Proving beyond any reasonable doubt that electronic music – and more specially drum & bass, can be played live – Shapeshifter have a well worn reputation amongst those in the know. Having conquered their homeland of New Zealand, attaining a staggering level of success usually reserved for rock and pop stars (y’know, Gold album sales, award night trophies, etc), the band are now preparing to unleash their anticipated third album, ‘Soulstice’. Of course they’ll be accompanying the LP with a live tour, playing the Big Day Out and their own solo shows across the country over the coming weeks. ITM spoke with Nick Robinson of the band.
Go back to 1999 when the four founding members met at music school. How’d that come about?
Music school was great for meeting likeminded people, so before we were even in a proper band together we were friends. There were jazz gigs everywhere and we ended up doing a lot of those together, coz luckily we all played different instruments so we could jam together. It was heaps of fun, we would take the piss on all the genres of music including drum and bass. But it wasn’t until Devin and Redford decided it would be good to actually have a D&B only band, and they asked me to join and that was the start. Sam joined after we’d done a few gigs, it was just a natural progression really.
You began getting solid reviews almost immediately, and in 2000 you’d scored the Best New Act gong at the New Zealand Music Awards. How exciting were the first couple of years?
They were real exciting, I remember our first solo gig in Christchurch and the response was crazy, lines out the door. Hype on student radio and everything. I think we all thought we were about to blow up like The Beatles or something, but that’s coz we had no clue about anything in the industry or the work that had to be put in, other NZ cities were quite different, who the fuck were we..? Winning Best New Act came off the back of a year of relentless touring, for little or no money, playing shit gigs, so that was nice to know people around New Zealand had noticed something. But they were fun times – money or no money -touring with our idols Salmonella Dub, and other legends… we loved it!
The debut LP ‘Realtime’ popped out in 2001, and by this time – pardon the pun – you were making all the right noises. It was awarded the Best Electronic Release, and consolidated your reputation in some circles as being pioneers of modern music. Exciting times?
Haha yeah, more exciting times. It’s all like a dream really… I think we didn’t really have a clue about studios and recording and producing. We were all live musicians, and really I don’t know how I got through it, we had a great engineer (Mike Petrie) and I think the end result was good, but I don’t know what we were after… it’s always been about trying to get that sound that’s ours, like a live sound, and I’m not sure we knew how to try to get it?! We’re all like minded in the way we want to be pioneers of sorts. I always liked artists in the past that were pushing the contemporary, modern day boundaries in jazz, rock, electronic. It’s what it’s all about. If you do something your own way, in full confidence, then others will notice. And maybe like it or hate it!
The second album, ‘Riddim Wise LP’, kicked along even more, and saw you guys spending more time in my favourite city, Melbourne. What was the motivation behind that?
I still live in Melbourne, so does Redford and Sam. It’s a great city, it’s cheap to go to NZ, everybody is openly friendly, the summer is the shit! Yeah I like it. Recording the second album was hot work, our studio was a tin roof deal in the January and February time of year, fuckin hot! Maybe it ended up with that summery ‘tops off’ vibe? ‘Reeltime’ was written in the suicidal grey of winter in Christchurch.
Your second album well and truly put Shapeshifter on the map; it did tremendously well on the NZ charts, gained gold sales status and is only the second independently distributed drum & bass album in the world to do so. It saw a collaboration with some of NZ’s premiere soul vocalists; how’d that come about?
All the collaborators were just mates that were close and willing, we recorded Dallas (Fat Freddy’s Drop) and Lady6 while they were hanging in Melbourne for a week or so, nothing planned – just decided to hit the studio – and they both popped out with wicked shit. It was meant to be…
Your music has got a little bit of everything, it “transcends genre definition borrowing from elements of jazz, Latin, reggae, soul, rock, hip hop and electronica, and blending them live into a truly diverse and overwhelming dancefloor experience”. What’s the musical inspiration behind that? What did you guys listen to as youngsters?
I guess we’re all just music junkies, everything that’s good I like… I grew up listening to everything in my dad’s vinyl collection, then liked Pink Floyd, jazz – loved John Coltrane, Eric Dolphy, on and on – dub and reggae, metal, then jungle thanks to the DJ D’erb, then drum and bass… we all are music junkies, vinyl, instruments, gear, CDs… it’s the dominating factor in our lives. We’ve all been like this since we were young.
Your much-anticipated third album is released in Australia this month, are you excited?
Yes, ‘Soulstice’... definitely, it’s a great feeling to have finished the job, be happy with it, then release it on the masses. Something different for everyone. Hopefully it’ll spark some emotions, get people on the happy tip.
It coincides with an Australia-wide tour featuring appearances at Big Day Outs across the country, and a string of solo shows. That’s on the back of a tour of Aotearoa that saw people auctioning off tickets, such was the demand! What makes the Shapeshifter live experience so unique?
I don’t know for sure, I think we have a lot of respect for the people that come and we’re really grateful, so we try to play with the crowd, not to them, if that makes sense!? we start off mellower if the crowd isn’t that into it, build them up through the set, then smash it at the end, that way the crowd might feel part of the show more coz they rose in intensity at the same time as us… I don’t actually know to tell ya the truth! It’s a different instrument set up with all the keyboards, but it’s still the rock band style, with the 3 guys, a singer and a drummer, so people can relate.
Where to from here for Shapeshifter?
We’re just embarking on the second half of our summer circuit of gigs, then this year we’re off to Europe and Asia, as well as Australia and NZ. We do live in the best part of the world so we wouldn’t want to go too far!
‘Soulstice’ is out now on Inertia’s brand new label Pattern. You can catch Shapeshifter in all their live glory, touring Australia for the Big Day Out:
Thu 18 Jan – Sydney, Solo Show (Beck’s Bar)
Sun 21 Jan – Gold Coast, Big Day Out
Thu 25 Jan – Sydney, Big Day Out
Sun 28 Jan – Melbourne, Big Day Out
SparklingSam says...
Geez for a moment there I got all excited but according to my BDO timetable for Perth, Shapeshifter are not playing. In fact, a quick check of their website indicates that they are playing gigs in NZ on 2nd and 3rd of Feb. They are only doing East Coast BDO. This tour info is wrong.
ClydeCortex says...
Where is the Brisbane Solo show?????? Whats the point of advertising it if there is no venue!
i_have_ADD says...
hey guys, i have to apologies on behalf of inthemix - when i uploaded this article i included the dates as provided by the record label, but have since been informed they were incorrect - so i'm sorry about that! updated tour dates now appear... cheers tim (inthemix editor)