PAVEMENT AUGUST/SEPTEMBER 2000
When you become pop stars virtually overnight, it isn’t easy silencing your detractors without an album of songs to back up your success. Christchurch-based Zed entered the limelight almost as soon as they took to the stage but they now have a debut album, appropriately titled Silencer, to prove they can deliver on their status.
For a lot of new bands, the biggest struggle is simply finding some favourable exposure and publicity. That’s not the story for Zed. If anything, the exact opposite is true. Less than a year after forming, the young Christchurch band found themselves unexpectatley catapulted into the bright glare of national television coverage after their manager, ‘60s pop icon Ray columbus managed to secure them an international song publishing deal with Warner/chappell Australia.
At the time, considering that the band had barely even begun playing live, such a deal was unheard of. So, for a breief moment in late 1996, Zed became media darlings, as everyone in the industry wondered about about the secret of these bright young pop hopefuls. A series of high profile gigs followed and they found themselves supporting the likes of The Feelers, Stellar and Shihad. It was a head-spinning string of events for the band, who were all just in their mid-teens at the time.
"We were basically chucked straight in at the deep end," explains bass player Ben Campbell as the band sips coffees and spirulina at Auckland’s roasted Addiction café while they’re/re in town to shoot their next video. "Our first live gig in Christchurch was covered by TV1 and TV3 news and then we went straight from that to supporting the Feelers."
While most bands would kill for such a break, Zed actually found the reality of the media spotlight to be a mixed blessing. While it meant the size of their audience quickly grew, it also forced them to grow up in public very fast themselves, and at a time when most bands are still struggling to find their musical identity. Plus, Zed soon had to deal with an inevitable backlash, with some people still perceiving them as privileged and precocious pop pretenders who have yet to pay their dues as a real band. Its a fate that has also befallen fellow Christchurch band the feelers.
"Yearh, we do cop a lot of shit for us being young and for being pop," states Campbell squarely. "there seems to be a really preconceived image of us but we are just normal, nice guys".
"New Zealand has always had that tall poppy syndrome," agrees lead vocalist Nathan King. "Hopefully, it’s getting better. But having said that, there is also heaps of positive support as well which is pretty cool."
That good support - not the
least of which comes from Zed’s ever-growing female fan base has seen the
band’s third single, Glorifilia, spend a remarkable 22 weeks in he national
top 50. The big test now comes with their debut album Silencer, due out
this month on universal. Recorded at Auckland’s Reolver Studios with Australian
producer David Nicolas, the new album showcase a much more full-sounding,
rockier Zed. King says nicholas and the band sought to capture a very live
feel and put more emphasis on the bottom end of Zed’s sound, which has
tended to be overshadowed by tier shiny pop melodies. "Something we really
learnt to appreciate was to get the feel of a song right," explains king
brightly. The results of the Revolver sessions are the sound of an ensemble
performance that captures all of the rhythmic and melodic confidence that
Zed display live. And when you add to that mix the rockier contributions
of new second guitarist Andy Lynch, Silencer begins to sound like the muscular
pop/rock album few people would have credited the band with being capable
of making a few years ago. It is a major advance and one the band thinks
will get people focusing on what Zed like to do best.
"The cliché is, it’s
about the music," expounds drummer Adrian Palmer, "and it’s about the music
for us. We’ve just finished this album and we’ve really poured our heart
and soul into it."
So, silence please as Zed prepares to take the national - and, potentially international - stage.
Pavement: Zed has had a pretty
amazing run so far Were you surprised by the long-running local success
of Glorifilia?
Adrien: yeah. It’s been
a bit of a snowball. We already had two singles before that - Daisy and
I’m cold - and we though we’d better chuck another song out. There was
no recipe. Universal gave it to the radio stations and it worked. It’s
only just dropped out of the charts in the last couple of months.
Nathan: It could have just
as easily have gone the other way and been really quiet, so it was a nice
surprise.
Ben: it achieved what we
set out to achieve with the single. It got the airplay and the sales and
got the recognition for the band, in whatever sense you may look at it.
And it got the company behind us to do what we have been doing.
Pavement: it’s an unusual
name for a song. Is glorifillia a person or some kind of medical condition?
Adrian: yeah, like necrophilia!
(laughs) We’ve had all those jokes, actually. No, its not a girl. It’s
actually a type of embroidery! We got it from the title of a book
Nathan: The glorifilia Needlework
collection.
Ben: my mum’s book, actually.
I warn you now that my mum dictates this band.
Nathan: She’s head guru.
Ben : We’re just the puppets
Andy: the cool thing is
that it can be taken as a girl’s name. When people see the video clip,
they associate it with that.
Pavement: It looks like
one of those old Trumpet ads.
Adrian: (mock seriously)
Ah, yes it is! But not consciously…
Ben : not consciously, no.
maybe back there somewhere, at least in the director’s mind.!
Pavement: Do you enjoy that
image-making side of the business?
Adrian: it’s gotta be done,
I suppose. The best thing for me is playing gigs and making the album.
And you’ve got to have an image to sell that.
