Shrugs' Pretty Dart that night, and we played 'Goodies' on only two of our three performances to date, but that one is possibly being retired now also. Which on one hand is sad, because it is an amazing song. But we are always adding new songs, so the set should be all originals pretty soon.

Rob: It has to be doable–ish, and appeal to all of us. I think it’s important to do other people’s songs justice, or at least really try to. That’s such a great song too; it was one of the first songs I heard when I moved here, from a local band. Top stuff.

Kathryn: It’s great to explore other people’s songs from the inside, see how they work and what makes them so good, especially as this is a less-familiar genre for me. 

​HUP: Hamilton is the nexus for so many interesting musical events, and I’ve had the pleasure of seeing a number of fantastic artists there over the last few years. With so much going on locally, are there any Hamilton based acts that have inspired you that the world needs to know about?
 
Ian: For me, too many to count. Through my university years, I had the philosophy "why listen to overseas music when New Zealand music is so good", and then Hamilton music was so good, it extended to "Why listen to out of town bands when Hamilton music is so good...”. But I love Hamilton bands from the early ‘90s in particular; pick pretty much any band from the Discordia Concors CD... A Crown Of Wild Myrtles, Huge Industrial Artsnob, Book of Martyrs, and later bands like Grok.
 
Rob: Heck, ummm The Shrugs, The Deadly Deaths, Amy Racecar – bands I found when I moved here that I really liked. Inchworm and Watershed were kind of amazing in the ‘90s too apparently – great songs. Landlords and Contenders are great bands too doing what they do. There’s never enough though. We need more bands here. Fortunately there are some neat acts coming through like Cartoon Villain, Orbjks, and Broadcast State. And *coughcough* Sora Shima are reforming for Future City Festival too; they were alright.
 
Thanks Bitter Defeat, it’s been fun. I hope you have a hugely successful night out at The Future City Festival – if that’s alright with you of course!