For Shapeshifter, playing live is paramount. The Kiwi drum ‘n bass crew has honed its show into a formidable beast, with the soulful vocals of PDigsss propelled by four sets of hands working overtime on bass, keys, guitar and drums.

Now, three years after the release of its last release Soulstice, Shapeshifter has channelled that live power into its next outing, The System Is A Vampire. From the rousing build of lead single Dutchies to the drumming onslaught of System, it’s an album that always feels alive. inthemix got on the phone to Shapeshifter’s all-rounder and executive producer of The System Is A Vampire Sam Trevethick about riding the vibe.

Did you want to try something different in how you approached recording The System Is A Vampire, or was it more about staying true to the Shapeshifter vibe?
We approached it in the same way as Soulstice; coming up with ideas then fleshing them out into structures. What we did with this is take it from that point, then record all the songs again, with live drums, which is what we decided after Soulstice that we wanted to do. It was a new, exciting, scary thing to try.

It’s certainly a very ‘live sounding’ album, particularly on tracks like System.
Absolutely. That’s one of the tracks that is entirely live and it’s a vibe we felt we’d never captured fully on our albums. Some people say to us, “I like your album and I like your live show, but they don’t really sound the same.” I thought that myself to a certain degree. There are two sides to Shapeshifter: the production and the live side. This time we wanted to capture what we do live in a produced format. It’s got that vibe and energy.

Musically, we’ve approached the last three albums the same way: to not burden ourselves with expectations of what we’re going to sound like. At the same time, we want it to sound like signature Shapeshifter. The reason I think that our music has sounded different over the years is that we want to leave ourselves free to explore and come up with the best we can.

Lyrically, I don’t think any of us are that great at lyrics except for Paora [PDigsss] so we sort of leave him to his own devices. Sometimes he asks us for input, but really that’s his realm, the vocals and lyrics. Most of the music is written before the lyrics and he just takes his inspiration from that.

With the live thing so vital to what you do, is there a strong consideration in the studio for how the album will sound in the shows?
Yeah, there is consideration of the live show. Sometimes it can put the brakes on a certain direction but at the same time, we don’t want to put too many limitations on ourselves. If it sounds really good, we find a way to play it live.

Do you feel there’s an overarching theme lyrically to The System Is A Vampire?
It’s a continuation of Shapeshifter. We wanted it to be epic. We wanted it to be really a statement about empowering individuals to have the power to be strong and make decisions in their lives based on what they feel is right, rather than falling in line with conformity and what the TV or internet tells you to do. That’s one of our main things: to try to shine a light on what is possible within the decisions you have before you.

I suppose that energy, that togetherness, comes through in the live show too.
Exactly, there’s enough darkness, there’s enough bad shit in the world and shallow, soulless, energy-sapping rubbish in the world that we feel we want to celebrate what’s real and what’s good. Being conscious, really. Live, we’re in the moment. Everything we do we want to feel it and believe it. We don’t want to do charades playing karaoke versions of our songs or projecting messages we don’t truly believe in. That would become horrible and boring. When people come to our concerts, they should have an uplifting experience.

Is the live show always a work in progress?
The live show has always got to be evolving. That’s one of our main ethoses. If you keep trying new things, you become excited by it. If you’re excited by it, hopefully your audience is too. A lot of the songs on this album we’d already played live, to gauge reactions and energy.

There were quite a few tracks on The System Is A Vampire that after we’d played a few times we discarded, whereas in the past they might have made it onto the album. We take every single show we do seriously, so we’re never thinking, “Oh, this is a little show; we can throw whatever new songs in there”. We’ve worked out most of the new songs we’ll play live already, and added a couple more – The Touch, Voyager, Sleepless. This time we’re a step ahead having played the songs live already.

I’ve seen you at a few festivals here, like Parklife and Big Day Out. There’s something very galvanising about your show in that setting; do you get a thrill from that?
I think one of our greatest attributes is being the underdog. We thrive in that role: when the odds are stacked against us, or when we’re not headlining a festival. When we’re amongst a whole bunch of bands we take on that challenge and it brings out the best in us.

The System Is A Vampire is out 17 April through Inertia, with Shapeshifter’s Australian tour details expected soon.