Andy: year, I guess ever
since the Beatles, music has really become a business. It’s just part and
parcel the whole thing.
Adrian: although I don’t
think our videos have sold us, by any means. I think the songs have, especially
Glorafilia.
Pavement: In terms of your
progress so far, how important would you say someone like Ray Columbus
is, with his experience and influence?
Nathan: really vital. You
can have all the best songs and play the best but if there isn’t anyone
who has got some sway…
Ben: yeah, to just channel
it. It’s really hard to open people’s eyes up or their ears.
Adrian: you need a manager
in this his industry, unless you’re a legend yourself. To get in the door
is pretty tricky, you know? It’s all who you know, I think. I don’t think
every A&R guy goes out to your local pub and sings acts from there.
Pavement: how did Columbus
get involved?
Adrian: he’s Ben’s godfather.
Ben’s dad gave Ray some of our demos and he was quite impressed. We ended
up working our a management contract with him and it progressed from there.
Pavement: you have successfully
produced your own singles in the past, so what did producer David nicolas
bring to the recording process for Silencer?
Nathan: I think he really
helped us try different avenues.
Ben he is a British type
of producer, compared to an American producer who would say, "Play that",
or, "nah, don’t play that", etc. It was much more like, "Okay, I’m not
going to tell you what to do. I will help channel it and push it in the
right direction". It was the way we like to work.
Nathan: he was very cooperative,
in that respect.
Ben: We all deliberately
said no overdubs, which is also a very British way of doing it. We recorded
all the tracks totally live in the he studio as a four-piece. It was something
we hadn’t done in the past. We used to put the drums down first, or sometimes
the bass, and it just doesn’t give it a band sound. I think that’s why
a lot of the fake bands at the moment like the Backstreet boys, don’t sound
like bands. They’re ultra-produced and they don’t have that quality . They’re
gimmicks, basically. We have almost been perceived like that by a few people,
which has bugged us because we’re not.
Nathan: We’re hoping that
people will maybe hear the difference a bit more on this album.
Pavement: how did you find
the live music environment growing up in Christchurch?
Adrian: I’ve always thought
it was really good. Christchurch has bred quite a few successful bands,
like Salmonella Dub, the feelers and Boh from Stellar. But there are only
a few good venues there.
Ben: yeah. There’s one venue
to play at, dux Delux, which is great. Apart from that there is nowhere.
Andy: and the whole country
seems the same: good music but not enough venues.
Adrian: There seems to be
just one sort of major venue that’s the hub of each city, like the Ark
in Dunedin, Bodega inn Wellington and the kings Arms in Auckland.
Pavement: Most of Auckland’s
venues lean towards dance music.
Ben: yeah, Auckland doesn’t
have must of a live scene. At the same time, dance music is great and it’s
opening more ears. Dance music is going to keep the venues open and hopefully
come back with band influences and actually live influences. With music,
it’s always going to come back to a melody and the voice. It just seems
to be where the new directions going, like with Basement Jaxx and Chemical
Brothers and Moby. It’s starting to evolve into something with a little
bit more crossover that appeals to all music listeners, rather that just
he one genre.
Pavement: Speaking of appeal,
a considerable proportion of Zed’s fans are teenage schoolgirls. Has the
band been chased down the street yet?
Nathan: yeah. We did get
chased after a concert once. They surrounded the backstage area and we
couldn’t get out, so we hid in the he tent for a while. We had to get in
a van and they drove us out but then the girls were smashing on the he
window an and chasing the van! We had to get the guy to step on it. That
was pretty exciting.
Ben: I was in a Port-A-Loo
once and they were jumping up on it and shaking it anad I was going: ‘Oh,
shit!"
Pavement: You wre hiding
ina Port-A-Loo?
Ben: No, I was using it!
Pavement: What’s been the
most unusual response you’ve had from a fan?
Andy: Nathan has had letters
personally delivered to his hose and instead of a stamp, they put a photo
of his head. That’s pretty bizarre, I think.
Nathan: Sometimes they can
et your phone number and you can get quite regular calls…
Ben: yeah, just heavy breathing.
That can be quite scary.
Nathan: but most of the
time you’ll get just really cool letters saying, "We think you’re great",
or "You guys are the best". And that ‘s cool y’know?
Adrien: And we had fans
waiting at the gate at the airport when we got home from Sydney last week
at about 1 am. All these 16 year old girls … hard life, isn’t it?
Pavement: It has been an
extraordinary four years for the band. What would be the most interesting
thing you’ve learnt about he industry in that time.?
Ben: I’d say the think that
probably surprised me most was the preconceived images that people make
of people in other bands.
Nathan: There was a thing
with the Feelers for a while where there was a big backlash and people
were saying, "these guys suck." But they are a cool bunch of guys. Stuff
like that is just really weird.
Ben: it’s just part of it.
If you want to be involved with this industry, then you’ve got to take
some of the shit. But you don’t get into it for that. We’ve found something
that we like doing: making music. And we want to try, however we can, to
base our lives around music.
The cookie stand is an eatery, and eaterys are part of the food court