Articles- Heard interview

ABC TV's Rage program a couple of years ago was where I first heard the most crushing rock I'd heard for a couple of years. The band was Shihad, the song was You Again, the crushing opening cut from their Killjoy album.

Fast Forward a coupld of years and we're in 1997. Shihad now have a self-titled album to see Australian release in March, the first single from it, a real shift in sound, "La La Land" just out and already receiving rave reviews and some serious airplay list additions in Australia, not only on Triple J, but on Triple M, other network stations and some commerical radio.

Recently, I spoke to Jon Toogood from the band for a bit of a chat, where he spoke about the album, life with the band and some little about touring.

I asked Jon when the shift in sound had occured for the band and whether it was a conscious effort. "I really don't think we ever intended to make Churn (Shihad's debut album) over again. There was a definite progression from Churn to Killjoy, which if you've heard Churn, it's got a much more industrial sound than Killjoy. Again, we wanted to change from Killjoy, you know evolve."

So the band changed, but at what point? "I think it was really at the point we were in the studio recording this album. We wanted to explore you know, we don't wanna fuck around doing the same old things year in, year out, we wanna have some fun and experiment. I didn't realise just how heavy Killjoy was until I listened to it again just a few weeks ago. This album seems a lot lighter by comparison, but I think the fans will still like it."

So what are you're favourite tracks on the album? "That's such a hard questions, I really don't know. I'd have to say that Home Again is one of them, it's about that feeling I get when we've been out on tour and we get back home. It's just such a familiar feeling. I guess the opposite of that on the album is La La Land."

Yeah, the feeling between the two tracks is very different. "Yeah, well the opposite feeling was when we were in L.A. for about a month nd there's all these people taking uppers to get vibed for the day ahead, then they take some downers to relax at night, it's a fucking crazy place L.A., such a fast crazy town. It seems to have everything, but there's no depth."

So it's a different lifstyle to New Zealand then? "Oh man, it's amazing. When we've been away touring and we come back, even to Australia, it's like we're at home, the culture's are so close."

Do you try to take your favourite New Zealand bands on tour with you? "We do in New Zealand, but it's just way too expensive to do it. If there's a band from New Zealand in Australia we like, then we try and set something up together, but otherwise, we just can't afford it."

I really identified with the lyrics on Ghost From The Past and I read it's about a friend of yours that used to be very close. "Yeah, I used to be really close to this friend of mine and hadn't seen him for a while because we just seemed to drift. Now, I hardly seem to recognise his personality and I really wanna help him. A lot of people seem to have gone through that."

Lastly, now this album is in the can, where do you see Shihad going from here? "Well, I really don't know album-wise, but we're going from our Australian tour to Europe, we're just hoping everything goes as well as it's been so far, looking forward to great gigs and performing well for the fans."

And so, off move Shihad into the great unknown. I think the great unknown for them will include great success from here on. Check out their album when it's released, it's out now through Polydor.