August 6, 2000
The new fresh face of Kiwi pop has schoolgirls screaming and its record company rubbing their hands with commercial glee. Jo McCarroll meets the nice boys from Zed.
It’s such a rock and roll
cliche.
Boy band Zed’s guitarist
Andy Lynch was up until 6am the night before the band’s debut album launch
party.
But this was no vomit-coated
hotel room or car in a swimming pool scenario. Lynch, 21, was working on
his guitar riffs.
Vocalist and guitarist Nathan
King, 21, and drummer Adrian Palmer, 21, are both Christians – on the CD
cover they thank God first, followed by their parents.
Until this year they have
been full-time Canterbury University students while keyboardist and bass
player Ben Campbell , 19, has been studying at Christchurch Polytechnic.
Church, study and all-night
guitar practice? Is this the dewy fresh face of New Zealand rock?
Zed’s record company Universal
is touting the band as "the next big thing".
There are mutters of possible
Crowded-House type international success.
Later this month Zed is
touring with INXS – just days after the release of its first album Silencer.
"It started as your typical
garage, high school band, kind of giving it a go and having some fun. But
hings just went a bit mental," King says.
The unlikely fairy godfather
in Zed’s rock and roll fairy tale is Kiwi musical icon Ray Columbus. Columbus
(who is literally Campbell’s godfather) used to manage Campbell’s father
Arch, also a singer.
Four years ago Arch Campbell
heard the newly formed Zed – at that stage just King, Campbell and Palmer
(Lynch joined last April) – practising in his son’s bedroom. He liked what
he heard enough to call Columbus, who arranged for the boys to record some
demos in a studio.
"Two months later they sent
me the mixed tape. There were 17 songs on the tape and there wasn’t a dud.
Every song was outstanding. It absolutely blew me away," Columbus says.
Two days later he had a publishing contract for Zed with a multinational
record label – reputedly for five figures – an unprecedented coup for a
group of unknown schoolboys.
But his prescience has already
been proved. The success of Zed’s three singles, Oh Daisy, I’m Cold and
Glorafilia – Glorafilia spent 22 weeks in the Top 50 – has shown there’s
a market for its brand of insidiously hummable teenage angst.
Until recently (think TrueBliss)
it was almost unprecedented for a New Zealand band to be intensively managed
right from the beginning.
But Columbus says Zed is
not being hothoused to ensure it continues to churn out hits.
"There’s no pressure on
anyone to be comercial. The songs are written the way they like them,"
he says.
Zed’s members also reject
the notion they are being managed to the point of begin manufactured.
"We’re not puppets. No one
is pulling the strings," Lynch says.
Campbell and King, who write
the group’s material, say they "naturally" write catchy, hook-laden pop
songs.
The band is still song-focused,
Campbell says, but the new album is rockier than the singles and none of
their writing is ear candy. In a world where so much popular music is of
the "I want you back, baby" variety, that makes the band stand out, Palmer
says.
"All the bubblegum music
that’s out there now...I’m sure the record company would love us to go
there. But on the other hand I’m sure they will be totally happy with where
we’re going. Which isn’t there," Campbell says.
They agree they’ve been
lucky and have known the right people but "we’ve worked hard as well".
No amount if hard work will
give you poster appeal though, and it’s not just theupbeat melodies that
have won Zed a devoted fan base with a disproportionate number of teenage
females, easily given to screaming.
The boys admit they do get
a bit of "pointing and giggling and that".
The Zed boys won’t say if
they think they are good looking.
"We focus on the music and
just do that," says King – whose fan base is perhaps the most devotedly
hysterical.
Besides, those girls can
be scary. They recently surrounded a port-a-loo and banged on the sides
when Campbell was using it – he was too scared to come out.
A Christchurch radio station
had to call an early halt to a competition where school kids could win
a concert with Zed by registering on a website because the response was
so huge the internet servers kept jamming.
After five days, morethan
330,000 hits had been recorded – roughly the same number as the population
of Christchurch.
Seventeen-year-old Louise
Butchers, along with half a dozen friends, logged up hours of internet
time to snag the concert for Avonside Girls High School, whose 1000 or
so students registered more than 120.000 hits.
She’s a big fan of Zed –
partly because of their music.
"I like the music. It’s
pop rock, it’s fun to listen to," she says.
But the fact the boys look
so very pretty on their posters is also part of the appeal, she says.
"It’s a bit of both. I would
probably say it’s more their music than their looks. But it’s pretty close".
The pic is of the boys on
One Tree Hill where all those rocks are and they’ve spelt out ZED in rocks.
It looks a bit screwed though coz it’s upside down. And yes Ben is wearing
the infamous tight black t-shirt ( Andy’s wearing what he wore on Ice As
(I think), the red t and cargos. Who wants to bet that Nath is wearing
the navy shirt under that jacket?! The caption reads "poster appeal and
pretty pop songs: Zed are (from left) Adrian palmer, Nathan King, Ben Campbell
and Andy Lynch" (surprise surprise they actually got their names right
this time! Ben and Nath do not look the same – it amazes me how many mags
have got them mixed up )